
Almost a Hero
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $13.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Anne Dover
-
By:
-
Ken McCoy
About this listen
Billie Challinor's mother dies during an air raid, but the child grows up confident that in her jazz musician father, Chas, she has the best dad in the world. They seek refuge from the London Blitz by moving to Leeds, where kindly landlady Liz Morris befriends them: the scarred, wisecracking man who isn't afraid to overstep the mark if the cause is a good one and his clever and resilient little girl.
Billie needs every ounce of courage she possesses when her father joins the army just before the D-Day landings and fails to return. Though Liz is happy to raise the child as her own, Billie is claimed by her Uncle Cedric, an outwardly respectable and prosperous solicitor. But he is also a ruthless criminal mastermind who will stop at nothing to secure the fortune to which Billie is sole heiress.
Confident of his superior strength and cunning, he foolishly overlooks the fact that she is her father's daughter: resourceful, quick witted, and ready to seize any chance she can to escape his deadly clutches and return to her beloved Aunt Liz.
©2014 Ken McCoy (P)2015 Hachette DigitalListeners also enjoyed...
-
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Lisette Lecat
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mma "Precious" Ramotswe sets up a detective agency in Botswana on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, making her the only female detective in the country. At first, cases are hard to come by. But eventually, troubled people come to Precious with a variety of concerns. Potentially philandering husbands, seemingly schizophrenic doctors, and a missing boy who may have been killed by witch doctors all compel Precious to roam about in her tiny van, searching for clues.
-
-
Transcends its Genre
- By Gene on 12-07-03
-
An Accidental Death
- A DC Smith Investigation Series, Book 1
- By: Peter Grainger
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story opens with the apparently accidental drowning of a sixth form student in the Norfolk countryside. As a matter of routine, or so it seems, the case passes across the desk of Detective Sergeant Smith, recently returned to work after an internal investigation into another case that has led to tensions between officers at Kings Lake police headquarters. As an ex-DCI, Smith could have retired by now, and it is clear that some of his superiors wish that he would do so.
-
-
Excellent British Mystery
- By Customer on 09-07-16
By: Peter Grainger
-
No Name Lane
- By: Howard Linskey
- Narrated by: David Leon
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hunt for a serial killer unearths an unsolved cold case from over 60 years ago. Young girls are being abducted and murdered in the Northeast. Out of favour detective constable Ian Bradshaw struggles to find any leads - and fears that the only thing this investigation will unravel is himself. Journalist Tom Carney is suspended by his London tabloid and returns to his home village in County Durham. Helen Norton is the reporter who replaced Tom on the local newspaper. Together they are drawn into a case that will change their lives forever.
-
-
A Lot to Like, but Weak Narration
- By Carole T. on 07-18-16
By: Howard Linskey
-
Evans Above
- By: Rhys Bowen
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evan Evans is a young police constable who has traded in the violence of city life for idyllic Llanfair, a Welsh village tucked far away from trouble. Nestled among the Snowdonia mountain range, Llanfair looks to Constable Evans like a town forgotten by time, but he quickly learns that even the bucolic countryside has its share of eccentric - and deadly - characters.
-
-
Interesting....
- By brian on 01-22-17
By: Rhys Bowen
-
The Irish Inheritance
- Jayne Sinclair Genealogical Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: M. J. Lee
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
July 8, 1921. Ireland. A British Officer is shot dead on a remote hillside south of Dublin. November 22, 2015. United Kingdom. Former police detective Jayne Sinclair, now working as a genealogical investigator, receives a phone call from an adopted American billionaire asking her to discover the identity of his real father. How are the two events linked? Jayne Sinclair has only three clues to help her: a photocopied birth certificate, a stolen book, and an old photograph.
-
-
Why the foul language?
- By Tim Delaney on 06-19-17
By: M. J. Lee
-
The Return of Captain John Emmett
- A Laurence Bartram Mystery, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth Speller
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of the Great War and a devastating family tragedy, Laurence Bartram has turned his back on the world. But with a well-timed letter, an old flame manages to draw him back in. Mary Emmett's brother John - like Laurence, an officer during the war - has apparently killed himself while in the care of a remote veterans' hospital, and Mary needs to know why. What connects a group of war poets, a feud within Emmett's regiment, and a hidden love affair? Was Emmett's death really a suicide or the missing piece in a series of murders?
-
-
Love, Lies, Revenge, War and Truth.
- By Sara on 10-31-14
-
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Lisette Lecat
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mma "Precious" Ramotswe sets up a detective agency in Botswana on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, making her the only female detective in the country. At first, cases are hard to come by. But eventually, troubled people come to Precious with a variety of concerns. Potentially philandering husbands, seemingly schizophrenic doctors, and a missing boy who may have been killed by witch doctors all compel Precious to roam about in her tiny van, searching for clues.
