Showing results by narrator "Mark Meadows" in All Categories

The normally quiet Dutch town of Leiden is horrified when the chairman of the local Masonic lodge is brutally killed. Almost simultaneously, an old manuscript is discovered in which an anonymous author tells the hidden history of the Pilgrims – the Founding Fathers of the United States. From 1609 to 1620 they lived in Leiden, after which some of them left for America. University teacher Peter de Haan is drawn into the mystery. Why did so many of the Pilgrims stay behind in Leiden? What involvement do the Freemasons have?

In the late 1960s, Leo Gazzara left his family in Milan and moved to Rome for work. Soon unemployed, he has spent his time in an alcoholic haze, bouncing between hotels, bars, romantic entanglements and the homes of his rich and well-educated friends. Rome is indifferent. Leo drifts, aimless and alone. On the evening of his thirtieth birthday, he meets Arianna, a young woman who is both fragile and seductive. All night they drive the city in Leo’s run-down Alfa Romeo, talking and talking. They eat brioche for breakfast, drink through the dawn, drive to the sea and back.

From the title story, Death at Sea, in which the alleged manslaughter of an engineer upon a fishing trawler leads Inspector Montalbano to uncover an even more sinister crime, Andrea Camilleri takes his listeners through eight cunning cases from the Vigàtan police files. Starting with an arson attack on a hotel that leaves the distraught owner as the chief suspect; to the mysterious case of a woman who goes missing in an underpass with a million lira in her handbag; to a threat on Montalbano’s own life, as an anonymous motorcyclist takes a shot at the detective.

Brimming with wisdom and humour, David Kynaston’s diaries written over one football season offer up his most personal take on social history to date. David Kynaston was seven and a half years old when he attended his first Aldershot match in the early months of 1959. So began a deep attachment to the game and a lifelong loyalty to an obscure, small-town football club. Though as he sits down to write his diaries almost 60 years on, he reflects that life might have been simpler if his father had never taken him to that first match at the Rec....

It starts when Desiré Rosenkvist of Stockholm Police receives a letter. Two things are immediately clear: the letter she holds in her hands was written in a state of utter desperation and paranoia. And it contains details of one of her old murder cases which only the murderer could know. Desiré contacts private investigator Sam Berger, who sets off to the remote north of Sweden with his colleague Molly Blom to find the author of the letter and to stop them in their tracks. But someone wants to keep them from getting to the bottom of the mystery at any cost and is watching their every move.

A novel of Leonardo da Vinci - visionary painter of the Mona Lisa, the smiling, enigmatic Gioconda. We know him as the Renaissance genius: inventor, scientist, artist. They knew him as Leonardo from Vinci: heretic, butcher, lunatic. A solitary child, Leonardo's only intimate is Lisa Gherardini, the girl who spies on him in his workshop. Spurned by his tutor, he is sent by his despairing father to Florence as an apprentice.

All of us negotiate every day in different ways—whether that's in a work setting, using professional partners, or even at home. But for many people it's a nerve-wracking experience that leaves them feeling awkward, tongue-tied and at a disadvantage. This audiobook will explain the dynamics of a successful negotiation, allowing you to understand the full process and apply the guidance to your own situations.

Simon Majumdar is a man on a mission, and he might just be hungry enough to accomplish it. Setting out in search of the ultimate meal, he travels to every corner of the globe - from China to Brazil and from Finland to Japan. He tries everything, from mouldy shark in Iceland (not very nice) to kare stew in the Philippines (almost unimaginably delicious) and befriends (and sometimes fights with) some extraordinary characters along the way.

Henry’s confession of spying on Russians in London doesn’t get the reaction he expects. Nea has her own dark secrets to guard and refuses to see her patient again. Now frightened and on his own, a chain of events leads to murder. Having stumbled upon a poison at the heart of the British establishment, Henry fears for his life and decides to lie low at his holiday home in Lisbon. A professional killer catches up with him and a terrifying chase across Europe ensues.

Taut, brooding and densely atmospheric, these stories show us the ways in which murder can arise out of boredom, perversity can result from adolescent curiosity and sheer evil might be the solution to unbearable loneliness.

