Literature & Fiction

The phone rings. It's your daughter. She's been dead for four months. So begins East Texas police dispatcher Ian Hunt's fight to get his daughter back. The call is cut off by the man who snatched her from her bedroom seven years ago, and a basic description of the kidnapper is all Ian has to go on.

Meet Charlie; unfulfilled and perimenopausal, Charlie’s suburban life is a far cry from the Manhattan glamour she once dreamed of. Her husband is incapable of talking about anything other than his latest Ironman challenge, her sex life consists of fictional encounters with Hollywood stars, her kids need constant man-management, and to make things worse, her optician has just prescribed her reading glasses. Oh, and she can’t stop crying at TV adverts… In the hope of re-discovering her sense of self, Charlie begins writing a list: 45 things to do before she’s 45.

Single dad, Joel Grainger, is devoted to his little girl, Imogen, doing all he can to be a key part of her life. But with Imogen’s mum being ever more difficult and Joel’s job suddenly in doubt, he’s worried that everything is about to change. Joel has given everything to Imogen, and he doesn’t regret it, but maybe he’s lost himself along the way… Since her dad’s heart-breaking dementia diagnosis, Poppy Wells has been struggling and desperately needs a break. An opportunity to stay in gorgeous Whisperwood Farmhouse couldn’t be more perfect.

Award-winning author Dame Susan Hill is best known for her hit ghost story The Woman in Black and her popular ‘Simon Serailler’ detective series, but she has also written extensively for radio. This audio anthology includes full-cast adaptations of two of her early novels, plus an additional 12 BBC Radio plays, many of them available for the very first time since their original broadcasts.

Kara McIntyre is supposed to be jetting off to her destination wedding in Hawaii. However, a last-minute hitch appears to have left her without a job, home and, more importantly, a fiancé. TV sensation Ollie Chiles and Kara always have each other’s backs. But when his wife goes viral in a compromising clinch with another man, Ollie must choose between supporting his best friend in her hour of need or going home to save his marriage.

Schon als Kind war Morgan wild. So wild wie das Meer, das gegen die Klippen donnert, auf denen ihr Zuhause ruht: Tintagel Castle. Dort wähnte sich Morgan seit jeher in Sicherheit. Doch dann wurde ihr Vater in den Krieg berufen, und kehrte nie wieder. Stattdessen kam Großkönig Pendragon nach Tintagel - und mit ihm Merlin, der Zauberer.

Scottish author George MacDonald Fraser took the loutish bully from Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown's Schooldays and gave him a new lease of life. Over the course of 12 novels, caddish anti-hero Flashman swashbuckled his way around the British Empire, playing a key role in some of the 19th century’s most significant events.

To everyone who knows them, Louisa and Tom are the perfect couple. They have two beautiful kids, Stan and Flo, and are about to celebrate ten years of being happily married. Life is perfect. But when Lou is dealt devastating news, that perfect life is turned upside down and Lou and Tom must reevaluate the very foundations their marriage is built on. Lou’s main concern is who will look after her children if she’s not there to care for them? Will anyone be able to love them like she does?

Anne Brandon has always understood the power of a king’s patronage and, though the court of Henry VIII is a dangerous place for women, as the daughter of the king’s best friend, Anne feels safer than most. But Anne’s husband Lord Powis is tiring of her childlessness and when Henry VIII begins plotting to rid himself of a queen in his quest for an heir, suddenly Anne’s life is in danger. And as whispers of the name of her friend Anne Boleyn’s get ever louder, there is peril in every loose word, every forbidden conversation.

This short story collection will take you into the depths of Beck’s dark imagination: from what happens when the deepest bore hole on Earth has just passed nine miles and hits a strange open space – and it's hellishly hot down there; to an Antarctic research team examining fragments from a deep ice glacier and discovers a tiny seed that, once thawed, grows into something terrifyingly unexpected.

1945, Sunderland. Ida Boulter makes the heart-wrenching decision to leave her five children behind as she escapes her husband and moves to London to start afresh with the love of her life. 1953, County Durham. Ida’s children have since built a new life in the beautiful home of Cuthford Manor – looked after by their eldest sibling Angie and her husband. But their world is about to be rocked once again when their mother turns up out of the blue for the first time in eight years.

Suddenly Maddy is right there… in her very own future. And it’s all wrong, yet again. It happens to her every time. When the kisses lead to the bedroom, just when she thinks she might have found the one… Just for a split second, Maddy disappears, and she finds that she’s living her own life. But ten years into the future. She’s only there for a little while. But each time, it’s long enough to know that she doesn’t want to be any of those future versions of Maddy. Because every man she falls for seems to lead her to a future that is just… wrong. Until she meets Oliver.

