Showing results by narrator "Colleen Prendergast"

Imagine that you live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people's houses. You've known your neighbors for years and you trust them. Implicitly. You think your children are safe. But are they really? On a midsummer night, as a festive neighborhood party is taking place, preteen Pip discovers her 13-year-old sister Grace lying unconscious and bloody in a hidden corner of a lush rose garden. What really happened to her?

Poppy tears, opium, heroin, fentanyl: humankind has been in thrall to the ‘Milk of Paradise’ for millennia. The latex of papaver somniferum is a bringer of sleep, of pleasurable lethargy, of relief from pain - and hugely addictive. A commodity without rival, it is renewable, easy to extract, transport and refine, and subject to an insatiable global demand. No other substance in the world is as simple to produce or as profitable. It is the basis of a gargantuan industry built upon a shady underworld, but ultimately it is a farm-gate material that lives many lives ....

Alice Rose is a foundling, discovered on the Yorkshire moors above Haworth as a baby. Adopted but then later rejected again by a horrid stepmother, Alice struggles to find a place where she belongs. Only baking - the scent of cinnamon and citrus and the feel of butter and flour between her fingers - brings a comforting sense of home. So it seems natural that when she finally decides to return to Haworth, Alice turns to baking again, taking over a run-down little teashop and working to set up an afternoon tea emporium.

The disregard of a dying woman's bequest, a girl's attempt to help an impoverished clerk, and the marriage of an idealist and a materialist intersect at an estate called Howards End. There, the lives of three families become entangled. As chance brings them together, societal conventions come into question as does the ownership of Howards End. Through the fate of the estate - as well as the lives of the families who are affiliated with it - Forster creates a brilliant parallel to the fate of English society itself.

As an agent of the Throne, former soldier Ianthe serves Inquisitor Covenant and faces some of the most dangerous and insidious threats the galaxy has to offer. On the hunt for the rogue psyker Silas Norn, Ianthe and her associates run afoul of the Imperial authorities and are imprisoned. Norn too is captured and incarcerated, but with the ability to manipulate the minds of his victims he is far from easy quarry. To stop him, Ianthe must not only find him; she must overcome the buried ghosts of her hidden past.

Darkness lives within.... Cash strapped, working for agencies and living in shared accommodation, Stephanie Booth feels she can fall no further. So when she takes a new room at the right price, she believes her luck has finally turned. But 82 Edgware Road is not what it appears to be.

On the beaches and cliffs of North Devon, lone women have become victims in a terrifying game where only one player knows the rules - and, when those rules change, the new game is murder. But that madman on the loose feels very far from the crumbling, seaside home of 10-year-old Ruby Trick. Instead of living in fear of him, she lives in fear of school bullies, the dark forest crowding her house into the sea, and the threat of her parents' divorce. So when she decides to help her father catch the killer, it seems like a good way to keep her father close.

For Ianthe, war is all too familiar. A former soldier in the Astra Militarum, she now serves Inquisitor Covenant as an agent of the Throne. Her first mission sees her investigating a cult called the Children of Eternity. Falling foul of the local Enforcers, Ianthe soon learns that war in the shadows is seldom straightforward and that the local, angry law-keepers are the least of her troubles.

Gaby Mortimer is the woman who has it all. But everything changes when she finds a body near her home. She's shaken and haunted by the image of the lifeless young woman and frightened that the killer, still at large, could strike again. Before long the police have a lead. The evidence points to a very clear suspect, one Gaby never saw coming.

The Lemon Tree Cafe was originally published as a four-part serial. This is the complete story in one package. A deliciously cosy story of family, friendship and a little dolce vita, perfect for fans of Milly Johnson, Trisha Ashley and Katie Fforde.

Natty and Sean Wainwright have a rock-solid marriage and family. When their younger daughter falls ill on an overseas school trip, Natty rushes to her side. Luckily, Natty's best friend from college, Eve Dalladay, is visiting and offers to stay with Sean to lend a hand in the Wainwright household. But Natty returns home to find that Sean has fallen in love with Eve. Natty attempts to start anew, but Eve is there to knock her down again.

A rising death toll. A city in panic. A young mother is found dead in her home with no obvious cause of death. As DI Hannah Robbins and her team investigate, it soon becomes clear that the woman is the first in a long line of murders by poison. With the body count climbing and the city of Nottingham in social meltdown, the team find themselves in a deadly race against a serial killer determined to prove a point.

Since her twin brother, Eddie, drowned five years ago, 16-year-old Elsie Main has tried to remember what really happened that fateful day on the beach. One minute Eddie was there, and the next he was gone. Seventeen-year-old Tay McKenzie is a cute and mysterious boy that Elsie meets in her favorite boathouse hangout. When Tay introduces Elsie to the world of freediving, she vows to find the answers she seeks at the bottom of the sea.

When the naked, battered body of an unidentified teenager is found dumped in an alleyway, postmortem finds evidence of a harrowing series of events. Another teenage death with the same MO pushes DI Hannah Robbins and her team on the Nottingham City division Major Crimes Unit to their limits - and across county borders.

Eve has never liked Christmas, especially since her fiancé was killed in action in Afghanisatan on Christmas Day. So when her elderly aunt dies, the last thing she is expecting is to be left a theme park in her will. And one entirely dedicated to Christmas… Her aunt’s will also stipulates that Eve must run the park with a mysterious partner, the exotically named Jacques Glace. Who is this Jacques, and why did Aunt Evelyn name him in her will? But Eve isn’t going to back down from a challenge. She’s determined to make a success of Winterworld, no what what.

Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to lay to rest the ghost of his uncle, who disappeared aged 11 and is assumed to have fallen victim to the serial killer Arnold Avery. Only Steven's Nan is not convinced her son is dead. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks in his family before it's too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he'll do it. So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison.

Ven, Roz, Olive and Frankie have been friends since school. They day-dreamed of glorious futures, full of riches, romance and fabulous jobs. Twenty-five years later, Olive cleans other people's houses to support her lazy, out-of-work husband and his ailing mother. Roz cannot show her caring husband Manus any love because her philandering ex has left her trust in shreds. And she and Frankie have fallen out big time. But Ven is determined to reunite her friends and realise the dream they had of taking a cruise before they hit 40.

Quinn and Piper are twins, but they've never met. Quinn has been trained to never tell a lie. Piper is a practiced liar. One twin can command the darkness; the other could hold the key to breaking the family curse. When they meet at their mother's funeral, their quest to learn truths that have been concealed from them begins, but they're shadowed by a dark spell that beckons them to run at night with a pack of murdering ghost hounds. Suspense, menace, mystery, witchcraft, family secrets, mistaken identity, and romance are interwoven in this brilliantly written novel.

After a bruising divorce, headstrong Juliet Miller invests in a flat and advertises for a flatmate. Along comes Floz, raw from her own relationship split. When Juliet's brother, Guy, meets Floz, he is overcome with a massive crush. Can Guy turn Floz's affection for his family into love for him? Guy's best friend, Steve, has always had a crush on Juliet. After a night of too much wine, they end up in bed. Convinced that Juliet doesn't feel the same way he does, Steve agrees to a “just-sex” relationship until they find their dream partners.

Lady Ariana Boxstall's brother, Norris, is a strapping young man, but he's happily unmarried and childless. Pestered by his sister, Norris agrees to take a wife on one condition: that Ariana take a husband first. Although she realizes she risks spending a lifetime in a loveless marriage, for the sake of her own family's legacy, Ariana accepts his challenge. When the Earl of Kynaston met Ariana eight years ago, he broke her heart. Since then, his own heart has been broken, and he's sworn off love.