Showing results by narrator "Jack Hawkins" in All Categories

Stephanie doesn’t believe in fate, true love, or living happily ever after. She’s content enough being married to Matt. But then she meets Jamie, who understands her more than anyone else ever has. Jamie’s married to his childhood sweetheart and believes in everything Stephanie doesn’t. He’s happy with Helen. So why does he have such a strong connection with Stephanie? When Stephanie and Jamie meet one fateful weekend in 2006, it sparks a tumultuous relationship that spans over a decade. The day they meet changes everything....

Some agents have all the fun. Others save the world. Bob Howard is an IT expert and occasional field agent for The Laundry, the branch of Her Majesty's Secret Service that deals with occult threats. Dressed (grudgingly) in a tux and sent to the Caribbean, he must infiltrate a millionaire's yacht in order to prevent him violating a treaty that will start a war with an ancient underwater race.

Former SAS major Ben Hope is relaxing at his home in Normandy when he hears the worst news of his life. His ex-girlfriend, Dr Brooke Marcel, has been kidnapped. Racing against the clock, Ben's frantic search for Brooke leads him from Ireland to the Spanish mountains and the rainforests of Peru. What is the mysterious link between the kidnapping, the salvage of a sunken 16th-century Spanish warship and the secret activities of its wealthy discoverer?

A young man named Samuel dies in a horrible car crash. Was it an accident, or was it suicide? To answer that question, an unnamed writer with an agenda of his own sets out to map Samuel's last day alive. Through conversations with friends, relatives, and neighbors, a portrait of Samuel emerges: the loving grandchild, the reluctant bureaucrat, the loyal friend, the contrived poseur. The young man who did everything for his girlfriend, Laide, and shared everything with his best friend, Vandad.

Just how do you become a barrister? And why do only one per cent of those who study law succeed in joining this mysteriously opaque profession? If it’s such a great occupation, how come you work 100-hour weeks for less than minimum wage? And why might a practising barrister come to feel the need to reveal the lies, secrets, failures and crises at the heart of this world of wigs and gowns? Nothing but the Truth charts an outsider’s progress down the winding path towards practising at the Bar,

With his father dead, Martyn has a choice. Tell the police what happened - and be suspected of murder. Or get rid of the body and get on with the rest of his life. Simple, right? Not quite. One story leads to another. Secrets and lies become darker and crazier. And Martyn is faced with twist and turns that leave him reeling. Life is never easy. But death is even harder.

Prince Anders, the ruler of Archenfield, has been murdered, leaving his younger brother, Jared, to ascend the throne. Sixteen-year-old Jared feels unprepared to rule the kingdom and its powerful and dangerous court, yet he knows he can rely on the 12 officers of the court to advise him. He also knows he can just as easily be at their mercy - especially when it appears that one of them may be responsible for his brother's death. Unable to trust anyone, Jared takes it upon himself to hunt down his brother's killer - but the killer may be hunting him, as well.

School teacher Ben is driving on the motorway, on his usual commute to work. A day like any other.... Except for one man who, in a final despairing act, jumps in front of Ben's car, turning the teacher's world upside down in a single horrifying instant.... Wracked with guilt and desperate to clear his conscience, he develops a friendship with Alice, the dead man's wife, and her seven-year-old son Max.

'The situation as far as I'm concerned', says the young narrator-hero of MF, 'is an interesting one. In two days in a strange country I've acquired a mother in the form of a Welsh-speaking Bird Queen who scares me. I've spent some hours in prison, I've discovered the works of an unknown superlative artist in a garden shed and I've been shot at by a riddling lion-faced expert on Bishop Berkeley. Most interesting of all I'm due tonight to be married by a circus clown to my own sister.'

London can drain the life out of you.... Bob Howard is an intelligence agent working his way through the ranks of the top-secret government agency known as the Laundry. When occult powers threaten the realm, they'll be there to clean up the mess - and deal with the witnesses. There's one kind of threat that the Laundry has never come across in its many decades, and that's vampires. Mention them to a seasoned agent, and you'll be laughed out of the room.

