Showing results by narrator "Penelope Freeman" in All Categories

The Widows Wine Club of Viv, Janet and Zelda have navigated choppy waters before. Having supported each other through the first shaky years of widowhood, the future was starting to look brighter. But when Janet is dealt another blow, it’s all hands on deck for the firm friends. Deciding what Janet needs is a change of scenery, Viv and Zelda book a luxury cruise on the Queen Mary 2, heading for the bright lights of New York. And once on board, the women are entranced. A floating pleasure palace, the Queen Mary is just what the doctor ordered.

'Has a charm, and mystery, all of its own' THE TIMES 'Frances Brody has made it to the top rank of crime writers' DAILY MAIL The first historical mystery in a new classic crime series from bestselling author Frances Brody. This is the perfect locked room page-turner for fans of Agatha Christie...

Primavera Blackstone has found contentment in a small Spanish village by the sea. A fiercely protective single mother, she doesn’t appreciate an offer of marriage. Nor does she welcome the arrival of a blast from her past, retired cop Ricky Ross, now a private detective and working for Jack Weighley, millionaire owner of a budget airline. Primavera teams up with Ricky to investigate a series of mystery assaults on Jack’s aircraft. Are they mere acts of vandalism, or the sinister work of Catalan extremists?

Cornwall, 1801. In the wake of her mother's death, Pandora Woodville is desperate to escape her domineering father and finally return to Cornwall. Posing as a widow, she safely makes it across the Atlantic, bright with the dream of working at her Aunt Harriet's school for young women. But as Pandora is soon to learn, the school is facing imminent closure after a series of sinister events threatened its reputation.

England, 1912 is a place of rigid rules. A chance meeting between scullery maid Lizzy Parker and heiress Evie Creswell is about to break them all . . . Their meeting leads to more than an enduring friendship and a new job for Lizzy - it draws her into a world of privilege and intrigue and...

When Olivia Elliott decides to spend the summer on the remote Morwen Island where she grew up, she can't help but wonder if returning home is a good idea. After all, she still remembers the heartbreak she left behind on those shores many years ago. Before long, she runs into her first love, Jory Trethewey, who offers to help Olivia fix up her new cottage. And as they renovate, they realise the house has its own secrets. Soon they uncover a story dating back to the Second World War, of a wounded airman who came to this island to hide from the world, and of the woman who fell in love with him.

The whole world believed eight-year-old Cara killed her younger brother on that fateful night. But she blamed it on a paranormal entity she swears was haunting her house. No one believed her and after two years of treatment in a psychiatric unit for delusional disorder, Cara was shunned by her remaining family and put into foster care. Now she's being forced to return to the family home for the first time since her brother's death, but what if she's about to re-discover the evil that was lurking inside its walls?

Teacher Charlotte Kingston is sent to close a school on an isolated Scilly Isle where she used to spend holidays with her grandparents. But when two visiting children find themselves in need of a place to stay, Charlotte agrees to care for the boys, and decides to keep the school open a little longer. Hearing about her family from the islanders, Charlotte starts decoding her grandmother's old letters from WWII, and a story emerges of forbidden love and a brave man who would risk everything for his country, even giving up the woman he loved.

Janie and her husband, James, have a strong, loving marriage. A move from an inner-city slum to a peaceful new estate outside of Bolton should have been a fresh start for them and their three children. But when war is declared and James announces he has signed up, Janie fears it's the beginning of the end. Waving goodbye to their menfolk is a sacrifice that families are making all over the country and Janie does her best to make do, forging friendships in her new community.

A heartfelt historical saga from Mary Wood, Proud of You is a page-turning novel with a compelling mystery at its heart. Alice, an upper-class Londoner, is recruited into the Special Operations Executive and sent to Paris where she meets Gertrude, an ex-prostitute working for the Resistance...

