Showing results by narrator "John Telfer" in All Categories

The Sleeping and The Dead is a tense psychological thriller from Ann Cleeves, author and creator of three astounding TV series: Shetland, Vera and The Long Call. Detective Peter Porteous is called to Cranwell Lake where the body of a teenager has been discovered. After trawling through the...

From the author of Legacy, now a major BBC Film, comes a brilliant new historical crime novella for fans of Antonia Hodgson and CJ Sansom. ‘To Mr Thomas Combe my sword.’ These six words in Shakespeare’s will tell us that Shakespeare had a sword. Did he wear it? Did he use it? What sort was...

AD 64: Roman centurion Marcus Domitus leads an expedition to find the mythical treasure hidden deep inside Queen Dido's temple. 1945: Two Nazis disappear amidst the chaos of a burning Berlin—and so does a precious object. 2009: Two brutal murders in London and Boston linked by a single name and a shared history. When art recovery expert Jamie Saintclair is asked to help investigate, he finds himself delving deep into the occult and uncovering dark secrets, tales of lust and greed and a curse linked to ancient Egypt. . .

Private detective Philip Trent, who first appeared in E.C. Bentley’s Golden Age crime classic The Woman in Black, is called upon to solve a mystery surrounding the will of a wealthy man with a particular appreciation for the work of Lewis Carroll. A string of literary clues leads Trent to suspect there was more to the man’s dying wishes than may have first appeared.

When a petrol yacht catches fire in the South Atlantic, its lone survivor, Patterson, swims to safety. He is relieved when he washes up on a tropical island inhabited by four other ship-wrecked characters. But when he discovers one of the men was cast adrift by the Titanic, he is forced to question where he really is and if he will be able to escape.

Between 1940 - 41, in Berlin, nine women are killed during the blackouts. One of these is a young girl. Her face is covered in snow and it looks as if she is smiling. This murder differs from the others and detective Johann Braunmann is ordered to solve it. However, he quickly senses that he is...

A short story from the British Library Crime Classic collection Final Acts. The Great Detective recounts the tale of an old case to Inspector Cockrill, which, solved too late, failed to bring about a conviction. But Cockrill draws his own conclusions on the case.

Henry Davies is writing a diary as a school project, and when a visiting author reads out the story of Vaughan Darkness to his class, Henry gets a photocopy and puts it in his diary. It's a truly terrible tale, but it's only a story - isn't it? A terrifying ghost story that will chill your blood, from acclaimed author Sam Llewellyn.

You'd die for your family. But would you kill for them? Family is everything. So what if yours was being terrorised by a neighbour - a man who doesn't listen to reason, whose actions become more erratic and sinister with each passing day? And those you thought would help - the police, your lawyer - can't help you. You become afraid to leave your family at home alone. But there's nothing more you can do to protect them. Is there?

A grisly spirit turns travelling companion for an unwitting traveller on the top deck of a London bus one bleak winter’s night in this short story.

Phantom Death is an imaginative story about a painting that has perplexed crowds across Europe. The painting must be viewed in solitude and is presented in a dark room, draped in black silken rope. When the unnamed narrator views the painting for himself, though, he is interrupted by another, setting off an unexpected chain of events.

When Major Mercer visits his old friend Lionel Deacon and his family in the country, his visit is hampered with heavy rain. As soon as there is a break in the weather, though, he heads into the village for a walk. Across the river, he sees a mother and a child, but when he returns to the Deacons, they assure him that he cannot possibly have seen who he thinks he saw.

What happens when an estranged father and son unwittingly fall in love with the same woman? 'If ever a book was a mood-lifter, it’s this one. Full of caustic wit, I cried laughing!' MILLY JOHNSON, Sunday Times bestselling author 'Smart, clever and engaging - the perfect ‘what-if’ novel'...

Jolly Wicked, Actually is a wonderfully entertaining compendium of the 100 words and phrases that have, over the last century, become the cornerstones of modern spoken English. Despite attempts by politicians and writers, despite lessons in citizenship enshrined in the national curriculum, we have famously never been able to define for posterity precisely what Englishness is. Jolly Wicked, Actually takes certain well-loved and crucial expressions such as sorry, nice, common, posh, cuppa and chippy, explores their strange and wonderful origins, and demonstrates with wit and charm how they are emblems essential to all our notions of Englishness.

A rip-roaring account of the dramatic four-year siege of Britain’s Mediterranean garrison by Spain and France—an overlooked key to the British loss in the American Revolution For more than three and a half years, from 1779 to 1783, the tiny territory of Gibraltar was besieged and blockaded...

'THRILLING . . . SHIFTS LIKE QUICKSAND UNDER YOUR FEET' Erin Kelly, author of HE SAID/SHE SAID 'SLICK AND PACEY' Renée Knight, author of DISCLAIMER A new standalone psychological thriller from Colette McBeth, whose dark, twisty and hugely compelling novels are beloved of writers like Paula...

Inspired by a sketch of a poor woman driven to madness by artist Cecchino, wealthy Madame Krasinska attends a ball in fancy dress mocking the old woman. But after the ball, she is overcome by severe depression. Could the old woman be haunting her as punishment?

Mosul, Iraq, 2016. Once ISIL’s greatest conquest but fast becoming a giant graveyard, where the difference between a gruesome death or wretched survival is just a matter of chance. As attacks by the Western coalition forces devastate the city, even senior ISIL officers like Karl realize that defeat is inevitable. On his instructions, two ISIL jihadists travel across the EU Schengen Zone, planning to bring terror to a Western European city.

Two friends embark on a walking tour of northern France, but they encounter a strange fellow traveller who they struggle to shake off on their journey.

Harry Pershore knocks down a wall to create a secret garden, despite warnings from his friend who has spotted that the patch of land has been walled off for a reason and is actually an altar of sacrifice. Pershore ignores his friend’s advice and it’s not long before strange things start happening in the garden.