Showing results by narrator "Hilary Neville" in All Categories

Primavera is enjoying the quiet life in an idyllic village on the Catalan coast of Spain. The attractive single mother and eight-year-old Tom, son of the late and still lamented Oz Blackstone, are popular figures in the tiny community. But her close friendship with the parish priest has eyebrows rising and tongues wagging. Then a dispute explodes with a powerful councillor who refuses to allow the village wine fair to go ahead. When his body is found, head caved in, some ominous questions are asked.

When one Edinburgh citizen after another is murdered in the same bloody manner, the newspapers buzz with talk of a serial killer. Smart and capable, but battling disillusionment and loneliness, DS Alice Rice races against time and an implacable killer to solve this series of grisly murders among the professional elite in the city's well-to-do New Town.

Isabel's niece Cat is still worshipped by the young musician, Jamie, but Cat has a new and unsuitable love-interest. Meanwhile Isabel's Texan cousins have arrived in Edinburgh and are provoking a quite separate set of dilemmas. In between these events and complications, Edinburgh life continues, calmly sailed through by Isabel, her housekeeper, Grace, and, of course, that cautious resident of Isabel's garden, brother Fox. His alone is the uncomplicated existence.

Mrs Tim goes to the Highlands of Scotland and is involved in a plot to rescue a naval officer from the toils of a siren; but, alas, the best laid plans "gang aft agley". The characters are skilfully drawn, from the fierce Mrs London, with her heart of gold, to the garrulous Mrs Falconer, whose muddled stories of her girlhood make excruciatingly funny reading.

When the circus arrives in Edinburgh, Rose McQuinn is delighted. However, the festivities are overshadowed by the murder of a clerk during a bank robbery and the suicides of two young women. Are these deaths straightforward or could they all be linked to one killer? Rose’s ex-fiancé, Inspector Jack Macmerry, believes that Rose can help with his inquiries and she finds suspicious links with the circus and the behaviour of a sinister scar-faced clown.

DJ Smith is sent to Tenerife to infiltrate a money-laundering organisation run by Ambrose Vanheusen. DJ knows she is in danger but luckily he has an Achilles heel: his obsession with his Persian cat. DJ’s passport into Vanheusen’s empire comes in the form of Gorgonzola, a moth-eaten ginger Persian and sniffer cat extraordinaire, acting under an alias pedigree.

When Shona MacInnes qualifies to train as a vet, she meets prejudice not only from her father and brother, but also from handsome Ross MacMaster, a fellow islander who is to become a vet himself. Shona is determined to succeed, doing so well that Ross offers her a job in his Edinburgh practice, where their fiery professional relationship develops into love. A wonderful future seems to beckon until, on a trip home, things go wrong. Ross returns to his lucrative practice, and Shona starts working for the local vet.

Margaret Collyer's beautifully written autobiography describes her life as an artist and pioneer farmer in Kenya during the first half of the 20th century.