Showing results by narrator "John Voce" in All Categories

Newly promoted Detective Chief Inspector Kathy Kolla investigates a series of brutal murders on Hampstead Heath. Under intense pressure to find answers, she arrests the unlikely figure of Charles Pettigrew, a failing London publisher who lives alone on the edge of the Heath. Pettigrew's lawyer calls on recently retired David Brock for advice, and soon, unable to resist the pull of investigation, the old colleagues, Brock and Kolla, are at loggerheads.

Soldier of fortune Michael Duffy returns to colonial Sydney on a covert mission and with old scores to settle, still enraged by a bitter feud between his family and the ruthless Macintoshes. The Palmer River gold rush lures American prospector Luke Tracy back to Australia's rugged north country in his elusive search for riches and the great passion of his life, Kate O'Keefe.

An epic tale of two families, the Macintoshes and the Duffys, who are locked in a deadly battle from the moment squatter Donald Macintosh commits an act of barbarity on his Queensland property. Their paths cross in love, death and revenge as both families fight to tame the wild frontier of Australia's north country.

Twelve-year-old Tam ventures into a moon bear den in the mountains of Northern Laos on a dare. His goal is to steal the cub and sell it, making a fortune for his family. But the mother bear’s unexpected return upends Tam’s plan, and he barely escapes with his life. Then his life implodes anyway, as his entire mountain village is forced to relocate to make room for a new highway. Lured by the promise of electricity, running water and a television, Tam’s people move to an overcrowded village, and Tam’s father is killed by a stray landmine.

It is 1916, and war rages across Europe and the Middle East. Patrick Duffy is fighting in the fields of France, his cousin Matthew in the skies above Egypt. Meanwhile, at home, George Macintosh is passing information to the Germans, seeking to consolidate his power within the family company.

Deep in the Forest, the foxes live in an underground city built by their wolf slaves. The foxes’ leader, Reynard, controls everything with his clever talk. Silas is bullied at school because his words will not come. He wishes he could live in silence as animals do. One day, Silas helps an injured wolf. Then he enters the secret world of the Forest, where the last remaining wolves fight to survive. But even there, language is power.

It is 1918, a year when the War will end, but an even greater killer will arise. On the bloody fields of the Western Front and the battle-scarred desert plains of the Middle East, Tom and Matthew Duffy are facing the enemy. Even as they are trapped on the front lines, they must also find the courage to fight for the women they love when all hope is lost. Back in Australia, George Macintosh is outraged by the stipulations of his father's will that provide for his despised nephew, and is determined to eliminate any threats to his power.

In Sydney, siblings Donald and Sarah Macintosh battle for their father's approval, and control of his empire, while their cousin David fights the enemy across the continents. US Marine Pilot James Duffy defies his grandfather's wishes, and a number of times, death, protecting Australian skies from the Japanese. Below, trapped in the jungles of Malaya, Diane Duffy is caught between saving the lives of hundreds of orphaned children, or that of her son. While Tom Duffy finds himself enlisting in yet another world war, his daughter, Jessica, narrowly escapes slaughter at a mission station.

As the Allied forces fight to repel invaders in the Pacific, the Duffy and Macintosh clans face their greatest challenges at home. Sergeant Jessica Duffy relishes her work as a code breaker in MacArthur's headquarters but is secretly reporting on the Americans to the Prime Minister. Captain James Duffy, a decorated fighter pilot with the United States Marine Corps, is expected to wait out the war assisting the bond effort. Major David Macintosh has survived prison camps, torture and countless battles, but can he endure the machinations of his obsessive cousin, Sarah?

In Iraq, Captain Matthew Duffy, recruited by British Intelligence, once more faces a German enemy. But Matthew is confused by his attraction to Diane, now working for the Germans, and finds himself having to make a hard decision. Just as he is coming to terms with his choice, he meets his estranged son, James Barrington Jnr. Back in Sydney, George Macintosh is determined to keep control of his business empire and to prevent his nephew David from taking a seat on the Board. Meanwhile, George’s son Donald is packed off to the family station Glen View.

