Showing results by narrator "Antonia Beamish" in All Categories

With Miranda's children grown, a perfectly amicable divorce long behind her, and her career in need of a spark, life feels steady — but a little too predictable. She can’t shake the feeling that something has to change.

Ali Kingston is happily married with three children. She isn't the type to have her head turned - but then it isn't every day that a gorgeous younger man falls at her feet. When Ed, Ali's husband, finds out that she's spent time with another man, he's sure there's more to it than just a minor indiscretion - so in a moment of madness, he kicks Ali out of the house. Their family and friends do all they can to help Ali and Ed reconcile, but nothing seems to work. And then fate intervenes....

Lelith Hesperax is the Queen of Knives – the greatest of Commorragh's wyches, and the deadliest gladiator in the galaxy. Now she returns to the Dark City, to slice her way through tangled webs of deception...Follow the legendary grand succubus as she finds herself dragged back to Commorragh and enveloped once more within the twisted plots of Asdrubael Vect.

As a young civil servant, Caroline Slocock became the first ever female private secretary to any British Prime Minister and was at Margaret Thatcher's side for the final 18 months of her premiership. A left-wing feminist, Slocock was no natural ally, and yet she became fascinated by the woman behind the Iron Lady façade and by how she dealt with a world dominated by men. As events inexorably led to Margaret Thatcher's downfall, Slocock observed the vulnerabilities and contradictions of the woman considered by many to be the ultimate anti-feminist.

Aftermath chronicles this perilous journey as the author redefines herself as a single woman and creates a new version of family life for her daughters. She discovers previously unknown strengths and freedoms but also finds herself suddenly vulnerable to outsiders, unwelcome advice, social displacement and the absence of a clear authority. The pressure to reconstruct a 'normal' life for her daughters competes with the sense that nothing feels normal at all.

On a lazy Sunday morning, Jenny Harris is shaken awake by her panic-stricken boyfriend, Joseph. Their baby daughter lies asleep on her chest. ‘We’ve got to go!’ Joseph screams. In their hotel room, Jenny hurriedly wraps her tiny baby up. All their belongings are left behind. There’s no time. Joseph’s panic is contagious. Jenny sprints with her family from the hotel. And it’s clear that they are being chased. Their pursuers are indiscriminate and they are deadly. Her boyfriend falls, caught up in the carnage, but he manages to give her one last message: 'RUN!’

Bruised from the breakdown of her marriage, Esther Lomax needs to get away, and Malaysia seems the perfect place. But a day's boat trip takes a desperate turn when Esther and six other holidaymakers are taken to a desert island and their guide doesn’t return. As the days pass, tensions erupt, secrets emerge, and time increasingly runs out, Esther must ask herself: Will she leave the island alive?

Hazel and Jamie are happily married. Or so it would seem. Behind closed doors, things are far from normal. Jamie has an unhealthy obsession, and Hazel is more worried about herself than her husband. So when Millicent injects herself into their lives, with Jamie firmly in her sights, the trio end up on a path that will end in death. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has a dark side. But who is good, who is bad, and who is going to get away with murder?

Amara's journey has taken her far; from a slave in Pompeii's wolf den to a high-powered courtesan in Rome...though her story is not over yet. While Amara plays for power in Rome's imperial palace, those dearest to her remain in Pompeii. But it is AD 79, and mighty Mount Vesuvius is about to make itself known.

Present Day. When Hanna returns to Norfolk from years working abroad, the strange dreams of her adolescence return: indistinct figures in tunics, mighty soldiers in armour, gladiators, temples, an Iceni warrior woman leading her people. Gradually Hanna’s dreams begin to slip into the present as visions in the famous mists rolling across the fens, and as shocks of recognition when a new face moves to her childhood home. As Hanna realises that she has a connection with a tragedy that occurred many years before, so Brea has to understand that her fate is bound up with her Roman master.

