Showing results by narrator "Laura Kirman" in All Categories

The explosive new stand-alone thriller from the author of the Spider Shepherd series. Sally Page is an MI5 'footie', a junior Secret Service Agent who maintains 'legends': fake identities or footprints used by real spies. Her day consists of maintaining flats and houses where the legends allegedly live, doing online shopping, using payment, loyalty and travel cards and going on social media in their names - anything to give the impression to hostile surveillance that the legends are living, breathing individuals.

Star baker Mattie has hated Christmas ever since she had her heart broken on Christmas Eve. The only thing she hates more is the insufferable Tom, who has rubbed her up the wrong way since she started running the tearoom next door to his bookshop. So when Mattie and Tom are left in charge in the frantic festive days before Christmas, it might be cold outside, but things are sure to heat up. Can a bookshop full of romantic novels, a life-size reindeer and a mistletoe kissing booth persuade two scrooges to fall in love with Christmas...and each other?

Where happy ever after is only a page away…A delightful new series set in a quaint old bookshop, for fans of Lucy Diamond and Jenny Colgan. Once upon a time in a crumbling London bookshop, Posy Morland spent her life lost in the pages of her favourite romantic novels. So when Bookend's eccentric owner, Lavinia, dies and leaves the shop to Posy, she must put down her books and join the real world. Because Posy hasn't just inherited an ailing business, but also the unwelcome attentions of Lavinia's grandson.

Browsing an antiques shop in Wiltshire, Alison Bannister stumbles across a delicate old portrait - identified as the doomed Tudor queen Anne Boleyn. Except Alison knows better. The subject is Mary Seymour, the daughter of Katherine Parr, who was taken to Wolf Hall in 1557 and presumed dead after going missing as a child. And Alison knows this because she, too, lived at Wolf Hall and knew Mary...more than 400 years ago.

After her elder brother’s mysterious death, Rebecca Hunter vows to expose the man she believes responsible: Mr. Lewis Browning - known by the locals as the Midnight Devil and by Rebecca as her new guardian. Summoned to his reclusive country estate to await her London season, Rebecca plans her own secret investigation among the darkened corridors of the mysterious Greybourne Hall. Yet Lewis Browning is not as she once imagined, and his motivation is horribly unclear.

A kidnap.... Matt Westbrook only turned his back for a moment. But when he looks around, his car - with his three young children inside - has vanished. A ransom.... Panicked, Matt assumes a car thief has got more than he bargained for, but then he starts to receive text messages: This is a kidnap. If you want to see your children again, you will exchange them for your wife.

As one of the famous Preece sisters, Kitty is the most sought-after courtesan in London. But with the vicious Duke of Gillingham scaring away any man who looks her way, securing a new arrangement with a wealthy gentleman will be no easy feat. Kitty's only hope to find someone suitable is through her loyal and cherished friend, the Reverend Sidney Wakefield. Sidney has devoted his life to the church, but it was never by choice. He is a writer and Kitty his muse. As he is roped into Kitty's plotting, he begins to realise that protecting her from the malevolent Duke comes at a price.

It’s been a year since Lottie’s fiancé walked out, leaving her heartbroken. But things start to look up when she lands her dream job at a beautiful Lake District estate, with a handsome groundskeeper for a neighbour. So when Lottie is asked to organise a last-minute Christmas wedding at Firholme, she can’t wait to get started. Until she meets the couple and discovers that Connor, the man who broke her heart, is the groom-to-be. As snow falls on the hills, can Lottie put aside her past to organise the perfect winter wedding?

When investigative journalist, Alexi Ellis, falls victim to cutbacks, she and Cosmo, her anti-social feral cat, head for beautiful Hopgood Hall, where they plan to lick their wounds in the boutique hotel run by her old friends, Cheryl and Drew Hopgood. But when she arrives Alexi discovers Cheryl and Drew both distraught. Their close friend, Natalie Parker, who recently settled in the area, has gone missing. Alexi’s sure the woman has just taken a trip somewhere, but she still has a nose for a story and agrees to look into it.

