Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Psychological

Thirty-three-year-old Todd is playing at the beach with his son, Anthony, when he catches sight of an approaching figure. Instantly, he recognises Jack, his high school tormentor. Radiant, repentant, and overjoyed to have 'run into' Todd, Jack suggests a meal to catch up. And can he spend the night? What follows is a fast-paced story of obsession and suspense, as Jack gaslights his way back into Todd's life, pushing his old 'friend' to the brink.

A brutal murder. A young woman’s body is discovered with horrifying injuries, a recent newspaper cutting pinned to her clothing. A detective with everything to prove. This is her only chance to redeem herself. A serial killer with nothing to lose. He’s waited years, and his reign of terror has only just begun.... Introducing DI Eve Hunter, Hold Your Tongue is your new obsession.

Goodbye, Columbus is the story of Neil Klugman and pretty, spirited Brenda Patimkin, he of poor Newark, she of suburban Short Hills, who meet one summer and fall into an affair that is as much about social class and suspicion as it is about love. The novella is accompanied by five short stories - sometimes iconoclastic, sometimes elegiac - that crackle with irreverent originality and display Roth's blazing early talent.

She's the victim. But is she so innocent? Sophie McCarthy is known for her determination, ambition and brilliance at work. She's tough, but only because she wants to get the best out of people. Aidan Ryan is strong, honourable and a family man. He's tough, too; the army requires it. When these two strangers are brought together in a devastating incident, Sophie's life is left in ruins. Her family wants to see Aidan pay for what he did. Aidan's prepared to sacrifice everything - including his marriage and his child - to fix the mess he's made.

The stories in The Vanishing Point are both exotic and domestic, their settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Each focuses on life’s vanishing points—a moment when seemingly all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications. With the insight, subtlety, and empathy that has long characterized his work, Theroux has written deeply moving stories about memory, longing, and the passing of time, reclaiming his status, once again, as a master of the form.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Daughter by Jane Shemilt, read by Sophie Aldred. I still don't know why we had to check. Did we really think you would be there, curled up and sleeping on the stage? That we would put our arms round you, and take you home? Naomi has vanished, leaving her family broken and her mother Jenny desperately searching for answers. But the traces fifteen-year-old Naomi left behind reveal a very different girl to the one Jenny thought she'd raised.

Twenty-one-year-old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve to ever feel good again. But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life. So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1 to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head. But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing. What is the truth hiding behind her crime?

Nadine Walsh is determined to make her summer garden party the event of the year. Everyone deserves a celebration after the year they've had. A chance to forget. As she prepares to welcome her guests, however, Nadine can't help but be distracted. Her husband is of little help to her. Her two grown children are consumed with their own concerns. But it's Nadine's own secrets that threaten to destroy her perfect party. By the end of the night, Nadine will be standing over a dead body in the basement. But which of her guests will she have murdered? And why?

At long last, Adam Sealey has an Oscar within reach. Working with his controversial former mentor, Jonathan, he's given the performance of a lifetime, and he almost believes it might be worth the cost. Because Adam subscribes to "the method". It's the secret that the world's greatest actors swear by - digging into their darkest, most personal traumas to bring a role to life. And Adam's greatest trauma is worse than most.

Keryth Miller is disappearing. Between the growing distance from her husband, the demands of two teenage daughters, and an all-encompassing burnout, she sometimes feels herself fading away. Actual translucence, though—that’s new. When Keryth wakes up one morning with her hand completely gone, she is frantic. But she quickly realizes two things: If she is disappearing, it’s because her father, an artist with the otherworldly ability to literally capture life in his art, is drawing her. And if he’s drawing her, that means he’s still alive.

In a quiet Surrey village sits Leventree, an architectural practice set up by idealistic couple Florence and Arthur Mayhood, offering apprenticeships to young offenders after their release. Motivated by his own memories of Borstal, Arthur aims to mentor young adults with a troubled upbringing and give them opportunities to succeed. Their first protégées are siblings, Joyce and Charlie Savigear, who quickly settle in; but when a dangerous figure from Joyce's past comes knocking, the Mayhoods' earnest hopes of doing good turn tragic.

In the grip of existential malaise, 25-year-old Daphne moves to Berlin for a fresh start. Far from resolving her quarter-life crisis, things take a turn for the worse. Because Daphne doesn't just have to navigate all the archetypal experiences of an outsider in the big city—acquiring friends and lovers, grappling with the language and a whole new way of life. A series of mysterious and troubling events are in motion—starting with a brick hurled through her bedroom window in the dead of night—and a further unravelling ensues.

Lisa needs to disappear. And her friend's rambling old home in the wilds of Yorkshire seems like the perfect place. It's miles away from the closest town, and no one there knows her or her little boy, Joe. But when Lisa meets some of the locals and hears some disturbing rumours about the house, she realises it might not be the sanctuary she thought. What secret has Rowan Isle House - and her friend - kept hidden all these years? And what will Lisa have to do to survive when her own past finally catches up with her?

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.

Since the weekend of the party—the one twenty-two-year-old Liv can’t remember, the one that left her covered in bruises—she’s been locked out of her bedroom by a padlock. Her parents are behaving oddly and her best friend won’t respond to her texts. Maybe she really was out of control that night? Meanwhile Liv’s father, Janus, is not sure he can do what is necessary to keep this secret hidden. He brought his family from Australia to Los Angeles to chase his dream of seeing his novel on the big screen, and he can’t let them down. Not again.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Chosen Ones by Howard Linskey. Eva Dunbar wakes in a large metal box. She has no idea who has taken her. She has no way out.... Eva isn't the first young woman to disappear. Detective Ian Bradshaw, heading up the search, has no leads - and precious little time. When at last a body is found, the police hope the tragic discovery might at least provide a clue that will help them finally find the kidnapper. But then they identify the body - and realise the case is more twisted than they ever imagined....

A woman's teenage son takes his own life. It is incomprehensible. The woman is a writer, and so she attempts to comprehend her grief in the space she knows best: on the page, as an imagined conversation with the child she has lost. He is as sharp and funny and serious in death as he was in life, and he will speak back to her, unable to offer explanation or solace but not yet, not quite, gone.

A lump of concrete dropped deliberately from a little stone bridge over a relatively unfrequented road kills the wrong person. The driver behind is spared. But only for a while... It is impossible for Chief Inspector Wexford not to wonder how terrible it would be to discover that one of his daughters had been murdered.

A mother and child are found brutally murdered in an old caravan on a remote piece of land. A bloody footprint is discovered at the scene, and Chief Inspector Sejer is called to investigate. Meanwhile another mother, dying of cancer, confesses to her 21-year-old son that he is adopted. The man who abandoned them, whom the boy has become obsessed with, is not his real father. Why do we lie to those closest to us?

When Zoo agrees to take part in a new reality television show, In the Dark, she knows she will be tested to the limit. Fighting to survive deep in the forest, every moment analysed by the outside world, this is her ultimate challenge before starting a family. But as the contestants are overtaken by hunger, injury and psychological breakdown, the mind games and hazards to which they are subjected seem increasingly extreme and dark beyond measure.