Showing results by narrator "Simon Mattacks" in All Categories

Something appalling happened in the wood. When Gabriel Ash and his dog come to her aid, she thinks she's safe. But this is Norbold, where things aren't always as they seem. Detective Chief Inspector Gorman thinks this is his worst nightmare: a predatory paedophile who's prepared to kill rather than be taken. Constable Hazel Best thinks she's helping both the Somers family and her friend Ash, but her tendency to follow her heart rather than her orders is about to get her into trouble again.

Jack Witney served 25 years in prison although he shot no one and was released on appeal, only to be murdered in his Bristol flat a few years later. John Duddy died in Parkhurst after 15 years. But Harry Roberts, by his own admission the instigator of the crime and the most notorious, was released from prison after 48 years in 2015, making national front page news. What could possess an apparently rational and sane man, albeit a habitual criminal, to commit such a callous and ruthless act? How can an ordinary person understand what he did? Should he be forgiven?

Phobia is a series of five DS Jason Smith cases he worked on before we met him in the first book, Smith. We get insights into what molded him into the detective sergeant we first get a glimpse of in Smith. Smith quickly realizes that police work isn't always cut and dry. Justice is not always black and white; there are many shades of gray in between.

Poignant, deeply funny, and beautifully written, Serious Sweet is about two decent, damaged people trying to make moral choices in an immoral world, ready to sacrifice what's left of themselves for honesty and for a chance at tenderness. As Jon and Meg navigate the sweet and serious heart of London - passing through twenty-four hours that will change them both forever - they tell an unusual and moving love story.

Winters End should have been the perfect place for me and my husband Neil to start again. To leave the terrible secrets and guilt of our past far behind us. But from the moment we arrived in the small, isolated community, it becomes clear to me that we are not welcome here. That someone wants us to leave…

Isolated farmer Ernie Bowles was found lying on his kitchen floor, gruesomely strangled. News of the murder came to Inspector Stephen Ramsay early on Monday morning and he fears this case will not be simple. In his experience, most murders are straightforward: an explosion of family pressure, the loss of control in a fight. But Bowles seems to have kept himself to himself and had lived alone since his mother’s death. A seemingly unconnected women is then found strangled too, surely two such killings in the same locality are more than just chilling coincidence?

Sure to capture the imagination of devotees of true crime and the occult, this anthology of 13 true crime stories includes the mysterious slaying of Charles Walton, who was found slashed and pierced to death in an area notorious for its associations with black magic; the murder of Eric Tombe, whose body was located because of a recurring dream in which his mother saw Eric down a well; the terrorizing of Hammersmith, London, in the early 19th century by the nocturnal appearance of a "ghost"; and much more.

As children, Gareth and Helen went ignored and utterly unsupervised in their isolated English farmhouse while their mother obsessively tended to her beloved, exquisite garden. When they were little, Gareth would occupy himself by trapping insects under glass and Helen would find ways to entertain herself - but the older they grew, the more sinister their lives became, with no attentive parent to shield them from the predators of the world. Decades later, Helen is in the same crumbling house, unhappily married and looking after their bedridden mother, and Gareth finally returns home.

Tom Harrison is the Tick Tock Man. He has the most dangerous job in Britain: defusing terrorist bombs. A job that demands nerves of steel and courage to match. But his skill is being tested to the limit by a new IRA bombing campaign. It's different from the others, each device more deadly and cunning than the last, each more difficult for him to neutralise. It's almost as if someone is testing him, trying to find his limits - a long-dead adversary reaching out to him from beyond the grave.

When Mac and Marie marry and find a home of their own, Mac takes a snap of themselves outside their newbuild bungalow, the garden bare and the paint on the front door still wet. It becomes a tradition, this snap, and slowly the photographs build into an album of a fifty-year partnership. Every year they take a photo and though things change around them—the garden matures, the fashions change, they grow older—the one constant is their love. Every year, come rain, come shine, from the Seventies through the decades, every photo tells the story of their love.

