Showing results by narrator "David Rintoul" in All Categories

By Its Cover is the much anticipated twenty-third instalment in Donna Leon's bestselling crime series, where Commissario Brunetti is better than ever as he addresses questions of worth and value alongside his ever-faithful team of Ispettore Vianello and Signorina Elettra. When several valuable antiquarian books go missing from a prestigious library in the heart of Venice, Commissario Brunetti is immediately called to the scene.

Meet Dr Ben Cave. For over thirty years he has worked in prisons and secure hospitals diagnosing and treating some of the most troubled men and women in society. A lifetime of care takes us from delusional disorders to schizophrenia, steroid abuse to drug dependency, personality disorders to paedophilia, and depression so severe a mother can kill her own baby. These are the human stories behind the headlines. The reality of a life spent working with patients with the severest mental health disorders. The tragic and often frightening truth about what happens behind closed doors.

Life for Bertie seems to be moving at a pace that is rather out of his control. In Drummond Place gardens, it seems that Olive has their future together all planned out. Meanwhile, upstairs at 44 Scotland Street, Bertie’s father, Stuart, is powerless to stop over-bearing Irene and her motion for Bertie to travel to Aberdeen on a three-month secondment. And, further up in the New Town, while Bruce Anderson plots with old-school chums, love blossoms in Big Lou’s Cafe.

With his own boat, the motor yacht Sea Fox, former naval officer Philip Vivian had hoped to earn a living free from the petty restrictions of everyday life, close to the sea he loved. Now, however, his dream is threatened by financial difficulties. So when a profitable, if legally dubious, proposition is put to him by an old naval comrade in arms, Vivian is willing to listen. But what starts out as a harmless adventure soon turns into something altogether more sinister.

French Riviera, winter 1992. On a freezing night, 19-year-old Vinca Rockwell runs away with her philosophy teacher with whom she's been having a secret affair. No one will ever see her again. French Riviera, spring 2017. Formerly inseparable, Fanny, Thomas and Maxime - Vinca's best friends - have not spoken in 25 years. But when they receive a notice from their old school detailing the plans for a new gymnasium and inviting them to a class reunion, they know they must go back one more time. Because there is a body buried in that building...and they're the ones who put it there.

From the million-copy bestselling author of The Parent Agency and Birthday Boy comes a wildly entertaining wish-fulfilment adventure that asks the question: what would happen if the strictest head teacher swapped bodies with the naughtiest kid in school?

The Pedant's ambition is simple. He wants to cook tasty, nutritious food; he wants not to poison his friends; and he wants to expand, slowly and with pleasure, his culinary repertoire. A stern critic of himself and others, he knows he is never going to invent his own recipes (although he might, in a burst of enthusiasm, increase the quantity of a favourite ingredient). Rather, he is a recipe-bound follower of the instructions of others. It is in his interrogations of these recipes, and of those who create them, that the Pedant's true pedantry emerges.

Written in 1791 as a response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, Thomas Paine's Rights of Man is a seminal work on human freedom and equality. Using the French Revolution and its ideals as an example, he demonstrates his belief that any government must put the inherent rights of its citizens above all else, especially politics.

Twenty-one years ago, when a conductor was poisoned and the Questura sent a man to investigate, readers first met Commissario Guido Brunetti. Since 1992’s Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon and her shrewd, sophisticated, and compassionate investigator have been delighting readers around the world. For her millions of fans, Leon’s novels have opened a window into the private Venice of her citizens, a world of incomparable beauty, family intimacy, shocking crime, and insidious corruption.

The Cemetery of the Nameless in Vienna is where those who take their own lives are buried - suicide victims who jumped into the Danube to kill themselves. But when the obvious victim of a murder washes up on the banks of the Danube, Karl initiates a homicide investigation. Supported by Anna and Sigmund, Constable Gruber heads into the world of prostitutes and pimps in Vienna's red-light district.

When an old prison is renovated, the fragile diary of one of the inmates is found. The entries contained detailed information about a series of unsolved murders from a long time ago. With Anna's support, Karl starts to interview former inmates of the prison while Sigmund tries to identify the killer on the basis of the diary entries.

When two little children are murdered and the suspect - the children's mother as well as one of Freud's patients - is arrested, the Professor is compelled into action: he is sure the suspect is innocent. Instead he suspects the children's father committed the murder. He is able to persuade Karl Gruber of his suspicions.

It only takes a couple of visits to convince Dr Elizabeth Bancroft that Adam Hunter is not just having bad dreams. He's a child possessed.His father is desperate: adamant that his son's affliction is the result of a curse he incurred in the depths of the Amazon, where a badly misguided military operation ended in a terrifying and macabre encounter.

It is 1938 and the final days of the British Empire. In a bungalow high up in the green hills above the plains of Ceylon, under a vast blue sky, live the Ferguson family - Bella, a precocious eight-year-old; her father, Henry - owner of Pitlochry, a tea plantation - and her mother, Virginia. The story centres around the Pavilion in the Clouds, set in the idyllic grounds carved out of the wilderness. But all is not as serene as it seems. Bella is suspicious of her governess Miss White's intentions.

In 1829, disillusioned young doctor Mungo Lyon is recruited by the Crown to investigate a mysterious murder and shipwreck off the coast of Scotland. His adventures lead him on a pursuit across the Scottish countryside, to kidnap and treason, an unwanted trip to the West Indies, an insurrection and love.

Frankenstein (1818) is the definitive fable about genetic modification gone haywire which is only too relevant to modern times. Victor Frankenstein decides to build a 'man' from assembled body parts stolen from corpses. What results, of course, is a 'monster', but the mastery of Shelley's storytelling leaves a listener asking themselves what a 'monster' really is - and feeling thoroughly frightened.

Has anyone seen Andreas? Andreas's disappearance is a mystery to all, including his inseparable friend Zipp. But its not easy for Zipp to come forward with details of the last time he saw his friend - they had been following an old woman, an easy target for some quick cash, and Andreas boldly followed her into her home brandishing his knife, the next moment he was gone.

Beneath the imposing Kollen Mountain lies a small village where the children run in and out of one another's houses and play unafraid in the streets. But the sleepy village is like a pond through which not enough water runs - beneath the surface it is beginning to stagnate. When a naked body is found by the lake at the top of the mountain, its seeming tranquillity is disturbed forever. Enter Inspector Sejer, a tough, no-nonsense policeman whose own life is tinged by sadness.

Peter Cook has been a pivotal figure within the architecture world for over half a century. Suffused with Peter’s infectious energy, enthusiasm, and charm, this intriguing memoir explores major themes in architecture through the lens of his life and work. Taking the listener on a journey through his colorful and wide-ranging career, it touches on his early years and architectural education, his relationships with key figures within the architecture community, and his work teaching and lecturing internationally.

Alexander McCall Smith returns once again to his favourite fictitious house, set in a real street in Edinburgh. First published in 110 episodes in The Scotsman newspaper, this is vintage McCall Smith, tackling issues of trust and honesty, snobbery and hypocrisy, love and loss, but all with great lightness of touch.