Showing results by narrator "Simon Prebble" in All Categories

Michael Gardiner has lived in Coldhaven all his life, yet he still feels like an outsider. When Moira Birnie, convinced that her abusive husband is the devil, kills herself and her two young sons but spares her 14-year-old daughter, Hazel, Michael uneasily recalls his past connections to Moira. As teenagers, Michael and Moira had a brief romance; more troubling, Michael was responsible for the death of Moira's brother, the town bully. In the wake of the tragedy, Michael becomes obsessed with Hazel....

When Devil, the most infamous member of the Cynster family, is caught in a compromising position with plucky governess Honoria, he astonishes the entire ton by offering his hand in marriage. But Honoria isn't about to bend to society's demands. She craves adventure and is set on seeing the world. Could her passion for Devil cause her to embrace the enchanting peril of a lifelong adventure of the heart?

The average individual is far more likely to die in a car accident than from a communicable disease...yet we are still much more fearful of the epidemic. Even at our most level-headed, the thought of an epidemic can inspire terror. As Philip Alcabes persuasively argues in Dread, our anxieties about epidemics are created not so much by the germ or microbe in question - or the actual risks of contagion - but by the unknown, the undesirable, and the misunderstood.

Imagine a world where Beatlemania was against the law - recordings scratched onto medical X-rays, merchant sailors bringing home contraband LPs, spotty broadcasts taped from western AM radio late in the night. This was no fantasy world populated by Blue Meanies, but by the USSR, where a vast nation of music fans risked repression to hear the defining band of the British Invasion. The music of John, Paul, George, and Ringo played a part in waking up an entire generation of Soviet youth, opening their eyes to seventy years of bland official culture and rigid authoritarianism.

"The case of the missing Mayan Codices". "I do not suppose that you have brought your revolver with you Watson?" I shook my head to indicate that my response was in the negative to his question. He turned his head forward again and led us through the kitchen, past several side pantries. As we cautiously inched forward, Holmes observed that the blood trail consisted of droplets of varying size. "Whomever it came from, they must have been applying intermittent pressure on the wound as they walked."

With his first historical high-seas adventure chronicling the exploits of Naval Commander Charles Edgemont, Jay Worrall sets sail in the rousing tradition of C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian.

In the fall of 1941, Anglo-American journalist John Russell is still living in Berlin, tied to the increasingly alien city by his love for two Berliners: his 14-year-old son, Paul, and his longtime girlfriend, Effi. Forced to work for both German and American intelligence, he's searching for a way out of Germany. Can he escape and take Effi with him?

It is 1857, and Reverend Geoffrey Wilson has departed England to prove the literal truth of the Bible. The expedition heads towards Tasmania, where he is convinced he will find the real Garden of Eden. But the other passengers have their own agendas. Dr Potter is developing a sinister thesis, and the ship is crewed by smugglers of contraband brandy and tobacco. As the English passengers near Peevay's land, their bizarre notions become painfully at odds with reality.

Only five still guard the borders between the worlds. Only five hold back what waits on the other side. Once the Oversight, the secret society that polices the lines between the mundane and the magic, counted hundreds of brave souls among its members. Now their number can be tallied on a single hand. When a drunkard brings a screaming girl to the Oversight's London headquarters, it seems their hopes for a new recruit will be fulfilled - but the girl is a trap, her appearance a puzzle the five remaining guardians must solve or lose each other, and their society, for good.

Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, he is a compulsive liar and a weakling. When Lucy accepts employment assisting the majordomo of the remote, foreboding castle of the Baron Von Aux , he meets thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and a puppy. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery and cold-blooded murder....

They're battle-hardened, sinfully wealthy, completely unstoppable - and all male: four officers of the Crown, aided by Bastion Club members and Cynsters alike, fighting against a deadly foe known only as the Black Cobra. After an officer gives his life to protect vital evidence, his four closest friends race to England to finish his mission.... Colonel Derek Delborough feels nothing but relief when his ship finally docks in Southampton. But Del is still in danger - which makes the appearance of Miss Deliah Duncannon an unwelcome intrusion.

In January 532, mobs rule Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire. Against a murderous backdrop lit by raging fires, John, chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, must find those seeking to use the Nika riots to dethrone the emperor.

Mr Phillips wakes on the morning of July 31st in his modest, nearly mortgage-free home, in the bed he has contentedly shared with his wife of 30 years - though to be honest, at night he lies beside her and dreams of other women. He's ready to face another ordinary day. Except that for Mr Phillips, it is not an ordinary day, for on July 28th, he was summarily sacked. Nonetheless, he rises at his usual hour and prepares himself as he has done his entire working life for the office he no longer has.

The Feathernail and Other Gifts (or The Adventures of Emily Finfeather), is a tale of altruism and magic for mature children and immature adults. Emily Finfeather is an orphan who lives with her angry and silent grandmother in a dark, windy, old house. On a field trip to the zoo, Emily is locked inside the aviary by evil classmates. What she discovers there will change the shape of reality forever.

In the months before 9/11, former army officer Anthony Taverner is leading a quiet life in the English countryside. But his recruitment for a dangerous mission to Afghanistan by MI6 shatters his fragile peace and plunges him into the kaleidoscopic world of spying. Under the expert guidance of an old-school hero and veteran of the elite British Special Air Service, Taverner prepares to enter Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to destroy a cache of the CIA's precious Stinger missiles....

Dirk Snigby is just your average ad man that happens to be working for the Prince of Darkness. Lucifer is tired of the overcrowding and wants a better pitch for heaven to relieve his work load. In this short story Dirk sets out to write a Zagat style guide to the afterlife.

The year is 548, and Empress Theodora is dead of disease. Such is the belief of everyone in Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire - everyone except Emperor Justinian, who orders John, his Lord Chamberlain, to find her murderer or suffer the consequences. There is no sign of foul play, but many of the aristocrats at the imperial court had good reason to want Theodora dead.

Captain Rafe Carstairs is the final hope for thwarting the evil traitor known only as the Black Cobra. Bold and determined, Rafe is a roguish charmer possessing inner steel. He races to complete his assignment against impossible odds - the mission made suddenly more perilous by the proud English rose, Loretta Michelmarch, he must now protect from villainous hordes.

It’s the day before Mike Frame’s 50th birthday, and his quiet, provincial life is suddenly falling apart. But perhaps it doesn’t matter because it’s not his life in the first place. He has a past that his partner, Miranda, and stepdaughter, Sam, know nothing about. Now Mike is seeing ghosts - a dead ex-lover, and an old friend who wants to reminisce. Mike can no longer ignore the contradiction between who he is and who he once was.

Logan Monteith's mission got off to a shaky start. Wounded in battle, he jumped from his ship rather than risk losing the evidence that would bring down a traitor. As he recuperates in a tiny village, he finds his respect for the villagers grows - as does his fascination with his rescuer, Linnet Trevission. Unwilling to risk putting the village in greater danger by remaining, but unable to travel on his own, Logan reluctantly accepts Linnet's offer of help.