When little Julie goes missing in summer 1986, David and Samuel share the terrible secret of her disappearance. Thirty years later, David has become a famous author and Samuel his publisher. Both receive identical manuscript chapters telling the story of what really happened that tragic summer.

Premier League footballer Gabe Savage is on the way to one of the most important matches of his life when he gets a phone call from his wife. She has been kidnapped along with their young son. And the message from her captors is brutal: 'If your team wins, your family dies.' With the kickoff only hours away, there is only one person Gabe can turn to - his brother, Ray, a vicious London gangster. But a dark family secret means that he hasn't spoken to Ray for years. Can Ray help? And will he?

When an Olympic medalist is the subject of an attempted assassination, former SAS trooper Jeff Bradley knows his past is once again casting a shadow over his new life. A note left by the assassin confirms his suspicions: Bradley made an enemy back in Kosovo, and the man is out for revenge. But Jeff knows the killer is not working alone: higher up the ranks sits Avni Leka, a terrorist warlord who will stop at nothing to achieve his bloody goal.

Sir Alex Ferguson CBE, born 31st December 1941, is a former Scottish football player and was manager of Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. During his 26 years in charge of United, he won more trophies than any other manager in the history of football. Packed with nearly 80 entertaining and exclusive interviews from those who know Ferguson best - friends, colleagues, associates and those who worked with him at both Aberdeen and Manchester United share their unique insight into the innermost secrets of Ferguson’s fascinating life and hugely successful career.

Seth was a priest. He served for 10 years and 163 days. Then he decided to die. Beginning with his bungled suicide attempt, Faithless charts the incidents within Seth's ministry that led him to that point. From dealing with a cult leader to performing exorcisms in haunted houses, Seth has seen the unimaginable. He has escaped from the clutches of a man who showed signs of being possessed and helped rebuild families after unthinkable tragedy.

Time to Heal tells the story of the colourful life of a country doctor towards the end of his career. In turn shocking, sad and funny, it describes a doctor who feels poorly served by the conventional medicine of his time and finds new ways to relieve the suffering of his patients. This tale has a twist. Twenty-first-century general practice and its patients have been betrayed by top-heavy regulation, performance management and a blame culture. Young doctors no longer want to enter general practice. The author explores why and how pandemics might provide the answers.

Libya, 2011. Into this maelstrom of violence arrive a covert team of MI6 officers and their minders. They land by helicopter straight into the hands of the Libyan rebels in Benghazi and the very unwanted glare of the world press. Only ex-Royal Marine and close protection expert James Royce manages to extradite his intelligence chiefs from the mess.

As the boss of a high-end nightclub in the West End and with a never-ending string of gorgeous women on his arm, Tony is the darling of the tabloids. However, despite his success, the little boy who lived on the streets is never far away. Desperate for respect, he’s driven to achieve more and more. Most of all, he craves the acceptance of Ralph Gold and to become a bigger part of his extensive web of organised crime.

1910. Halley's Comet is coming. Harry Houdini, the most celebrated escape artist in the world, has sold-out seasons in Australia. Houdini has a new obsession: aviation. He has brought with him from Europe his own Voisin biplane, being put together and prepared in a Diggers Rest paddock by his French mechanic Brassac. Houdini is intent on claiming a record: first to fly in Australia. But he has competition from aspiring aviators in several states, and is left restless and distracted when his promotional leap-in-chains from a Melbourne bridge disturbs a corpse in the Yarra.

2003. Kabul has become a frontier city, Afghanistan's fledgling democracy struggling with crime and corruption as NATO coalition troops, gangs and warlords jostle for control. When the body of a British serviceman is discovered in the city's infamous tank graveyard, the Kabul Police reach out for support in their investigation. Alasdair 'Mac' MacKenzie, formerly of the Metropolitan Police, is seconded to the team.