Showing results by narrator "Maggie-Mash" in All Categories

From Sunday Times best-selling author Santa Montefiore comes a novel about losing yourself, but finding your future.… Ellen Trawton is running away from it all - literally. She’s getting married to a man she doesn't love, her job is depressing, and her mother is getting on her nerves. So she escapes to the one place she knows her mother won't follow her - her aunt's house in rural Ireland. Once there, she uncovers a dark family secret - and a future she never knew she might have.

In June 1952, a woman was murdered by an obsessive colleague in a hotel in South Kensington. Her name was Christine Granville. That she died young was perhaps unsurprising, but that she had survived the Second World War was remarkable. She was one of Britain’s most daring and highly decorated secret agents, and the intelligence she gathered was a significant contribution to the Allied war effort.

The thrilling story of Catherine de Valois - the French princess who became an English queen. Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory. Even the greatest of queens have rules - to break them would cost her dearly… King Henry V's new French Queen, Catherine, dazzles the crowds in England but life at court is full of intrigue and her loyal companion, Mette, suspects that the beautiful Eleanor Cobham, protégée of the Duke of Gloucester, is spying for him.

In September 2011, things are going well for Carina Dymek. The intelligent, determined young woman has expertly carried out her duties as EU coordinator for the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A promotion is likely any day now. She's moved past her divorce and found true love in the arms of Jamal Badawi, an Egyptian-Swedish national. And she's been chosen to represent Sweden at an international meeting in Brussels on joint security policy.

Victoria was a very pretty girl, but with three sisters even prettier than she, Victoria had developed a bit of a complex about her looks. So when attractive Alexander van Schuylen made it clear he liked her, she really didn’t expect much more from him. How could she, when he was so impressed with her sisters’ beauty? But if his feelings for Victoria actually did run deep, she could be in danger of losing him - entirely through her own fault.

Louise’s mother is missing in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand. The only trace Louise can find is her mother’s distinctive bag. Inside it is a beautiful atlas belonging to a writer named Claire. But what is the connection between Claire and Louise’s missing mum, and can the atlas help Louise find her? Louise explores the mementos slipped between the pages of the atlas and uncovers a life-changing revelation, a passionate love affair and a tragedy.

Elizabeth of York would have ruled England, but for the fact that she was a woman. One of the key figures of the Wars of the Roses, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, she married Henry Tudor to bring peace to a war-torn England. In Elizabeth of York: The First Tudor Queen, Alison Weir builds a portrait of this beloved queen, placing her in the context of the magnificent, ceremonious, often brutal world she inhabited.

Shortly after a crowded New York-bound flight takes off from Stockholm, a bomb threat is found onboard. Anonymous hijackers demand that the Swedish government revoke its decision to deport a Moroccan man. If their demands are not met, the plane will explode if it attempts to land. The US and Swedish governments must choose between negotiating with terrorists in order to save the 400 passengers held hostage at 30,000 feet or to stand their ground and pursue the deportation of a possibly innocent man.

Fifteen years ago, a teenage girl was assaulted and raped as she picked flowers for a Midsummer's Eve ritual. Cut to the present, and a man is killed in a hit-and-run. He has no identification on him; he is not reported missing or wanted by the police. At the same time, a priest and his wife are found dead in an apparent suicide.

In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer, a little girl is abducted from a crowded train. Despite hundreds of potential witnesses, no one noticed when the girl was taken. Her mother, left behind at the previous station, alerted the crew immediately. But as the train pulled into Stockholm Central Station, the girl was nowhere to be seen.

Set in England when Vikings are on the brink of invasion, this is an epic tale of seduction, war, and unrequited love from an outstanding new voice in historical fiction. In 1002 AD Emma, a young Norman girl, must take her place as bride to England's King Æthelred, a ruler who is looking for nothing more than a political pawn to protect his shores and bear his next child.

When Constance Barrington dies, she leaves behind a wealthy estate and a complex family network. But when the whole family gathers to hear her last will and testament, they are in for a terrible shock. Constance - possessed of a long memory and a spiteful disposition - altered her will shortly before her death. The new provisions are far from fair; some benefit hugely and others hardly at all.

They loved. They lost. They lived. In the small Yorkshire town of Cottenly - dominated by the steel works and surrounded by beautiful countryside - Isaac Stanford lives with his wife Emily and their three lovely daughters, known locally as the Stanford lasses. Alice, the eldest, lives only for her work as a secretary and chapel on Sunday.

Victorian London is brought vividly to life in Ann Granger's fifth historical crime novel to feature Scotland Yard's Inspector Ben Ross and his wife Lizzie.... A hanged man would say anything to save his life. But what if his testimony is true? When Inspector Ben Ross is called to Newgate Prison by a man condemned to die by the hangman's noose, he isn't expecting to give any credence to the man's testimony. But the account of a murder he witnessed over 17 years ago is so utterly believeable that Ben can't help wondering if what he's heard is true.

When Mr Thomas Tapley, a respectable but down-at-heel gentleman, is found bludgeoned to death in his sitting room, his neighbour Inspector Benjamin Ross of Scotland Yard rushes to the scene. Little is known about the elusive man until his cousin, Mr Jonathan Tapley, QC, comes forward and exposes the truth of Thomas’s tragic past. As the list of suspects begins to mount, Ben can't help wondering how much of the truth is really being revealed....

October 1943. Nineteen-year-old Polly Holmes is leaving poor bombed London behind to join the war effort on Britain's canals. Stepping aboard the Marigold amid pouring rain, there's lots for Polly to get to grips with. Not least her fellow crew: strong and impetuous Verity, whose bark is worse than her bite, and seasoned skipper Bet. With her sweetheart away fighting in the RAF and her beloved brother killed in action, there's plenty of heartache to be healed on the waterway.

March 1944, West London: It's been five months since Verity Clement fled home for a life on Britain's canals. Hauling cargo between London and Birmingham is tough but easier to face than the turbulence she's left behind. When Verity's sweetheart returns unexpectedly from the front line, she dreams of a brighter future. But life aboard the Marigold is never smooth sailing. New recruit Sylvia is struggling with demons from her past while crewmate Polly receives devastating news. Verity does her best to help, but a shocking discovery is about to turn her life upside down....

The year is 1562. Lady Catherine Grey, cousin of Elizabeth I, has just been arrested along with her husband, Edward. Their crime is to have secretly married and produced a child who might threaten the Queen's title. Alone in her chamber at the Tower of London, Catherine hears ghostly voices; echoes, she thinks, of a crime committed in the same room where she is imprisoned.

January 1945, West London: Sylvia Simpson has become an invaluable member of the Marigold's crew - but as the V-I and V-2 rockets draw closer, someone from her past is about to rock the boat. Now Sylvia must choose between keeping the promises she has made and remaining loyal to the people she loves the most. Polly and Verity are waiting for their sweethearts' safe return and have their own battles to fight on the home front. It will take all their resolve to keep their heads above water, but as long as they stick together there will always be hope.

Drawing on letters and diaries, some of which have never been published before, this book will reveal Jane Austen's bond with a family servant, the amateur playwright Anne Sharp, how Charlotte Brontë was inspired by the daring feminist Mary Taylor, the transatlantic relationship between George Eliot and the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the underlying erotic charge that lit the friendship of Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield - a pair too often dismissed as bitter foes.