Showing results by narrator "Julia Franklin" in All Categories

Ellie Quicke is shocked when her daughter, Diana, turns up at her door with a suitcase in tow. Bunny Brewster has died of an overdose, and Diana's husband, Evan, is convinced that she is responsible for his friend's death. It seems that Diana and four other neglected wives of Evan's friends recently joked about ways to kill their husbands. Diana's suggested method of murder involved muddling up pills - could this be how Bunny died?

Twenty years after her brother Callum mysteriously vanished, Orla Payne is still haunted by his disappearance. The case was closed after her uncle's suicide - the police believed he killed himself in the Hanging Wood out of guilt over murdering the boy, even though a body was never found. Daniel Kind recommends Orla contact DCI Hannah Scarlett, head of the Lake District's Cold Case Review Team, to see if she can discover the truth about what really happened all those years ago.

When she receives a wedding invitation from one of her former patients, forensic psychiatrist Dr Claire Roget is more than a little alarmed. Highly intelligent and manipulative, Jerome Barclay suffers from a severe personality disorder. Although she has never been able to prove it, Claire believes him to be highly dangerous, responsible for at least three suspicious deaths - and she fears for the safety of his new bride.

Death has come twice to Ravenbank, a remote community in England's Lake District, each time on Hallowe'en. In 1914, a young woman's corpse was found, with a makeshift shroud frozen to her battered face. Her ghost - the Faceless Woman - is said to walk through Ravenbank on Hallowe'en. Five years ago, another woman was murdered, and again her face was covered to hide her injuries. Daniel Kind becomes fascinated by the old cases, and wonders whether the obvious suspects really did commit the crimes.

Viola hasn't had much luck with men. Her first husband, Marco, companion of her youth and father of her only child, left her when he realised he was gay. Her second, Rhys, ended his high-octane, fame-filled life by driving his Porsche into a wall. No wonder her family always believes she needs...

Eugenie Winford is devastated when her beloved father commits suicide, having lost his fortune in the Wall Street Crash. Now Eugenie and her proud, spoilt mother are ruined. Eugenie changes her name and goes into hiding as a housemaid for the Stannard family - anything is better than what her mother has planned for her. But her real identity is soon revealed, and Jen has to flee again. She ends up in Lambeth, with a poor but good family, and together they face the hardships of the Depression.

The book opens with Neville celebrating her 43rd birthday and contemplating middle age now that her children are grown. Her mother, in her 60s, seeks answers to her melancholy in Freudianism. Her sister, Nan, a writer who has hitherto led a single and carefree life in London, experiences the loss of love and with it her plan for the future. And Neville's principled daughter, Gerda, who is determined not to follow her mother's generation into the institute of marriage, finds herself at an impasse with the man she loves.

What if the family you love the most is not your own? When Olivia's mother dies, she leaves behind an apology Olivia could never have expected. Years ago, Maggie did everything in her power to end a love affair between the teenage Olivia and her stepbrother-to-be Richie. Now, over twenty years...

Let much-loved and ever-popular author Judy Astley sweep you away to magical Cornwall in this lively, laughter-packed and heart-warming read - a return to the setting of her fantastically successful first novel, Just for the Summer. Perfect for fans of Trisha Ashley, Jenny Colgan and Milly...

Summer, 1914. Amy Fletcher’s life is transformed when she meets Edmond Derwent, son of one of the wealthiest families in the small town of Larchbury, and student at Cambridge University. When war breaks out, Edmond signs up as an officer and Amy trains as a VAD nurse. Separated by war, Edmond and Amy share their feelings through emotional letters sent from the front line. But when Edmond is critically wounded at Ypres, their love faces the biggest test of all.

While out collecting some Portuguese laurel for the formidable flower arranger Mrs Dawes, feisty widow Ellie Quicke comes across a dead body - a corpse without an identity. Next day, Mrs Dawes is discovered by Ellie and her grandson, Frank, badly beaten and close to death. Much to Ellie's dismay, the police think shaven-headed Neil, Mrs Dawes' grandson, is responsible, even after a third body comes to light.

A spate of robberies targetting elderly women is disturbing enough, but especially so in a town as peaceful and sedate as Leek. Then one attack turns to murder, and Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy is called to the eerily named Spite Hall. For the body on Nan Lawrance has been found bludgeoned to death, lying over the tapestry she was in the process of embroidering. But what could have made the robbers move from simple theft to murder?

An informative and entertaining look at royal weddings through English history. The excitement surrounding the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton has prompted four of Britain's top historical biographers to look closely at Royal Weddings.

Arabia 1818. Lady Celia Cleveden considers herself practical, resourceful and independent; the perfect wife for a junior diplomat. But George, her husband, seems more interested in her playing the nurse than a wife, and Celia is beginning to wonder if the match has been a huge mistake. En route to the exotic kingdom of Q'adiz, they are set upon by bandits and George is killed, leaving Celia at the mercy of the kingdom’s fiercely attractive prince, Sheikh Ramiz al-Muhanna.

A sweeping story of orphans and outcasts, haunted by the past and fighting to liberate themselves. At its centre is Monica Johnson, cut off from her parents after falling in love with a foreigner, and her bitter struggle to raise her sons in the shadow of the wild moors of the north of England. Intertwined with her modern narrative is the ragged childhood of Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff, the antihero of Wuthering Heights and one of literature’s most enigmatic lost boys.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Orphans of Ardwick by Emma Hornby, read by Julia Franklin. After a cold, hard winter on the streets, three orphan children are about to give up hope when an unexpected turn of events brings them to the doorstep of a grand house in Ardwick...

Spring has brought many new beginnings into the world of Persimmon ‘Simmy’ Brown. Not only has her baby arrived, but she and her fiancé, Christopher, have moved to the historic village of Hartsop - and their forthcoming nuptials are only a short month away. But when a former acquaintance of Christopher’s reminds him of an undertaking made a decade previously that he hasn't fulfilled, their lives soon take a sinister turn. Yet even with a young baby to consider, Simmy cannot ignore her instinct to investigate.

Bella has given up on men. Happily divorced, her latest boyfriend just omitted to tell her about his current wife, so she’s back on her own again. Then her ex-husband turns up, wanting to sell the family home in which she and their two teenage children are well settled. But all their lives are changed when a television company rents the house for a reality TV fashion makeover programme.

After spending her childhood in Haddon House Children's Hostel, Alice Tucker is selected to go into service at Holmorton Lodge. Left behind in the workhouse after the death of her father and the disappearance of her mother, the only clues to Alice's past lie in hazy childhood memories. Now, ten years later, she longs to uncover the truth about her family and who she really is. When a chance discovery leads her from a Welsh nursing home to a solicitor's office in Manchester, Alice begins to unravel a story far more tangled than she imagined.

1875. Terrified that her life is in danger in her abusive marriage, Emma flees to the safety of Nightingale Hall with her two children, seeking support from Squire Nicholson. A housemaid, overhearing a shocking revelation, persuades Emma to run away to London, before she is questioned and wrongly accused. The family's new life in an East End slum is a stark contrast to what they're used to, and Emma lives in constant fear of being discovered. A chance meeting with the infamous Captain Rufus O'Sullivan marks the beginning of a unique relationship.