Showing results by narrator "Diana Croft" in All Categories

Giulia Tofana longs for more responsibility in her mother’s apothecary business, but Mamma has always been secretive and refuses to tell her the hidden keys to her success. But the day Mamma is arrested for the poisoning of the powerful Duke de Verdi, Giulia is shocked to uncover the darker side of her trade. Giulia must run for her life and escapes to Naples, under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, to the home of her aunt Isabetta, a famous courtesan.

"Perfect for fans of Brent Weeks, George R. R. Martin, or David Gemmell . . . . The best traditional epic fantasy I have read in years." — Grimdark Magazine on Engines of Empire “An excellent start to a new series: fast-paced and engaging, with a properly epic setting and a cast of...

Haunted by a tragic mistake in her past that endangered her family and nearly cost the life of the only man she could ever love, Emily now lives a life of exile that just so happens to include sword play and stealth on the dark streets of London in an attempt to stop innocent people from coming to harm at the hands of seedy criminals. Caring not for her own safety, Emily embarks on a life of justice at all costs, if only to rid her mind of the ghostly image of her lost love.

The three Moonfell witches discover mysterious journals and magical instruments in the long-abandoned India Room, unwittingly activating a supernatural connection to 1792 India—where their ancestor Fitz Westerly's past holds the key to their present danger. Fitz, a powerful witch and supernatural hunter, made his fortune tracking paranormal creatures across colonial India with his loyal companions. But when summoned to an East India Company port to hunt a deadly creature terrorising trade ships, they uncover a sinister conspiracy.

Wolf shifters fight hard, and play harder, and no one does this better than Maverick Hale, the Alpha of the Storm Moon Pack in London. However, when one of his team is found dead in his club, he needs answers—fast. All the evidence suggests a shifter from another pack has killed him, but when other packs across England report deaths, too, he knows that something far darker is happening. Someone, or something, is coming after the shifters.

Corfu, Greece, 1943. Though they don’t know it, five-year-old Matilde and three-year-old Anna have kissed their mother for the last time. The Nazis have reached their sun-scorched home, and they are being taken to a place of safety, on the northeastern tip of the rocky island. They are to be hidden, at great risk, by kindly Agata and her husband, until the terrible war is over. Matilde and Anna’s tears are soothed by Agata’s bedtime stories, but she is always alert.

One evening in early August, while mashing potatoes for dinner, Connie McColl decides she’s had enough. Sixty-six-year-old wife and grandmother, Connie packs a bag, gets in her little green car and drives off on a journey from England to Scotland to rediscover lost friends and herself.

Ten years ago, Penelope Paiget promised she’d wait for Samuel Black. But she was only a genteel, impoverished paid companion, forced into service after her father’s death revealed his insurmountable debts. Now she’s a successful novelist, posing as secretary to the Earl of Wickshire to hide her identity. Ten years ago, Samuel Black chose his own path instead of upholding his family’s legacy as spies. But having fought for the formation of the Metropolitan Police Force, echoes of his past and his true origins remind him how unworthy he is to call himself detective inspector.

When members of the Storm Moon Pack begin to vanish, alpha Maverick Hale uncovers a chilling truth—someone is collecting shifters, offering them up like sacrifices of old. Whispers spread of an underground club where some wolves go willingly, drawn by promises of power. But behind the club's glittering façade lurks something far older than London's packs. Something ancient and hungry that remembers being worshipped by wolves.

Giulia Tofana never wanted to be a nun, but she is determined to atone for her past misdeeds by making her new monastery a success. When an unexpected disaster closes the convent, Giulia is forced to turn to her old friend, Fabio Pasello, for help. Giulia still has intense feelings for Fabio, and Fabio’s passion for her has never diminished. But they are not the same people they were before. Giulia has taken her vows, and Fabio is apprenticed to Gianlorenzo Bernini, the famous sculptor, and has become one of Bernini’s rakish libertines.

Gathering ten modern masters of the strange and unsettling, Unquiet Guests sets fire to the blueprints and reimagines the haunted house from the foundations up. From dreamlike visions of an abandoned future mansion to a sentient building grown tired of its owners, these rooms echo with whispers of the disenfranchised and the lost.

Fresh from maternity leave, Detective Elma finds herself confronted with a complex case, when a man is found murdered in a holiday cottage in the depths of the Icelandic countryside - the victim of a frenzied knife attack, with a shocking message scrawled on the wall above him.

It’s close to the winter solstice when Newton reports that dead bodies have been found drained of their blood. Then people start disappearing, and Genevieve calls a coven meeting. What they hear chills their blood. This has happened before, and it’s going to get worse. The witches have to face their toughest challenge yet—vampires. At the same time, Ben and the paranormal investigators are investigating the House of Spirits, a house with links to the occult that once belonged to the mysterious medium Madame Charron. Chillingly, the new owners seem to have secrets of their own.

Reeling from the events that revealed other witches were behind the attack on Reuben and Caspian, the White Haven witches don’t know who to trust. The search for those who betrayed them tests their resources and their abilities, and as the fallout shatters alliances, they draw on their friends for support. But it’s not easy. The path they follow is dark and twisted and leads them in directions they can’t predict.

Meet Mavis Upton. As mummy to 7-year old Ella and surrogate to far too many pets, and with a failed marriage under her belt, Mavis knows she needs to make some life-changing decisions. It's time to strike out into the world, to stand on her own two feet ...to pursue a lifelong ambition to become a police officer. I mean, what could go wrong?

Overnight, just before Yule, everything changes in White Haven. A huge snowstorm seals the town, and no one can leave or enter. The witches feel that nothing seems quite right – but they don’t know why. For those that are trapped outside the town, the risks are all too real. There are inexplicable deaths, an unnatural amount of snow, fantastical ice sculptures, and a magical wall around White Haven.

A past that won't die. A betrayal that cost him everything. Maverick Hale, the alpha of the Storm Moon Pack, has worked hard to put his past behind him. However, when a man is killed in their territory, his injuries bring back memories he'd rather forget. Especially when a witch arrives who was directly involved in his parents' death, challenging everything Maverick thought he knew. Maverick has to find his brother. With the killer still on the loose, the Storm Moon Pack must act quickly, or more will die. But they can't do this alone. They need witches and age old rituals steeped in blood.

When librarian Ginny Cole discovers a body in Little Shaw’s beloved haberdashery shop, she finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation. The victim? Arrogant shop owner and spring fete judge, Timothy Harlow, found with a pair of sewing scissors plunged into his back. While the police are quick to arrest Milos, a charming young upholsterer, Ginny thinks the case has been sewn up too neatly. Together with her friends – no-nonsense JM, craft-obsessed Hen, and irrepressible Tuppence – Ginny delves into the village’s secrets.

When a human skull gatecrashes her friends’ big day, it officially becomes the worst wedding Ginny Cole has ever been to. But as the assembled guests await the police, the two families staring daggers at each other across the aisle, Ginny starts to suspect that these nuptials were deliberately sabotaged. Together with her fellow widows in crime-solving, JM, Tuppence and Hen, she decides to uncover who wanted this marriage dead on arrival.

When Robert Baratheon died suddenly after a boar hunt, all hell broke loose. When Edward IV, King of England, died suddenly after a fishing trip in April 1483, another phase of the Wars of the Roses ensued, the Yorks (Starks) battling the Lancasters (Lannisters). Thwarted Queen is told mainly in the voice of Lady Cecylee Neville (1415-1495), the thwarted queen, but other voices are important to this tale, not least those of the Londoners, who forged their own political destiny by engaging in public debate with the powerful aristocrats of the time