Showing results by narrator "Louise Brealey" in All Categories

Alinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life. Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbours.

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students?

'Every bit as gripping as it is horrifying' Ian Rankin 'So striking... like seeing our last few years through a distorted fever-dream' Lucy Caldwell 'A bleeding, sweating story' Guardian 'A bracingly original tale of lust and malice' Rob Doyle 'A work of exquisite strangeness, unsettling and...

Sarah Hargreaves doesn't share her husband Matthew's desire to join the Puritan exiles, but when their son Benjamin is arrested on a trumped-up charge, they have little choice but to go. Things go rapidly from bad to worse and they decide to leave everything behind. Hoping to find peace and like-minded souls in a new religious community in America, they spend everything they have left on a ticket to sail on the Mayflower.

Venture beyond the familiar and discover the fragile line between tranquility and turmoil in 12 gripping and unnerving short stories, masterfully crafted by Tove Jansson. From a professor stranded in a picturesque Spanish village to a holiday in Finland disrupted by an intrusive child, each tale unravels the unsettling facets of journeys that veer off course. Brilliantly evoking the shifting scenes and restlessness of summer, "Travelling Light" is guaranteed to surprise. Finnish-Swedish writer and artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is globally cherished for creating the Moomin universe.