Showing results by narrator "Emma Powell" in All Categories

In the quiet village of Helesbury, Miranda Wallace prides herself on being the most popular member of her small social circle; the perfect friend, the best mum - the queen bee. Until one day, Verity arrives. Cool and indifferent, Verity is everything Miranda isn’t, but she threatens to shatter Miranda’s picture-perfect life. Suddenly plagued with insecurities, Miranda is certain Verity is hiding something. And Miranda knows all about secrets and the damage they can cause, because she’s hiding some of her own.

The Harrison family gathers as usual for Christmas in their big Sussex house. This year, however, outside realities are pressing hard: Pamela and John, married for four decades, know that time is catching up with them. And trouble is brewing in the lives of their four children. Cassie, the cossetted youngest, is in the throes of an affair with a married man; Elizabeth, her awkward older sister, is struggling with a faltering second marriage; Peter, the eldest and designated inheritor of Ashley House, is beginning to meet resistance to such a prospect from his career-orientated wife.

When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel's familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder. Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can't return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can't trust them to find her sister's killer.

In any given glittering social season, Edwardian London's dizzying whirl had its share of surprises. The latest was Kitty Harrison, once achingly poor, suddenly an heiress and now, thanks to her determined mother, she was about to become a Baroness. From the moment Kitty set eyes on Lord Chesworth, she found him to be the most exciting man she had met. But Kitty was young, innocent, and easily dazzled.

Georgia Sage has a gift: she can see evil in people. As a courtroom artist she uses her skills to help condemn those who commit terrible crimes. After all, her own brutal past means she knows innocence is even rarer than justice. But when she is drawn back into the trial that defined her career, a case of twisted family betrayal, she realises her own reckless pursuit of justice may have helped the guilty go free.

Nora's daughter, Annabelle, has disappeared, last seen on her way home from a party. Gullspång's inexperienced police are wilting under the national media spotlight - and its residents desperate for answers. Stockholm DI Charlie Lager must return home to find Annabelle and then get out of town as soon as she can. Before everyone discovers the truth about her....

As far as matrimonial prospects were concerned, Lucy Bliss was told she'd make an excellent clergyman's wife. Her mother, however, had loftier aspirations for her lovely younger sister Belinda. Belinda would marry a duke. More specifically, the Duke of Wardshire. Lucy was truly horrified. Lucifer Wardshire! Why, he was rumoured to be as wicked as the devil, with orgies and mistresses and worse! As the London Season unfolded, Lucy couldn't decide who was more abominable, her vulgar mama or the arrogant yet disconcertingly handsome duke.

Social media influencer Crystabel Hughes is determined her wedding to Giles Preston Smythe will be the talk of the town. No matter the cost or the upset, nothing will stop this wedding! But for Alexi Ellis and the rest of the staff at Hopgood Hall, Crystabel’s demands are becoming increasingly extreme. And when Alexi spots the groom getting up close and personal with one of the bridesmaids, she fears trouble is only a bouquet toss away.

Everyone thinks Lexi is crazy when she falls in love with Hollingsworth House, a crumbling old Georgian mansion in Yorkshire – and nobody more so than her husband, Dylan. But there’s something very special about the place, and Lexi can sense it. Whilst exploring the grounds, she stumbles across an old diary, and within its pages she meets Allie, an Australian nurse who worked in France during the First World War. Lexi finally realises her dream of buying Hollingsworth, but her obsession with the house leaves her marriage in tatters.

After a family tragedy, Janey Carhart was forced from her comfortable life as a captain’s daughter into domestic service. Determined to make something of herself, Janey eventually finds work as a lady’s maid at the imposing Bosvenna Manor on the edge of Bodmin Moor but is soon caught between the two worlds of upstairs and downstairs as she cares for her mistress. Desperately lonely, Janey catches the attention of two men - James Brockenshaw and Daniel Kellow. James is heir to the Bosvenna estate. Daniel Kellow is a neighbouring farmer with a dark past.

