Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

The banned books club was only the beginning; a place for the women of Prague to come together and share the tales the Germans wanted to silence. For bookshop owner, Jana, doing the right thing was never a question. So when opportunity comes to help the resistance, she offers herself – and her bookshop. Using her window displays as covert signals and hiding secret codes in book marks, she’ll do all in her power to help.

It is Coronation Year, 1953, and a new queen is about to be crowned. The people of London are in a mood to celebrate, none more so than the residents of the Blue Lion hotel. Edie Howard, owner and operator of the floundering Blue Lion, has found the miracle she needs: on Coronation Day, Queen Elizabeth in her gold coach will pass by the hotel’s front door, allowing Edie to charge a fortune for rooms and, barring disaster, save her beloved home from financial ruin. Edie’s luck might just be turning, all thanks to a young queen about her own age.

Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, & Detective Alan Grant: The Complete Collection is a wide-ranging collection of 20 classic detective novels and stories from three of the greatest crime writers of the 20th century and their most iconic characters.

Nicholas Lyon gambled his way into a fortune and ownership of the most opulent, notorious gentlemen’s club in England. But when Nick’s cruel brother dies, he inherits a title he never wanted. The sooner Nick is rid of the estate that has always haunted him, the sooner he can return to the life he’s built in London. But there’s one obstacle - the exquisite Thomasina Thorne.

Julia Volpe’s Italian dream has turned into a nightmare. Still living with her ex, Luca, a year after they’ve broken up, desperate to sell the dilapidated B&B that was meant to be their future, Jules knows she needs to leave. There are just two problems. Her passport has expired and she’s broke. Not quite ready to ask her parents for help – at the ripe old age of twenty-seven – Jules decides to head as far away from Luca as she can to work on an olive farm until she has enough money to pay for her passport and a ticket back home.

In the little hamlet of Lark Rise times are changing and Laura is growing up. Although she must attend the nearby village school, she would far rather read and make up stories in her head. Real-life excitement comes, however, when she and her beloved younger brother Edmund are allowed to walk on their own to the grand market town of Candleford to stay with their relatives one summer. There, Laura discovers the joys of the shops, the ways of boy-talk with her cousins and the secret world of 'Bookworms Ltd' with her Uncle Tom, before an offer arrives that will determine her future.

After her editor tells her she needs to "up the spice" in her books (literally Amber's worst nightmare...), she is at a crossroads of what to do with her career. When the opportunity arises to go on a writer's retreat at an exclusive château in the beautiful French Alps, Amber reluctantly agrees, hoping a change of scenery will help with inspiration. While she tries and fails to spice up her writing - with the unhelpful guidance of the eccentric romance writers at the château - she meets two leading men who cause her own real-life romantic comedy to unfold.

Emmy Palmer is the star of Bragadon Forest, the biggest fantasy series on TV, adored by the public, living the life of glamour and luxury in London. But when scandal breaks, Emmy must escape the city and return to her seaside hometown to lie low and wait for the storm to pass. And as tragedy strikes for her family, it is good timing to go back to her roots.

Holly has the place to herself this Christmas. It’s not her place, though – she is house-sitting for friends who live on Nightingale Square – just there to keep the place warm and cosy and only for long enough for her to sort her life out. Newly single and finding herself unsure about next steps for her career, she plans to hunker down and make some life decisions. To clear her mind, she sets off on early morning walks around a nearby lake and bumps into May, an older lady who is also new to the area, and her dapper Dachshund Monty.

Just 45 years ago, the age of gene modification was born. Researchers could create glow-in-the-dark mice, farmyard animals producing drugs in their milk, and vitamin-enhanced rice that could prevent half a million people going blind every year. But now GM is rapidly being supplanted by a new system called CRISPR or "gene editing". Using this approach, scientists can manipulate the genes of almost any organism with a degree of precision, ease and speed that we could only dream of ten years ago.

Lady Eleanor Swift is all set to spend her birthday with her beau, dashing Detective Hugh Seldon, until he calls to cancel on her again at the last minute. What’s a girl to do? Pack up her staff and her faithful old bulldog, Gladstone, and head off on a cruise to New York, that’s what!

When Óttar Karlsson, a wealthy and respected government official and businessman, is found murdered, after failing to turn up at his own surprise birthday party, the police are at a loss. It isn't until young police officer Sigurdís finds a well-hidden safe in his impersonal luxury apartment that clues start emerging. As Óttar's shady business dealings become clear, a second unexpected line of enquiry emerges, when Sigurdís finds a US phone number in the safe, along with papers showing regular money transfers to an American account.

While her friends join the 'Wife Club' one by one, Poppy feels like that part of her life is done and dusted. Already married and divorced she's not desperate to go through all that again. But what if her divorce never actually went through? After a shock revelation Poppy not only discovers she is still married, but that Zac is about to have his second wedding!

Summer, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift, the best amateur sleuth in the country, is delighted to be in charge of the prize-giving at her village summer fair. But the traditional homemade raft race takes a tragic turn when the local undertaker, Solemn Jon, turns up dead amongst the ducks. Jon was the life of any party and loved by the entire village. Surely this was simply an awful accident? But when a spiteful obituary is printed in the local paper, Eleanor realizes there may be more to Jon’s death than first thought.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Alan Grant Collection brings together two of the greatest crime writers of the 20th century and their most iconic characters. All 9 of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books are here - including 4 novels and 5 short story collections - and all 6 of the Inspector Alan Grant novels from Josephine Tey.

When Norah arrives in Venice for a 10-week internship, she is surprised to discover that her guide for her work trips around the lagoon is the undeniably gorgeous and kind Gianluca. She can’t help thinking he might be too good to be true, with his endless fascinating local stories and his infectious laugh. Norah is still bitter after an accident left her with a serious injury and also meant the end of her long-term relationship. And besides, she's serious about her career, and that means leaving Venice at the end of the summer.

It's the start of another school year at St. Ambrose. While the children are busy in the classroom, their mothers are learning sharper lessons. Lessons in friendship. Lessons in betrayal. Lessons in the laws of community, the transience of power...and how to get invited to lunch. The Hive is a wickedly funny and brilliantly observed story about female friendship, power plays, and the joys and perils (well, mainly perils) of trying to do one's part.

A history of the Renaissance told through the lives of its most influential patrons. From the late Middle Ages, the independent Italian city states were taken over by powerful families who installed themselves as dynastic rulers. Inspired by the humanists, the princes of 15th- and 16th-century Italy immersed themselves in the culture of antiquity, commissioning palaces, villas and churches inspired by the architecture of ancient Rome, and offering patronage to artists and writers.

Spring, 1935. Newlywed Kitty Underhay has been enlisted by her old nemesis Mrs. Craven to help organize the Miss Dartmouth Jubilee pageant at the Dolphin Hotel. Being bossed around by her arch enemy is not quite what Kitty had in mind for the start of her married life, but she’s excited to launch the glamorous show. Sparkling smiles are quickly replaced by audible gasps, however, when one of the girls goes missing during the interval....

Winter 1924. When Lady Eleanor Swift unexpectedly finds herself a guest of the reclusive Duke of Auldwyke, she’s determined to enjoy Christmas with all the trimmings at his sprawling manor house. And that includes kisses under the mistletoe and cozying up by the fire with her fiancé, dashing detective Hugh Seldon. Instead, the season of goodwill turns frosty as she finds the Duke’s studious secretary, Mr Porritt, dead in the storeroom. Clasped in his chilly hand is a golden pendant in the shape of a rose.