Baking fanatic Charlie Quilter, still nursing a broken heart, is surprised when her late uncle bequeaths his vintage 1950s Routemaster bus to her in his will. She adored driving around with him in it when she was a child and can’t contemplate selling it. When Charlie loses her job, her friend Juliette has an exciting idea and suggests Charlie come to stay with her in the picturesque Cornish village of Porthgolow.

World War II wages on. Rationing, blackouts, evacuees and military training camps have become the norm in the village of Beckindale, but happiness has been found during these hard times. Lily Dingle is getting married, Annie Pearson has returned after volunteering with the Wrens and there are new neighbours to get to know...including a female vet, of all things.

Listening helps us be there for others, to support them in tough times and to strengthen our relationships with partners, family, friends and colleagues. From opening up a conversation with someone who might be struggling, to how to use gentle encouragement to help others share their stories, How to Listen demonstrates the power of listening without judgement and draws on the extensive experience of Samaritans in offering practical advice to apply to your own life.

When Ellie Roberts inherits a cottage on a remote Scilly Isle, she's shocked. She's never heard of the previous owner, Patience Ellis, so why did she leave Ellie her legacy? Overwhelmed with unanswered questions, Ellie travels to the isolated island. The house feels strangely familiar, and she has a memory of her beloved mother in the window seat overlooking the sea. The mother she lost when she was only a child. Determined to find out more, Ellie meets enigmatic local Branok Shore.

When Sybil Delafield's coach to Croft Towers was robbed by highwaymen, she should have realized that her new position as companion to old Mrs. Chalcroft would be no ordinary job. Upon Sybil's arrival, Mrs. Chalcroft sneaks into her room in the dark of night, imploring her to relay messages to town that are to stay hidden from the rest of the family. Who exactly is she working for and what do the messages contain?

With Christmas just around the corner, Molly Bliss has almost hit rock bottom. After the heart-breaking loss of her parents, an escape to Iceland to spend the holidays with her sister Claudia is a chance for her to find solace and focus on her neglected relationship with her boyfriend Howard. But when Howard 'misses' his flight, Molly is forced to rethink her whole outlook on life. Surrounded by her family, Molly has never felt more alone. With ongoing family tensions rumbling and a surprising connection with old flame, Molly realises she has an opportunity to rediscover who she really is.

When Kate goes to look after her estranged sister’s children in their creepy old house, she takes a photo of what seems to be a ghost. Frightened yet intrigued, Kate undertakes to uncover the secrets of the house and the two mysterious sisters who lived there over a hundred years before. But like the illusions of light and shadow in the sisters’ strange and disturbing Victorian post-mortem photography, Kate discovers that all is not what it seems. Someone – or something – has their own plans for Rookswood House – and for Kate.

The first chapter of a manuscript arrives on Publisher Marina’s desk. She assumes it’s just another novel by another aspiring writer. As the chapters arrive one by one, Marina is convinced they are about her past. There’s only one person who can know everything about the scandal, the trial, and the trauma that nearly broke her. This is one story that should never be told, and Marina is so desperate she will do anything to stop it getting out.

For Sophie it’s a trip home and for Hector it’s time to meet Sophie’s parents... Though their trip has village tongues wagging about a stop at Scotland’s notorious elopement spot, Gretna Green. No matter what, it’ll make a nice break from the murder and mayhem that has been plaguing their beautiful Cotswolds village. But Sophie and Hector are barely across the border on the way to Inverness before a sinister encounter leaves them shaken.

Sophy Stevens is moving to Australia. Turning thirty has found her unexpectedly out of a job, out of a relationship, and just in need of Something Different - and Australia, where she can finally meet her grandparents and surprise them on their wedding anniversary, looks like the perfect answer...if she can save up the money for the plane ticket. So when her feckless, absent dad Johnno offers her a job at his vintage clothes shop in Primrose Hill, she can't turn it down.

Desperate to try and rebuild the reputation of Hopgood Hall, owners Alexi Ellis and Cheryl and Drew Hopgood agree to host a realty TV baking show, spearheaded by their arrogant but enigmatic head chef Marcel Gasquet. Fiery and hot-headed, Marcel’s antics makes for brilliant television, but off-screen trouble is brewing. One of the contestants, femme fatale Juliette Hammond, makes it clear that she will do anything to secure the winning prize – even if it means sweetening up the prima donna chef.