Showing results by narrator "Philip Battley" in All Categories

It’s midsummer, 1591, at Richmond Palace, and love is in the air. Gallant courtiers sport with great ladies while Tom and Trumpet bring their long-laid plans to fruition at last. Everybody’s doing it - even Francis Bacon enjoys a private liaison with the secretary to the new French ambassador. But the Queen loathes scandal and will punish anyone rash enough to get caught.

As an MI5 agent assigned to the UK's task force of the United Nations Coalition Against Human Trafficking, I've walked a fine line between right and wrong, always making sure to do what's necessary for the greater good. Kidnapping my commander for help is no exception. I do what needs to be done. But when I discover that the woman who captured my heart is still alive and in danger, I need all the help I can recruit to save my beloved Seshat.

Surely the daughter of a viscount, even an impoverished one, ought to be able to live, just a little? But her father, Viscount Rennard, is a violent man, and one who is hard to thwart as he harshly restricts Keziah's society. When Keziah learns of her father's plans to marry the recently widowed and fabulously wealthy duchess of Chartley, it doesn't take the lovely Miss Todd long to realize that the woman's only son, Felix - the new duke of Chartley - is an inconvenience that her father will remove with haste.

In this latest horror story collection, author Scott W. Cook brings to you nine tales of the supernatural, the macabre and the extraordinary. Lovingly crafted to engage, frighten and maybe even invoke a little thought, each tale draws you deeper into a netherworld where anything is possible.

Spring, 1593. A ballad is posted in the heart of London inciting violence. The Lord Mayor offers 100 crowns for the name of the author. Thomas Clarady wants that money and drags Francis Bacon into the game. At first it’s just a riddle to be solved. Tom talks to poets, while Francis analyzes the verse. Things take a dangerous turn when the authorities focus on two popular playmakers. One is cruelly tortured. Another is killed in dubious circumstances. Did he start a brawl that ended in tragedy? Or was he murdered by his dinner companions? The official story seems plausible, at first.

Geralyn Beauchamp presents Book 1 in the Doors of Muirara series.

Phileas Darlington (Darling to the locals) has been in the town of Apple Blossom with his brothers for mere weeks, and four of them have already fallen in love! Worse, they're getting married! This catastrophe has led poor Phileas to re-assess his duty as one of six brothers in line to inherit their father's title and estate in England. If his four brothers all stay in Apple Blossom, then he has to be the one to take on the responsibility. Poor Oliver, the youngest, can't do it. He hasn't got a clue.

As the ruthless commander of Unit 23, I’ve dedicated my life to eliminating the world’s deadliest threats. Infiltrating crime syndicates and executing covert missions is all I’ve ever known. But when I meet Eliza Fox, my carefully constructed world begins to crumble. For the first time, I find myself longing for a life beyond the shadows. As our whirlwind romance blossoms, I’m thrust into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with my former mentor—a man I thought long dead. With everything I hold dear at stake, I must confront the ghosts of my past to secure our future.

After her father was killed by outlaws, Jean Campbell was forced to take on the role of undertaker. Like so many other women in Apple Blossom, she did what had to be done after a devastating tragedy took the lives of an entire posse. But months later, things were becoming hard, and she wasn't sure what to do. And that's when they came to town. Six English brothers who took it upon themselves to help those in need. And so far, three of the brothers had found love. But Jean knew that wasn't about to happen to her. After all, who wanted to woo an undertaker?

When Six Englishmen come to Apple Blossom, they turn the town upside-down by not leaving. Instead, they take it upon themselves to help a few poor folks out by sprucing up their houses! Next on their list: The Widow Crawford. But Sarah Crawford didn't trust the newcomers, and was it any wonder? The last strangers that came through town killed her husband. They appeared to be decent men, just like the Englishmen. So far they'd fixed things up for a rancher and Apple Blossom's own lady sheriff. But just because they trusted them didn't mean Sarah had to. After all, she had to protect herself and her children.

The French Revolutionary Wars catapulted Britain into a conflict against a new enemy: Republican France. Britain relied on the Royal Navy to protect its shores and empire, but as radical ideas about rights and liberty spread across the globe, it could not prevent the spirit of revolution from reaching its ships. In this insightful history, James Davey tells the story of Britain's Royal Navy across the turbulent 1790s. As resistance and rebellion swept through the fleets, the navy itself became a political battleground.

They’re torn between duty and love, passion and power, reputation and regality. In this four-book boxed set the Royal Agents of M16 destroy the enemy, journey across the globe into perilous situations and steamy encounters, then return to the men and women they love. While each title in this series is a standalone featuring one couple with their own HEA, the books in the series will be more enjoyable in order.

As the youngest Barrett, I have a reputation that belies who I really am. Everyone believes I’m a billionaire bad boy who travels the globe seeking fun, wine, and anything fine—the antithesis of my older brother. But something is calling me—something I can’t quite understand. With enough money to want for nothing, is it possible that what I want has been right under my nose all along.

Michelangelo is precise and perilous—a man to be respected. After spending four years in prison, serving time for the crimes I committed, I’m now ready to live a life very different from the one I previously led. Becoming an agent for K19 Allied Intelligence means I’ll play a part in taking down one of the world’s worst crime families—the Calabrian Syndicate. Like every other criminal society, the list of their acts against the innocent is long, the worst of which is human trafficking.

Lady Piper Brudenall hoped, prayed, and pleaded for her brother to return to London and rescue her from the marriage her mother arranged for her. Heartbroken by her brother's apparent abandonment, Piper knew she had no one left to trust. Leaving behind life as she knew it, she ran away from it all. Connor MacKintosh relishes the chance to take control of the Marquis of Aylesbury's estate, Dinton Grange, while his sister and her husband were on their honeymoon.

Cassie Laine never wanted to be sheriff, but when her father, Sheriff Laine was ambushed and killed along with his posse, she had little choice. The little town of Apple Blossom was dying. No one in their right mind would take the job! To make matters worse, an annoying Englishman, one of six brothers passing through and now helping some of the townsfolk out, was assigned to her.

Your husband stands just outside the fence, beckoning you to join him. Of course, that shouldn't be anything out of the ordinary. Still, because he died many years ago....

Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing Vitruvian Man comes from a description by the ancient Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who wrote the only major work on architecture or engineering to survive from classical antiquity.

The last bequest of a convicted murderer on death row in Texas lures men seeking fortunes into the lawless Congo. Rigby Croxford, still in mourning for his wife, is drawn into a web of deception and corruption by a friend in trouble. They have survived the unbridled barbarity of untamed Africa before, but this time is different.

Before her suspicious death, Rigby Croxford's wife, Helen, fingered an African politician as the head of an international wildlife poaching syndicate. Plans to avenge Helen's death are put on hold when an ex-lover from Rigby's past reenters his life. The woman's daughter has disappeared in Africa. She enlists Rigby's help, but her agenda is not what it seems to be.