Showing results by narrator "George Weightman" in All Categories

JJournalist Ben Harper is on his way home when he sees the flames in the churchyard. The derelict community centre is on fire. And a boy is trapped inside. With Ben's help the boy escapes, only to flee the scene before he can identified. Now the small town of Haddley is abuzz with rumours. Was this an accident, or arson? Then a skeleton is found in the burnt-out foundations. And when the identity of the victim is revealed, Ben is confronted with a crime that is terrifyingly close to home.

Myles and Lana Butler live on a gorgeous new development in Wimbledon, leaning on a mortgage that is just within reach. When one of Myles' investments fails they are bound to lose everything. Gabriel and Holly Wright have just moved in next door. The Wrights are sophisticated, ambitious and apparently very wealthy. At an after-dinner drink with their new neighbours, Myles and Lana share their worries and a solution is suggested between the couples. Life Insurance fraud. For a cut of the pay out, the Wrights would help them.

Many years ago, Sir Aelfric and his nine companions saved the world, seizing the Dark Lord's cursed weapons, along with his dread city of Necrad. That was the easy part. Now, when Aelfric - keeper of the cursed sword Spellbreaker - learns of a new and terrifying threat, he seeks the nine heroes once again. But they are wandering adventurers no longer. Yesterday's eager heroes are today's weary leaders - and some have turned to the darkness, becoming monsters themselves.

It's New Year's Eve and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh's best postcodes. It's a moment for old friends to set the past to rights—and move on. The night sky is alive with fireworks and the champagne is flowing. But the celebration fails to materialise. Because someone at this party is going to die tonight. Midnight approaches and the countdown begins—but it seems one of the guests doesn't want a resolution.

The world begins to suffer an escalating and sensational series of natural disasters, and two marine biologists begin to develop a theory that the cause lies in the oceans, where an entity know as the Yrr has developed a massive network of single-cell organisms. It is wreaking havoc in order to prevent humankind from destroying the Earth's ecological balance forever. The Americans, under the ruthless General Judith Lee, take a more pragmatic approach than the scientists, seeking to wipe out the being of the deep.

Ben Harper's life changed for ever the day his older brother Nick was murdered by two classmates. It was a crime that shocked the nation and catapulted Ben's family and their idyllic hometown, Haddley, into the spotlight. Twenty years on, Ben is one of the best investigative journalists in the country and settled back in Haddley, thanks to the support of its close-knit community. But then a fresh murder case shines new light on his brother's death and throws suspicion on those closest to him.

In the early hours, Dr Harrison Lane–born in London and raised in Arizona, USA–is called to a shadowy woodland to find the lifeless body of a young boy. Scrawled across his chest is a harrowing message and scraps of paper covered in unsettling quotes are stuffed in his mouth. Who would want this innocent child dead?

In a quiet church, on a busy London street, 12-year-old Donovan Blair is found dead. His hands are clasped together as if in prayer. Fearing the murderer may already have another child in his sights, Dan and Lexi work together to establish links between the two deaths and soon discover that not only were both children in care - they had attended the same school. And when it emerges that Lexi’s new boyfriend works there, things become difficult between her and Dan. How much can he tell Lexi about the case? And could she be at risk?

When the body of wealthy businessman Charles Stott is found dead on Wimbledon Common, covered in bruises just feet away from his luxury home, Detective Dan Lockhart is called to investigate the shocking scene. Examining the sickeningly disfigured body before him, Lockhart knows he’s dealing with a brutal killer. Looking more closely, he notices something on the victim’s neck: a small, crudely drawn symbol in black ink. It seems the murderer has marked his victim, but why? Dan needs to get inside the perpetrator’s mind, so he contacts psychologist Dr. Lexi Green. 

As Detective Dan Lockhart is called to a wealthy London street to investigate Natasha’s death, he’s startled by the similarity to a previous case. Noticing the cable-tie restraints and the tiny scratches on Natasha’s wedding finger, Dan already knows what he will find if he looks in her mouth - the metal ball which choked her to death. Months earlier, Kim Hardy was found in the same position in a run-down hotel across the city - an identical silver ball in her throat. But Kim’s murderer was caught and sent to prison - did they arrest the wrong man?

