Showing results by narrator "Annie" in All Categories

The female private detective has been a staple of popular culture for over 150 years. But what about the real-life women behind these fictional tales? Dismissed as 'Mrs Sherlock Holmes' or amateurish Miss Marples, mocked as private dicks or honey trappers, they have been investigating crime since the mid-nineteenth century - everything from theft and fraud to romance scams and murder. In Private Inquiries, Caitlin Davies traces the history of the UK's female investigators.

Homeless Bodies and Other Stories is an original fiction podcast featuring audio-exclusive short stories from award-winning authors and Sunday Times best-sellers, inspired by objects & artefacts from Wellcome Collection's permanent exhibition, 'Medicine Man', in London.

Meilan Hua's world is made up of a few key ingredients: her family's beloved matriarch, Nai Nai; the bakery her parents, aunts, and uncles own and run in Boston's Chinatown; and her favorite Chinese fairy tales. After Nai Nai passes, the family has a falling-out that sends Meilan, her parents, and her grieving grandfather on the road in search of a new home. They take a winding path across the country before landing in Redbud, Ohio. Everything in Redbud is the opposite of Chinatown, and Meilan's not quite sure who she is - being renamed at school only makes it worse.

The unseelie - banished by Oberon long ago - are stirring awake, and there’s one name on their dark lips: Nightshade. Kesh is beginning to settle into her role as Halow’s messenger, saving people from the fae with the help of Kellee, Talen, Arran, and Sota, but if she has any hope of making her wrongs right, she must trust those around her. Without them, there is no messenger.

Laid-off teacher Olivia Crawford feels lost without the everyday, personal interactions with her students. Attracted by the salary and the potential for a career change, she considers an offer to become a beta player for a new Jane Austen virtual world within the VR universe of Allworld Online. Swallowing her fear, she accepts the position…and the invasive neural implant that will give her access to the virtual realm.

After a wrenching loss, Ben McDaniel tried to escape his grief by working in dangerous, war-torn places like Africa and the Middle East. Now he's back in his hometown and face-to-face with Aubrey Wellington, the hot-as-hell woman who is trouble with a capital T. Family and friends insist she's not the one to ease his pain, but Aubrey sparks an intense desire that gives Ben hope for the future.

Vampires and merpeople, angels and demons—the stories in this anthology imagine worlds where the only thing more powerful than the supernatural, is love. A girl in a graveyard goes on an unexpected date, a shipwrecked sailor makes a connection on a forbidden island, a piano melody summons a soul mate. Creatures of folktales and legend, of land and sea, of centuries past and life after life, all wrapped into one spellbinding compendium. Once you sink into its story, it’ll never let you go.

Historian Annie Gray takes us down the street and through the ages, from medieval marketplaces to the purpose-built concrete precincts of the 20th century. Peeping through the windows of tailors, tearooms and grocers, we explore everything from the toyshops of yesteryear - where curiosities were sold for adults, not children - to the birth of brands we shop at today.

Getting tangled up with another woman in crisis is the last thing rancher Caleb Snow needs. The handsome cowboy has been badly burned too many times. But this one feels different - Katherine Harper is injured and reeling after an ambush in which her nephew was kidnapped. Caleb wants nothing more than to protect the beautiful, headstrong woman and help her find the missing child. If only he could ignore the feelings she stirs in him. But as they search together, it's clear someone wants Katherine dead.

Standing on London’s Victoria docks with the wind biting through her shawl, Rose Munday realises she’s been abandoned by her sweetheart. She had risked everything to get to London, but, stumbling through the pea-soup fog, she has nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Scared and alone, Rose steps straight into danger, only to be rescued by two women with even less to their names - a woman of the night and her young sidekick, Sparrow.

Family is everything for the Murphy clan. Philip runs his business empire with the help of his brother, and dotes on his two sons who will, one day, take over. His wife Christine is his perfect match. She'd always dreamed of a big happy family and, when she married into the Murphys, she thought she'd found one. But when that illusion is shattered, she's already in too deep. The Murphys are dangerous and Christine can't unsee the horrors she has now been forced to open her eyes to. But nor can she escape them.

When Carrie Manning’s father dies, her mother, Esther, is heartbroken. Essie leaves London to convalesce with her good friend Lady Alice, and it is down to Carrie to look after her family and take charge of the shipping company that her father has left behind. But the company is in dire straits, forcing Carrie seek work as a companion to Maria Colville. When Carrie and Maria try to track down Maria’s mother, they have no idea of the secrets that they will discover. Secrets that link the Colvilles, the Mannings and figures from the past who return to England.

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World is the third book in the New York Times best-selling series for children. Packed with 100 all-new bedtime stories about the lives of incredible female figures from the past and the present, this volume recognizes women who left their birth countries for a multitude of reasons: Some for new opportunities, some out of necessity. Listeners will whip up a plate with Asma Khan, strategize global affairs alongside Madeleine Albright, venture into business with Rihanna, and many more.

Everyone knows about the Alperton Angels: the cult who brainwashed a teenage girl into believing that her baby was the anti-Christ. When the girl came to her senses and called the police, the Angels committed suicide and mother and baby disappeared into the care system. Now, author Amanda Bailey is writing a book on the case. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen; finding them will be the true-crime scoop of the year. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and also on the baby's trail.

International best-selling author Henning Mankell' s books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. In The Shadow Girls, author/poet Jesper Humlin struggles under the pall of a frustrating life. Everything from his personal relationships to his professional pursuits to his finances seems to be failing miserably. Then Jesper happens across a group of young immigrant girls and their stories of hardship and perseverance transform his outlook on life.

Living in a beautiful home on the edge of a council estate, Kara Bannon can’t imagine what it’s like to have nothing. An eerie phone call plays on her mind and within three days she loses everything – her job, her home and Justin, the only person she thought she could trust. Alone and terrified, she makes a decision that will change her life forever.

After serving eight years inside for armed robbery, Mitchell Swan comes home to find his family in chaos and his violent father-in-law to blame. Within hours, he moves out, taking only his middle son and leaving his other two children, Jordan and Sonny, to be dragged up by their mother. Growing up in the same street but in reality worlds apart, Eden’s life is vastly different from the Swan brothers. She endures the unimaginable at the hands of Gabriel, her father - a Jehovah’s Witness elder. But no one believes her.

After six months of intense training with the Directorate, Sienna Nealon finds herself on her first assignment - tracking a dangerous meta across the upper midwest. With Scott Byerly and Kat Forrest at her side, she'll face new enemies and receive help from unlikely allies as she stumbles across the truth behind the shadowy organization known only as Omega.

When Sarah Jepson’s mother Annie dies, Sarah is left with her little brother Tommy to care for. Alone in the world, the two of them must make a life for themselves in the wake of the terrible upbringing they have endured. But when Tommy is struck down by illness, Sarah’s new life collapses. Lost in grief, she turns to the handsome Roger to save her – only to find that he is not who he seems....

Annie Hyman Pratt's family business, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, consisted of 7 domestic "mom and pop shops" when she took it over. In just 7 years' time she scaled it by more than 1x, turning it into an international brand of 7+ stores before leading the company through a highly successful sale. Two decades later, Annie Pratt is a top-tier business consultant whose client list of 5+ companies and entrepreneurs includes Hay House, Jeff Walker, Gabrielle Bernstein, Susan Peirce Thompson, Erico Rocha, and Christian Mickelsen.