Showing results by narrator "Claire Storey" in All Categories

June, 1941. When Bobby Bancroft arrived in Silverdale to take a job as a reporter on The Tyke magazine, the sleepy Yorkshire Dales village felt like a little pocket of a past long gone. But war finally seems to have come to Silverdale. The villagers face new hardships when shortages and rationing begin to bite, young men become scarce as more are called up, and Bobby finds herself juggling her job on the magazine with a new role as an ARP warden. Even her surly editor Reg and his wife are doing their bit, agreeing to take two evacuees from London into their home.

Duckton-by-Dale has never been your average quintessential English village. And as preparations for the annual pantomime and winter solstice reach fever pitch, you just know that things are going to get even more bizarre! With new visitors bringing mystery, suspicion, flamboyance, and lust, past secrets and current desires will be revealed, bringing a dramatic conclusion to the Duckton-by-Dale series. Expect humor, paranormal happenings, fun and laughter, and of course a large dose of romance in this bestselling lesbian romantic comedy series. Merry Christmas one and all.

Alex would like to believe she’s a woman who has it all. Or that’s what she tells everyone, including herself. But this is far from true. Actually she’s on the cusp of losing her home, her dream career as a writer is in tatters, her ex won’t speak to her, and her mother’s gone forever. But then a chance meeting with a stranger named Hope gives her the opportunity of a lifetime, when Hope jokes that perhaps Alex should take over her job in a cafe while she goes travelling.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Anna Karenina, a literary masterpiece by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.

October 1940. Twenty-three-year-old Bobby Bancroft is working as a typist for a city newspaper, but she longs to be breaking the news herself. When she successfully applies for a junior reporter role at The Tyke, a magazine serving the Yorkshire Dales, she's thrilled – even if she only gets the position because so many men are away fighting. Bobby moves to the sleepy village of Silverdale, but she quickly discovers life in the countryside is a different world.

She’s not ill. She’s not in imminent danger. But she is sure it’s going to happen. Because many years ago… she’d made a promise to a stranger, in the woods. Elena’s mother was in hospital, after a life-threatening accident. The promise would keep her mother safe, but put Elena’s own life at risk, instead, when she grew up and turned thirty. Elena put the promise to the back of her mind, over the years. But she’s twenty-nine now, and when something happens that puts her life in danger, she remembers. And she knows.

1944: Bologna, Italy, and the streets are crawling with German soldiers. Nineteen-year-old Leila Venturi is shocked into joining the Resistance after her beloved best friend Rebecca, the daughter of a prominent Jewish businessman, is ruthlessly deported to a concentration camp. 1981: Exchange student Rhiannon Hughes arrives in Bologna and meets Leila, her landlady. Soon, Rhiannon finds herself being drawn into a web of intrigue. Leila’s nephew seems to be interested in a far-right group, but how is the nefarious leader connected to Leila?

On the beautiful and windswept island of Tresco, two worlds live side by side. The wealthy visitors come by helicopter to stay at their lavish time-share properties. The estate staff travel by boat, and work all hours to keep them happy, to keep the money flowing in. But while the blue skies and savage waves make the island seem a wild paradise, under the surface the inhabitants are concealing more than they dare reveal. As black clouds come rolling in and a storm hits the island, truths and rumours begin to tumble out, wreaking terrible damage.

My first mistake was raising my daughter to be just like me… His death is reported on the morning news. The man my daughter’s been dating. Dead. Gone… I blink slowly–once, twice, three times. The hair on the back of my neck rises as I grip my coffee harder. My breath comes in short bursts. I didn’t even know he existed until recently. Leah doesn’t tell me anything anymore. But I found the letters she hid. I know she fell head over heels for him. That he broke her heart.

