Showing results by author "Margaret Yorke" in All Categories

No one would have been surprised if old Mrs. Ludlow were murdered, but when her housekeeper is the one who turns up dead, everyone assumes that the lethal drugs were intended for Mrs Ludlow. And Dr Patrick Grant thinks he can prove everyone wrong. . .

Following retirement, Marigold Darwin returns to her home village determined to purchase a house. She meets two young boys, Mark and Steve, who hang around the Willows, where old Tom Morton lives. His housekeeper Ivy sometimes babysits Mark, although this may be a mistake. Neither boy is in the least concerned about others, regarding casual deception and theft as just part of everyday life. The same is true of their two friends, who have a seriously disturbed mother. Marigold is gradually drawn into the lives of all.

Robbie is a quiet man, passive and unassuming. He is the sort of man who is taken for granted by the people around him, passed by for promotions and bossed around by his wife. Middle-aged Robbie has never known love, or passion, or power. Oh, in his head he has dreamed his dreams, plotted his plots, planned his revenges, but he know he would never make any of them reality. And then one day he does.

For years Hermione has been oppressed by her husband, Walter. Before they married, he had seemed loving and protective. Now he was demanding and brutal. Shy and vulnerable, Hermione blamed herself. But Walter is a man whose emotions are running out of control. And as Hermione tentatively tries to acquire some independence, her husband's desire to dominate women is becoming pathologically dangerous....

An idyllic cruise, a longed-for holiday to the Greek islands, a carefully planed school reunion....In this first-ever collection of her short fiction, including a new Patrick Grant story, Margaret Yorke provides a virtuoso display of her ability to extract unease, fear, and evil from everyday situations.

Philip Winter had been accused of rape. He knew he was innocent, a victim of his accuser’s paranoia when he had rejected her advances. The jury acquitted him, but neither his family nor his employers accept the verdict. Made a pariah in his own home, Philip disappears. Suicide is suspected and his wife accepts the solution with relief, but he is now part of the homeless society, adrift with other outcasts. He falls into the company of Denis Smith but, as they struggle to survive, their destinies are being manipulated by a woman who is trying to settle a very personal score....

The day that Jerry Hunt met Charlotte Frost was the day he decided to go straight. Jerry had been running a successful scam with his friend Pete, but something in Charlotte's smile made him take stock of his activities. He'd been to prison once and, Jerry decided, he wasn't going there again. In many ways, Charlotte, too, would like to pull away from her past.

When journalist Andrew Sherwood witnesses an assault on a woman, he is curious to find out more about her. Then she disappears. And, it transpires, Louise Widdows is on the run from a tyrannical husband and moves into a vacated cottage, trying to cover her tracks in case her husband tries to find her. Befriended by Andrew and his young son, Louise is drawn to the freedom so long denied, while Andrew is drawn to her by the mystery of her sudden flight and a secret he suspects she is hiding.

When Louise Vaughn disappears on her way home from choir practice in the village of Feringham, her parents and their dear friend Norah are devastated. No trace of her is ever found. But, 12 years later, Detective Marsh rekindles the investigation and discovers that the family, including a spiteful and violent adopted brother, have something to hide.

Peaceful Mickleburgh is the perfect English market town - or so it seems. In fact, it is a perfectly constructed façade, having successfully hidden the secrets of its inhabitants for generations. But the casual murder of a man trying to prevent an act of vandalism shatters the genteel appearance. Parents are forced to consider whether their children could be involved, friends avoid each other's eyes and partners word their conversations carefully. Somebody in the community is close to the murderer - someone with a past that threatens to resurface, bringing damage and devastation to a whole community.

Bicklebury is a small village of some 300 inhabitants, a church and a pub, but no shop, no school and certainly no crime - until two ex-cons decide it is the ideal location to pull a robbery. Derek Jarvis and his daughter, Hannah, are home when the two armed men break in, and Derek, fearing for their safety, urges Hannah not to resist. The tactic backfires as one of the men brutally attacks her, leaving her broken and revolted. Derek's marriage and his daughter are never the same again....

After serving ten years of a life sentence for murder, Stephen Dawes was released on licence to start a new life. But Stephen could not let the past bury itself; he alone knew he had not killed his wife Marcia. As Stephen set out to reconstruct Marcia's last hours, the time she must have spent plotting a suicide meant to look like murder, he gradually began to realize that nothing was as it had seemed, and that he was chasing a murderer himself...and putting his own life in jeopardy.

Penelope was to spend the first Christmas after her marriage at the country home of her great aunt Hermione, where she had lived as a child after the death of her parents. She looked forward to the traditionally peaceful holiday that she had known all her life. Before they left London, Vincent, her husband, gave her a present which was to prove a dominant factor in the events, tragic and terrifying, that followed. It was a small china doll.

Daniel and Jennifer had bought a house together, and their friends assumed they would eventually marry. Then everything had changed. Stephanie stole Daniel from Jennifer. Confused, humiliated, and increasingly angry, Jennifer took to following Stephanie around London. Her obsessive love prompted her toward violent revenge. It would also lead to her coming under suspicion by the police, for a crime she did not commit.

Major Johnson has served in the army faithfully, and now, in retirement, he sets about village life in the same way. But beneath the surface of a quiet village, the paths of thieves and lovers, murderers and innocents, converge. No-one is safe from the consequences, including the Major.

When her goddaughter is arrested, Isabel Vernon is startled to discover that the child of her memory has become an overweight, shaven-headed environmentalist and that Isabel herself is now regarded as Emily Frost's next of kin. Emily is then released on bail to the Vernons in the villlage of Fordswick. But her presence in the Vernons' house proves troubling, and is deepening the tensions already within it.

When Martin Trent rings home to announce his return from an assignment as a tour guide in Venice, Susan is filled with fear, a fear based on what has happened before, and her dread of further violence. Why does Susan put up with Martin's treatment? Though neighbours suspect what is going on, Susan covers her bruises with make-up and pretends that nothing is wrong and, despite everything, she loves Martin. But what is the truth about the relationship between Susan and Martin?