Showing results by narrator "Julia Franklin" in All Categories

The world is struggling in the face of a relentless virus. When Hayden Prentice develops symptoms during a stay in his native Portsmouth, Enora Andressen and her son, Malo, must do their best to save his life. Because H, already in deep financial jeopardy, trusts no one. Except his kith and kin. But survival comes at a savage price. Not just the fortune that Enora must somehow raise to pay for his home nursing, but the murderous attentions of a stalker from H's past, determined to pay him one last visit and exact vengeance for a long-ago debt of blood....

With the help of Hayden Prentice, Malo's natural father and himself a onetime drug baron, Enora embarks on a hunt for the truth behind the kidnapping. The journey takes her deep into the exploding world of county lines, the new business model that delivers Class A drugs into every corner of the kingdom. The sums of money at stake are dizzying, and a human life counts for nothing. As Enora Andressen is about to discover....

1919. WWI is over, and now living in Cambridge with husband Edmond, Amy Derwent is settling into her new life as wife and mother. Edmond's cousin, Vicky, spends her days tending to the soldiers suffering the after-effects of their time on the battlefield. Meeting Maxim Duclos, a young Frenchman, fills her heart with joy. But he’s hiding something. Vicky must choose to either follow her heart's desire and risk her family's disapproval or remain a dutiful daughter?

Achieving the impossible is one of Luc Garnier's defining characteristics. Yet Luc has defied the odds and a contract for marriage with Princess Gabrielle is drawn up. This will be a union on paper first, and of flesh later... Except Gabrielle is just the same in private as in public - well bred, well-behaved, and a credit to her country. Luc is determined to find the wanton within...

Lady Emily Longesley married the love of her life and hoped that he would learn to love her. Instead, he upped and left their country estate for London. Confronting her errant husband three years on, she sees that he has been robbed of his sight and doesn’t know her at all! If she plays his mistress by delicious deception, can he finally learn to love his wife?

Carrie Tollman awakes in the middle of the night with an intruder gazing down at her. He tells her he's killed before and he'll kill again. One word about what's happened, and he'll be back. Carrie is one of two carers looking after Enora Andressen's favorite scriptwriter. But Pavel is now paralysed, as well as blind, and it falls to Enora to track down this terrifying presence at Carrie's bedside.

Iron-strong discipline had enabled Jay Courtland to reach the top against all odds, first as a professional footballer and then as a businessman - and he had always adhered to the rules strictly. Even in his private life he always made it clear at the outset that the ground rule was “no commitment” - which was exactly what he told Vanessa when they first met.

Thinking of her young son, Arabella dons the mask of Miss Noir for her first night at Mrs Silver's House of Pleasures and smiles prettily at the next gentleman who enters.... Dominic Furneaux, Duke of Arlesford, is stunned to see that the woman who shattered his heart has fallen so low. He offers her a way out - by making her his mistress!

When Laura Harcourt accepts a temporary position in the north of England she does not dream that it will change her life forever. Wainthorpe is a small town set amongst a dense concentration of woollen mills, where the thriving Cross Ings mill is one of the most prosperous. Its respected owner is Ainsley Beaumont, whose family wealth derives from centuries in the woollen trade. However, when Laura arrives she finds that behind the façade is a family still torn apart by the memory of a disastrous fire.

Imagine being married for 28 years with three children, a lovely house and a husband who travels a lot - but you still love each other. Or: imagine being happily married for 17 years. You have one daughter and your husband travels a lot. One day you get a call that turns your world upside down: your husband is dead. You go to the funeral…and meet his other widow…

Elaine Cane is scared of her suspicious, overbearing husband. But one day he goes too far - he drunkenly tries to use force on her - so she flees the house. A sense of responsibility makes her return, to check he has not injured himself in his alcohol-fuelled rage, and she finds herself in the middle of a nightmare....

Steaming and frothy......the perfect novel to listen to while you stretch out on a squashy sofa in a corner of your favourite coffee shop nursing a long coffee and maybe something chocolate and indulgent. Cappuccinos weaves together the stories of 6 people whose lives are all touched by an upmarket bistro called Cappuccinos.

At the beginning of a long journey in time and fortune we meet Juliette who as a young woman was a beautiful and wayward prostitute. She became an artist’s model for Edgar Degas and became his famous Femme Assise, a much admired sculpture that was later cast in bronze by master bronze caster, Didier. Now she is an old, raddled and homeless woman. She can’t believe her eyes when she comes face to face with her young and beautiful self – bronze, shining and standing in the front window of Didier’s house.

Written in 1905, this is Vernon Lee’s final genuinely weird tale, and it tells the 18th-century legend of Sister Benvenuta, a nun who wrote letters to a model of infant Christ. Whilst unexpectedly funny in places, this short story has dark undertones.

Amelia is constantly overshadowed by her beautiful cousin, Ernestine. When two men both fall for Ernestine, they dare each other to stay in an ominous vine-covered pavilion, and it is up to Amelia to come to the rescue in this eerie feminist tale.

While the celebrated opera singer Terri Ivory is in hospital, facing what could be the end of her career, her daughter Julie stumbles upon a long-buried secret that forces her to question her past and her place in her mother’s affection. In their empty house that no longer seems like a home, mother and daughter try to keep their closeness to each other and to the men they love.

Actress Enora Andressen is facing the perfect storm. Her favourite French director, Remy Despret, has lost his touch and is keeping dangerous company. Her agent, Rosa, has been seduced by a kiss-and-tell novel of doubtful provenance. While H, sicker by the day at home at Flixcombe Manor, is battling both Long Covid and something far darker. Devoting herself to H, Enora needs good news, and it arrives in the shape of a fascinating Remy idea based on Flixcombe's role during the Second World War.

Written in the form of two letters, 'Dear Mr. Editor...' showcases Christianna Brand’s skill for crafting inventive plots with a limited cast of characters. In this story, a woman receives a letter from an editor requesting a submission for an anthology of horror stories. Keen to provide an original piece, she plans to kill her sister for the perfect plot.

In Minor Key, John Harvey returns to his old favourites - DI Resnick, jazz and Nottingham - explaining why they interest him before launching into a set of stories, hitherto uncollected. Unsurprisingly, jazz, Resnick and Nottingham feature. This limited edition collection ends with a set of John Harvey's poems about jazz.

Actress Enora Andressen is catching up with her ex-neighbour, Evelyn Warlock, who's recently retired to the comely East Devon seaside town of Budleigh Salterton. The peace, the friendship of strangers and the town's prestigious literary festival...Evelyn loves them all. Until the September evening when her French neighbour, Christianne Beaucarne, disappears. Enora has met this woman. The two of them have bonded. But what Enora discovers over the anguished months to come will put sleepy Budleigh Salterton on the front page of every newspaper in the land.