Showing results by narrator "Robert Slade" in All Categories

In 1890s America Thorstein Veblen attacked a careless acceptance of prevailing social structures, identifying ancient roots for ‘pecuniary culture’ and ‘conspicuous consumption’–realities that promoted materialism and squashed fulfilment. In The Theory of the Leisure Class the worthy Engineer, creating essential products for all, is pitted against the predatory Businessman, exempt from grubby industrial toil and focussed on useless profits.

When Brazos Keene, a haunted cowboy with an honorable streak, comes across Twin Sombreros Ranch, he finds himself dragged into a vicious family feud. A convenient fall guy, Brazos is accused of the murder of Allen Neece, son of Abe Neece. The Neeces are the former owners of Twin Sombreros but lost it to the Surface family when their $50,000 herd of cattle mysteriously disappeared. Brazos barely manages to avoid a hanging, but when he falls for one of the Neece girls, he can't leave without finding out who really killed Allen and what's at the bottom of this war over the ranch.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sportswriter comes a deeply personal account of his parents - an intimate portrait of American mid-20th-century life and a celebration of family love. Richard Ford's parents volunteered little about their early lives - and he rarely asked. Later, he pieced their stories together from anecdote, history and the occasional photograph, frozen moments linking him to another time.

Summer, 1962. A scorching heat wave is suffocating LA. PI Jim Keegan is offered a small fortune to find a beautiful woman from a set of photographs. He refuses; the job seems suspicious. But the next day the same woman, Eve, turns up, unbidden, on his doorstep. Eve fears for her safety. She is being watched. Before Keegan knows it, someone has been killed with Keegan’s own gun, and he gets sucked into a world of suspicion and betrayal where he’s never quite sure where the truth lies....

As Babbitt grapples with the suffocating monotony of suburban life, societal expectations, and his own unfulfilled desires, Lewis paints a timeless portrait of conformity, materialism, and self-deception. A biting critique of the American Dream, Babbitt explores the search for meaning in a world that seems more obsessed with status than substance.

George Gates is a former travel writer. He used to specialise in writing about places where people disappeared, sometimes individuals, sometimes whole societies. Now, since the murder of his eight-year-old son, Gates writes for the town paper about flower festivals and local celebrities. Enter Arlo McBride, a retired missing-persons detective. Knowing Gates' past, he mentions the case of Katherine Carr, a woman who vanished 20 years before....

Edgar Allan Poe arrives in London to meet his friend C. Auguste Dupin, in the hope that the great detective will help him solve a family mystery. For Poe has inherited a mahogany box containing sheathes of letters that implicate his grandparents in some of London’s most heinous crimes - those committed by the so-called London Monster who, for two years, terrorised the city’s streets.

This mesmerising collection from World Fantasy Award-winner James P. Blaylock offers seven brilliant excursions into one of the most idiosyncratic imaginations of our time. Highlighted by the acclaimed novella, The Trismegistus Club - a brilliant riff on the antiquarian ghost story - In for a Penny goes from strength to strength, taking us deep into the heart of a quirky, deeply engaging fictional world that no one but Blaylock could have created.

Listen to this collection of celebrated classic cat stories read by an ensemble cast of beloved audiobook readers - including Samuel West, Lorelei King and Imogen Church. Classic Cat Stories is an anthology that includes fairy tales and fables from the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Charles...

Murder is the most vile crime known to man. It can be triggered by love or money or sex. Those are the three big ticket items for homicide. But people are strange. They will kill for the most obscure and ridiculous of reasons. In 30 years covering murder, I have discovered each one has its own flavour. Cops and friends can be stunned by the evil lurking within a seemingly ordinary man or woman. In this collection of some of the most memorable cases I've reported on, there are serial killers, rich kid monsters, football stars and wives in pursuit of hormone-charged hijinks....

Doughnuts, family tensions, relatives who arrive in a Winnebago, Christmas decorations, business worries, Uncle Henry's womanizing, and pyramid schemes wrap Walt Stebbins in layers of detail and distraction. Walt runs a small catalogue business out of his garage, and he has no notion of a demonic presence in his town until a package is mistakenly delivered to him.

Philadelphia, 1844. As violent tensions escalate between 'nativists' and recent Irish immigrants, Edgar Allan Poe’s fears for the safety of his wife, Virginia, and mother-in-law, Muddy, are compounded when he receives a parcel of mummified bird parts. Could his nemesis have returned to settle an old score? Just as odd is the arrival of Helena Loddiges, a young heiress who demands Poe’s help to discover why her lover died at the city’s docks on his return from an expedition to Peru.

Tim Harding has spent the fishing season in Canada working as a deckhand, making an honest living. When his hotheaded younger brother tracks him down at the shipyards in Vancouver, Tim senses trouble. Jake is a drifter, a dreamer, an ex-con, and now he needs help in repaying a debt to the notorious Delaney gang.

Through vivid histories drawn from virtually every continent, A World Divided describes how, since the 18th century, nationalists have struggled to establish their own states that grant human rights to some people. At the same time, they have excluded others through forced assimilation, ethnic cleansing, or even genocide. From Greek rebels, American settlers, and Brazilian abolitionists in the 19th century to anticolonial Africans and Zionists in the 20th, nationalists have confronted a crucial question: Who has the "right to have rights?"

Sometimes solving climate change seems impossibly complex. This book offers hope. Drawing on the latest research, Mark Jaccard shows us how to recognize the absolutely essential actions (decarbonizing electricity and transport) and policies (regulations that phase out coal plants and gasoline vehicles, carbon tariffs). Rather than feeling paralyzed and pursuing ineffective efforts, we can all make a few key changes in our lifestyles to reduce emissions, to contribute to the urgently needed affordable energy transition in developed and developing countries.

Recently released from prison, David Marion didn’t expect to find a hitman at his door. Warned that a powerful secret organisation is after him, David goes underground and off the radar – waiting for the perfect moment to wreak revenge. Physicist Helen Freyl has just accepted a job offer from a giant pharmaceutical company who are close to finding a cure for radiation poisoning.

She can’t be tied down Unless he can persuade her it’s worth it…! Mills & Boon presents The Marriage Clause by Alexx Andria Katherine Oliver is not interested in getting married. The only problem is she can’t keep her hands off gorgeous billionaire Luca Donato, who wants to put a ring on...

Tales of Tahitian Waters describes Grey's fishing expeditions to the Tahitian Islands during 1928, 1929, and 1930, in which he claims to be the first big-game fisherman to fish these waters. He came to the area after having passed nearby on other fishing trips. Hearing accounts of there being marlin that were 30 feet long and sharks that measured 50 feet in length, he became determined to pursue these fish and add to his many fishing records. It was here where he describes catching a marlin weighing 1,040 pounds. The catch was recorded as the first 1,000-pound fish ever caught.

Dupin needs Poe’s help solving a deadly crime. Poe agrees and soon becomes enmeshed in Dupin’s quest to bring down the man who single-handedly ruined his family. This rival now wishes destruction upon Poe’s head too. Caught in a deadly cat-and-mouse game within Paris’ famous necropolis, Poe and Dupin must use their wits to survive. And they discover that when venturing down into the Empire of the Dead, it’s not so easy to return from the darkness.

'Invaluable guidance on how organizations can embrace the flexibility of remote work while sustaining wellbeing and connection . . . Immensely timely, practical and encouraging.' – Caroline Webb, author of How to Have a Good Day Transform your career or your business with these simple tips and...