Showing results by narrator "Katherine Press" in All Categories

Growing up in Edwardian south London, Alice Rowlands longs for romance and excitement, for a release from a life that is dreary and lonely. Her father, a vet, is harsh and oppressive; his new girlfriend, brash and lascivious. Alice seeks refuge in fantasy, in her rapturous longing for Nicholas, a handsome young sailor, and in the blossoming of what she perceives as her occult powers. Harrowing and haunting, a Gothic tale that is a strange cross between Daphne Du Maurier and Stephen King, but will also intrigue readers of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Diane Setterfield.

When Tasha builds a snow girl with her grandpa, all she wants is for her to be real. If only wishes on snow could come true. Then Tasha meets Alyana, a friend made of wishes, starlight, snowfall, and magic. But when your best friend is made of winter, what do you do when spring comes?

Martha is a feisty and articulate young woman, the daughter of a wheelwright, living in a Herefordshire village in Elizabethan England. Unusually for the time she is educated and so helps at the local school whilst longing to escape the confines and small-mindedness of a community riven by religious bigotry and poverty. As she is able to read and is well-versed in herbal remedies she is suspected of being a witch. When a landslip occurs - opening up a huge chasm in the centre of the village - she is blamed for it and pursued remorselessly by the villagers.

It’s meant to be the most wonderful time of the year but 30-year-old Holly Hanwell doesn’t really feel like celebrating…not after the bombshell news her boyfriend is leaving her to have a baby with someone else. So Holly’s organised a quiet Christmas in her cosy little house and plans to avoid the traditional village festivities, and anything resembling a man, at all costs.   

When journalist Laurie Forbes turns up on Beth Ashby's doorstep, minutes after Beth's husband, political high-flier Colin Ashby, has been arrested for murder, neither can even begin to guess the shocking repercussions that have just been triggered in both their lives. Beth attempts to escape from her shattered life by throwing herself into the kind of reckless high-living that seems destined for disaster, while Laurie finds herself being threatened, terrorised and even taken prisoner for what she knows.

One sunny day in July, someone took three-month-old Alicia Owen from her pram outside a supermarket. Her mother, Marie, was inside. No one saw who took Alicia. And no one could find her....

Tim and Rachel Hendon are riding high on an ideal marriage and growing political success. Tim is already in the Cabinet, and as they celebrate yet another election victory, they have no idea that they are on the eve of a nightmare that is going to totally devastate their lives. After a high-profile murder, Katherine Sumner has disappeared. Is she the killer? Or will the information she has on top government officials make hers the next body to turn up on the coroner's table?

England, 1925. Louisa Drew lost her husband in the First World War and her six-year-old twin sons in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Newly remarried to a war-traumatised husband and seven months pregnant, Louisa is asked by her employer to travel to Clewer Hall in Sussex where she is to photograph the contents of the house for auction. She learns Clewer Hall was host to an infamous séance in 1896, and that the lady of the house has asked those who gathered back then to come together once more to re-create the evening. 

Stuart Ingram was once a respected local councillor. The first time the police knocked on Gina's door, they arrested her husband. The second time, they accused him of child abuse. But he died a guilty man. This time, the police are here for Gina - to tell her that her husband is dead. Murdered, just two weeks before his trial. Gina always stood by her husband. Even when everyone else walked away. She believed the trial would clear his name. But now Stuart is dead. And his wife is the suspect. 

When the mutilated body of a police officer is found in a derelict factory, the Hamptonshire police force is shocked to the core. DCI Helen Lavery returns from injury leave and is immediately plunged into an investigation like no other. Is this a random attack or is someone targeting the force? Organised crime groups or a lone killer? As the net draws in, Helen finds the truth lies closer than she could have imagined and finds herself facing a twisted killer who will stop at nothing to ensure their secrets remain hidden. And time is running out.

