Showing results by narrator "Dan Bottomley" in All Categories

Nowhere is safe. No one can be trusted. A bloodied body is found in a Manchester Immigrant Removal Centre. The investigating officer and the pathologist seem certain: a suicide. But for DI Ridpath something doesn't add up. As the evidence starts to unravel, and with few leads, the pressure is on to find answers before the Inquest is closed. Caught between the police, the coroner and a system that doesn't care, Ridpath isn't making any friends.

The past is never over. It's just waiting for an opportunity to return... When the notorious serial killer the Beast of Manchester was captured, the streets should have been safe. Except the police got the wrong man. An innocent person was convicted, and only later was the culprit put away. Now, those connected to the case are being targeted. Someone wants revenge. DI Thomas Ridpath has to relive the horrors all over again. As the bodies stack up once more, Ridpath knows the answers lie in the mistakes made the first time round.

Ron Fawcett is a natural-born climber. In 1969, while still at school in his native Yorkshire, he tied into a climbing rope for the first time and was instantly hooked. From that moment on, it seemed nothing else in his life mattered nearly as much as his next vertical fix... Fawcett found the pressures of the limelight too much to bear, and at the end of the 1980s he faded from view. Now, for the first time, he tells his extraordinary story, of how his love of nature and the outdoors developed into a passion for climbing that took him to the top - and almost consumed him.

Join Stella Starflake Pearl and her three fellow explorers as they trek across the snowy Icelands and come face-to-face with frost fairies, snow queens, outlaw hideouts, unicorns, pygmy dinosaurs and carnivorous cabbages.... When Stella and three other junior explorers get separated from their expedition, will they be able to cross the frozen wilderness and live to tell the tale?

Podkin is the son of a warrior chieftain. He knows that one day it will be up to him to lead his warren and guard it in times of danger. But for now, he's quite happy to laze around. Then Podkin's home is brutally attacked, and the young rabbits are forced to flee. With danger all around them, Podkin must protect his family and attempt to defeat the most horrifying enemy rabbitkind has ever known.

Stella Starflake Pearl is eagerly anticipating her next expedition. Suddenly disaster strikes when Stella's father, Felix, is snatched by a fearsome witch. Stella must bring her magic ice princess tiara to Witch Mountain or she will never see Felix again! But no one ever returns from Witch Mountain.... Stella, Ethan, Shay, Beanie and reluctant Jungle Cat explorer Percival set off into the unknown. They will face terrifying bat caves, poisonous apple groves, outraged vultures, argumentative mushrooms and deranged broomsticks in their quest to rescue Felix.

A death in custody. A life in jeopardy. When Ben Holdsworth dies alone in a police cell, riots erupt in Manchester. But after a post mortem, the authorities have decided nobody was to blame. DI Ridpath is asked to investigate by the coroner before an inquest, and immediately uncovers some discrepancies in the witness statements. Why was the CCTV not working that night? Where was the custody sergeant, and did he know the victim? Wherever he turns there are lies and gaps. It's a dangerous game and the net is closing... On Ridpath himself.

Ice princess Stella Starflake and her father Felix are in trouble: President Fogg has expelled them from the Polar Bear Explorers' Club and banned them from going on any further expeditions. Stella's not going to be put off by rules and regulations, though. She knows her friend Shay is in danger of turning into a witch wolf himself, since receiving a deadly bite on their last adventure. It's vital that Stella and her friends set out to find the spellbook that could save his life, even if it means travelling over the cursed Black Ice Bridge.

An astonishing finale that brings this nine book series to a close. Podkin and his crew have brought all the gifts together—and the gifts melt and morph before their eyes, transforming into a suit of armour—that will only fit a rabbit with one ear!

Two desiccated bodies are found in each other's arms in the bricked up room of a derelict Victorian warehouse. After six months of work, the police have nothing and Ridpath is finally called in to investigate. Dubbed the Romeo and Juliet murders by the press, so many questions remain unanswered. Who are they? Why were they there? Who killed them? And why was the coroner so keen for him to work on this particular case?

Danny Mack's mates are brilliant: there's his best mate Giraffles (yeh, you read that right), so-called because of his unusually long neck; the MandM twins (you got it - like the chocolate) who are always finishing each other's sentences; and Lucky Success, who, well I reckon you can guess how he got his name. They're the best mates a kid could ask for, and when an epic school trip is announced, they're all properly made up about it. Because school trips are just an excuse to have a big laugh with your mates, right? Erm, wrong.

Ben has no qualms about signing up for the Evergreens project, a controversial new trial. But are the promises of life without aging too good to be true? Sophie has no doubt that they are. And sixty-five years down the line, she gets the chance to find out. With Ben in hospital, unresponsive and aging rapidly before her very eyes, can Sophie uncover the dark secret at the heart of the Evergreens project—and save Ben's life in the process?

In the fifth magical adventure in the series from the creators of the Fairytale Hairdresser, Tibben, the Potions Master's apprentice, and his friend Wizz must journey to the Parched Desert to get to the bottom of the mystery fierce hot winds which are blowing sand all over the Kingdom of Arthwen!

Instantly acquire all the knowledge you need to pass as an expert in the world of canine canniness. Never again confuse your BARF with your bite, your BAER with your bark, or your British bulldog with your Bavarian boarhound. Bask in the admiration of your fellow dog lovers as you pronounce confidently on the evolution of the family known as Canidae and hold your own against the most dogmatic of self-professed dog professionals.

Podkin and his fellow rabbits have been sheltering in Dark Hollow after their battle with Scramashank. Paz tends to the rabbits with sleeping sickness; Crom meets with the war council...Podkin has nothing to do! Frustrated, Podkin goes exploring and discovers an abandoned underground chamber. Armed with the Gift of Dark Hollow, Podkin learns to moonstride, and Paz is rewarded with a magical gift of her own.

The earth has shifted on its axis and a mysterious dark mark has appeared on the sun—the whole world is in peril! But billionaire tech genius Howard Hansom has a plan... When Grian's sister goes missing he's convinced she has run off to Hansom's new city to help save the world. But when Grian and his two friends Jeffrey and Shelli track her there they find that nothing is quite as it seems. Why is everything so secret? Where is the mysterious Area 13? What does Howard Hansom want with all the people he has enticed to live in his city?

Alex Neptune is struggling to get to grips with his new oceanic powers...so the last thing he needs is Haven Bay being attacked by pirates in a ship made of rubbish. The marauders are hunting for the missing egg of the elusive water dragon—and Alex is determined to reach it first to stop them stealing its power. Along with friends Zoey and Anil—plus a clumsy seal, a lock-picking hermit crab and some seriously menacing otters—Alex sets out on a treasure hunt to a secret shipwreck where they must face three monstrous challenges.

The time has come for young Tibben to take the test to become the new Potions Master. But he's going to need some help along the way, and the Emerald Dragon might well have to lend a hand...or a wing! The Magic Faraway Tree meets Worst Witch - a magical young fiction series, perfect for first-time listeners.

This year the secret service made a major mix -up. They mistook a 13-year-old boy called Kevin for a secret agent (I know, so much for an 'intelligence' agency). This was the sort of kid that would try and zip wire across a building and end up falling headfirst into a fountain, with his bum on show. Despite this, it is up to Kevin to save us all from an evil supervillain!

From an irresponsible baron whose body is discovered beneath a silver birch tree, to a classic detective duo solving a historic case as the lights go out across Europe, and an exclusive Tony Hill and Carol Jordan story, the characters McDermid conjures are enigmatic and dangerous. These evocative, atmospheric tales will shock and delight.