Showing results by narrator "Adjoa Andoh" in All Categories

Precious Ramotswe, traditionally-built proprietor of Botswana's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, contemplates the two sorts of problems that we all face in life: the major ones (such as drought), about which very little can be done, and the other sort which people make for themselves through human weakness and an inability to resist temptation. Like the inability to resist cake, for instance.

As teenagers, Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a tragic event. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed 'The Ice Cream Girls' by the press and were dealt with by the courts.Years later, having led very different lives, Poppy is keen to set the record straight about what really happened, while Serena wants no one in her present to find out about her past.

Weekly ballet classes are Harriet Morton's only escape from her intolerably dull life. So when she is chosen to join a corps de ballet which is setting off on a tour of the Amazon, she leaps at the chance to run away for good. Performing in the grand opera houses is everything Harriet dreamed of, and falling in love with an aristocratic exile makes her new life complete. Swept away by it all, she is unaware that her father and intended fiance have begun to track her down.

A place of myths, rumours and secrets, The Hotel looms over the dark Fens, tall and grey in its Gothic splendour. Built on cursed land, a history of violent death suffuses its very foundations - yet it has a magnetism that is impossible to ignore. Here are the stories of The Hotel: stories of children, mothers, monsters, cult film-makers, thrill-seekers and workers on the night shift, all with their own tales of its strange power, of the horrors of Room 63, and of desperate but failed attempts to escape its seductive pull.

Original, honest and thought-provoking, Roar is Cecelia Ahern's unforgettable story collection. With her trademark honesty, Cecelia Ahern gives us 30 linked stories, all titled 'The Woman Who...', that capture the different facets of women's lives. Humorous, moving, surreal and poignant, the stories capture the moments the characters are overwhelmed by guilt, confusion, frustration, intimidation, exhaustion - the private moments when they feel the need to roar.

Jim Taylor, Sally's oldest friend, is engaged as bodyguard to a princess. But Crown Princess Adelaide of Razkavia is not what you'd expect. She's the slum-girl Jim has been searching for ever since she vanished 10 years ago. Now her life is in mortal danger, and together they must battle against unknown enemies in a country where no one can be trusted.

A new spine-chilling collection of 12 adventures packed with terrifying Doctor Who monsters and villains, just in time for Halloween. Written by Jacqueline Rayner, Mike Tucker, Paul Magrs, Richard Dungworth, Scott Handcock and Craig Donaghy, each story stars an incarnation of the Doctor on a brand-new adventure in time and space. Each also features a frightening nemesis for the Doctor to face, plus appearances from favourite friends and companions such as Sarah Jane, Jo, Ace and Donna.

Seeking refuge and anonymity in the cobbled streets of Montmartre, Yanne and her daughters, Rosette and Annie, live peacefully, if not happily, above their little chocolate shop. Nothing unusual marks them out; no red sachets hang by the door. The wind has stopped, at least for a while. Then into their lives blows Zozie de l'Alba, the lady with the lollipop shoes, and everything begins to change.

It’s twenty years since Eva, a biracial woman, was adopted as an eight-year-old, and Cherry and Carlton "Sugar" McNeil have always been the only parents she’s wanted or needed. But when she’s dealt the double blow of Cherry’s death and her own suspension from work, Eva decides it’s time to discover who she was before she was theirs. Against Sugar’s advice, Eva joins a DNA database, desperate for a match that will unlock her identity. And when a positive hit comes, she’s excited to learn there are relations out there who might hold the key.

As the countdown to Mma Makutsi’s wedding begins, all is not as it should be at the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. While investigating unpleasant occurrences on a southern cattle-post, Mma Ramotswe, always on the side of the weak against the strong, has reason to reflect on Rule No.3 of The Principles of Private Detection: never lie to the client. Apprentice mechanic Charlie seems to be avoiding certain important responsibilities.