-
-
Transcends its Genre
- By Gene on 12-07-03
-
An Accidental Death
- A DC Smith Investigation Series, Book 1
- By: Peter Grainger
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story opens with the apparently accidental drowning of a sixth form student in the Norfolk countryside. As a matter of routine, or so it seems, the case passes across the desk of Detective Sergeant Smith, recently returned to work after an internal investigation into another case that has led to tensions between officers at Kings Lake police headquarters. As an ex-DCI, Smith could have retired by now, and it is clear that some of his superiors wish that he would do so.
-
-
Excellent British Mystery
- By Customer on 09-07-16
By: Peter Grainger
-
No Name Lane
- By: Howard Linskey
- Narrated by: David Leon
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hunt for a serial killer unearths an unsolved cold case from over 60 years ago. Young girls are being abducted and murdered in the Northeast. Out of favour detective constable Ian Bradshaw struggles to find any leads - and fears that the only thing this investigation will unravel is himself. Journalist Tom Carney is suspended by his London tabloid and returns to his home village in County Durham. Helen Norton is the reporter who replaced Tom on the local newspaper. Together they are drawn into a case that will change their lives forever.
-
-
A Lot to Like, but Weak Narration
- By Carole T. on 07-18-16
By: Howard Linskey
-
Evans Above
- By: Rhys Bowen
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evan Evans is a young police constable who has traded in the violence of city life for idyllic Llanfair, a Welsh village tucked far away from trouble. Nestled among the Snowdonia mountain range, Llanfair looks to Constable Evans like a town forgotten by time, but he quickly learns that even the bucolic countryside has its share of eccentric - and deadly - characters.
-
-
Interesting....
- By brian on 01-22-17
By: Rhys Bowen
-
The Irish Inheritance
- Jayne Sinclair Genealogical Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: M. J. Lee
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
July 8, 1921. Ireland. A British Officer is shot dead on a remote hillside south of Dublin. November 22, 2015. United Kingdom. Former police detective Jayne Sinclair, now working as a genealogical investigator, receives a phone call from an adopted American billionaire asking her to discover the identity of his real father. How are the two events linked? Jayne Sinclair has only three clues to help her: a photocopied birth certificate, a stolen book, and an old photograph.
-
-
Why the foul language?
- By Tim Delaney on 06-19-17
By: M. J. Lee
-
The Return of Captain John Emmett
- A Laurence Bartram Mystery, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth Speller
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of the Great War and a devastating family tragedy, Laurence Bartram has turned his back on the world. But with a well-timed letter, an old flame manages to draw him back in. Mary Emmett's brother John - like Laurence, an officer during the war - has apparently killed himself while in the care of a remote veterans' hospital, and Mary needs to know why. What connects a group of war poets, a feud within Emmett's regiment, and a hidden love affair? Was Emmett's death really a suicide or the missing piece in a series of murders?
-
-
Love, Lies, Revenge, War and Truth.
- By Sara on 10-31-14
-
Flesh Wounds
- An Inspector Troy Novel
- By: John Lawton
- Narrated by: Lewis Hancock
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An old flame has returned to Chief Inspector Frederick Troy's life: Kitty Stilton, wife of an American presidential hopeful. Private eye Joey Rork has been hired to make sure Kitty's amorous liaisons with a rat pack crooner don't ruin her husband's political career. But he also wants to know why Kitty has been spotted with Danny Ryan, whose twin brothers, in addition to owning one of London's hottest jazz clubs, are said to have inherited the crime empire of fallen mobster Alf Marx. Before Rork can find out, he meets a gruesome end.
-
-
Disgusting...do not waste your time
- By zoe2010 on 04-04-21
By: John Lawton
-
Shadow of a Century
- By: Jean Grainger
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary Doyle arrives in Dublin in 1913, doomed, she fears, to a life of domestic service. Instead, however, she finds herself deeply affected by the social and political turmoil of a fledgling nation struggling for independence. Suddenly, all that was once inevitable is no longer a certainty as she is embroiled in the very heart of the Easter Rising.
-
-
Loved this book!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-14-20
By: Jean Grainger
-
Dominion
- By: C.J. Sansom
- Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany. The global economy strains against the weight of the long German war against Russia still raging in the east. The British people find themselves under increasingly authoritarian rule - the press, radio, and television tightly controlled, the British Jews facing ever greater constraints.
-
-
Weak Tale Marred by Bias & Prejudice
- By Bill on 09-15-14
By: C.J. Sansom
-
Dead Wrong
- Calladine and Bayliss, Book 1
- By: Helen H. Durrant
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First a shooting, then a grisly discovery on the common.... Police partners, D.I. Calladine and D.S. Ruth Bayliss race against time to track down a killer before the whole area erupts in violence. Their boss thinks it's all down to drug lord Ray Fallon, but Calladine's instincts say something far nastier is happening on the Hobfield housing estate. Can this duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies and before the press publicise the gruesome crimes?
-
-
Good enough to go forward in the series..
