Showing results by narrator "Kate Rawson" in All Categories

Maddie's getting it from all sides. Her bitchy new boss at the radio station humiliates her live on air about her figure, her glamour-puss mum keeps dropping not-so-subtle hints that Maddie should lose weight, and her kids are embarrassed to be seen with her after the disastrous mums' race at their school sports day. Something's got to change. Maddie joins the local weight-watching group expecting more humiliation but instead finds two unlikely allies.

When Maeve O’Brien’s boss sends her to a dreary old island to finalise some paperwork, she couldn’t be happier. It’s the career boost she needs to become a fully fledged lawyer - besides, it hasn’t been so great on the home front in Dublin. Maeve’s oldest friend and flatmate has kicked her out, and moving back in with her uptight mother has been less than cosy. But her reception on Hy Brasil, a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, couldn’t be any more hostile - it’s as if the island itself wants her gone.

It's a sweltering summer's day, and Anja Aropalo is on her way home with two errands in mind: first, to water the roses, and then to commit suicide. She is slowly losing her husband to Alzheimer's disease, and she has made him a terrible promise - one she's not sure she can keep. For Anja's niece, Mari, death is a teenage fantasy of grieving family and eternal beauty, an escape from the dullness of her life.

Set in the fictional city of Maardam, each story is linked by themes of secrets coming to light, lies being exposed and pasts coming back to haunt the people who thought they had fled them - all told in Håkan Nesser’s signature style of dark, cutting prose that displays a true understanding of human nature. The collection is the basis for a trilogy of international films - Dear Agnes, Death of an Author and Samaria - directed by Daniel Alfredson and starring Ben Kingsley and Gemma Chan.

The Red Room is a terrifying and gripping psychological thriller from the Top Ten bestselling author, Nicci French. Enter the Red Room - where nightmares become reality. He almost took your life. Now his is in your hands… After psychologist Kit Quinn is brutally attacked by a prisoner, she is determined to get straight back to work. When the police want her help in linking the man who attacked her to a series of murders, she refuses to simply accept the obvious.

Vivian, a student nurse, chose her profession as a challenge, both to her spirit and to her permanently exhausted body; Mic immerses himself in his work at the hospital to ward off the emotional wounds of an unhappy childhood. Through Jan, Viv's beloved older brother, they meet, and their friendship turns into a secret romance. Secret because, if discovered, it would cost them their jobs.

A juicy, powerful listen featuring twin sisters who have drifted apart and the shocking family secrets that bind them.... Robin and Sarah weren't the closest of twins. They weren't even that similar. But they loved each other dearly. Until, in the cruellest of domestic twists, they were taken from one another. Now in her early 30s, Robin lives alone. Agoraphobic and suffering from panic attacks, she spends her days pacing the rooms of her house. The rest of the time she watches - watches the street, the houses, the neighbours.

Thwarted in her desire to become a doctor like her brother, Robert, Pips Maitland rebels against her mother's wishes that she settle down and raise children. However, when Robert brings home a friend from medical school, Giles Kendall, it seems perhaps Pips might fall in love with an acceptable suitor after all. But the year is 1914, and the future is uncertain. Hearing that her father's friend, Dr John Hazelwood, is forming a flying ambulance corps to take to the front lines, Pips is determined to become one of its nurses and asks Alice Dawson, her maid, to go with her.

When India falls to her death from a bridge over a railway, her sister, Poppy, returns home to Brighton for the first time in years. Unconvinced by official explanations, Poppy begins her own investigation into India's death. But the deeper she digs, the closer she comes to uncovering deeply buried secrets. Could Matthew Temple, the boyfriend she abandoned, be involved? And what of his powerful and wealthy parents and his twin sister, Ana?

When Cassie sees a job advertised for a couple to run a remote Australian farm, she thinks it will be the perfect escape for her and Graham. But trapped under the baking sun of the outback, paranoia sets in. There's no radio and they send but never receive any letters. Their enigmatic and unusually forgiving boss Larry and his wife Mara have secrets, sedatives, and some very odd habits: a result of their isolated lifestyle or something more sinister?

London 2027. Terrorists deploy a highly sophisticated nerve agent called London Black at Waterloo station—for an unfortunate section of the population, what follows is agonising physical deterioration and usually death London 2029. DI Lucy Stone is called in to investigate the gruesome murder of the scientist who developed an antidote to the nerve agent. It is a daily boost, making life bearable for the 'Vulnerables'—but isn't a cure. Lucy suspects the scientist might have been working on a permanent solution to the nerve agent.

Fearing eternal singledom, childhood friends Kate and Paul make the age-old vow that if they don't find love by thirty, they will marry each other. Years later, with the deadline of their 30th birthdays approaching, the unlikely couple decide to keep their teenage promise. After all, they are such good friends. Surely that's enough to make a marriage?

A wonderfully strange yet poignant tale of accepting the truth about oneself. Magrit lives in an abandoned cemetery. She is as forgotten as the tiny graveyard that surrounds her. One night, a passing stork drops a strange bundle into the graveyard. Master Puppet, her friend and adviser, tells her it is an awful, ugly, terrible thing, and that she should get rid of it. But Magrit has other ideas.

Francine would prefer to be thinner but is happy enough to suffer her boss' manhandling of her ample hips if it helps her survive the next cull in quality assurance. She just wishes she could get the dead biker's crushed face out of her mind's eye. Robin is having a baby with the wrong woman, wishes he were with the perfect Polish waitress instead, leans hard on Deleuze for understanding, and wonders if his work in film will continue to be valued by the university management.

Joe has a beautiful house, a great job, no commitments - and he likes it like that. All he needs is a quiet house-sitter for his rambling old place by the sea. When Tess turns up on his doorstep, he's not sure she's right for the job. Where has she come from in such a hurry? Her past is a blank and she's something of an enigma. But there's something about her - even though sparks fly every time they meet. And it looks as though she's here to stay.

Marina's father, a naval captain, has been away for most of her life - certainly since her mother died - and yet Marina feels the pull of an ocean she's never known. When sent to boarding school to learn to be a lady, Marina decides instead to stow away on her father's ship. A perilous voyage awaits - but where are they sailing to and why, and what has it to do with the dark shape in the deep that seems to be following them?

It is the early 1920s, and the Maitland family are still coming to terms with the aftermath of the Great War. After her brave work as an ambulance driver and nurse close to the Front, Pips is restless and without purpose. Determined to enjoy life after the years of misery, and to help her forget a broken love affair, she seeks excitement in the London parties and balls of the Roaring '20s. No family or community escaped the ravages of this war, and Pips knows her own has its share of troubles.

Meg and her daughter Grace are the most beloved family in Ashford, the lynchpin that holds the town together. So when Meg is found brutally murdered and her daughter missing, the community is rocked by the tragedy. Her daughter, Grace, has been sick for years and all Meg has ever done is look after her. Now Meg is dead, Grace is gone - and fears are growing for her life.

June, 1905. Helena and her parrot, Orbit, are swept off to Cambridge when her father is appointed clock-winder to one of the wealthiest men in England. There is only one rule: the clocks must never stop. But Helena discovers the house of one hundred clocks holds many mysteries: a ghostly figure, strange notes and disappearing winding keys.... Can she work out its secrets before time runs out?

Sonja's over 40, and she's trying to move in the right direction. She's learning to drive. She's joined a meditation group. And she's attempting to reconnect with her sister. But Sonja would rather eat cake than meditate. Her driving instructor won't let her change gear. And her sister won't return her calls.