Showing results by narrator "Toby Longworth" in All Categories

From malevolent snowmen to Father Christmas - with a difference - Chris Priestley is on absolute top form with these seven atmospheric, clever, and thoroughly chilling stories. Add a new kind of thrill to the fluffiest of seasons with these brilliantly conceived examples of why you'd better be good at Christmas time. These perfectly formed festive tales of terror - "The Green Man", "The Musical Box", "The Snowman", "Frost", "In the Bleak Midwinter", "Soot", and "The Last Present" - each have a gripping yarn and genius twist. Singing carols may never seem quite the same again - especially after dark....

It is a mysterious city whose sun is switched on in the morning and switched off at night, bordered by an abyss on one side and an impossibly high wall on the other. Its inhabitants are people who were plucked from twentieth-century history at various times and places and left to govern themselves, advised by Mentors whose purpose seems inscrutable.

Shortly before her death Angela Carter was preparing this volume of short stories, one which does full justice to the glory of her imagination and the range of her talent. It is divided into distinct parts. The first comprises a group of stories inspired by America: Lizzie Borden visits a circus; a John Ford Western is spiced with the story of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore'; and there is a wonderful Gothic extravaganza set in Hollywood. The second section - Old World Wonders - draws on fairy tales.

Amber Knight is hot property - pop star, film star, front-page gossip. DC Nick Belsey is less celebrated. He can't shake his habit of getting into serious trouble and his career at Hampstead CID is coming to a dishonourable end. He is currently of no fixed address - squatting in a disused police station round the corner from Amber's swanky Primrose Hill mansion. But a knock on the door from a frantic and confused woman looking for her missing son is about to lead Belsey straight into the heart of Amber's glittering life.

Far from the Wardstone, a new darkness is rising . . .Slither is a haizda mage who preys upon humans, drinking their blood to feed his dark urges. So when a local farmer dies, it’s only natural that Slither should want to feast on his lovely daughters.But then the farmer offers him a deal, and extracts from Slither a promise that will take him on a journey to the City of the Petrified Tree, to a fallen star-stone that holds great power, and straight into the path of Grimalkin, the Witch Assassin.

Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose meets Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. This brilliant historical epic is inspired by the true story of a man whose crimes were so great he was thought to be a werewolf. In 1563 Paulus Melchior, lawyer, academic and enlightened rationalist, travels with his young assistant Willy Lessinger to the isolated German town of Bideburg where local landowner, Peter Stumpf, is accused of brutally murdering dozens of people.

How would you start the first week of the rest of your life? When housemates Donna, Johnny, Patrick and Abigail wake up on Saturday morning they are surprised to discover they are the last four people left of Earth. It might be the end of the world, but that won't stop them from enjoying themselves. In this witty comedy drama, follow the four friends as they try to keep calm and carry on doing what they usually do.

Simon Shaw, a rumpled, fortyish English advertising executive, has decided to leave it all behind, and heads of to France to transform an abandoned police station in the LubEron into a small but world-class hotel. On his side, Simon has a loyal majordomo and a French business partner who is as practical as she is ravishing. But he hasn't counted on the malignant local journalist—or on the mauvaise types who have chosen the neighboring village as the site of their latest bank robbery.

If you think you know Oliver Twist, think again.... The world according to Oliver Twisted is simple: Vampyres feed on the defenceless, orphans are sacrificed to hungry gods, and if a woe-begotten catches your scent it will hunt you forever. When a talking corpse reveals that Oliver will find his destiny in London, he sets out to find the truth - even if it means losing his soul.... A monstrously good story for older children, Oliver Twisted is a terrifying take on Dickens, with added zombies, vampires, and werewolves.

The poetic style and sweeping grandeur of The King of Elfland's Daughter has made it one of the most beloved fantasy novels of our time, a masterpiece that influenced some of the greatest contemporary fantasists. The heartbreaking story of a marriage between a mortal man and an elf princess is a masterful tapestry of the fairy tale following the 'happily ever after'.

There is a conspiracy at the heart of Earth's government. The Orion War situation is worsening by the day. The human race is sleepwalking towards extinction. Now, the time is right for the next phase of the Cyber plan to begin. Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

Perfect strangers. A perfect holiday. The perfect murder.... Three couples meet around the pool on their Florida holiday and become fast friends. But on their last night, their perfect holiday takes a tragic twist: the teenage daughter of another holidaymaker goes missing, and her body is later found floating in the mangroves. When the shocked couples return home, they remain in contact, and over the course of three increasingly fraught dinner parties they come to know one another better.

Nick Belsey's on the run. Touching down in Mexico City, he doesn't have much in the way of funds, but he has a new continent and surely that's enough to start afresh. But it's not as easy as that. An idyllic interlude in a coastal village is interrupted when men turn up who seem to know exactly who he is. And they have some very urgent questions. 

Fear is humanity's greatest enemy. The Cyberman can free us from it. The Cybermen.... The great civilisation we could have been...if we'd taken another path. A purer path. The Scorpius strategy is now in full operation. There will be victory in Orion.... Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

London is steaming under a summer of filthy heat and sudden storms - and Detective Nick Belsey, of Hampstead CID, is trying to stay out of trouble. But then somebody sets him a riddle. How does a man walk into a dead-end alley and never come out? And then reappear - to snatch a girl, to dump a body beneath a London skyscraper, to send Belsey a package of human hair? The answer lies underground, where the secrets degenerating beneath the city's sickly glitter are about to see the light of day.

Now there is a common enemy. The Earth's government is under Cyber control. The only hope for civilisation is that androids and humans can work together. But the Cybermen intend to activate their Master Hibernation Vault on Telos, releasing billions of Cybermen.... There is nothing to fear.... Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

One girl's missing. One girl's dead. McAvoy can't let either of them go.... The fifth stunning novel in the DS McAvoy series by best-selling author David Mark, perfect for fans of Val McDermid and Peter Robinson. Hannah Kelly has been missing for nine months. Ava Delaney has been dead for five days. One girl to find. One girl to avenge. And DS Aector McAvoy won't let either of them go until justice can be done. But some people have their own ideas of what justice means.

No good deed goes unpunished in this third thrilling instalment in the acclaimed Hull-based DS Aector McAvoy series. From the Richard & Judy featuring, Sunday Times best-selling and Kindle chart-topping author of Dark Winter. Philippa Longman did what we all aim to do. She did the right thing. She's about to pay for it with her life.... DS McAvoy has spent his career playing by the rules. He has the scars to show for it.

Did you know that there are aliens living among us? You might have seen them around - they’ve got fur, whiskers, a fondess for mice... That’s right, cats are bent on world domination! But don’t worry, Earth has the best interplanetary canine defense force in the universe: the Spacemutts! In Attack of the Ninja Kittens!, the gang are eager to overpower the evil Lady Fluffkins, but they fall into a trap and their spaceship is taken over by an army of ninja kittens!

A mafia banker wants to give evidence aginst his former bosses, and John Chance is helping to bring him in. But when the mafia try to get at Chance through his children, twins Rich and Jade find themselves in the firing line again. And it’s not just the mafia who are after them... Master of the modern thriller Jack Higgins teams up with Justin Richards, author of many Doctor Who novels, to deliver a pulse-racing adventure for older children.