Showing results by narrator "Sarah Barron" in All Categories

Voices From the Hills is a history of female participation in mountain running, a development that was fiercely resisted in its early years. Steve Chilton has researched his subject deeply, interviewing many female athletes whom he rightly describes as pioneers. Thanks to them, female participation has become accepted and followed avidly in all its aspects including the long distance, high ascent runs over ranges such as the Mamores and recognized challenges such as the Bob Graham Round.

This is a fact: Ryan Summers walked into Three Rivers College and killed 13 women, then himself. But no one can say why. The question is one that cries out to be answered - by Ryan's mother, Moira; by Ishbel, the mother of Abigail, the first victim; and by DI Helen Birch, put in charge of the case on her first day at her new job. But as the tabloids and the media swarm, as the families' secrets come out, as the world searches for someone to blame...the truth seems to vanish.

The Skelf women are back on an even keel after everything they've been through. But when a funeral they're conducting is attacked by a drone, Jenny fears they're in the middle of an Edinburgh gangland vendetta. At the same time, Yana, a Ukrainian member of the refugee choir that plays with Dorothy's band, has gone missing. Searching for her leads Dorothy into strange and ominous territory. And Brodie, the newest member of the extended Skelf family, comes to Hannah with a case: Something or someone has been disturbing the grave of his stillborn son.

Verity is embarking on a better-late-than-never gap year now that her sons have flown the nest, and dreams of turning a lifetime's hobby of knitting and crocheting into a profitable new enterprise at Lerwick Manor's gallery. Nessie has returned to Shetland after two years spent retraining as a blacksmith on the Scottish mainland. She's determined to do whatever it takes to reignite the traditional craft and prove that gender is no obstacle taking on her family's heritage.

Martha, Helen and Geri Parker are back. With their success bringing them newfound fame, they're invited to be guests of honour at SteinerFest - a crime convention run by American celebrity P.I. couple Murray and Roberta Steiner. Like everything else in their lives, nothing goes to plan. When Murray Steiner is found dead, tongues start to wag and soon rumours spread that his death might not be simply an innocent tragedy. With Geri implicated in the potential skulduggery, it's up to Martha and Helen to clear her name and get to the bottom of what has really happened.

Martha Parker runs a small private detective agency in Glasgow with her two sisters, Helen and Geri, specialising in catching cheating partners playing away from home. The Parkers have been hired by the reclusive wife of a wealthy banker she suspects is having an affair - but when he shows up murdered, it's up to Martha, Helen, and Geri to prove the wife's innocence in a case unlike any they have tackled before.

The summer of 1976 was unprecedented in living memory. Days of blazing sunshine bled into weeks and months. In the Lake District, Cumbria's mountains and valleys began to resemble a Grecian landscape. People swam in delightfully tropic waters to cool off. But barely three feet below the surface, the temperature remained just a degree or so above freezing. As the summer blazed on, the drownings began....

Spanning a generation, the story begins in 1914 when Donny Nicolson and Angus MacLeod leave their homes on the Kilbackie Estate, Isle of Skye to join the British army and fight in France; a decision that would change their lives forever with tragic consequences.

The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and private-investigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever. Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at a travellers' site, and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while granddaughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists targeting a retired female astronaut...putting her own life at risk.

In 1752, Seamus a'Ghlynne, James of the Glen, was executed for the murder of government man Colin Campbell. He was almost certainly innocent. When banners are placed at his gravesite claiming that his namesake, James Stewart, is innocent of murder, reporter Rebecca Connolly smells a story. The young Stewart has been in prison for 10 years for the brutal murder of his lover, lawyer and politician Murdo Maxwell. Rebecca soon discovers that Maxwell believed he was being followed prior to his murder and his phones were tapped.

