Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

In a forgotten corner of Paris stands a building. Within its walls people talk and kiss, laugh and cry; some are glad to sit alone while others wish they did not. A woman with silver-blonde hair opens her bookshop downstairs, an old man feeds the sparrows on his windowsill, and a young mother wills the morning to hold itself at bay. Though each of their walls touches someone else's, the neighbours they pass in the courtyard remain strangers. Into this courtyard arrives Edward.

When Anika Molnar flees her home country of Hungary not long before the break up of the Soviet Union, she carries only a small suitcase - and a beautiful and much-loved painting of an auburn-haired woman in a cobalt blue dress from her family's hidden collection. Arriving in Australia, Anika moves in with her aunt in Sydney, and the painting hangs in pride of place in her bedroom. But one day it is stolen in what seems to be a carefully planned theft, and Anika's carefree life takes a more ominous turn.

Rush hour, London. A packed commuter train is torn apart in a collision. Picking through the carnage, ex-special forces profiler Ziba MacKenzie helps a dying woman who passes on a cryptic message: He did it. You have to tell someone. When a corpse is found bearing the gruesome signature of a serial killer dormant for twenty-five years, Ziba is pulled into the hunt for the perpetrator. As the body count rises it becomes clear he’s on a new spree. But what’s brought the London Lacerator back after such a long hiatus?

1913: the last long summer before the war. The country is gripped by suffragette fever. These impassioned crusaders have their admirers; some agree with their aims if not their forceful methods, while others are aghast at the thought of giving any female a vote. Meanwhile, hundreds of women are stepping out onto the streets of Britain. They are the suffragists: nonmilitant campaigners for the vote, on an astonishing six-week protest march they call the Great Pilgrimage.

Out of the courts of 12th-century England strode the legendary figure of Richard of England leading his knights onto the Saracen battlefields, inspired by a vision of the Holy Land. Here is the story of the Soldier-King and the Third Crusade - of his strange, ill-fated union with Berengaria, Princess of Navarre; and of his mother, the She-Wolf, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who loved her son with a frantic, possessive pride. And, above all, here is the story of the minstrel whose life was linked with that of the King - the story of Blondel, the Lute Player....

Clemmie has a problem: she's had almost as many jobs as she's had birthdays and her love life is on the critical list. But with the big 3-0 looming, she's determined to transform herself from unemployed singleton to loved-up success.

When young widow Lady Lovelace realized she had been swindled to near-bankruptcy by her curmudgeonly cousin, she knew she would have to marry again for money. These were the very thoughts of Lord Philip, who had nothing between him and destitution but his small army pension. And so these two...

Facing bankruptcy, Celine's family were forced to turn their home into a guesthouse to make ends meet. Celine found her new life hard work but great fun. She met a young man, Nicky, who seemed very taken with her. If only Nicky's masterful cousin, Oliver, wouldn't keep interfering. But when she discovered that Nicky was married, Celine was only too grateful for Oliver's comforting presence. Gratitude wasn't exactly what Oliver had in mind, but it was a start.

'Heartfelt and lovely' JENNY COLGAN Happy ever after is only a page away. . . It's almost Christmas and snow is falling the Cotswolds. Simon and Nora might be gearing up for the festive season - but their beloved bookshop is in trouble! So Nora is delighted when a customer buys a book that's...

It is 1939 - war has been declared, and spymaster Fitzroy wastes no time in preparing his goddaughter, Hope, for a secret mission. As Euphemia Martins' daughter, Hope has the potential to be one of British Intelligence's greatest agents, but when she is ousted from an all-male think tank and relegated to the typing pool, even she starts to doubt herself. Meanwhile, Hope's rebellious friend, Bernie, announces her engagement to a man Hope does not trust; Harvey, Hope's only asset, has vanished; and, most awful of all, Hope fears that her father is dying.

Everyone thinks Lexi is crazy when she falls in love with Hollingsworth House, a crumbling old Georgian mansion in Yorkshire – and nobody more so than her husband, Dylan. But there’s something very special about the place, and Lexi can sense it. Whilst exploring the grounds, she stumbles across an old diary, and within its pages she meets Allie, an Australian nurse who worked in France during the First World War. Lexi finally realises her dream of buying Hollingsworth, but her obsession with the house leaves her marriage in tatters.

A serial killer is terrorising London, removing a body part from each victim and leaving in its place a single pink rose. Dr Vernon Sange, a multiple murderer awaiting extradition, seems to know the culprit’s identity - but he’ll only talk to profiler Ziba MacKenzie, the woman responsible for putting him away. Though there’s something he wants in return from her. And time is running out. With one killer whispering in her ear and another running rings around the police, Ziba must play a game in which only her opponent knows the rules, and the forfeit is death.

Ladies Can’t Climb Ladders focuses on the lives of pioneering women forging careers in the fields of medicine, law, academia, architecture, engineering and the church. In her startling study into the public and private worlds of these unsung heroines, Jane Robinson sheds light on their desires and ambitions, and how family and society responded to this emerging class of working women.

Orly, Lenny, Mel and Thea have been best friends since school. But now it is 20 years later and inevitably they have drifted apart. It is Lenny's 40th birthday, plus Orly and Mel need cheered up, so Thea suggests a weekend away at a festival in their hometown. It's a chance for them all to reconnect. But their holiday soon takes a sinister turn, and not all of the friends will leave the festival alive....   

When detective-in-training Sigurdís interrupts her studies in the US to return to Iceland, after discovering that the investigation into her abusive father's death has been dropped, she's plunged into a completely new case when a controversial TV personality is murdered during the Reykjavík Marathon. Returning to Iceland to deal with the fallout, Sigurdís finds herself pulled into a disturbing case: controversial TV personality Olga Einars has been stabbed to death during the Reykjavík Marathon.

‘[A] scorchingly good thriller’ – Lisa Hall, bestselling author of mega-hit Between You and Me ‘A tantalising and taut thriller with more twists and turns than a corkscrew. Red herrings swim all the way through it. An excellent page turner’ – Sally (Goodreads) Emily Klein doesn’t...

It's the 1940s. War alters lives, and for three women from different walks of life, the choices they make will change everything forever....

Jenny Proctor is a well-to-do housewife with a demanding husband. She devotes her life to serving him - but when he enlists, she finds her voice...and a new friendship with a young GI. Vibrant Rusty Dobbs is a prostitute by choice, making money from servicemen. But when she falls in love with an American captain, she hides her profession from him.

The Darling children of Bloomsbury have a secret. His name is Peter Pan, a mischievous night visitor who's somewhere "betwixt and between" a boy and a bird and who refuses to grow up. When Peter invites young Wendy and her two brothers to follow him back to his Neverland home, an adventure beyond any bedtime story unfolds.

Mia Cosgrove is a high-flying psychotherapist with a thriving practice, but when she receives a desperate phone call from her oldest friend, Lysette, she puts her life on hold to rush to her side. A friend of Lysette's, Sarah, has plunged to her death from the top of a multistorey car park, an unsent text message on her phone, simply saying 'I'm sorry x.' At first the police are convinced it's a suicide, but as more deaths rock the rural community, the police aren't so certain....

Karin and Kai are looking for a pleasant escape from their busy lives when they accept an offer to stay in a luxurious cabin in the Norwegian fjords. Instead of finding a relaxing retreat, their trip becomes a reminder of everything lacking in their own lives, and when they meet the couple from the neighbouring cabin, Karin tells a little white lie – a lie that grows ever bigger, entangling her and Kai in a nightmare series of deceits with absolutely no means of escape.