Showing results by narrator "John Telfer" in All Categories

As the thick, autumnal fog chokes the capital, within the fire-lit lounge of London's notorious Brimstone Club a bizarre tale is being spun for Inspector Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle. A member of the club has been sent a model of a tiny gallows, and the word is that the folkloric hangman Jack Ketch has been stalking the streets for victims by night. The threat of this supposed bogeyman becomes thrillingly real when that same night Bencolin and Marle are almost run down by a limousine with a corpse behind the wheel.

This is the second novel in the series of four, depicting the meeting, courtship and ultimate fulfilment of two modern heroes, Christopher Tietjens and Valentine Wannop, despite social condemnation, personal travails and World War I.

For over three and a half years, from 1779 to 1783, the tiny territory of Gibraltar was besieged and blockaded, on land and at sea, by the overwhelming forces of Spain and France. It became the longest siege in British history, and the obsession with saving Gibraltar was blamed for the loss of...

Titus Quayle was the best MI6 ever had - an operative of exceptional and lethal ability. But they burned him, abandoned him and left him for dead. Holly Morton is the daughter of the spymaster who first recognised Quayle’s potential and the key to unlocking a global conspiracy her father died trying to bring down. To uncover the truth, Quayle must keep her safe from the threat of a powerful enemy in a globetrotting race against time. Nowhere is safe.

1358, Northern France. In a land ravaged by war, King John II is the prisoner of the King of England. His son, the teenaged Dauphin, must battle to impose control over the fractured kingdom. But King Charles of Navarre wants to wrestle power for himself. He leads Parisians and the Jacquerie to open rebellion, upending the social order, pitting noble against commoner in a brutal struggle for power.

A THRILLING NEW WILDE & CHASE ADVENTURE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR Pandora's Box has long been thought a myth. But when archaeologist Nina Wilde and her husband, former SAS soldier Eddie Chase, are summoned to the White House for a secret meeting, it appears the legendary artefact...

Throughout her career prize-winning novelist Jane Gardam has been writing glorious short stories, each one hallmarked with all the originality, poignancy, wry comedy, and narrative brilliance of her longer fiction. Passion and longing, metamorphosis and enchantment are Gardam's themes, and like a magician she plucks them from the quietest of corners: from Wimbledon gardens and cold churches, from London buses and industrial backstreets.

A grisly spirit turns travelling companion for the unwitting passenger of a London bus; a repulsive neighbour returns from the grave, rejected by the very earth; an innocuous back garden becomes the stage for a nightmare encounter with druidic sacrifice. From deep in the British Library vaults emerges a new selection of E.F. Benson's most innovative, spine-tingling and satisfyingly dark 'spook stories'. Complete with an introduction exploring the fascinating story of Benson's life, and including the never-before-republished story 'Billy Comes Through'.

Max Seager was the best there was. His skills sharpened in the midst of a brutal African civil war, he was at once a policeman, soldier and detective - a tracker of men. He thought he’d left that life behind him, but then he learns that his particular expertise is required again. Two teenage girls have been abducted and are being held to ransom, hidden deep within the Zimbabwean bush that was once his hunting ground. The mother of one of the girls begs him to help and, unable to walk away, Max returns to Africa with a handpicked team of former comrades-in-arms.

A fascinating new portrait of Medieval Britain that brings together the everyday and the extraordinary. Using wide-ranging evidence, Martyn Whittock shines a light on Britain in the Middle Ages, bringing it vividly to life. Thus we glimpse 11th century rural society through a conversation between a ploughman and his master. The life of Dick Whittington illuminates the rise of the urban elite.

London, 1920. There's a killer on the streets of Camden Town, and no woman is safe. When a woman's body is dragged from the Regent's Canal on a freezing January night, eminent forensic pathologist and criminal sleuth Dr Bernard Spilsbury immediately detects foul play. And when a second woman washes up dead under similar circumstances, police realise they are looking for a dangerous predator. Is someone luring lonely spinsters to their deaths through a newspaper Lonely Hearts column? And can they be stopped before they strike again?

Travel back to AD 17, during the fourth year of the reign of Wang Mang of the Han dynasty, a vibrant and innovative era full of conflicts and contradictions. But as different as the Han culture might have been to other great ancient civilisations, the inhabitants of ancient China faced the same problems as people have for time immemorial: earning enough money, coping with workplace dramas and keeping your home in order.

September 1920. A young bride is discovered dead at a country house on her wedding day. Has she fallen victim to the deadly Withington curse, which strikes down any woman who marries into the family? Forensic Pathologist Dr Bernard Spilsbury doesn't believe in such superstitions, and suspects a more earthly reason for Theodora Tupper's death. But as he and his trusty assistant Violet investigate, they soon discover that there are indeed ghosts at Withington Hall. And they, too, have a story to tell.

Why does an international footballer with the World at his feet decide to take his own life? On November 10, 2009, the German national goalkeeper Robert Enke stepped in front of a passing train. He was 32 years old. Viewed from the outside, Enke had it all. Here was a professional goalkeeper who had played for a string of Europe's top clubs, including Jose Mourinho's Benfica and Louis Van Gaal's Barcelona. Enke was destined to be his country's first choice for years. But beneath the veneer of success lay a darker story.

London, 1921. Lord Johnny Fairfax has been found dead in his study, along with a second victim, a mysterious American who arrived unannounced the previous evening. For DCI Paul Stark, the case is personal: he's in a relationship with Lord Fairfax's former wife, Lady Amelia. The dead man had no shortage of enemies. Winston Churchill, his former colleague at the War Office, is convinced the murder is revenge for the disaster at Gallipoli. Lady Amelia herself is accused of the crime.

A group of scientists fed up with the post-Hiroshima world set themselves up with the resources to produce a phenomenally fast stealth plane which can intercept missiles - and hope to use it to bring about world peace. Recruited as a test pilot, can the hero stop a world from sliding into chaos?

Athens, 416 BC. A tenuous peace holds. The city-state's political and military might are feared throughout the ancient world; it pushes the boundaries of social, literary and philosophical experimentation in an era when it has a greater concentration of geniuses per capita than at any other time in human history. Yet even geniuses go to the bathroom, argue with their spouse and enjoy a drink with friends. Few of the city's other inhabitants enjoy the benefits of such a civilised society, though - as multicultural and progressive as Athens can be, many are barred from citizenship.

1359, Northern France. With the ink still drying on the Treaty of Bretigny, an agreement most believed to be nothing more than a stalemate between King Edward III of England and John II of France, the country is left riddled with both English and French armies – exhausted, adrift and directionless. An atmosphere ripe for rebellion. Berenger Fripper returns to the only life he truly understands, among the troops of Hawkwood's company. But danger and treachery lurks around every abandoned French farm or village.

On a sultry afternoon in July, a man stumbles through thick foliage, making for the coast. He wears prisoner's garb and guards are hot on his heels. Happening upon a bather's clothes, the escapee leaves the scene looking the part of the average beachcomber. But it can be hard to stay hidden forever. When a blackmailer intrudes upon the promising life of the man who now calls himself Mr. Pottermack, a violent fate befalls him, and the stakes are set: Pottermack must avoid discovery at all costs to escape the hangman's noose.

As a powerful insurgent army closes on Liberia's capital, London is forced to act, and HMS Beaufort is dispatched to West Africa to pull British nationals from the teeth of encroaching danger. But when the volatile situation ashore unravels, the frigate's crew must draw deep on reserves of skill, ingenuity and sheer bloody-mindedness to save it. And with time running out, Beaufort's Captain makes the decision to take his ship upriver....