The lead-up to Christmas sees the Connection private investigation team planning their festive season. Until a new case arrives. Catapulted into their biggest mystery yet, they are tasked with finding a killer who has been released on parole, and subsequently disappeared. Has he returned to finish the murder he tried to commit before his capture? As he targets his intended victim, his attention is also focused on the private investigators and their police colleagues with devastating effect. With families torn apart, Doris must seek assistance from a colleague from her past.

When nine friends reunite for a weekend at the charming English seaside, their complicated personal lives lead to laughs as well as drama. Can they all find the happy endings they deserve?

Welcome back to Cherrywood! Preparations are underway for Cherrywood's annual celebration of Guy Fawkes Night, but when the sleepy village is struck by murder, Tess and her friends are forced to team up once again as they investigate a tale of murder and vengeance that could go all the way to the top.

It has been a year since Tess had to trade the hustle and bustle of London life for pulling pints and moonlighting as a Cher impersonator in a backwater country pub. The sleepy Yorkshire village of Cherrywood would always be home, but a return to rural life wasn't quite the path she'd paved for herself. Still, being back with her oldest friends, Raven and Oliver, was a definite upside and she was beginning to settle into the slower pace. That is until Clemmie Ackroyd, a stalwart member of the community, is brutally murdered.

Norfolk, 1813. In the quiet Waveney Valley, the body of Mary Tyrell is staked through the heart after her death by suicide. She had been under arrest for the suspected murder of her newborn child. Mary leaves behind a young daughter, Hannah, who is later sent away to the Refuge for the Destitute in London, where she will be trained for a life of domestic service. It is at the Refuge that Hannah meets Annie Simpkins, a fellow resident, and together they forge a friendship that deepens into passionate love.

New York City, 1919. Lillie Mead mourns the love she lost in the war. But when a wealthy British friend offers her a reporting job across the pond, she hopes accepting will help her rebuild her life. She barely has time to unpack before she’s assigned the scoop of a poisoned socialite’s death. As the clues take a turn for the scandalous, Lillie unearths shocking skeletons in the victim’s closet. But she never expected the threads of the beloved woman’s life to weave with hers. Can Lillie expose the truth before her own death makes the front page?

A murder case. A love triangle. And a plucky journalist smack in the middle...England, 1922. Crime reporter Lillie Mead wants to take the country by storm. While her handsome fiancé hopes she'll quit her dangerous line of work, the journalist dreams of taking her talents national. When she's called in to cover the murder of a wealthy duke, she puts her relationship troubles on hold to focus on locating the crime's sole witness before the killer does...

December, 1919. Clever crime reporter Lillie Mead hoped to celebrate a peaceful Christmas in the English countryside. But when a close friend's colleague turns up dead, Lillie knows there'll be little festive spirit until she unwraps this mystery. Following the clues to the wintery Scottish Highlands, she hopes to stop the killer cold before the next body hits the snow. But after she connects the victims to a clandestine wartime committee, she puts herself firmly in the murderer's sights.

Maria is a good woman and a good cleaner. She cleans for Elsie, the funny old bird who's losing her marbles, with the terrible husband. She cleans for Brian, the sweet man with the terrible boss. She cleans for the mysterious Mr Balogan, with the terrible neighbours. If you're thinking of hiring her, you should probably know that Maria might have killed the terrible husband, the terrible boss and the terrible neighbours. She may also have murdered the man she loved.

Oxford, England, 1922. Headstrong crime reporter Lillie Mead is planning her impending wedding. But when her spy fiancé disappears while she’s investigating a suspicious poisoning death, she fears her happily-ever-after will turn tragic. And when she travels to London to get help identifying the toxin, the chemist she consults is shot dead before her eyes.

When Faith Divine pulls up outside the Duckton-by-Dale cafe on a dazzling red Ducati motorbike she takes Drew Pettigrew’s breath away. Faith is cool, sexy, and desirable, and there isn’t one villager who disagrees. Completely smitten, Drew has no choice but to come out. The fact that Drew is a lesbian doesn’t come as a surprise to those who know her. Except, that is, for her mother, Esther.