The year is 1792, and Herbert Powyss is set on making his name as a scientist. He is determined to study the effects of prolonged solitude on another human being, though before now Powyss' sole subjects have been the plants in his greenhouse. He fills three rooms beneath Moreham House with books, paintings and even a pianoforte, then puts out an advertisement, hoping for a gentleman recluse to claim the substantial reward. The only man desperate enough to apply is John Warlow, a semi-literate farm labourer who needs to support his wife, Hannah, and their six children.

In the crippling heat of August in Rome, a flat goes up in flames, the doors sealed from the outside. Five illegal immigrants are trapped and burnt alive—their charred bodies barely distinguishable amidst the debris. When Detective Inspectors Rossi and Carrara begin to investigate, a terror organisation shakes the city to its foundations. Then a priest is found murdered and mutilated post-mortem—his injuries almost satanic in their ferocity.

Alex is in his thirties, a solitary man who has finally found love in the form of his beautiful and vivacious wife, Rachel. When Rachel is brutally murdered one Midsummer Night in the grounds of their alma mater, Worcester College, Oxford, Alex's life as he knew it vanishes. He returns to Oxford that winter and, through the shroud of his grief, begins to try to piece together the mystery surrounding his wife's death.

The Duke of Canarn is dead, executed by the King's decree. The city lies in chaos, its people starving, sickening, and tyrannized by the ongoing presence of the King's mercenary army. But still hope remains: the Duke's children, the Lord Bromvy and Lady Bronwyn, have escaped their father's fate. Separated by enemy territory, hunted by the warrior clerics of the One God, Bromvy undertakes to win back the city with the help of the secretive outcasts of the Darkwald forest, the Dokkalfar.

DCI Mark Lapslie suffers from a rare neurological condition that ‘cross-wires’ his senses. The sickening clamour of sounds he can taste has smothered his marriage and stifled his career...and it’s getting worse. His colleagues have written him off as a drunk – or worse – and Lapslie has quarantined himself in an isolated Essex cottage. Carl Whittley has got his own problems to deal with too: he’s just tortured a minor TV celebrity to death and blown an apparently anonymous commuter to pieces.

As DI Dominic Bell and his team investigate the series of murders in hidden locations across London, they fail to find the connection between the victims. The only person who can help is Clementine Starke, an academic researching adult thrill seekers. However, Clementine is haunted by dark and violent obsessions, including her former relationship with DI Dominic Bell. As the body count rises, Clementine Starke and DI Dominic Bell form an uneasy alliance to hunt the killer.

As everyone adjusts to hybrid and remote ways of working with others around the world, and we develop more ways of communicating, how you can use words to engage, inform, persuade or sell to others is increasingly important. And writing clear, error-free content that is appropriate for its intended purpose is something that anyone can learn to do. Writing Skills for Business is packed full of quick tips and nuggets of advice on how to communicate better in your writing.

After a dramatic accident Kit and his parents find themselves washed up on a small island. But there is no sanctuary here. The local community is hostile and menacing. Soon Kit's life is in danger and he is forced to face not just the inhabitants but a disturbing new arrival whose presence on the island terrifies the community. In his struggle to stay alive and make sense of what is happening Kit is forced to confront good and evil in unexpected forms, even within himself, and face trials and dangers beyond anything he could have imagined.

Doc Martin arrives in the picture-postcard fishing village of Portwenn, Cornwall. Once a high-flying London surgeon, his suddenly developed blood phobia means he has to take a job in a local practice. But while the Doc's medical skills are second to none, his bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. He immediately starts infuriating the locals, none more so than school teacher Louisa Glasson....

Meet The Bear - a cat who carries the weight of the world on his furry shoulders, and whose wise, owl-like eyes seem to ask, Can you tell me why I am a cat, please? Like many intellectuals, The Bear would prefer a life of quiet solitude with plenty of time to gaze forlornly into space and contemplate society's ills. Unfortunately he is destined to spend his days surrounded by felines of a significantly lower IQ....