Kenzie's 12 marks have caused her nothing but trouble since she was blessed with them. From getting her treated differently at school to getting her kidnapped by rebels, her marks have caused chaos in her life. When a familiar face shows up in the warehouse she is being kept in, Kenzie doesn't know who to trust or what to believe anymore. With time running out to escape and the threat of the rebel's plans looming over her, can Kenzie overcome these challenges?

The second instalment of Ian Irvine's dramatic epic fantasy series, The Song of the Tears. Beset by false friends and the weight of a world's expectations, Nish flees his father, the God-Emperor - always searching for the means to orchestrate his downfall. Nish's reluctant allies are Maelys, who believes he betrayed her family; former scrutator Xervish Flydd, now stripped of power; and Colm, whom Nish owes a favour he can never repay.

Thomas of Hookton, a veteran of Crecy and many other battles, is the leader of a mercenary company of bowmen and men-at-arms who ravage the countryside east of Gascony. Edward, Prince of Wales, later to be known as the Black Prince, is assembling an army to fight the French once more, but before Thomas can join, he must fulfil an urgent task.

Bob Howard's career in the Laundry, the secret British government agency dedicated to protecting the world from the supernatural, has involved brilliant hacking, ancient magic and combat with creatures of pure evil. Now the Laundry's existence has become public, and Bob is being trotted out on TV to answer pointed questions about elven asylum seekers.

Alex Schwartz had a great job and a promising future - until he caught an unfortunate bout of vampirism and agreed (on pain of death) to join the Laundry, Britain's only counter-occult secret intelligence agency. His first assignment is in Leeds - his old hometown. But the thought of telling his parents he's lost his job, let alone their discovering his 'condition', is causing Alex almost as much anxiety as his new lifestyle of supernatural espionage. His only saving grace is Cassie Brewer, a student from the local Goth Festival.

The dramatic concluding volume in an epic tale of hope in the face of adversity. Nish, his battered little troop and his few remaining allies are trapped on the Range of Ruin by the God-Emperor's mighty army. Nish's only choices are a humiliating surrender to his father or a suicidal fight to the death. Yet Nish has to fight, and somehow he has to win, for the beautiful world of Santhenar is in peril and no-one else can save it.

Jack Urwin's father died just before Jack turned 10. Being male, he never really learned to talk about this with any kind of sincerity. His grief stayed with him through his teens, slowly becoming depression. Now 24 and a journalist whose recent Vice article, A Stiff Upper Lip Is Killing British Men - described as 'fabulous' by Irvine Welsh - became a viral sensation, Urwin explores what it means to be a man now.

Cold Hill House has been demolished to make way for a new housing estate. Luxury living at its best with high specification gadgets all thrown in - part exchange available for the right buyers. The first two families move in, and as soon as they do, the unearthly residents of Cold Hill begin to make themselves known. Nobody who moves into Cold Hill reaches their 40th birthday, and the old couple that have just arrived...let’s just say their days are numbered.

In a harbour town long ago, a boy is entranced by his uncle's stories of adventure in lands far away. Ignoring the crazy talk of the harbour pilot's son about the uncle being the Devil, the boy boards a ship with his uncle. But the uncle soon makes enemies of the captain and crew and, in frustration at their superstition, kills an albatross that has befriended the ship. As the ship sails on, madness and death ensue, and the boy and the crew face unimaginable horrors. A superbly gripping and haunting tale for fans of all classic horror.

It's a deadly game of hide and seek. Liam Scott has joined Recce Platoon, and it looks like he will be heading for Somalia. His mission is to gather intelligence from behind enemy lines, carrying out top-secret surveillance and dead-letter drops. But he's new to the game and there's a lot to learn. Soon Liam is monitoring a den of Al Shabaab militants and hunting a key terrorist target. Can Recce Platoon find their man and get out undiscovered? If the militants find them first, it's game over...