Showing results by narrator "Julia Franklin" in All Categories

Actress Enora Andressen is facing the perfect storm. Her favourite French director, Remy Despret, has lost his touch and is keeping dangerous company. Her agent, Rosa, has been seduced by a kiss-and-tell novel of doubtful provenance. While H, sicker by the day at home at Flixcombe Manor, is battling both Long Covid and something far darker. Devoting herself to H, Enora needs good news, and it arrives in the shape of a fascinating Remy idea based on Flixcombe's role during the Second World War.

Actress Enora Andressen is catching up with her ex-neighbour, Evelyn Warlock, who's recently retired to the comely East Devon seaside town of Budleigh Salterton. The peace, the friendship of strangers and the town's prestigious literary festival...Evelyn loves them all. Until the September evening when her French neighbour, Christianne Beaucarne, disappears. Enora has met this woman. The two of them have bonded. But what Enora discovers over the anguished months to come will put sleepy Budleigh Salterton on the front page of every newspaper in the land.

Thirty-nine-year-old Enora Andresson is a successful actress and a woman in her prime. But tests have revealed an aggressive brain tumour that could kill her. Already struggling with the wreckage of her marriage and a strained relationship with her teenage son, Malo, she hasn't anticipated the appearance of investigative journalist Mitch Culligan. Mitch is writing a book about entrepreneur and onetime drug baron Hayden Prentice - a multi-millionaire who once crossed paths with Enora, and whom Mitch believes has helped fund the push to take the UK out of Europe.

1922. Lady Emily Fitzallan has returned to the country house where she spent her childhood for a family wedding. Leysmorton Manor brings back many memories, especially of her elder sister Clare, who vanished one day after going for a walk, never to return. But the disturbing discovery of a soldier's skeleton at the base of an ancient Yew tree brings the past shockingly into the present. Could the man's untimely death have its roots in Clare's disappearance, which occurred almost half a century ago…?

This is a beautiful and subtly written story told in the best traditions of an Old Norse tale. It is poetic and delicate and at the same time suspenseful and dramatic. There are dangers and discoveries, adventure and sadness as Tar follows her quest. Will the forces of good keep her safe from her enemies as she follows her destiny?

It has been ten years since Jeanie Long was charged with the murder of fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel. Now residents of the East Yorkshire village of Elvet are disturbed to hear of new evidence proving Jeanie’s innocence. Abigail’s killer is still at large. For one young woman, Emma Bennett, the revelation brings back haunting memories of her vibrant best friend—and of that fearful winter’s day when she had discovered her body lying cold in a ditch. 

Frankie Piccione is done running away from her responsibilities - for now, anyway. Two years after fleeing Westenbury with a shattered heart, it's time to return and take up her place on the board of the family business. Piccione's Pickles and Preserves is floundering, and Frankie knows she can turn it around. But with her brother Luca and the new, rather attractive, Cameron Mancini watching her every move, she's going to have to come up with something special to persuade them that she belongs on the board just as much as they do.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is known for her themes of female entrapment and patriarchal control, and she gives this a Gothic twist in "The Giant Wistaria". A wealthy young couple and their friends rent a manor house, excited by the prospect that it’s haunted, and they are not disappointed when they all experience the same vivid dream.

Newly retired Philip returns home to Cologne and is thrown into emotional turmoil upon bumping into his long-lost sweetheart. In the midst of a domestic crisis, Ricarda confides in Philip that she is looking for somewhere to live. And there and then, Philip suggests that she move in with him - he is setting up a flatshare. Will she join him with his mischievous dachshund named Ralf?

When a minor adventure up the spire of Salisbury Cathedral makes Günter Glass a local celebrity, John Blades - window-cleaner to the stars - comes calling. He wants Günter to join him in London to clean Europe's tallest skyscraper, the newly constructed Shard in London Bridge. Günter soon finds himself among the bright lights of London but will his innocence put him on a collision course with the frequently baffling modern world?

Fancy Jones, best-selling crime writer, discovers that someone is trying to kill her. When she is invited to lecture at a writers’ conference in the Derbyshire Dales, she leaps at the chance to leave London and hopefully escape the threat of her assassin. Events turn sour when a body is found floating in a lake at the conference venue, and bizarre things start happening to Fancy. Suspicion falls on the other delegates but has her stalker followed her?

Curiosity about a murder that took place in an 18th century folly draws father and daughter team Peter and Georgia Marsh to attend a summer gala in honour of Jane Austen at Stourdens, a Georgian mansion in Kent. Robert Luckhurst, the murdered former owner of Stourdens, was an avid collector of Jane Austen memorabilia, and his collection is thought to contain secrets about the novelist that still remain to be revealed.

Blanche Longhurst is a pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary, delivering Spitfires from factories to air bases around the country during World War Two. She believes herself to be safe from the direct conflict but during one routine trip, bad weather causes her to lose her bearings and projects her into activities that go against her sense of morality. She finds herself in another war, in another country where the anti-Nazi offensive is filled with subterfuge and personal betrayal.

November day is closing in as Marianne makes her way to Hope Grange and a job as a maid in the household of Hugo Lacey. But instead of the grand house she is expecting, Hope Grange is a crumbling wreck and a house of ghosts, whispers and secrets. Living there are seven-year-old Gerald and his grandmother. Forced to sell his home, Hugo’s behaviour becomes more irrational and descends into madness. Marianne finds herself in a perilous situation and fearing for her safety decides to leave.

This wonderful short story collection was first released in print in 2009 by Salt publishing. Robert’s stories are a close, intimate look at friendship, marriage, relationships and the problems and joys that come with the territory. They look at men and women in and out of love and the way we yearn for what was and can never be.

In late 19th-century England, Eleanor causes a stir when she refuses to consider marriage to the man her parents have chosen for her. Instead, she sets sail for Australia with her own choice of husband. She soon finds that life there is very different to the one she enjoyed as the only daughter of a wealthy Englishman. Certainly, Eleanor has a lot to learn…

Milly Johnson Fen is devoted to her young son, Connor, but she keeps herself to herself. Haunted by guilt and a terrible secret, Fen lives isolated from her family, far from home and too afraid of the past to risk becoming close to anyone. She is constantly looking over her shoulder, knowing that one day the truth will catch up with her. Sean is enjoying a seemingly perfect life. He has a successful career, lives in his dream home and adores his beautiful wife, Belle, and their six-year-old daughter, Amy. That is until the day Belle announces she wants Sean to move out.

When Bea Hanlon follows her preacher husband, Max, to a remote island in the Pacific, she soon sees that their mission will bring anything but salvation.... Advent Island is a place beyond the reaches of Bea's most fitful imaginings. It's not just the rats and the hordes of mosquitoes and the weevils in the powdered milk. Past the confines of their stuffy little house, amidst the damp and the dust and the sweltering heat, rumours are spreading of devil chasers who roam the island on the hunt for evil spirits. And then there are the noises from the church at night.

An abandoned infant on her doorstep is the last thing Manchester private eye Sal Kilkenny needs as she faces the challenge of her current case. Sal’s client Libby Hill is trying to put her life back together after the brutal killing of her love and the conviction of petty criminal Damien Beswick who confessed to the murder. But now Beswick has retracted his confession – exactly what game is he playing? The evidence against him seems damning, but is there more to this case than meets the eye?