Showing results by narrator "Nick Mcardle" in All Categories

The body of an unknown woman is found in an Edinburgh close and the police are quick to label it as a random act of violence...until, that is, Detective Constable Faro finds a playing card, the nine of diamonds, planted on the corpse. His superiors scoff at his suspicions, but days later a man is attacked in the street and left badly bruised and battered, with the nine of diamonds in his pocket. Faro seizes on the connection and it is not the last calling card. But what is it that links the victims? Beset by hostile superiors and a police-hating public, Faro feels he may never crack this confounding case.

1863. Superintendent Henry Jarrett, formerly of the Hong Kong police and now Chief of the Detective Department at Glasgow Central, is comfortably ensconced in Elsie Maitland's superior guest house for single gentlemen. Unfortunately, this tranquillity is short-lived and problems start to come thick and fast. First, a major bank robbery calls for the best efforts of Jarrett, Inspector Charlie Grant and Sergeant Tommy Quinn.

The year is 1864, and Detective Inspector Faro's idyllic life has been shattered by the escape of convicted murderer John McLaw. With countless dead-end sightings of the killer and further criminal activity, Faro realises that this case is far more complicated than he had first assumed. When the disappearance of a maid comes to light, Faro begins to think there could be a link between her disappearance and the murder of Annie McLaw.

The year is 1861 and Inspector Faro is heading back to Orkney to enjoy some home comforts. However, his rest is disrupted when he is given an assignment from an old friend, Detective Superintendent Macfie. Macfie’s cousin-in-law, Dave Claydon, a champion swimmer, has drowned in mysterious circumstances. Was his death really an accident? Arriving in Orkney, Faro is met with rumours of missing artefacts, the myth of the seal king, a dead body, his first love, and a mother who is determined to find him a wife.

Instead of scaling the Himalayas, trekking across the Antarctic or traipsing through the Brazilian rainforest, Robbie Coltrane has set himself a uniquely British challenge. Armed with a map, a classic car and a sense of adventure, he'll be exploring strange and exotic parts that are a bit closer to home. By venturing away from the tourist fast-track and on to the B roads of the UK, he'll be criss-crossing the winding back roads of our nation to discover all the people, places and events that make up Incredible Britain.

Cormac James' The Surfacing is set on board a ship in the 1850s, searching for Franklin's lost expedition. It's a challenging and dangerous endeavour in a very male world - that is until Morgan, the second-in-command of the Impetus, realises there is a pregnant stowaway on board. It is too late to turn back, the ice is closing in, and the child will have to be born into the vast and icy wilderness of the Arctic.

From earliest childhood, Robert Bruce has pursued his destiny, but the road has been a hard one. Behind him lie battles, murder, intrigue, defeat, and betrayal, and though he has at last achieved his ambition to wear the crown, he has not yet learned the true meaning of kingship. In Kingdom, Robert must come through his greatest tests, both personal and political, to lead his people towards the encounter with the English at Bannockburn which will echo down the centuries.

For many years, Sierra Leone and Liberia have been too dangerous to travel through. With their wars officially over, Tim Butcher sets out on a journey across both countries, trekking for 350 miles through remote rainforest and malarial swamps, pursuing a trail blazed by Graham Greene in 1935. Weaving history and anthropology with personal narrative - as well as new discoveries about Greene - it is as exciting as it is enlightening.