Showing results by narrator "Gildart Jackson" in All Categories

Dirk Struan rose from humble beginnings to build Struan & Company, also known as the Noble House, into the world’s largest Far East trading company. He is now the Tai-Pan—Supreme Leader—of all Tai-Pans in China. Along the way, however, he made a powerful enemy. Tyler Brock, Struan’s rival from their early opium-smuggling days, also heads a large trading fleet, second in size only to Struan’s. But it is not only silks and spices that drive their mutual companies’ wealth—the opium trade is still booming. War between England and China might be over, but the hostilities remain.

Ahren's enormous undertaking to unite the thirteen Paladins has, following years of dangerous journeying, come to a successful conclusion. Now there is only one task left for him to complete. He must lead the Champions of the gods, his other friends, and the free peoples of Jorath in an assault on the Obsidian Fortress. Yet the Adversary is intent on foiling his archenemies' plan before they reach his hordes lurking behind the compound walls. The Dark god's scheme is to spring the trap that was set centuries earlier in preparation for just such an event.

The Paladins are still short one of their number for them to finally be considered a complete fighting force—the thirteen Champions of the gods. Hence, Ahren and his friends, make their way onto the Ice Fields in the far south, following what scant clues there are in their efforts to track down the man considered to be the father of all Forest Guardians and who was last seen hunting down the fearsome dragon, Four Claws. An odyssey on sea and ice awaits them

Hardly have they left the Forest of Ire and its horrors behind them when the Thirteenth Paladin decides to head for the Green Sea with his friends to fulfil his old promise of bringing the necromancer to justice, who has been holding the fertile lands surrounding the horse people and their Paladin, Blazing Eyes, in his bony grip for far too long. But it is not alone the necromancer with his deadly traps who is testing the companions.

Ahren's life consists of being beaten up by his drunkard father or bullied by the village lads. But at the annual suitability tests for apprenticeships, the young boy finds himself selected by Falk, the guardian of the forest, to be his apprentice and his world is turned upside down.

This is DC Smith's third investigation with the Diver and Diver Associates agency. They have been asked by a member of Norfolk's aristocracy to look into the tragic death of her younger brother, Freddie, the late Lord Thorpe of the title. The inquest verdict was of misadventure, but it isn't long before Smith begins to suspect there has been a serious miscarriage of justice.

Ahren can hardly believe his luck. His apprenticeship finally comes to an end, and Khara's interest in him is growing by the minute. He and his companions leave the Southern Jungles and sail westward, this time in search of two Paladins, who are apparently living a peaceful existence on one of the Isles of the Cutlass Sea. Yet their quest proves full of difficulties, for a war among the pirates has transformed the Cutlass Sea into a bubbling cauldron, hiding its own tragic drama.

When another resident of the Rosemary House care home is found dead in her chair one Saturday evening in December, no one is very surprised - not until the results of a routine post-mortem reveal something extraordinary. Sergeant DC Smith and his team have to tread carefully as they investigate what took place, and Smith himself has to confront some difficult memories. Others, meanwhile, seem intent on getting him to leave the force altogether.

The siege of the Brazen City has been lifted and the Paladin Bergen remains free. Following their victory, Ahren and his companions continue on their travels, this time to the Southern Jungles in search of information regarding the whereabouts of the female Paladin, Sunju. The journey is long and dangerous. Not only must they traverse the Nameless Desert and the untamed primeval forest, but hired assassins are hot on their heels along the Spear Path. And to top it all, the consequences of Jelninolan's extended absence from Evergreen could be fatal to her....

"And see if there's any news about the missing girl." Life, as Smith used to say, is just one thing after another - as one investigation ends, a new one begins. But for reasons unknown to the rest of her team, DCI Cara Freeman will be haunted by the next case for the Kings Lake Central murder squad. They find themselves delving into the seamy side of life in the town, and one of their number will have departed before this new investigation is over. Perhaps Detective Sergeant Chris Waters should have seen it coming, but he has a lot more than work on his mind these days.

Things are going well for Alex Verus. He's on moderately good terms with the Council, his apprentice is settling in, and his shop in Camden is gaining quite a reputation. But when a mysterious woman bursts into the Arcana Emporium one night with an assassin on her tail, Alex is thrown into a plot to revive a long-forbidden ritual.

When a worker goes missing from a North Sea gas platform, there seem to be just two possible explanations - it was a tragic accident or a suicide. It does not take Smith and his detectives long, however, to discover that James Bell led a double life back onshore in Kings Lake, a life complicated enough to make him at least one dangerous enemy. Before the case can be unraveled, Smith must get a new team working together.

Welcome to Fountain Reach. Ancient seat of the Aubuchon dynasty. Majestic setting of the White Stone tournament. Alex Verus' (not necessarily reliable) reputation attracts all sorts. Most are plain bonkers. Yet there's one invitation he just can't refuse. At Fountain Reach, Alex is perfectly placed among the noted and notorious to figure out why apprentices have been vanishing.

As the first anniversary of the formation of the Kings Lake murder squad approaches, there is a problem—they've run out of murders. As a result, they are given the task of reviewing unsolved cold cases. One of these comes back to life in unexpected ways as the team try to discover the identity...

Success at last! Ahren and his companions have revived the alliance of the Jorathian peoples. But there is little time for celebration, for while the defensive ring around the Pall Cloud is being strengthened with Dwarfish assistance, Ahren and his friends are already on their way to answer the Wrath Elves' cry for help in the Forest of Ire, from within whose depths mysterious dangers are threatening to destroy the Elven forest and all life forms within it. Time is running out.

Jo told him the phone call had been about a woman who wanted to have her husband declared dead. Smith thought for a moment and then said, 'Hmm. There must be a few million women in this country who feel like that. I take it her husband's been missing for a while and she's decided it's time to move on. In the absence of a body, which is always a nuisance, she wants Diver and Diver to confirm there's no proof he's alive. And I've told Jason a dozen times I'm not getting involved in anything matrimonial. I have enough trouble sorting out my own relationships.'

When 14-year-old Zoe Johnson doesn't come home on a Monday night in early December, the alarm bells in Kings Lake Central police station do not ring straight away - after all, she's from the Dockmills, one of the toughest estates in the town. But for Detective Sergeant DC Smith, due to retire in just three weeks' time, there are some strange echoes of the case that has haunted him for the past 13 years. Maybe it's simply his over-developed sense of irony, or maybe, in his final days as a police officer, Smith must look once more into the eyes of a serial killer.

Change is afoot at Kings Lake Central police station. A most unexpected new detective inspector takes up his post this Monday morning, and the oldest detective in the place takes a momentous decision. Around them, other officers are considering their own situations, and even the building itself seems to be facing an uncertain future. But life and death go on, nevertheless, and by lunchtime someone will make a grim discovery on the Norfolk saltmarshes. A stranger seems to have suffered a slow and agonizing death out there.

"He might be a nobody, but he was their nobody and their first case." The new Kings Lake Central murder squad is about to spend its first morning on team-building exercises and reviewing cold cases when the call comes in that the body of one of the city's rough sleepers has been found in a shop...

"She's just watching, thinking about it again, when a big flash car pulls up outside. No one gets out. Then the doors of the bar open and people appear. Two men and a youngish woman, and one of the men has a hold on the woman's arm. It looks as if they're having words. Then this all happens...