Showing results by narrator "Jane Collingwood" in All Categories

A modern re-imagining of the Gothic Classic Northanger Abbey by the bestselling crime author Val McDermid. The second book in The Austen Project. Seventeen-year-old Catherine ‘Cat' Morland has led a sheltered existence in rural Dorset, a life entirely bereft of the romance and excitement for which she yearns. So when Cat's wealthy neighbours, the Allens, invite her to Edinburgh Festival, she is sure adventure beckons.

Mr & Mrs Max Irving request the company of: Mrs Fran Friedman, mourning her empty nest, the galloping years, and a disastrous haircut. Mr Saul Friedman, avoider of conflicts and increasingly distant husband. The two Misses Friedmans, Pip and Katy, one pining over the man she can't have, the other trying to shake off the man she no longer wants. At the marriage of their son, James Irving, object of inappropriate and troubling desire. A dark, witty tale of a wife and her grown-up family whose secrets come shimmering to the surface at a wedding.

A mesmerising novel about obsessive love. Persephone Triebold has grown up in the strange desolation of the Scottish Highlands, raised by her anxious father and memories of her dead mother. Inexperienced in the rules of friendship, sex and love, Persephone takes the opportunity to replace uninhabited mountain ranges with city life and leaves to study for a degree in London.Parties, new friends and the polluted splendour of the capital intoxicate Persephone at first, but fail to supply her with the grand passion she wants.

The Wayland family - Lara and Marcus and their three children - leave England to spend a long, hot summer in Trout Island, Upstate New York. A chance meeting at a party reacquaints the family with Marcus's old actor friend, Stephen, with whom Lara once had an affair. Lara feels herself drawn towards Stephen and they pick up their secret relationship where they left off. Lara knows she's playing a dangerous game; what she doesn't know is that it's also a deadly one.

For anyone who is even thinking of getting married. The Stag and Hen Weekend is the story of Phil and Helen, a couple in their 30s about to commit their lives to one another . . . that is of course if they can just manage to get through their respective stag and hen weekends (his: Amsterdam; hers: a country house and day spa in the Peak District) without falling apart. Told in the unique form of two separate stories that have common characters as well as themes and conclusion. Feisty, fun and thought provoking.

Spitalfields, 1840. Catherine lives with her Uncle in a rambling house in London's East End, with little to occupy the days beyond her own colourful imagination. Then news reaches her of a disturbing murderer known as The Man of Crows. Catherine becomes more and more involved as she hungrily devours the news, and is soon snared in a deadly trap, where nothing is as it first appears...

How far would you go to keep someone else's secret when you're the one who stands to lose it all? Anna Kennedy loves her career. A young associate with a top media law firm, she's the lawyer to the stars, hiding their sins from the hungry media. When Anna fails to prevent a damaging story being printed about heart-throb movie star Sam Charles she finds herself fighting to save not only his reputation, but also her own.

It was supposed to be the perfect summer... On the luxurious private island of Angel Cay, four privileged students toast the end of their exams. Miles, Grace, Alex and Sasha have the world at their feet. But one dark night will change their perfect lives for ever. As the friends move into glamorous careers, in fashion, music and politics, each tries to put the past behind them.

This is a story about a woman. And the truck driver who mistook her for a prostitute. The old man she robbed and the hunters who smuggled her across the border. The woman whose name she stole, the wife who turned a blind eye. This is the story of a mother searching for her child. This is a story you cannot stop thinking about.

Marion Bishop's life has fallen apart. Her daughter Hope was killed in a hit-and-run accident six months ago, and now Sam, her beloved husband, has walked out. Left alone with her grief, Marion has begun to contemplate the unthinkable.

It is 1951, and sisters Ginny and Meredith have travelled from England to Spain in search of distraction and respite. The two wars have wreaked loss and deprivation upon the family and the spectre of Meredith's troubled childhood continues to haunt them. Their journey to the rugged peninsula of Catalonia promises hope and renewal. While there they discover the artist Salvador Dali is staying in nearby Port Lligat. Meredith is fascinated by modern art and longs to meet the famous surrealist.

Samantha Brooks' boyfriend has made a mistake: Jamie has booked himself a one-way flight to South America. Solo. But Sam isn't giving up without a fight. She hatches a plan that involves dirty tricks, plotting, and a single aim: to win him back. But by the time Jamie finally wakes up, a gorgeous new pretender has entered Sam's life. Which begs the question...does she still want him back?

When Nell's on-off boyfriend, Aidan, calls her into his office, losing her job is the last thing she expects. Heartbroken and unemployed to boot, she makes a radical decision to blow her redundancy cheque and escape to the untested waters of San Francisco. But is the glamour of the city too good to be true? And can Nell leave her past behind?

It is Autumn in Linköping and the heavens have opened, but not even these biblical rains can wash away the blood of crimes, past and present. Then the brutally-stabbed body of self-made Internet billionaire Jerry Petersson is discovered floating face down in the moat surrounding his home, the imposing Skogså Castle. Malin Fors, the brilliant but flawed star of the Linköping police force, is already struggling to keep her life together following the recent murder attempt on her teenage daughter, Tove.

Beth Lowe has been sent a parcel. Inside is a letter telling her that her long-estranged mother has died. There is also a scrapbook Beth has never seen before. Entitled The Book of Summers, it's stuffed with photographs and mementos compiled by her mother to record the seven glorious childhood summers that Beth spent in rural Hungary. It

Bea treads carefully on the thick carpet, quite deliberately like a servant. Her elder sister, Clemmie, tells her that it is "not done" to worry about being heard but Bea enjoys this oh-so-silent rebellion against convention. She teases back, "This is the twentieth century, Clem, things are about to change." London, 1914.

As the temperature in Sweden reaches a record-breaking 45 degrees, forest fires break out. All those who have failed to escape Linköping for the summer take shelter indoors, shocked and paralysed by the heat. However, when a teenage girl is discovered naked and bleeding in the local park, it is clear that the raging heat is not the only plague affecting the town. Then a second girl is found dead. Alarmed by the fact that the victims are the same age as her daughter, Tove, detective Malin Fors will work round-the-clock to capture the perpetrator.

Allegra North's second thoughts about splitting with childhood sweetheart Francis need a first-class stamp. But with her unfinished letter to him still in her handbag, she can't find the right words to express her regrets. Invited to a big movie premiere through her work, she resolves to put all thoughts of her ex fiancé out of her mind; then she loses her handbag in the foyer. Francis, meanwhile, is determined to win Allegra back. Convinced that they should never have parted, he intends to declare his feelings in front of crowds of press and film fans.

As a passionate affair between a shop owner's wife and a local young builder reaches its peak, an unfortunate chain of events leads to a dark and deadly outcome.

There are some people you'd do anything for. For Fran that list would include her husband, Max, her daughter, and her best friend, Alison. Only Alison is now desperately ill and she needs Fran's help. She wants to find her husband a new wife, and leave her young daughter with a new mother. Fran finds the whole idea deeply uncomfortable, but it's hard to refuse your closest friend at the best of times, let alone ignore her dying wishes.