The year is 1607. When a catastrophic flood hits the Somerset coast, young sailor-in-disguise Fortune gets the blame. Locals are convinced witchcraft is at work. And Fortune - who is secretive, suspiciously good at swimming and, to everyone's surprise, a girl - is an obvious scapegoat. Even saving the life of her rival's only son doesn't clear her name. If anything, it makes matters worse.... 

Twelve-year-old Elsbeth has an extraordinary power: she can travel to parallel worlds and bring objects back with her. But as freak weather events become more frequent and a strange boy, Idris, starts to turn up everywhere she travels, she has to ask herself: does her gift come with a price?

Benjamin's world is turned upside down the day he meets Clara. Instinctively, he knows that she is his person and he is hers, but the devastating events of one of their last nights at university will take their lives in very different directions. 20 years later, a bombing is reported in the city where Clara and Ben met, and she is pulled back to a place she tries not to remember and the first love she could never forget. Searching for Ben, Clara prays that twenty years of regret is about to end. But is it too late to put right what went wrong?

Once accused of witchcraft, Martha Spicer is now free from the shadow of the gallows and lives a safe and happy life with her husband, Jacob. But when Jacob heads north to accompany his master, he warns Martha to keep her healing gifts a secret, to keep herself safe, to be a good wife. Martha loves Jacob, but without him there to protect her, she soon comes under the suspicious eye of the wicked Steward Boult, who’s heard of her talent and forces her to attend to him. If she refuses, he promises to destroy the good life she has built for herself with Jacob.

1952. In the fragile atmosphere of post-war Paris, Sophie Bernot is training as a heart surgeon. A young woman in a man's world, Sophie is determined to bury her past and forge her medical career, whatever the costs. Across the channel, Sebastian Ogilvie is burning with ambition for his first architectural project. As his schemes lead him to France, and to a chance encounter with Sophie, his future seems full of promise.

Investigative journalist Laurie Forbes is planning her wedding to Elliott Russell when she receives a tip-off that a group of illegally smuggled women is being held somewhere in the East End of London. During her search, unexpected and devastating events begin throwing her own life into chaos, so fellow journalist Sherry MacElvoy steps in to help. Taking on undercover roles to get to the heart of the ruthless gang of human-traffickers, neither reporter can even begin to imagine what dangers they are about to face. 

Amy loves Flynn. Flynn loves Amy. But she can't read his mind, and he can't read hers. Heading away to her sister's wedding weekend, little do they know it's make or break. When a bolt of lightning gives them the ultimate change in perspective, they have to get through the weekend walking in each other's shoes… Literally.

Hiding in the seedy underbelly of Paris, Vernita is keeping her sick mother alive by selling exquisitely embroidered lingerie to a shop that supplies the Princess Pauline Borghese. When Vernita approaches the Princess directly with a new negligee, she is enchanted and employs Vernita as a personal servant. As an English noblewoman in the enemy French court, Vernita has to tread carefully. However, both the Princess’ handsome lover Count Axel de Storvik and the all-powerful Emperor Napoleon are making matters more complicated...

A dark, gothic adventure set deep in a Bavarian forest, with angels and owls and magic and a boy who isn’t all that he seems to be. A cherub is blown into Cassie Engel’s bedroom during a thunderstorm, triggering a series of terrifying events. Cassie must discover if its arrival was an accident or part of something more sinister. With a self-obsessed opera singer for a mother, a strange taxidermist father and a best friend who isn’t quite what he seems, Cassie is forced to unearth the secrets of her family’s past.

Property magnate Max Silver is in trouble. His West End properties are starting to crumble, his assets are turning into liabilities, and his business empire's on the rocks. With the company in danger of going under, he shakes up his property portfolio, ditches his shiftless partner, Larry, and brings his brother Teddy and daughter Zara on board. Then the Lord Mayor of London asks him to build an iconic skyscraper in the heart of the capital - a 1,000-ft state-of-the-art tower that will show off London to the world, and be a defiant new national symbol.