The Harrisons were always a close-knit family. But with the grandchildren fast becoming adults and elderly Pamela struggling to adapt to widowhood, the four children of the middle generation find themselves equally lost in a changing world. As preparations for 42-year-old Cassie's long-awaited wedding gather pace, sibling and marital bonds are stretched to breaking point. Adultery, an unwanted pregnancy, and shadows of past losses threaten to turn their year of celebration into one of upheaval . . .

Poor little Susie. A beautiful dreamer, she imagined herself happy in a rose-covered cottage, only to find herself mistress of a great damp castle and wife to the elderly Earl of Blackhall. Luck, not the lecherous earl, contrived to spare her, and by her wedding night she was transformed to a wealthy young widow. But her trials had just begun.

Jen is climbing in the mountains near Alajar, Spain. And it's nothing to do with the fact that an old acquaintance, Nick Crawford, may have suggested that she meet him there. But when things don't go as planned with Nick and her brother calls to voice concerns over the whereabouts of Morwenna - their estranged, free-spirited mother - Jen winds up travelling to a refugee camp on the south coast of Malta.

It was ‘their’ dark secret. For twenty-two-years they kept it buried. Time hasn’t healed my wounds. Instead, they’ve festered. Their actions went unpunished. Until now... Shamed, scarred, and shunned, I watched, waited and plotted how to shatter their enviable lives. Now, finally, they will suffer as I did at their cruel hands that fateful night. Time’s up. I am here for you, Dr Claudia Harper. But first, you’ll witness your childhood friends, one by one, beg for mercy.

On the evening of their wedding anniversary, Ali and Matthew are involved in a fatal car accident. Grief-stricken, Ali can’t bring herself to believe that her beloved Matthew is gone. The smell of his aftershave lingers in their bedroom. His voice still rings out on their answerphone. She sees his face in the eyes of strangers. But as the months pass, and her family and friends rally round, Ali starts to uncover secrets that Matthew kept from her.

After splitting up with her cheating ex-husband, Ruby Brown is ready for a change. She's single again for the first time in years, and she's going to dive into this brave new world with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. The last thing she's looking for is another serious relationship. Mason Soames represents everything Ruby wants right now: he's charming, handsome, and perfect for some no-strings-attached fun, and yet Ruby can't help feel that something is missing.

Rachel wakes from a coma to discover her controlling husband has been killed, and the police suspect her of involvement. But all Rachel can recall from the last few weeks are tantalising flashes of a fellow commuter. A man whose name she doesn't know. A man who has disappeared without a trace. Now Rachel is a wealthy widow and the vultures are circling, wanting her in prison for murder, or failing that ... dead. Can Rachel discover the truth in time to save herself?

With its reputation in tatters, Alexi Ellis is determined to save her beloved Hopgood Hall from any more bad press. A writing course for wannabe journalists shouldn't cause too many issues and will hopefully take the heat off Hopgood Hall. But disaster strikes when one of the group is found dead in a local pub. What’s worse Alexi was the last person to see the victim alive, which makes her suspect number one. Alexi is sure she is being set up, but who would go to such deadly lengths?

When Olivia Elliott decides to spend the summer on the remote Morwen Island where she grew up, she can't help but wonder if returning home is a good idea. After all, she still remembers the heartbreak she left behind on those shores many years ago. Before long, she runs into her first love, Jory Trethewey, who offers to help Olivia fix up her new cottage. And as they renovate, they realise the house has its own secrets. Soon they uncover a story dating back to the Second World War, of a wounded airman who came to this island to hide from the world, and of the woman who fell in love with him.

Meet Carmen, Polly and Dana - all happy and successful women, with very different views on relationships. Carmen has made a life with Elliot for the past eight years. She's ready for the next step, but a proposal seems to be as far away as ever. Polly is devoted to her family. But after her parents' bitter divorce, she's wary of marriage - even after sharing 20 years and one son with Fraser. Single mother Dana longs for companionship, despite her dedication to raising her son, Luke.