When Tiddlywink the pixie gets trapped inside a cursed puzzle cube, every attempt to free him fails. All hope now rests on the shoulders of five brave heroes, who must journey all the way to the mysterious Distant Desert for answers before the sands of time run out. But with cacti gladiators, a down-on-her-luck genie and a rebellious magic carpet to contend with, it's not going to be an easy ride!

When Major Patrick Duffy's beautiful wife, Catherine, leaves him for another, he is propelled out of the Sydney Macintosh home and into yet another bloody war. However the battlefields of Africa, fighting the Boers, bring him in contact with one he thought long dead and lost to him. Back in Australia, the mysterious Michael O'Flynn mentors Patrick's youngest son, Alex, and takes him on a journey to the Queensland property, Glen View. But will the terrible curse that has inextricably linked the Duffys and Macintoshes for generations ensure that no true happiness can ever come to them?

In 221 BCE, the Qin state conquered its neighbours and created the first unified Chinese empire in history. So began the imperial era, where dynasties claiming divine assent ruled for more than 2000 years. Borders shifted, and emperors struggled to exert control over every region of their territories. Elites held that they were inheritors of a rich, pre-imperial culture, while their society produced world-changing inventions such as the compass, printing, gunpowder and the gun. Imperial China itself was altered as it came into contact with others through trade, exploration and war.

A deadly family curse holds two families in its powerful grip. Captain Patrick Duffy's passions are inflamed by the mysterious Irishwoman Catherine Fitzgerald, further pitting him against his father, Michael Duffy, and his adoring but scheming grandmother, Lady Enid Macintosh.

When a grieving man searches for culpability in the death of his wife, a passenger on trains blown up by terrorists, he settles on a politician. The bombers, to his mind, were only the end point in a long chain of proximate causes – to blame them would be like blaming the trigger mechanisms on the bombs. The ultimate cause, he believes, the person responsible for first setting events into motion, is the politician whose policies and practices have had profound and violent impact abroad. And so it is only right, surely, that that politician is punished.

Private Patrick Duffy was forced to flee Malaya as a child and was left orphaned when his mother died in a Changi prison. Now, returning to fight a fearless enemy, he must confront the ghosts of his past if he is to find any hope for the future. Michael Macintosh is forging his own path to escape his mother's obsessive control. Sailor, soldier and mercenary, he will soon face war again in the brutal jungles of Vietnam. Sarah Macintosh ruthlessly crushes anyone who gets in her way and has vowed to destroy her sister-in-law, Jessica Duffy-Macintosh.

In 1914, the storm clouds of war are gathering. Matthew Duffy and his cousin Alexander Macintosh are sent by Colonel Patrick Duffy to conduct reconnaissance on German-controlled New Guinea. At the same time, Alexander's sister, Fenella, is making a name for herself in the burgeoning Australian film industry. But someone close to them has an agenda of his own—someone who would betray not only his family but his country to satisfy his greed and lust for power. As the world teeters on the brink of conflict, one family is plunged into a nightmare of murder, drugs, treachery and treason.

After fighting in two world wars, Tom Duffy's purchase of his ancestral property Glen View means a home for the next generation of Duffys. But the Macintosh family won't easily surrender this land, and when they challenge his ownership, he knows he's in for one hell of a fight.

Beginning with our earliest explorations of the night sky, William Waller takes us on an enthralling journey through the Milky Way and far, far beyond. He combines science and history to show how our understanding of everything from black holes to the structure of the universe has evolved over time, illuminating past discoveries and offering contemporary insights into the cosmic histories of stars, planets and galaxies. Whether object of study or curiosity, the universe – and all it contains – is tantalisingly introduced here.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies with Sidney Noir. This collection comprises of all new stories set in Sidney, Australia, by 14 authors of crime fiction....