Showing results by narrator "Alex Lee" in All Categories

As Henry VIII’s second queen dies on the scaffold, the embittered King strikes out, and unprecedented change sweeps across the country. The bells of the great abbeys fall silent, the church and the very foundation of the realm begins to crack. Determined to preserve their way of life, novitiate nuns Margery and Grace join a pilgrimage thirty thousand strong to lead the king back to grace.

Tommy and Evelyn Christie are looking forward to a quiet Christmas holiday at the home of Hugh Norton-Cavendish, the 9th Earl of Clifford, who recently married Tommy's cousin, Elise. However, the suspicious death of Albert Lewis, a businessman hoping to buy land from Hugh, means the Christmas festivities are quickly over. Tommy is distracted by his sister's new relationship with a man he distrusts. Evelyn is busy with her pack of dogs, brought for the traditional Boxing Day shoot.

Tommy and Evelyn Christie have reluctantly agreed to host the wedding of Tommy's mother to Andrew Parsons, the Marquess of York, at their home Hessleham Hall. None of the happy couple's adult children support the marriage, but when Andrew is found dead outside the wedding chapel on the morning of his wedding, it seems one of them has taken their anger a step too far. To make matters worse, Tommy's younger brother, Harry, is missing and quickly becomes the police's primary suspect. Can Tommy and Evelyn uncover the murderer before the teenage Harry is found and arrested for the crime

Teresa’s heart stops when she enters her daughter’s bedroom to find that her sweet, trusting little girl is gone. Teresa can’t bear to think who would snatch a terrified three-year-old from her mother in the middle of the night, but all the signs point to someone close to home. Hasn’t Jessica’s stepfather been acting a little oddly? Or is it, as Teresa is beginning to fear, something to do with Angie, her daughter’s babysitter who lives next door...? 

As the early years of detective fiction gave way to two separate golden ages - of hard-boiled tales in America and intricately-plotted, so-called “cozy” murders in Britain - the legacy of Sherlock Holmes, with his fierce devotion to science and logic, gave way to street smarts on the one hand and social insight on the other, but even though these new sub-genres went their own ways, their detectives still required intelligence and clear-sightedness as characterized the earliest works of detective fiction: the trademarks of Sherlock Holmes, and of all the detectives featured here.

Maxim Jakubowski has edited all the great names in crime fiction, and stories from his anthologies have won the CWA Dagger six times. Now he has collected 19 Dagger Award-winning stories in one volume, making it the first retrospective deep dive into the CWA’s archive of Dagger Award winners. Edgy, twisted, and disturbing, Daggers Drawn is visceral and thrilling collection showcasing the very best modern crime fiction has to offer.

Before Anne Boleyn stole the heart of a king and demanded marriage, another woman strove to wed an already-married King of England. This is the story of Elfrida, who would become the first crowned Queen of England.  

What if everything we know about Jesus and Mary Magdalene are wrong? What if there's a story that goes deeper...a story that when revealed, could rock the Christian world? What will powerful factions do to get hold of this information? How will they use it? Near the Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, archaeologists unearth scrolls supposedly written by the apostles Philip and Thomas. And they're telling a different story.

Endless years of a lonely, childless spinster’s life stretching ahead, Victoria Kavanagh finds an abandoned baby. She knows it’s the answer to her prayers. Or is it? Has she stolen him in a moment of madness? She’s come close to it before. Desperate to keep him, she creates a past of her own design and moves to Faredene, but is her new life far enough away from the past she’s trying to escape? What a framework on which to build - one of lies and deceit.

In their twilight years, two 80-something sisters, Esther and Minnie are coaxed from their easy chairs and their comfort zone of carpet slippers, crochet hooks, jigsaws, and rummage sales to fulfill the dying wish of a dear friend. They go on to undertake a road trip of sorts in Esther's beloved classic Trafalgar blue Morris Traveller, affectionately known as "Vivien". The trip, however, is no minor errand to return late library books. Theirs was to be an epic undertaking from Lodon's Whitechapel to Raipur, deep in the heart of the Indian Subcontinent.

