Showing results by author "Anthea Fraser" in All Categories

When successful biographer Rona Parish is asked to write the life story of a recently deceased best-selling author, she is intrigued - to say the least. After all, Theo Harvey led a very colourful life and died in mysterious circumstances. But Rona’s husband Max is wary, and with good reason.... As Rona begins to delve into Theo Harvey’s life and death, and to interview his friends and family - some more willing than others - she realises that she has taken on a poisoned chalice.

Biographer Rona Parish has a new project - contributing a series for the local glossy magazine, Chiltern Life, documenting life-changing experiences from those who have lived through them. When her father suggests she speaks to his friend, Frank Hathaway, who was in Iraq during the invasion of Kuwait, Rona decides to pay him a visit. But Frank was also badly injured in a failed rescue attempt following a car crash the previous year and has been tormented by flashbacks ever since.

Rona Parish is eager for a fresh challenge after her successful articles on adopted children. A chance encounter with an old friend, Kate - now married into the Tarlton family, who own the oldest jewellery shop in Marsborough - sows the seed for a new series. Rona plans to research the histories of long-established family firms in the town. Kate also enlists Rona's help in getting to the bottom of her sister-in-law Freya's terrifying nightmares after a tune from a musical box triggers a severe reaction.

Rona Parish is writing an article on old family businesses when she learns that Curzon, local manufacturers of fine bone china, are about to celebrate their 150th anniversary. Rona decides to approach the firm, and gets caught up in Curzon family life.

Hired to write a series of articles on the town of Buckford, Rona Parish lodges with a young divorcee. The divorcee's aunt, Edna Rosebury, raises questions about a recent tragic murder and Rona's investigative antennae are instantly on the alert

When a young woman, Louise, comes to Rona with a plea for help, all her journalistic instincts are aroused. Against her better judgement - and husband Max's advice - Rona is once again drawn into a complex and disturbing sequence of events.

An old school photograph in which someone has been deliberately blacked out marks the start of a new case for Rona Parish. Who was this person and why would someone want to hide his or her identity? Rona sets out to uncover the secret and soon finds that the school in question closed down many years ago due, it was rumoured, to a long-forgotten scandal. Could this be the link that will solve the mystery? Meanwhile, a visit to a stage hypnotist results in more than Rona and her friends bargained for...

Rona Parish's latest assignment is almost complete when a young woman named Zara Crane approaches her with a request to help trace her natural parents. Rona's curiosity is aroused - not least because, she discovers that Zara's birth mother had been murdered in her bath twenty-five years earlier.

Three widely separated households - one in Scotland, one in the north of England and one in the south - have known the pain of losing a loved one; losses which, over the years, have shaped the characters of those left behind. But it takes the untimely and suspicious death of Martin Petrie, a stranger from the Scottish Borders mowed down in a hit and run, to untangle the threads that will draw them together in ways they could never have imagined, with results that are far-reaching and fatal.

Despite her refusal to face the truth, some mysterious force makes Sophie leave her lover, Jake, and her secure, normal student life in London for the village of Pendlemere, lurking under the sinister Pendle Hill. For centuries Pendlemere has been the source of legends of witchcraft, and, with a growing sense of fear, Sophie knows that she has been there before, perhaps in another existence....

Laura Hardy is recovering from a traumatic car crash. The incident proved fatal for her mother, and whilst Laura's life was spared, she is left injured, weak and grieving for her loss. Her brother, Edward, resolves that accommodating Laura at his family home, Four Winds, will provide the respite she so desperately needs. But as soon as she steps foot over the threshold, she is assailed by feelings of choking and terror, engulfed by a sense of despair.

A devastating tragedy still looms over Adam's family – can he find the answers to unresolved questions?What happened in the Lake District 26 years ago that resulted in a family being torn apart? An old tragedy, still unresolved, brings together estranged brother and sister Adam and Kirsty, who try to solve it despite their relatives' objections. Does a missing camera hold clues to what might have happened?

Rona Parish is asked to write a biography of reclusive artist Ellie by her concerned sister. Ellie has seemingly disappeared, and the mystery surrounding her whereabouts has fuelled a new interest in her work. But when Rona discovers that Ellie’s closest friend committed suicide, Rona wonders whether Ellie, wracked by guilt over her friend’s death, could have been driven to do likewise....

Anthea Fraser's gripping novel about families and the skeletons that lurk in the cupboard tells the story of Fay Marlow whose husband abandoned her and the kids on her birthday in 1973.

James Markham's family are shocked when he jilts his fiancée for a woman he met only days earlier and about whom he appears to know very little. When they meet Abigail they are swayed by her beauty and charm, but puzzled by the aura of mystery that surrounds her.

Anna's family hope that a South African safari holiday will help her to get over her beloved husband's death. No one is more surprised than Anna herself when she finds herself strongly attracted to a fellow traveller, Lewis Masters, and despite her initial resistance, she is soon drawn into a new relationship. But back home, Anna's journalist son Jonathan is being repeatedly contacted by a young woman asking for his help, even though she's too frightened to say what is worrying her....