England's 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 and the reign of new monarchs William and Mary signified a turning point for Restoration comedy with laws being passed to restrict playwrights' freedoms. The latter years are marked by a shift towards more moral storylines, mixing humour with social and political issues, alongside the lighthearted 'comedy of manners'. The works in this collection bring together these complementary styles, full of humour while also focusing on hard hitting themes.

Sally is 25, and somebody wants to destroy her. She receives divorce papers from a man she has never met, let alone married—yet this trap is so well laid that she is powerless to prove otherwise. When custody of her precious daughter is awarded to this evil stranger, it is the beginning of a terrifying struggle in which Sally will have to fight, with a gun if necessary, for the freedom of her family.

One hundred years ago, H.P. Lovecraft created the Necronomicon, a grimoire of lost souls, magical rites and forbidden lore. Now, locked away, the hoarder of horror is after new voices, new blood, to add to his collection. Listen as he shares the tales that come to him, whispered through the keyhole and written in the dust. From ghost stories to encounters with demons, haunted houses and a fateful Celtic goddess, they will draw you into his claustrophobic and disturbing world.

One seagull and four pieces of bread decide the course of one person's life. But is the rest just coincidence? A new novel from Costa Award shortlisted author J. W. Ironmonger. Have you ever experienced a coincidence that seems too strange to be true? And is there such a thing as fate? The Coincidence Authority is a novel about love in a random universe, about two lost souls each with a quest to understand the secret patterns of their lives.

Philosophy lecturer Dr Gideon Fuller, with his penchant for high-end sadistic sex, is in the frame, but Hanlon is not convinced. From the specialist brothels in Oxford and Soho to the inner sanctum of a Russian people trafficker with a taste for hurting women, the trail leads Hanlon deeper and deeper into danger - until she herself becomes the killer's next target.

Young and athletic, London cycle courier Astrid Bell is bad luck - for other people. First Astrid's neighbour Peggy Farrell accidentally knocks her off her bike - and not long after is found bludgeoned to death in an alley. Then, a few days later, Astrid is asked to pick up a package from a wealthy woman called Ingrid de Soto, only to find the client murdered in the hall of her luxurious home. For the police, it's more than coincidence. For Astrid and her six housemates, it's the beginning of a nightmare.

Leonardo Padura's award-winning Cuban detective series featuring Lieutenant Mario Conde. Havana Blue: it's New Year's Day 1989, and Lieutenant Mario Conde wakes up with another terrible hangover and a case which is close to home. Havana Gold: Lieutenant Conde goes on a trip through his childhood Havana haunts when a young female schoolteacher at his old school is murdered. Havana Red: Conde's fondly held prejudices are tested by this case involving a man found strangled in Havana Woods wearing a beautiful red dress.

A rainy night in London. Shots are fired into a car which swerves on to the pavement, ploughing into a bus stop. It seems that a chilling gang initiation has cost an innocent victim their life. But the reality is far more sinister.... One life is wiped out, and three more are changed forever: the young man whose finger was on the trigger, an aging gangster planning a deadly revenge and the pregnant woman who struggles desperately to uncover the truth. Two weeks away from giving birth, how will she deal with a world where death is an occupational hazard?

Meet Doctor Jens. The first part of her job involves jumping out of perfectly good spaceships. The second part requires developing emergency treatments for sick aliens of species she's never seen before. She loves it. But her latest emergency is also proving a mystery: two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a dangerous embrace, a mysterious crew suffering from an even more mysterious ailment, a shipmind trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away, a murderous virus from out of time.

Peregrine Quinn has always loved hearing her godfather Daedalus Bloom's stories about his life as an immortal, but that's all they were - stories. That is, until the portals that connect the Terran Realm with the Cosmic Realm mysteriously shut down and Daedalus, the only one who can fix them, is kidnapped. Peregrine is then swept into a nail-biting adventure, racing through the streets of Oxford, down the riverways of London and into the Under-Underground. She soon realises that not only are the creatures from her godfather's stories real, but they're shooting at her with laser blasters.