Showing results by narrator "David Thorpe" in All Categories

Eres Ffenegh — "the City on the Back of a Crab" — is the next state slated for conquest by the Palleseen, but its citizens won't give up sovereignty easily, and the siege has now dragged into the harsh Eresi winter. The defenders – both locals and Pal renegades – hold an uneasy alliance against the enemy at the gates, while the Pal army is constantly looking over its shoulder for the next self-destructive dictate of their government back home.

When John Milton stumbles into a small town plagued by scams, secrets, and a brutal criminal family, he plans to keep his head down. But after a deadly ambush leaves him tied up and dragged into the Appalachians, Milton finds himself face-to-face with an ancient tree—and a noose meant for his neck. As he fights to survive, Milton uncovers a sprawling conspiracy: a crooked banker, a string of ruined lives, and a drug operation hiding in plain sight. With time running out and bodies piling up, Milton must bring the whole operation crashing down.

The Man on the Mountaintop tells the story of Holy Man Joe, an ageing and unassuming man who lives in a hermitage on top of a mountain. During the summer months, thousands of hopefuls line the path leading to his door, seeking his wisdom. From bombastic, wealthy nobles intent on cheating their way to the top to drunkards who gradually build the physical and mental strength they need to quit their addiction, The Man on the Mountaintop is a rousing tale full of humour, wit and life lessons.

When tech genius Nathan Wiley is ambushed outside his London home, Group Fifteen operative Charlie Cooper is pulled back into the shadows. The attack was no random mugging—Wiley's name was leaked by a whistleblower with access to one of the most sensitive intelligence troves in Five Eyes history. The source? Sienna Jones, a former Australian spy who vanished without a trace after exposing the West's illegal use of AI trained on its own citizens. But now a signal has emerged from a wellness resort on a remote Greek island. Jones might be hiding there—or someone wants the world to think she is.

There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse. What will be the spark that lights the conflagration? Despite the city's refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood–that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores.

John Milton was just passing through. But when a chance glimpse of an old friend drags him off course, he finds himself in Clearwater Springs—a forgotten town poisoned by corporate greed and held hostage by fear. Caterina Moreno was supposed to disappear. Years ago, Milton risked everything to help her escape Mexico and a cartel death sentence. Now she's resurfaced under a new name, fighting a different kind of war. She's taking on the powerful fracking company that's been making people sick and silencing anyone who dares speak out.

Wall of Hadrian. Britannia, 382 AD. War is creeping back into the land. As silent as snowfall, as inevitable as winter. They've had sixteen years of peace, but all things must end. Tribune Sixtus Victorinus has grown old, complacent. It is his friend, Prefect Gaius Felicius, who first spots the signs. Once more, the Caledonian tribes are rearing their heads in the north, but the greatest danger does not lie with them. For there is a new pretender to the throne of the West.

Wei Zhang is a scientist with a deadly secret—he's discovered a new weapon unlike anything the world has seen. Desperate to defect from the Chinese state that now controls his research, Zhang risks everything for a chance at freedom. Charlie Cooper, covert operative for Group Fifteen, is dispatched to eliminate Zhang before his work can be weaponized. But when Cooper uncovers the truth, he realizes Zhang may not be the enemy—and someone else is pulling the strings. Caught between a pharmaceutical empire and shadowy intelligence interests, Cooper is betrayed, hunted, and running out of time.

City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world. As their legions scour the world of superstition with the bright flame of reason, so they deliver a mountain of ragged, holed and scorched flesh to the field hospital tents just behind the frontline. Which is where Yasnic, one-time priest, healer and rebel, finds himself. Reprieved from the gallows and sent to war clutching a box of orphan Gods, he has been sequestered to a particularity unorthodox medical unit.

Terry Flynt is a struggling legal clerk desperately trying to get promoted when he is given the biggest opportunity of his career: to help defend a millionaire accused of murdering a woman in his hotel suite. The only problem is that the accused man, Vernon James, is not only someone he knows but someone he loathes. This case could potentially make Terry's career, but how can he defend a former friend who betrayed him?

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year A groundbreaking exploration of the shifting landscape of technological innovation and how it has transformed into a global phenomenon, challenging the traditional dominance of Silicon Valley. The US is the source of just about all the technologies that...

A violent encounter forces Kane to emerge from a life in hiding, where he had hoped his wife and children would be safe. He must go on the run and fight for the lives of those he holds most dear. The forces out to kill him are skilled, well-armed, and his former colleagues in the Mjolnir Agency, a black-ops shadow section of MI6.

When a young refugee tells John Milton that his sister was taken by human traffickers, the former assassin sets off on a mission of rescue and retribution. From war-ravaged Libya to the criminal underworlds of Italy and France, Milton navigates a brutal path through Europe's darkest corners. Facing ruthless Albanian smugglers and corrupt enforcers, Milton will risk everything to bring the girl home—and dismantle the network profiting from her suffering.

The sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity. Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new is Stefan Advani: rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor.

City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring 'Perfection' and 'Correctness' to an imperfect world. But before these ruthless Tyrant Philosophers send in their legions, they despatch Outreach – the rain before the storm. Outreach is that part of the Pal machine responsible for diplomacy — converting enemies into friends, achieving through words what an army of five thousand could not, urging the oppressed to overthrow the bloody-handed priests, evil necromancers and greedy despots that subjugate them.

September 1940. The height of the Blitz. When the Savoy advertises its series of underground shelters, a crowd of people from East London arrive at the hotel and demand entry. There they find a shelter worthy of the Savoy's clientele, but the next morning, after the air raid and when the Stepney protestors have left, it is discovered that one of the hotel's guests is dead, stabbed through the heart.

DOES ANYTHING EAT WASPS meets INFORMATION IS BEAUTIFUL: A journey through life, the universe and everything. From what actually happened in the Big Bang to the accidental discovery of post-it notes, science is packed with surprising discoveries. Did you know, for instance, that if you were to...

Delve into the clandestine world of Group 15, the covert organization also featured in the acclaimed John Milton series. Charlie Cooper, an elite Group Fifteen agent, faces a complex mission: eliminate Igor Sidorov, a security-obsessed Russian oligarch implicated in international subterfuge. The only avenue to reach the paranoid Sidorov? Through Crispin Fairweather, the owner of a small yet influential reputation management firm.

Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time. As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, she’s here as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly – Gil to her friends – needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she must fight at midnight.

The king's coronation brings hope. Until a murderer strikes. Spring 1661: After years of civil war followed by Oliver Cromwell's joyless rule as Lord Protector, England awaits the coronation of King Charles II. The mood in London is one of relief and hope for a better future. But when two respectable gentlemen are found in a foul lane with their throats cut, it becomes apparent that England's enemies are using the newly re-established post office for their own ends.