Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Strevens" in All Categories

A captivating exploration of the role in which Queen Victoria exerted the most international power and influence: as a matchmaking grandmother. Queen Victoria's Matchmaking travels through the glittering, decadent palaces of Europe from London to Saint Petersburg, weaving in scandals, political machinations, and family tensions. It is at once an intimate portrait of a royal family and an examination of the conflict caused by the marriages the Queen arranged. At the heart of it all is Victoria herself: doting grandmother one moment, determined Queen Empress the next.

It's 2014. Sensible Nora has always taken success for granted until suddenly her life begins to fall apart. Troubled by anxiety and nightmares, she finds herself drawn to the sweeping beaches of Tenby, a place she's been only once before. Together with a local girl, she rents a beautiful townhouse and slowly begins to settle in to her new life. But Tenby hides a secret, and Nora will soon discover that this little town by the sea has the power to heal even the most painful memories.

Billy and Dawnie may be in their seventies, but that won’t stop them taking chances or starting again. Their grown-up children have families and lives of their own, so now it’s Billy and Dawnie’s turn and a life near the sea in Devon beckons. But the residents of Margot Street (or Maggot Street as Dawnie insists on calling it), don’t quite know what to make of their new neighbours.

Sarah has been receiving threatening anonymous letters seemingly from a former lover. Just one day after revealing this information to her co-worker Nancy, Sarah is shot and found in her bedroom by one of her past flames, Donald. Desperate to clear any evidence of Donald's presence at the scene for her own infatuations, Nancy finds herself as the key suspect when she is discovered in the apartment. As the real killer uses the situation to their advantage, Bennett crafts a tense and nuanced story through flashbacks to Sarah's life and loves.

'Good people, I am come hither to die and by a law I am condemned to the same.' These were the words uttered by 17-year-old Lady Jane Grey as she stood on the scaffold on a cold February morning in 1554. Forced on to the throne by power players at court, Queen Jane reigned for just 13 days before being imprisoned in the tower, condemned for high treason and executed.

Queen Victoria had over 30 surviving grandchildren, and to maintain and increase power in Europe, she hoped to manoeuvre them into dynastic marriages. Yet they often had plans of their own, and her matchmaking was further complicated by tumultuous international upheavals. Queen Victoria's Matchmaking travels through the glittering, decadent palaces of Russia and Europe, weaving in scandals, political machinations and family tensions.

Moira Martingale’s comprehensive study, Cannibal Killers: The Impossible Monsters, was originally written in 1993, when the Internet was in its infancy, when few homes had computers and when the character Hannibal Lecter from the book and movie The Silence of the Lambs was regarded as an entirely fictional character, with no real-world counterparts or inspirations. The book demonstrated that this was an erroneous assumption.

Jude Shelley, the daughter of a prominent cabinet minister, was assaulted and left for dead in the river Thames. Her attacker was never caught. A year later forensic psychologist Alice Quentin is asked to reexamine the case. Then another body is found: an elderly priest, washed up at Westminster Pier. An ancient glass bead is tied to his wrist. Alice is certain that the Shelleys are hiding something - and that there will be more victims unless she can persuade them to share what they know.

Alice Quentin returns to tackle a series of murders in the Square Mile in the thrilling sequel to Crossbones Yard. The first death looked like a suicide. But someone had tucked a picture of an angel and a handful of white feathers into the banker's pocket - before pushing him in front of a Tube. A killer is stalking the Square Mile, an avenging angel intent on punishment. But why these victims? What were their sins?

Plain Emma Stephenson might not look like a tycoon's glamorous assistant, but for Luca D'Amato - a playboy who likes to play - breaking through her no-nonsense attitude is his favourite new game. Sensible Emma thought all they'd be sharing was an office - not a bed! But she's learning fast what being Luca's personal assistant really means! Now he's standing there offering her a promotion - and she's trying to find the words to tell him she's pregnant!

Oxfordshire, 1947. Exhausted by the war and nursing a tragic secret, Kit Smallwood flees to Wickam Farm to recuperate. There she throws herself into helping set up a charity sending midwives to India. Then Kit meets Anto, a handsome, complicated but charming trainee doctor nearing the end of his English education, and she falls utterly in love. But when Anto informs his family that he is to return home with an English bride, his parents are appalled.

1939. Seventeen-year-old Nora Jennings has spent her life secure in the certainty of a bright, happy future - until one night of passion has more catastrophic consequences than she ever could have anticipated. Labelled a moral defective and sectioned under the Mental Deficiency Act, she is forced to endure years of unspeakable cruelty at the hands of those who are supposed to care for her.

Mrs Laetitia Rodd is the impoverished widow of an Archdeacon: she is also a private detective of the utmost discretion. In winter 1850, she is asked by Sir James Calderstone to investigate the background of an 'unsuitable' woman his son intends to marry. In the guise of governess, she travels to the family seat, Wishtide, where she discovers that the Calderstones have more to hide than most. As their secrets unfold, the case takes an unpleasant turn when a man is found dead outside a tavern.

Grace, Meg and Daphne, all in their 70s, are minding their own business while enjoying a cup of tea in a café when 17-year-old Nina stumbles in. She’s clearly distraught and running from someone, so the three women think nothing of hiding her when a suspicious-looking man starts asking if they’ve seen her. Once alone, Nina tells the women a little of what she’s running from. The need to protect her is immediate, and Grace, Meg and Daphne vow to do just this. But how? They soon realise there really is only one answer: murder.

The Great War is over, and Millie is ready to leave her loving family home and be a wife to Jeremy. But not long after their wedding, Millie discovers Jeremy is affected by shell shock, and moving into his late father's cold, dark estate escalates the problem. Millie tries to help, but Jeremy grows more distant and befriends a homeless, wounded ex-soldier, Monty, who has secrets.... 

If you won a gorgeous purple motorbike and your domineering husband said you were too fat for leathers and should sell it, would you do as you were told - or learn to ride it in secret? Artist and café owner Lucy Daumier intends to do just that - but learning to ride is far from easy, especially under the critical eye of prickly motorcycle instructor Ash Connor. So starts an exciting summer of new friendships and fun - as well as a realisation that there is more to Ash than meets the eye when she is introduced to his seven-year-old daughter, Daisy.

She's only been gone two hours. Her husband, David, was meant to be looking after their two-week-old daughter. But when Alice Fancourt walks into the nursery, her terrifying ordeal begins, for Alice insists the baby in the cot is a stranger she's never seen before. With an increasingly hostile and menacing David swearing she must either be mad or lying, how can Alice make the police believe her before it's too late?

After one uncharacteristically wicked night, the once reckless Eleanor Bracewell-Lowen now leads a safe and prudent life. On his return to London's high society, Lord Cristo Wellingham looks different from the man she knew so briefly in Paris, but he is still as magnetic... In his cold amber eyes Eleanor detects something she has seen mirrored in her own - longing. His touch invites passion, but this is a man who could destroy her good name with just one glance....

A darkly whimsical and wickedly funny tale about a 12-year-old maid who finds herself at the very heart of a conspiracy involving mischief, ghosts, and intrigue. Just right for fans of Lemony Snicket and Neil Gaiman, Anyone but Ivy Pocket is the first book in a four-book series.

Vita's gift shop would do better if she ran it as a business, not as somewhere to daydream. But she's not one to tell herself off: she leaves that to Tim, her ex. Active, outdoorsy Oliver runs his trees-surgery business as calmly as his home - but his love life is intensely private. When Vita and Oliver's paths cross at a pear tree, there's a chance of something blossoming. As spring turns to summer, both Vita and Oliver are given second chances. Bu will they take them - or walk away?