Showing results by narrator "Melanie Crawley" in All Categories

The second-largest country in South America, Argentina has been through great changes in recent years. Its journey from dictatorship to democracy has left many scars, but these are largely eclipsed by the pride and resilience of the Argentinian people, who have developed a style, a language, and a joie de vivre that are all their own. Embracing much more than gaucho, tango, and soccer, Argentina is very unlike its neighbors. And, due to the unique way in which it evolved, is quite different from the expectations many visitors have of a stereotypical Latin American destination.

Arcadia: A rural retreat where the lost come to heal their struggles. Grace Ellis: A respected professional with a healthy bank balance. Not the type to need therapy. Grace has just arrived at Arcadia, and she’s far from happy. A freak accident has caused the staff to be concerned for her safety. She has no chance of leaving anytime soon. She has her issues, but who doesn’t? Grace is about to embark on a personal journey, where she will discover just how important the people we meet can be.

Princess Ann of Middlemount is the last survivor of her royal household. Defeated by invading forces, her Wolfkind race faces extinction. Only a desperate quest can save her people, her god, and her world.

Most guidebooks on Ireland will tell you where to stay and what to see. Ireland—Culture Smart! is written for people who want to know more and go deeper. Here you will find the beliefs and attitudes of the Irish, their rich musical and literary culture, their ancient language and mythology, the values they live by, how they do business, how they enjoy themselves, and the ways they have been molded by their tumultuous history and indeed their geography.

Huntington Valley was a haven for family and friends who lived and worked together for generations. A community that would be no longer, with the proposed highway coming through the heart of it, all in the name of so-called improvement. Maureen, like all the others, would have no choice but to move on.

Jane is a woman without a past. She wakes up in the back of a car with handcuffs on her wrists, with a man intent on doing her harm. She escapes, but into the murky underworld of New Orleans. A mysterious man shadows her, and strange memories tantalize her. People want to hurt her, and an unearthly creature stalks the night. Insanity might be a possibility, but everything is horrifyingly real. This sultry world is anything but ordinary.

Leonie Simoneaud was once one of the elusive Lake People - Acadian descendants in Louisiana with odd psychic powers. As a 13-year-old, she rescued an outsider child, Douglas Trent, from a maniacal pedophile named Monroe Whitechapel. Consequently, she was shunned by most of the Lake People for exposing them to the external world. As an adult, she lives elsewhere, an owner of an antique store in a quaint Texas town: Buffalo Creek.

A vivid waking dream of giant cypress trees dripping with Spanish moss haunts Anna St. Thais. The trees sit on a black lake that resembles a dark Louisiana bayou with an evocative aura. The dream includes the presence of a man who seems to know Anna all too well and a group of people with strange telepathic powers, sometimes called veiled eyes. An orphan from Texas, she is on her way east to help out a friend when she encounters two terrifying things.

Award-winning master of scary stories Chris Priestley returns with a spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales to chill you to the bone … When Maya and her classmates are asked to write a creepy story with a winter theme, they come up with some brilliant ideas. Rising floodwaters uncover...

The twelve stories in Crime and Prejudice imagine a deliciously seamy underside to Jane Austen's world. Arson, highway robbery, petty crime and murder mingle with fox-hunting, bawdy-houses, gaming-tables and transportation to Australia in these tales recounted to Elizabeth Darcy by her friends and family.

On a remote island in the Adriatic, the playboy son of a president (and ex-warlord) hosts a spectacular entertainment to satisfy the jaded appetites of the super-rich. And for one young family, the holiday of a lifetime is about to become a desperate battle for survival. As teenage parents, Sam and Jody managed to defy the odds once before, striving to raise their children in a settled home. But the years of struggle have taken their toll, and Sam's demons return to haunt him at the worst possible time.

Belgium has somehow acquired the reputation of being Europe's most boring country―a reputation that is entirely undeserved. But perhaps this bland image is a smokescreen, the conventional exterior hiding a subversive sense of humor, a surreal imagination, and a deep-rooted disdain for authority. Or perhaps it is a camouflage, a way in which Belgium, still overrun―however peacefully―by foreigners, can keep a few of its secrets to itself.

A brutal series of murders of London’s most vulnerable women casts the city into a frenzy of fear and suspicion, pushing it to a state of panic not seen in centuries. Jack the Ripper has arrived. When Scotland Yard begins to find traces of Jack’s handiwork in a string of seemingly unrelated killings, will the world’s most notorious serial killer be caught at last?

As October of 1900 draws to a close, London’s foggy, lamplit streets are hit by a string of burglaries which puzzle Scotland Yard. When they culminate in a gruesome murder, Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate. But has he put the wrong man behind bars?

A huge-hearted, redemptive coming-of-old-age tale, a love story, and an ode to good food Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends' lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never...

Young Soviet pianist Natalia Aronovich is poised for international stardom when, in one shocking act, a Red Guard officer interrupts her performance and removes her from the stage. She later learns the KGB has arrested her father, Pravda journalist Mikhail Aronovich, for his undercover involvement with Soviet dissidents, refuseniks, and Israeli Intelligence. Soviet officials force Natalia to leave Russia, but she is determined to return and free her father. Natalia recruits Soviet-Israeli doctor Tanya Shlain and they embark on a perilous mission to smuggle Mikhail out of Russia.

She felt that the cause was just. Why should America control everyone’s access to microchips? In the modern world, it was like one country controlling everyone’s access to food. Not fair! So she agreed to help a group tasked with the development of a Russian domestic semiconductor industry. After all, her mama was Russian, she spent half her life there, and she knew the place and the people. Besides, the money was good. Seemed like the right thing to do.

Legend has it that when Caesar’s general arrived on Portuguese soil in the first century CE, he claimed to have discovered a country blessed with a mild climate and a beautiful coastline, but whose inhabitants were ungoverned and ungovernable. Today, the Portuguese are still impulsive, set in their ways, and resistant to change, yet they are ever charming, romantic, and nostalgic, with an unshakable loyalty toward family and friends.

Culture Smart! Bulgaria provides a key to understanding the Bulgarian people. It outlines their long and complex history, shows you what everyday life is like there today, and offers advice on what to expect and how to navigate unfamiliar cultural terrain. This is a small country of proud and persevering people. Familiarize yourself with their traditions and way of life, and the warmth and hospitality you are shown in return will conquer your heart and bring you back time and again.

When the SeeMs Agency detectives play bridge online in 2020, they don’t expect their opponent to die during the game and yet a post-mortem the next day proves Brian Deliverer was dead halfway through the night. Can a dead man play bridge? Employed by Brian's daughter Karen to investigate his death, the team are led back to a notorious 1920s murder and to a missing teenager from a Sussex village in the 1960s.