- By Trish R. on 11-10-16
By: Helen H. Durrant
-
The 13th Apostle
- A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising
- By: Dermot McEvoy
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 19 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, the first great revolution of the twentieth century began as working-class men and women occupied buildings throughout Dublin, Ireland, including the general post office on O’Connell Street. Among the commoners in the GPO was a young staff captain of the Irish Volunteers named Michael Collins. He was joined a day later by a fourteen-year-old messenger boy, Eoin Kavanagh.
-
-
Enjoyed the history, not the bad sex
- By Mark on 05-04-16
By: Dermot McEvoy
-
Doctor Who
- Beautiful Chaos
- By: Gary Russell
- Narrated by: Bernard Cribbins
- Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donna Noble is back home in London, catching up withher family and generally giving them all the gossip about her journeys. Her grandfather is especially overjoyed - he's discovered a new star and had it named after him. He takes the Doctor, as his special guest, to the naming ceremony. But the Doctor is suspicious about some of the other changes hecan see in the Earth's heavens. Particularly that bright star, right there. No, not that one, that one, there, on the left...
-
-
Beautiful Chaos, beautiful book
- By Andrew on 07-13-09
By: Gary Russell
-
A Fatal End
- By: Faith Martin
- Narrated by: Stephanie Racine
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a backstreet club, people dance the night away to their favourite band. But behind the scenes there is trouble afoot. An argument is brewing between bandmembers, two possessive girlfriends have plans for their partners the club manager is creaming off profits—and a tragic accident leaves the lead singer dead. But was it an accident at all? Coroner Clement Ryder is suspicious, and WPC Trudy Loveday knows there’s only one thing for it. She’s going undercover, deep into the seedy underbelly of Oxford nightlife.
-
-
I love British female detective series. I have several, but this is the best. Thank you.m
- By Thomas on 06-06-24
By: Faith Martin
-
Buried
- DC Jack Warr, Book 1
- By: Lynda La Plante
- Narrated by: Alex Hassell, Annie Aldington
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack Warr is a young DC with the Metropolitan Police. Charming but aimless, Jack can't seem to find his place in the world - until he's drawn into an investigation that turns his life upside down. In the aftermath of a fire at a derelict cottage, a badly charred body is discovered, along with the burnt remnants of millions of stolen, untraceable bank notes - the hidden legacy of Dolly Rawlins and her gang of Widows. Jack's assignment to the case coincides with an investigation into his own past.
-
-
Boring Narrator
- By Donna on 04-02-20
By: Lynda La Plante
-
The Best Man to Die
- An Inspector Wexford Mystery
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who could have suspected that the exciting stag party for the groom would be the prelude to the murder of his close friend Charlie Hatton? And Charlie's death was only the first in a string of puzzling murders involving small-time gangsters, cheating husbands, and loose women. Now Chief Inspector Wexford and his assistant join forces with the groom to track down a killer....
-
-
Classic who-dunnit
- By Kathi on 02-24-13
By: Ruth Rendell
-
Silvermeadow
- A Kathy and Brock Mystery, Book 5
- By: Barry Maitland
- Narrated by: Angele Masters
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When his longtime nemesis, the amphetamine-juiced killer known as "Upper" North, is spotted in England, Detective Chief Inspector Brock is on the trail. His manhunt centers on Silvermeadow, a huge and glittery new shopping mall on the outskirts of London, where North was seen. Lying in wait, he and Kathy Kolla take on a seemingly unrelated case as camouflage, that of a missing girl who had worked in the mall. But what to make of the rumor of other girls gone missing?
-
-
love this author - thank you for adding him
- By L on 04-30-13
By: Barry Maitland
-
The Boy They Tried to Hide
- The true story of a son, forgotten by society
- By: Shane Dunphy
- Narrated by: Shane Dunphy
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Boy They Tried to Hide is the startling true account of how truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.... Shane Dunphy was working as a resource teacher in a rural town when he was approached by the mother of one of his pupils, seeking help. She is worried for her troubled young son, who has been found leaving the house late at night to go deep into the woods near their home. He has spoken of meetings with a friend, Thomas, but no one else has seen him or knows who he is.
-
-
Gripping
- By BSUforever on 10-13-17
By: Shane Dunphy
-
A Man with One of Those Faces
- By: Caimh McDonnell
- Narrated by: Morgan C. Jones
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first time somebody tried to kill him was an accident. The second time was deliberate. Now Paul Mulchrone finds himself on the run with nobody to turn to except a nurse who has read one-too-many crime novels and a renegade copper with a penchant for violence. Together they must solve one of the most notorious crimes in Irish history. Or else they’ll be history.
-
-
Not easily pleased
- By Anna on 08-30-18
By: Caimh McDonnell
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Almost a Hero
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Grace76
- 04-08-18
What a find!
I loved this Historical fiction novel. Wonderful characters that you quickly learned to love or hate. I believe I finished this in 2 days. just couldn't put it down.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!