Hugo Kendal and his wife, Margaret, finally receive a royal pardon and are permitted at last to return to their beloved homeland. Most of the family warmly welcome the couple and the news that they are soon to become three. However, despite the smiles, Hannah Kendal cannot help but dwell on the threat that Hugo might pose to her husband Simon's position as Master of Heron.

Fearless Felicity Penrose thrives on adventure: she's one of the most experienced female sailors in the world. But one day, in the middle of the 1950s, her boat is found abandoned. Fliss has mysteriously vanished, tragically leaving behind her husband and baby girl. Nearly 30 years later, Emma's world is rocked when she is approached by journalist Mike Bond with an extraordinary revelation: that Fliss was seen in America after she was presumed drowned.

Esme Colborne is about to marry Richard Trevannion. When she finds out she is adopted - from a working-class family - she cannot allow Richard to marry so far beneath his station. Fleeing the life she knew, she starts working as a ‘decoy woman’, testing British undercover operatives who may otherwise reveal secrets in a moment of weakness. However, she still has feelings for Richard. Will she be brave enough to risk having her heart broken all over again?

1917. Kitty Maitland has found a safe and welcoming home at Dark River Farm, Devon, and is finally beginning on a path to recovery after her terrible ordeal in Flanders...until the arrival of two very different visitors. One, a charming rogue, proves both a temptation and a mystery - but she soon discovers he's not a stranger to everyone. The other newcomer, a young woman with a past linked to the farm, sows seeds of mistrust. Between the two of them, and the choices Kitty has to make, Dark River becomes a place of fear, suspicion and danger. Can it ever return to the haven it once was?

Three widely separated households - one in Scotland, one in the north of England and one in the south - have known the pain of losing a loved one; losses which, over the years, have shaped the characters of those left behind. But it takes the untimely and suspicious death of Martin Petrie, a stranger from the Scottish Borders mowed down in a hit and run, to untangle the threads that will draw them together in ways they could never have imagined, with results that are far-reaching and fatal.

Wealthy, glamorous and bored, she longed for something more. Now a talented artist with a small business, Helen creates crazy patchwork crafts to support her young daughter, Megan. Penniless, content and single, she is almost unrecognisable. But when her past unexpectedly collides with her new life, Helen finds herself torn. She knows what the easiest choice is, but is it what she wants?

Cornwall: 1793. Rose Pengelly's father has been ruined, plunging Rose and her mother into poverty and debt. There appears to be only one way out of their terrible circumstances; for Rose to marry Mr Tregellas, a powerful timber merchant. He has made his terms clear; either she marries him or faces homelessness and destitution. Desperate, Rose sets out to find evidence of Mr Tregellas's wrongdoing. In her search, she encounters a mysterious young sailor called Jim, who refuses to disclose his identity....

Worthing, 1933 Ruby Bateman works at the prestigious Warnes Hotel on Worthing seafront. She enjoys her job and the camaraderie with the girls at the hotel, but she also loves a day off.... On an outing to the Sussex Downs, Ruby meets handsome photographer Jim Searle and instantly falls for him. The only cloud to overshadow her otherwise perfect trip is the dark mood of her father when she returns home. It's the first of many clouds to loom threateningly over the hardworking Bateman family.

Spring, 1942. Lizzie is making plans for her wedding with fiancé Bill. But preparations during wartime aren't easy, and attacks on the Yorkshire port of Kelthorpe are only getting worse. Connie wants to be there for her sister, but she has troubles of her own—a secret that is driving a wedge between herself and those who love her. Meanwhile, Pamela faces new complications in her romance with Fred, and the arrival of two new RAF servicemen stirs up trouble.

The eldest of seven daughters, Grace must act as a buffer between her violent, ambitious father and the sisters who depend on her, while her disenchanted mother withdraws to her rooms. Rejected by her first love and facing a spinster's future, she struggles to hold the broken family together through her father's infidelity, one sister's alcoholism, and another's out-of-wedlock pregnancy by an unsuitable match.