Emmie Brown has always known she was adopted. Nellie Brown sacrificed everything to make their life together comfortable and, while not the most demonstrative or warm woman, Emmie never doubted her devotion. But, when Emmie finds a stash of letters and a hidden photo after her mother’s death, everything she has believed changes in an instant. And she won’t be able to rest until she finds the mysterious ‘G’ who sent the letters.

Maya Angelou, one of the best-loved authors of our time shares the wisdom of a remarkable life in this bestselling spiritual classic.

Two of the most important oil-fields in the world – one in Canada, the other in Alaska. An unknown quantity – deadly and efficient. The oil flow could be interrupted in any one of thousands of places down the trans-Alaskan pipeline. Catastrophe. One man, Jim Brady, is called in to save the life-blood of the world as unerringly, the chosen targets fall at the hands of a hidden enemy…

Step into a world of danger, intrigue, and espionage with The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie’s thrilling introduction to the adventurous duo Tommy and Tuppence. After World War I, these two spirited friends find themselves broke and in search of excitement. They soon stumble upon a shadowy conspiracy tied to a missing woman and a mysterious document that could change the course of history.

When a boy is found dead with the skin of a hare’s head in his hand, everyone knows who killed him—Willis Newland, just released from prison after serving twenty years for an identical murder. But what if everyone’s wrong? Detective Colly Newland reluctantly agrees to investigate a case that seems to involve the whole town, including her dead husband’s extended family. But the deeper she digs, the more secrets she unearths.

Teaching nine-year-olds on Zoom. A relationship interrupted by enforced distance. A teenaged son who cannot leave the house. Anna McCormick is already struggling to cope with the unwanted twists 2020 has served up. But when an unstamped envelope arrives overnight, her past begins to cast its own long shadow on the present. With an uncaring government compounding her woes and a hostile threat drawing closer, Anna must dig deep to keep hope alive for herself and those around her.

Pour Dee Kwan, merveilleusement interprétée par la comédienne Chloé Germentier, chaque jour est un jour parfait. Non, vraiment. Elle a une maison qu’elle adore, un travail qu'elle chérit et un « rival » incroyablement séduisant qui accepte la défaite de bonne grâce lorsqu'elle gagne leur jeu en ligne favori. Comment pourrait-on en demander plus à la vie ? (C’est impossible, évidemment, ça ne peut aller que de plus en plus mal.) Bientôt, Dee est obligée de partager sa maison adorablement douillette avec ses parents et sa grand-mère acariâtre.

Things have been difficult for Annie since her husband left; her teenage daughter, Isla, has become a ghost of her former self. Annie's terrified that Isla might hurt herself, and she'll lose her, too. So when Annie receives a video of herself crying at Isla's funeral, she's immediately sick to her stomach. Confused and horrified, Annie races upstairs to check on Isla, who is perfectly alive and well. The video has been faked. But who sent it and what do they want?

Rosie Lachlan wants nothing more than to find The One. A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, she’s working at her parents’ bridal salon, anxious for a happy ending that can’t come soon enough. After receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect, ostensibly to learn more about Daphne.

When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she’s setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up. In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything.

James Bennet is the perfect heir to Longbourn. He is always looking out for his sisters and mother, making sure they have the opportunity to receive proper education, and always making sure they have the guidance and direction they need. He purchased a small cottage to ensure that his mother and sisters had somewhere to live in the event that something happened to him and his father. He works tirelessly on the estate to ensure that Longbourn is profitable.

It’s 1780, Daniel and his sister Pearl arrive in London with the world at their feet and their future assured. Having escaped a Jamaican sugar plantation, Daniel fought for the British in the American War of Independence and was rewarded with freedom and an inheritance. But the city is not a place for men like Daniel and he is callously tricked and finds himself, along with his sister Pearl, in the rookeries of St Giles – a warren of dark and menacing alleyways, filled with violence and poverty.

Una Hartstone, Princess of Issos, learns the price the Wraith King demands to end the war once and for all—Her. In exchange for the safety of her people, she agrees to give her life—and her body—to her greatest enemy. Gollaya Verbane is determined to fulfill his destiny and his god's prophecy. When his seer points to the Princess of Issos as the key to the rise of the dark fae, he demands her submission. But when she finally yields, he realizes Una is much more to him than a priceless weapon.