Showing results by narrator "Gordon Griffin" in All Categories

A tip-off leads police to dismantle a pile of rubble in the village of Pendwick, in search of a hidden body. As expected, a corpse is found and is identified as being that of a local businessman who has been missing for 10 years.

Hennessey and Yellich - along with an ever-expanding team -head up the ensuing murder investigation. And then two further bodies are discovered - along with a particularly nasty brand of political extremism involving just a few too many respected local businessmen.

After a whirlwind romance and dream wedding, the new Mrs Ramsforth is whisked away to an idyllic Greek island by her adoring husband. But as soon as they arrive at their luxurious hotel overlooking the azure sea, Damaris is struck by the feeling she’s been here before.... Puzzling over the familiarity, Damaris’ honeymoon goes from unsettling to a complete nightmare when she finds herself standing over a dead body, unable to explain how she got there. Now only one man can save her – fellow holidaymaker and former Scotland Yard inspector Jasper.

Detective Sergeant Michael Brennan of the Wigan Borough Police has no time for tales of ghosts and the afterlife or of the dead contacting the living. So, when he finds himself investigating the case of a recently widowed young woman, Alice Goodway, who has suddenly developed 'the Gift' of mediumship and has received a threatening letter, he embarks on the inquiry with no small degree of scepticism. But just as Brennan and his colleague, Constable Jaggery, consider how to proceed with the case, something much more sinister takes place - a murder in Alice’s own home.

Detective Inspector Michael Angel and his team of regulars are searching for a serial killer on the loose in the Yorkshire town of Bromersley. The available clues are as sparse as they are puzzling: A character in early Roman attire is observed at every murder and a laurel leaf is left on every corpse. DNA evidence links a woman of oriental origin to the murders but this profile doesn’t fit any of the suspects. The investigations become more mystifying as Inspector Angel races against the clock to find the killer.

It is 1919 and Great Britain is still struggling to its feet after the First World War. Progress is slow, even in quiet spots like the village of Broughton Underhill. But moving on is impossible when former police sergeant Herbert Reardon returns to the village, determined to finally find out what happened the night that his daughter was found drowned. However, as Reardon begins to investigate, it becomes clear that secrets still abound.

When two badly burned bodies are discovered, the York police begin to wonder if there is a link. Are they crimes of passion or revenge? The result of a family feud? Hennessey and Yellich thoroughly investigate the private and business lives of the deceased, but find little to go on. Then Hennessey's gut feeling as to the identity of the killer, based on years of experience and intuition, is shaken when another burned body is discovered...and another.

The Odyssey is an epic poem, written by the ancient Greek philosopher Homer, and considered to be the second oldest piece of western literature still in existence. Scholars believe it was written at the end of the eighth century BC. Still heavily used in schools because of its unique literary makeup and historical value, the poems follow Greek hero Odysseus, as he journeys home after the 10-year long Trojan War. His journey home takes another 10 years, and Odysseus encounters many obstacles.

Blue Lightning is the fourth in a stellar suspense series from Ann Cleeves set on the Shetland Islands, the basis for the hit BBC show Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall. Inspector Jimmy Perez takes his fiancé home to Fair Isle, the tiny island he comes from, to meet his parents. The island is...

In his Cornish hideaway, retired Detective Inspector Frank Elder's solitary life is disturbed by a call from his estranged wife, telling him his 17-year-old daughter, Katherine, is running wild, unbalanced by a rape he feels he should have prevented. Meanwhile, in London, the capture of a violent criminal goes badly wrong, and Detective Sergeant Maddy Birch is uneasy about the reasons why, an uneasiness that is compounded when she starts to believe she is being stalked.

Liverpool lawyer Harry Devlin never knew that five short lines could change his life - until he receives a notice announcing his sudden death on Midsummer's Eve. Someone wants him dead and he has only seven days to find out who it is.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. 'It’s a very rare thing for a murder to be committed actually in the presence of a police officer.' Or so it was thought.... After the police fail to trace the writer behind a series of threatening letters to wealthy industrialist Sir Charles Leighton, he demands constant police protection. And thus it is up to Inspector Lang to accompany the man to a bridge party on New Year’s Eve - and track down his killer....

Red Bones marks the third in a stellar suspense series set on the Shetland Islands from bestselling author Ann Cleeves--the basis for the hit BBC show Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall. When a young archaeologist discovers a set of human remains, the locals are intrigued. Is it an ancient...

1893. Wigan is in the grip of a harsh winter and a devastating national miners' strike. Arthur Morris, a wealthy colliery owner whose determination to cut the miners' pay is one of the main causes of the strike, is found brutally murdered in an alleyway. A sinister letter prompted the victim to leave his dinner guests and hurry out into the freezing night to Scholes, a rough working-class district where he is universally hated.

When a skeleton is discovered in a deep grave at the edge of an area of woodland, the police discover that it is one of their own officers who disappeared whilst on duty some 30 years earlier. DS Harry Vicary and DI Archibald Dez have little evidence to go on, but as the investigation unfolds they meet ex-police men and women who left the force at the time of the DC’s disappearance, and did so in fear of their own safety, and who, even after all this time, are reluctant to talk.

For Tim Roxham, a young railway policeman, and Fay Rossiter, the problems of relationships across the social divide in pre-war England pale into insignificance when Mr Chamberlain's tired voice announces that the country is at war with Germany. Now it's not just their love that is threatened but their very lives. Against a background of increasingly disturbing events in Europe, and fierce resistance from Fay's wealthy family and friends, they fight for their relationship in the face of adversity. But as the war rips them apart, only time will tell if they are strong enough to win through.

Bloomsbury presents The Age of Genius by A. C. Grayling, read by Gordon Griffin What happened to the European mind between 1605, when an audience watching Macbeth at the Globe might believe that regicide was such an aberration of the natural order that ghosts could burst from the ground, and...

Charlotte Honeyman jilts her long-time swain, and on the spur of the moment marries a stranger. His pride damaged and his matrimonial plans upturned, sea captain Nick Thornton threatens to take revenge. Charlotte’s younger sister, Marianne, takes pity on Nick and secretly boards his ship, where she meets with an accident. Nick regards Marianne as the perfect tool with which to get his own back, but in the process falls in love....

A story from Night in the Front Line, a collection of Second World War short stories. The war may have ended, but Richard and Louise discover there’s more to repair than just buildings and infrastructure. As they take a much-needed holiday in Paris, the couple must try to heal their relationship and get to know each other again after years of wartime separation.

Few authors are as closely associated with sea stories as C. S. Forester, creator of Horatio Hornblower. In this rare venture into the short-story genre, a lawyer thinks he has formulated the perfect way to dispose of a body, but it backfires in an amusing, ironic fashion.

A story from Night in the Front Line, a collection of Second World War short stories. 'The Wall' vividly captures the horror and reality of the Blitz with a firsthand recollection of a particularly fateful night from a member of the National Fire Service.