A penniless young widow with an indomitable spirit. A wealthy viscount with an unsavory reputation. London, 1815: After her husband's untimely death, Letty Burton comes up from the country with her domineering mother-in-law. Hiding a past she wishes to forget and facing an uncertain future, all she wants is to navigate London Society as a silent companion. A chance meeting with London's most eligible bachelor sets in motion a series of events that will bring her quiet life under the unfriendly scrutiny of the ton. With the net of scandal, debts, and rivals closing in, will she let her dark past dictate her life forever? Will she learn to trust again? And most importantly, will she allow herself to love? The Widow's Redeemer was a finalist in the 2012 RONE Awards (Reward of Novel Excellence) hosted by InD'Tale Magazine. 

Beth and Gran begin to read Grace Robinson Nesbitt's journal of the time just before World War II. It turns out the Grace was secretly a code-breaker at the famous Bletchley Park! Dame Joan is just now finding out that her own mother was a hero. Due to the Official Secrets Act, Grace was never able to divulge that she was a "Bletchley Girl"! It's Christmas in 1938 and the present. In the present day, Beth's growing relationship with the local vicar is relayed between the journal entries. 

To keep her parents from losing their farm in Pennsylvania, Emma agrees to travel to England and accept her grandfather’s offer to arrange a marriage for her with the Earl of Devonport. She secretly hopes marriage to this stranger will lead to love. To honor his father, Devon agrees to marry Emma. Emma’s straightforward and unpretentious manner draws Devon’s reluctant admiration. Unfortunately, long-held fears are not easily overcome. When the unexpected happens, all hope seems lost. Emma must learn to trust God while surrendering her dreams and expectations into his care.

Baby Sophie. Forced to dance for her dinner. Used and abused to feed the greed of those who should have been her carers. Her tiny gypsy feet sore with blisters, until they are big enough to run away and find the love she has lost. Perhaps young Byron Adams, her childhood friend and protector, will seek her out. Their secret childish love, so tragically torn apart, leaves little chance that this could ever happen.

The first half of the story tells how the crown came into existence and Merlin's quest to find a safe hiding place for the clues leading to the place where he has hidden the crown. The second half moves to the present day and follows the trail of 5 young people who hear rumours and follow them up ultimately searching for the crown. They battle adversity in the shape of the mysterious Angus and when they eventually find the crown they unwittingly break the spell which was cast upon Merlin years before by the evil Mordred and Ninianne, thereby earning his gratitude. 

The Velveteen Daughter reveals for the first time the true story of two remarkable women: Margery Williams Bianco, the author of one of the most beloved children's books of all time, The Velveteen Rabbit, and her daughter Pamela, a world-renowned child prodigy artist whose fame at one time greatly eclipses her mother's. But celebrity at such an early age exacts a great toll. Pamela's dreams elude her as she struggles with severe depressions, an overbearing father, an obsessive love affair, and a spectacularly misguided marriage. Throughout, her life raft is her mother. 

In Simply Eliot, Joseph Maddrey plumbs the emotional and intellectual life of the man whom critic Edmund Wilson called "one of our only authentic poets". He chronicles Eliot's attempts to create a coherent worldview, and explores how his religious conversion in 1927 led to a spiritual rebirth that allowed him to produce his ultimate poetic statement.

One night in Montreal, an ageless man hires a young female translator to help settle mysterious debts with an array of desperate characters.

After her parents die in a suspicious boating accident little Eliza is abandoned by her uncaring, unscrupulous guardians. If not for the love of the nuns in the convent she would surely have died. Little did she know that her coming of age would throw her back into peril when, after so many years, her scheming guardians reappear to kidnap and incarcerate her. What is the secret that Eliza holds that they are so keen to possess?

Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born at Yasnaya Polyana, his ancestral estate located about 120 miles from Moscow. While he would live and travel in other places over the years, he always considered this family residence in the Russian heartland as his home. His lifelong quest for truth and meaning began while he was a university student. In Simply Tolstoy, Professor Donna Tussing Orwin traces the author’s profound journey of discovery and explains how he mined his tumultuous inner life to create his great works.