Showing results by narrator "Katherine Press" in All Categories

1952. In the fragile atmosphere of post-war Paris, Sophie Bernot is training as a heart surgeon. A young woman in a man's world, Sophie is determined to bury her past and forge her medical career, whatever the costs. Across the channel, Sebastian Ogilvie is burning with ambition for his first architectural project. As his schemes lead him to France, and to a chance encounter with Sophie, his future seems full of promise.

Clarry and her older brother, Peter, live for their summers in Cornwall, staying with their grandparents and running free with their charismatic cousin, Rupert. But normal life resumes each September - boarding school for Peter and Rupert, and a boring life for Clarry at home with her absent father, as the shadow of a terrible war looms ever closer. When Rupert goes off to fight at the front, Clarry feels their skylark summers are finally slipping away from them. Can their family survive this fearful war?

When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out. Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself.

A dark, gothic adventure set deep in a Bavarian forest, with angels and owls and magic and a boy who isn’t all that he seems to be. A cherub is blown into Cassie Engel’s bedroom during a thunderstorm, triggering a series of terrifying events. Cassie must discover if its arrival was an accident or part of something more sinister. With a self-obsessed opera singer for a mother, a strange taxidermist father and a best friend who isn’t quite what he seems, Cassie is forced to unearth the secrets of her family’s past.

Property magnate Max Silver is in trouble. His West End properties are starting to crumble, his assets are turning into liabilities, and his business empire's on the rocks. With the company in danger of going under, he shakes up his property portfolio, ditches his shiftless partner, Larry, and brings his brother Teddy and daughter Zara on board. Then the Lord Mayor of London asks him to build an iconic skyscraper in the heart of the capital - a 1,000-ft state-of-the-art tower that will show off London to the world, and be a defiant new national symbol.

Hiding in the seedy underbelly of Paris, Vernita is keeping her sick mother alive by selling exquisitely embroidered lingerie to a shop that supplies the Princess Pauline Borghese. When Vernita approaches the Princess directly with a new negligee, she is enchanted and employs Vernita as a personal servant. As an English noblewoman in the enemy French court, Vernita has to tread carefully. However, both the Princess’ handsome lover Count Axel de Storvik and the all-powerful Emperor Napoleon are making matters more complicated...

Martha is a feisty and articulate young woman, the daughter of a wheelwright, living in a Herefordshire village in Elizabethan England. Unusually for the time she is educated and so helps at the local school whilst longing to escape the confines and small-mindedness of a community riven by religious bigotry and poverty. As she is able to read and is well-versed in herbal remedies she is suspected of being a witch. When a landslip occurs - opening up a huge chasm in the centre of the village - she is blamed for it and pursued remorselessly by the villagers.

One sunny day in July, someone took three-month-old Alicia Owen from her pram outside a supermarket. Her mother, Marie, was inside. No one saw who took Alicia. And no one could find her....

Life-long friends Louisa, Jeannie and Kate are following in the footsteps of their families, working at the Clarks shoe factory. But when Britain declares war on Germany, the Somerset village of Street is shaken to its core. The Clarks factory is at the heart of life in the village, but the Clark family are Quakers and pacifists. Before long, there are fierce debates amongst the workers and tensions between those who oppose the war and those who believe the village men should go to fight.

When Luna’s family win an island, Luna thinks it will solve everything, and she can finally get a donkey! But things don’t go entirely to plan - no one expects Luna’s younger brother to win a Sheep Pageant, for example - and the secret festival they hold soon spirals out of control. But the island is beautiful, and the family are happy, and maybe Luna will get her donkey after all....

When the mutilated body of a police officer is found in a derelict factory, the Hamptonshire police force is shocked to the core. DCI Helen Lavery returns from injury leave and is immediately plunged into an investigation like no other. Is this a random attack or is someone targeting the force? Organised crime groups or a lone killer? As the net draws in, Helen finds the truth lies closer than she could have imagined and finds herself facing a twisted killer who will stop at nothing to ensure their secrets remain hidden. And time is running out.

Renee Gulliver appears to have it all: a beautiful house overlooking a scenic estuary on England’s East Coast, a successful career as a relationship therapist, three grown-up children, and a beloved grandson, Xavier. But then Xavier vanishes after Renee fails to pick him up from school, and the repercussions are manifold. Renee is wracked with remorse; the local community question her priorities, clients abandon her; and, as long-held grievances surface, her daughter Mia offers her a heartbreaking ultimatum.

Linnet wishes she could sing magic like her father, Nightingale—and bring the two sides of her island together again. For her land has been divided by a terrible tragedy, and Linnet has been banished with her father to the deepest swamps, leaving behind her best friends. When her father is captured, Linnet must be brave and embark on a treacherous journey. Through alligator pools and sinking sands, she finds new friends. Yet without her singing magic, Linnet discovers something even more powerful. Something that could save her father and heal the broken heart of her island.

Twelve-year-old Elsbeth has an extraordinary power: she can travel to parallel worlds and bring objects back with her. But as freak weather events become more frequent and a strange boy, Idris, starts to turn up everywhere she travels, she has to ask herself: does her gift come with a price?

Stuart Ingram was once a respected local councillor. The first time the police knocked on Gina's door, they arrested her husband. The second time, they accused him of child abuse. But he died a guilty man. This time, the police are here for Gina - to tell her that her husband is dead. Murdered, just two weeks before his trial. Gina always stood by her husband. Even when everyone else walked away. She believed the trial would clear his name. But now Stuart is dead. And his wife is the suspect.

Carla Craig is passionately in love with Richard Mere—he has a hold over her she can't resist. Even when her world is blown apart, Carla still can't put the affair behind her. And Avril Hayden, Carla's flamboyant and sensual friend, finds herself increasingly intrigued by this mysterious connection—a connection that won't go away. But as hidden truths are finally revealed, intrigue turns to fear, and risk to terrible danger.

Spring 1937: Teresa, a young Basque girl, is evacuated to London in the wake of the Guernica bombing. She thinks she has reached safety in the lofty halls of Rochester Place and the soothing arms of Mary Davidson, but trouble seeks her out wherever she goes. Autumn 2020: Corrine, an emergency services operator, receives a call from a distressed woman called Mary. But when the ambulance arrives at Rochester Place—the address the woman gave them—she is nowhere to be found.

When Tartelin Brown accepts a job with the reclusive Marianne Stourbridge, she finds herself on a wild island with a mysterious history. Tartelin is tasked with hunting butterflies for Marianne’s research. But she quickly uncovers something far more intriguing than the curious creatures that inhabit the landscape. Because the island and Marianne share a remarkable history, and what happened all those years ago, has left its scars and some terrible secrets. As Tartelin pieces together Marianne’s connection to the island, she must confront her own reasons for being there.

The year is 1607. When a catastrophic flood hits the Somerset coast, young sailor-in-disguise Fortune gets the blame. Locals are convinced witchcraft is at work. And Fortune - who is secretive, suspiciously good at swimming and, to everyone's surprise, a girl - is an obvious scapegoat. Even saving the life of her rival's only son doesn't clear her name. If anything, it makes matters worse....

There are more deities and daemons in the world than stars in the sky. But only Heartseers like Anise Star can see them—because only they still believe... Anise's job is to help humans and daemons live happily together. But when the villainous Mr Babbitt tries to steal her home in the White Woods and drive the daemons out, she is forced to travel to the capital to ask the High King for help. First, though, she'll have to convince him that daemons still exist.