Julia Sutherland isn’t too sure about her new colleague. Ellis Kirkbride is friendly, charismatic and handsome, but there’s just something about him – a bit too slick, a bit too confident, and he stands a bit too close. Normally she'd share her concerns with her husband Rob, but he’s been distant lately and Julia has a secret he mustn’t find out. Ellis Kirkbride thought he had found the right woman. She was everything he could want but she didn't want him. And that was unacceptable...

Teenagers Corey Alloway and Bree Dovemuir are best friends. They live on an island where people still pray to ancient Greek gods, and the Underworld is rumoured to be visible from the top of a certain hill. They're closer than sisters—until Bree betrays Corey, and steals her boyfriend, Ali. Corey is consumed by hatred. She goes so far as to vehemently wish Bree dead. At the annual Thesmophoria Festival, Corey kisses a stranger, a boy with golden lips, to show Bree and Ali she's over them both. And later that night, Bree is found floating in the lake—dead.

The history of the Alardyce family is fraught with scandal and intrigue. But after her eldest son Robert leaves the country, finally Amy Alardyce can enjoy some peace. Robert is wanted by the police for some unspeakable crimes, and his family hope he has run far enough and never looks back. A decade after his disappearance, Robert has forged a successful life for himself, making his fortune from the diamond and gold mines of Africa. But when he sees a death notice in the newspaper, the call to go home to Scotland grows ever louder.

A short story from the British Library Crime Classic collection The Edinburgh Mystery. Published in 1955, this is a domestic tale which sees a family member commit the ultimate crime when they’ve had enough of their miserly aunt’s frugal ways.

On her 20th birthday, Mary Hepburn - daughter of the local magistrate - learns that she is to marry John Aitken, a much older man. Unhappy with this, Mary walks to the local moor to clear her mind. Instead, she meets and falls in love with the handsome Captain Ferintosh, when he saves her from whiskey smugglers. The situation gets even more complicated when Mary's father arrests Ferintosh.

Leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson gleans life lessons learned by inspirational women from around the world in a personal and inspirational book. In Ruth Davidson's YES SHE CAN we meet world-beating women from fields as diverse as science, politics, the military, business and...

When Jenna Palmer agrees to the new position of mobile librarian on the tiny Arrandale peninsular of the Isle of Skye, she knows she’s signing up for difficult working conditions and mediocre wages. But Jenna needs to get away.... However, whilst Jenna can get to grips with foggy island roads, local mermaid legends and even big purple monsters, she never expected to have to contend with a boss as grumpy as Daniel McGregor, or a young book lover as enthusiastic as his niece, Katrina.

A memorial service witnessed in the historic Black Wood of Rannoch sets Rebecca Connolly on the trail of a baffling story. Fergus MacGregor told people he was going to Pitlochry for the day. He was never seen again. Five years later his deeply religious mother still holds a memorial in the place Fergus loved because of its connections to the outlawed MacGregor clan, the Children of the Mist. What happened that day in this last vestige of the great Caledonian forest? Does a family feud hold the key? Does an old recluse have the answers?

Edinburgh, 1791. Isobel Duguid and her friend Clessidro are the stars of the Edinburgh Musical Society. Clessidro sings opera and Isobel sings famously dark Scottish ballads, despite being incapable of holding a tune. They roam the streets of Edinburgh, enjoying an opulent lifestyle. One night a note arrives from the mysterious Cecilia Abercorn, asking if Isobel's most notorious song, The Fiddler's Wrath, might be included in a book. It's the tale of a prima donna who died of heartbreak after her husband committed murder and was sent to the gallows. Isobel is intrigued.

Kate is a successful interior designer with two wonderful kids. Kate is also a recent widow, a grieving daughter and worrying about how to pay the bills. Her life might look perfect from the outside, but making things look better than they are is just how Kate copes. Her mother, Jean, worries about her - but she has her own problems. A mystery from the past has come back to haunt her, and she decides now is the time to put the pieces together. When romance makes an appearance in both their lives, can mother and daughter lay the past to rest - and begin again?