Showing results by narrator "Gordon Griffin" in All Categories

Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale in which an ugly beast must earn the true love of a beautiful girl to free him from the spell of an evil fairy. The first published version was written by French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in the middle 18th century. It was a novel-length story intended for adult readers and addressing the issues of the marriage system of the day in which women had no right to choose their husband or to refuse to marry.

Ten years after the war has ended, a group of veterans are united by their shared experiences serving in East Africa and overcome both class boundaries and former enemy lines.

An anonymous letter sent to Larkwood's Prior accuses Peter Henderson, an academic celebrity renowned for daring ideas, of a grotesque murder: the calculated killing of Jenny, his disabled partner, believed by everyone to have died peacefully two years previously from a sudden attack of cancer. But for this letter there is no evidence, no suspect and no crime.

February, 1927: The remains of a man are found in the grounds of Maxtead Court, home of the wealthy Scroope family. Meanwhile, Margaret Rees-Talbot is preparing for her wedding to the Rev Symon Scroope - to the disapproval of some residents of Folbury, who think it's too soon after the death of her father, Osbert, found drowned in his bath a few months previously. Before he died, Osbert had been writing an account of his experiences as a soldier during the Second Boer War. But what really happened in South Africa back in 1902?

In the fictional Harrington Convent, one of its more challenging inhabitants, Baroness Sliema, is found murdered. Chief Inspector Pearson of Scotland Yard is called to solve the crime. He discovers the convent is governed by a particularly shrewd and omniscient Reverend Mother, and we meet a varied and entertaining cast of characters observed with wit and charm. Shepherd describes the world of a convent with its colourful and in some cases unlikely inhabitants with sympathy and humour, making for a gentle and entertaining tale.

When DI Wesley Peterson is summoned to investigate a killing, he assumes that it is a routine case. But soon dark secrets start to emerge from the victim's past.... Meanwhile, archaeologist Neil Watson is pulled from the historic Paradise Court to a ruined village from World War One.

Vienna 1903. An operatic diva, Ida Rosenkrantz, is found dead in her luxurious villa. It appears that she has taken an overdose of morphine, but a broken rib suggests other and more sinister possibilities. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt seeks the assistance of his young friend, the psychoanalyst Dr. Max Liebermann, and they begin their inquiries at Vienna's majestic opera house.

On a hot summer morning, Miles Law cycles into the village of Millington in the Vale of York, on his way to a few hours' work as an under-gardener at The Grange. But when he arrives, he finds his employer slumped in an armchair in the drawing room, a bullet wound on his forehead. Miles' employer was a secretive and reclusive man who kept his employees and neighbours at a distance. Who was Anthony Garrett, and who are the three young, identical-looking blonde women who called at the house a few days before his body was discovered?

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. When the Russian Royal Family Jewels are put on display at Orbin’s department store in the fortnight leading up to Christmas, Mr Rossiter Payne can’t resist a present to himself. An inconspicuous London bookseller by day, an experienced jewel thief by night - can he pull off this latest festive heist?

With the tourist season well and truly over in South Devon, Detective Inspector Wesley Peterson is looking forward to a quieter month in the CID. But when a man is shot dead on Bonfire Night, he finds he has a disturbing and complex murder case on his hands. The body of Patrick North was found in woodland connected to Nesbaraton Hall, a grand estate dating back to the eighteenth century. North worked for the Smithson family who now own the estate.

Who was the first king of England? Did Henry I assassinate his brother? How did "Bloody Mary" reinstate Roman Catholicism? For more than 1,000 years, the British monarchy has dramatically shaped national and international history. Kings and queens have conquered territory, imposed religious change and extracted taxation, each with their own motivations and ambitions.

In October 1975, an assassin tried to murder Norman Scott on Exmoor, but the trigger failed and he only succeeded in shooting Scott's beloved dog, Rinka. Scott subsequently found himself at the centre of a major political scandal and became an unlikely queer icon. But this was never his intention.

Detective Sergeant Michael Brennan of the Wigan Borough Police has no time for tales of ghosts and the afterlife or of the dead contacting the living. So, when he finds himself investigating the case of a recently widowed young woman, Alice Goodway, who has suddenly developed 'the Gift' of mediumship and has received a threatening letter, he embarks on the inquiry with no small degree of scepticism. But just as Brennan and his colleague, Constable Jaggery, consider how to proceed with the case, something much more sinister takes place - a murder in Alice’s own home.

Teenager Lewis Hoxworthy discovers a disturbing painting in a medieval barn - a discovery which excites archaeologist Neil Watson, who is excavating an ancient manor house nearby. But when former rock star Jonny Shellmer is found shot through the head in Lewis' father's field and Lewis himself goes missing after contacting a man on the Internet, Detective Inspector Wesley Peterson and his boss, Gerry Heffernan, face one of their most intriguing cases yet. It seems that the Devon village of Derenham is not only full of resident celebrities seeking the rural idyll but also of secrets, ancient and modern.

Ex-policeman turned private investigator Billy Rucker has been asked to trace Lucy Bradley, a teenage runaway on the streets of London. But when he finds her, she has been strangled and stabbed and abandoned in a disused house. Despite this being a case for the Metropolitan Police, Billy is persuaded by Lucy's father to track down her killer. And he soon finds himself embroiled in an investigation which leaves him with only one way out...

Detective John Bell plans to have a well-earned rest when he is invited to holiday with his friends the Ridsdales upon their houseboat on the Thames. But when Lady Ridsdale’s diamond bracelet is stolen in the night, his holiday is cut short and he must determine who amongst their party could be responsible.

Vienna, 1903. In St Florian's military school, a young cadet is found dead - his body lacerated with razor wounds. Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on his friend Doctor Max Liebermann to help with the investigation. In the closed society of the school, power is everything. Suspicion falls on an elite group of cadets, with a penchant for sadism and dangerous games.

In the court of King George IV, Major Mearns - an old dog of war and veteran of Willington's army - is the guardian of Windsor Castle. Some would call him a spy; he calls himself a "watcher." Working with his close friend, the resourceful Sergeant Denny, the pair maintain a cool facade behind which they go about their duties quietly and unnoticed. Unnoticed, that is, until the day Mearns receives a parcel containing a gruesome surprise: a pair of severed human legs.

When a skeleton is discovered on a Devon smallholding, DS Wesley Peterson, a keen amateur archaeologist, is intrigued by the possibility that it is a Viking corpse, buried in keeping with ancient traditions. But he has a rather more urgent crime to solve - the disappearance of a Danish tourist. Wesley finds disturbing evidence that the attractive Dane has been abducted. His boss, Gerry Heffernan, believes that Ingeborg's disappearance is linked to a spate of brutal robberies and that she witnessed something she shouldn't have.

Why did literary legend Wynn Staniland suddenly become a recluse in the 1980s? Most assumed he stopped writing because of his wife's bizarre suicide. And now a promising young author called Zac Wilkinson is working on Staniland's biography and hopes to reveal the true story to a waiting world. When Wilkinson is found brutally murdered, DI Wesley Peterson finds links to the unexplained poisoning of a middle-aged couple - and Staniland appears to be the connection.