Two years on from uncovering a terrifying conspiracy of rogue scientists, all Kate Maddox wants is to lead a normal life with her partner, Paul, and son, Jack. But then a face from the past turns up, bringing chilling news. A devastating new strain of the virus that killed Kate's parents is loose in LA - and when a bomb rips through a hotel, killing many top scientists, it becomes clear someone will do anything to stop a cure being found.

Henry Roberts had a type – young, blonde, attractive women. He is three years into a life sentence. Two of his victims were never found. Now, Henry Roberts is dying and he wants to make a deal. Move him to a secure unit by the sea and he will tell the police where the other victims’ remains are. The offer is accepted and Detective George Elms travels to the force who led the original investigation. He is the messenger. As he reviews the old case notes he also learns something else. Henry Roberts didn’t work alone.

Amara has escaped her life as a slave in the town's most notorious brothel, but now her existence depends on the affections of her patron: a man she might not know as well as she once thought. At night, she dreams of the wolf den, still haunted by her past. Amara longs for the women she was forced to leave behind and worse, finds herself pursued by the man who once owned her. In order to be free, she will need to be as ruthless as he is. Amara knows her existence in Pompeii is subject to Venus, the goddess of love. Yet finding love may prove to be the most dangerous act of all.

Sharp, irreverent and very funny women's fiction for women who won't put up with being told to step aside! Isn't it about time we talked about you? Tessa, Sandra and Harriet have been best friends through first crushes, careers, marriage and the trials of motherhood. After 20 years of taking care of everyone else's every needs, they've found themselves hitting the big 5-0 and suddenly asking themselves, 'What about me?' Sandra has a sordid secret, and Harriet is landed with her ailing mother-in-law.

When Penelope Kite swaps her humdrum life in Surrey for a picturesque farmhouse in the south of France, she imagines a simple life of long lunches and chilled rosé.... What she doesn't imagine is the dead body floating in her swimming pool. Convinced that the victim suffered more than a drunken accident, Penelope plunges headlong into local intrigue and long-simmering resentments to uncover the truth.

When Anna Hunt takes a break from her job to live in Peru, none of her friends take her seriously. With a love of stilettos, chocolate, and Sauvignon Blanc, how will she manage in a developing country? Anna's quest takes her from the wilderness of the Amazon jungle, to a passionate affair with Maximo Morales, a seductive and charismatic shaman who offers her the opportunity to become his apprentice…

In Traces, Professor Patricia Wiltshire will take you on a journey through the fascinating edgeland where nature and crime are intertwined. She'll take you searching for bodies of loved ones - through woodlands, along hedgerows, field-edges, and through plantations - solving time since death, and disposal of remains, from ditches to living rooms. She will give you glimpses of her own history: her loves, her losses, and the narrow little valley in Wales where she first woke up to the wonders of the natural world.

To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edited literature. London, 1953, Coronation year - but not the Coronation of Elizabeth II. Thirteen years have passed since a Grand Alliance between Great Britain and Germany was formalised. George VI and his family have been murdered and Edward VIII rules as king. Yet, in practice, all power is vested in Alfred Rosenberg, Britain's Protector. The role and status of women is Rosenberg's particular interest.

At Black Rabbit Hall, nothing much ever happens - time seems to move slower at this idyllic holiday home in Cornwall. Until the worst thing happens, and for the Alton children time feels like it's stopped altogether. In the present day, Lorna Smith is searching for her perfect wedding venue and is inexplicably drawn to the now crumbling Black Rabbit Hall, unaware that her own history is locked up in those derelict walls....

Laurel Bowman has started a new life as a teacher on the isolated Suffolk coast while she tries to get over the murder of her sister. But it seems she cannot escape from death. When the headmaster's wife is murdered, the detective in charge, idiosyncratic DI Frank Diamond, soon has a list of suspects. He is no stranger to Laurel, but despite their troubled past, together they start to unravel the truth. Then the murderer strikes again and Laurel must fight, not just for justice, but for her life.