The year is 1742. Goody Brown, saved from drowning and adopted when just a babe, has grown up happily in the smuggling town of Winchelsea. Then, when Goody turns sixteen, her father is murdered in the night by men he thought were friends. To find justice in a lawless land, Goody must enter the cut-throat world of her father's killers. With her beloved brother Francis, she joins a rival gang of smugglers. Facing high seas and desperate villains, she also discovers something else: an existence without constraints or expectations, a taste for danger that makes her blood run fast.

Black Herran was a dread demonologist, and the most ruthless general in all Essoran. She assembled the six most fearsome warriors to captain her armies: a necromancer, a vampire lord, a demigod, an orcish warleader, a pirate queen, and a twisted alchemist. Together, they brought the whole continent to its knees.... Until the day she abandoned her army, on the eve of total victory.

Throughout another year of bluster and bedlam in Westminster, John Crace's brilliantly acerbic political sketches have once more provided the nation with a much-needed injection of humour. In A Farewell to Calm, Crace introduces an infectiously funny selection of his finest pieces from 2020-21, taking in everything from a summer of unfathomable U-turns to Christmas COVID confusion and from lockdown-lifting to Brexit blithering.

William the Bastard, base-born son of the Duke of Normandy, must fight the king of France to regain his Duchy. Spurned in love by the lovely Princess Matilda, the fighting duke dares to take a whip to her in her own father's palace, before making her his bride. Thwarted by the Saxon Earl Harold of a promise of the throne of England, William the Conqueror sails to Hastings to claim the king's crown and sceptre for his own.

Nothing good ever comes from a midnight phone call. For washed-up spy Harry Tower, it is the worst news at the worst possible time. His son, Sean, has gone missing in troubled Iran after writing an exposé about government corruption. Their relationship has never recovered since Harry's wife's suicide, for which Sean holds his father responsible. And Harry, with his career on the verge of disintegration, needs to find him and put things right.

From the ancient Greeks to Buddhism, our ability to check reality and recalibrate has fascinated philosophers for thousands of years. Yet it is only recently that we've developed the technology to create a rigorous science of self-awareness, what we call metacognition. Head of the Metacognition Lab at University College London, Stephen Fleming is the world's leading expert in this new field of neuroscience. In Know Thyself, he explains both the vast potential of metacognition and why it is that we still so often get it wrong. 

When Megan discovers photographs of her estranged identical twin sister on her husband's phone, she wants answers. Leah already has everything Megan has ever wanted. Fame, fortune, freedom to do what she wants. And when Megan confronts Leah, an argument turns to murder. The only way Megan can get away with killing her twin is to become her. But then lockdown hits. How can she continue living two lives? And what happens if someone else knows her secret too?

Kenna arrives in Sydney to surprise her best friend, shocked to hear she's going to marry a guy she's only just met. But Mikki and her fiancé, Jack, are about to head away on a trip, so Kenna finds herself tagging along for the ride. Sorrow Bay is beautiful, wild and dangerous. A remote surfing spot with waves to die for, cut off from the rest of the world. Here Kenna meets the mysterious group of people who will do anything to keep their paradise a secret. 

Even as a 14-year-old orphan, Simon Beauvallet knows his own mind. Later, friend and foe alike will know better than to cross the flaxen-haired mountain of a man whose exploits in battle have earned him knighthood, lands and gilded armour. After Agincourt, he has no equal save the king himself in generalship - until his legendary prowess is baulked by a woman. In Normandy, the icy rage of Simon the Coldheart must melt - or quench Lady Margaret, spitfire of Belremy. 

When Head of the Ritualistic Behavioural Crime Unit, Dr Harrison Lane, is called to desolate Wicken Fen to assist with a murder investigation, he can’t believe what he sees. Curved iron horseshoes hold down the body of a young, athletic man, and birch leaves rest delicately upon his torso, but it’s what lies above the leaves that interests Harrison… A small bone hangs around the young man’s neck and Harrison immediately recognises it as a magical talisman, said to bring the wearer great powers. But it’s from an ancient sect which some believe has links to the devil.