Showing results by narrator "Sarah Durham" in All Categories

A girl grows up in the north of England amid scarcity, precarity and the toxic culture of heroin chic, believing that she needs to make herself smaller to claim presence in the world. Years later, as a young woman with unattainable ideals, she meets someone who calls everything into question, and is forced to confront episodes from her past. Their relationship takes her from London to Barcelona and the precipice of a new life, full of sensuality.

‘I’ll always protect you.’ These are the words my mother whispered to me every time she kissed me goodnight. And whenever we ventured outside our windswept seaside village, she’d clutch my hand tightly and her face would be pinched and pale. I never understood why. But now I do. Growing up, I’d heard the whispers and the rumours. My mother tried to keep the truth from me, but she failed. I understand exactly what happened eighteen years ago. I know I am the murdered doctor’s child.

I can’t believe it when I learn my donor’s identity. The attack on Flora was all over the news. From my hospital bed I read every article, obsess over every word and soon I feel like I know her: the beautiful girl with flame-colored hair, adored by everyone around her. Why would anyone hurt someone so perfect? When Flora’s family reach out to me, I’m unsure. My hands are shaking as I arrive at their grand mansion with its golden stone and sprawling gardens, but they’re warm and welcoming, tears shining in her mother’s eyes as she smiles at me.

Yorkshire, 1890. Having lost her father and brothers in tragic circumstances, Olwen Malkon is forced to leave her childhood home to live with her uncle's family. In his chill vicarage, however, she fears that she is also losing her mind, as strange dreams take her into the life of Ælfwyn, a woman from a distant past whose fate is overshadowed by menace and betrayal. In the grip of these afflictions, Olwen finds sympathy with the local doctor, John Osbourne, who is intrigued by her case.

Everyone has their own version of what happened to the school that day: The survivor, who escaped but is now trapped in a lie. The newspapers, hellbent on turning a tragedy into a spectacle. And the outsider, who claims it never really happened at all… They all want the truth. But who’s ready to face it? As events spiral out of control and conspiracies ignite, the true story is revealed. Piece by shocking piece.

Sadie loves her daughter and will do anything to keep her safe. She can't tell her why they had to leave home so quickly - or why Robin's father won't be coming with them to London. She can't tell her why she hates being back in her dead mother's house, with its ivy-covered walls and its poisonous memories. And she can't tell her the truth about the school Robin's set to start at - a school that doesn't welcome newcomers. Sadie just wants to get their lives back on track.

Alison Lennon receives the worst news a parent can expect - her son, Ben, has been killed, in what looks at first like a random attack on a dark street in the middle of the night. Only, she knows that he isn't the first victim. Mia Johnstone has just turned eighteen. Ready for the next phase of her life, she should be looking forward to university, studying, partying. Instead, she's thinking about how her boyfriend Ben is the third person close to her has died. Alison believes that Mia killed her son.

For Iris, each visit to her mother in St Mabon’s Cove, Cornwall has been the same—a serene escape from the city. But today, as she breaths in the salt air on the doorstep of her beloved childhood home, a heavy weight of anticipation settles over her. Iris knows she’s adopted, but any questions about where she came from have always been shut down by her parents, who can’t bear to revisit the past. Now, Iris can’t stop thinking about what she’s read on the official paperwork: BABY GIRL, FRANCE, 1939 – the year war was declared with Nazi Germany.

It's the mid-'90s, and rebellion is in the air. Skylark is an activist, a raver, a tree-dweller, a world-changer. Handsome, dependable Dan appears on the scene, offering her the security she has never had. When they fall in love, she shows him a new way to live; he will never be the same. But Dan has a secret, which Skylark must never, ever know. A secret so powerful that its fault-lines run from their ordinary council flat right up to the highest echelons of the state.

When the body of a retired police superintendent is found murdered at Hull Fair, Detective Hollie Turner is thrust into a case that will force her to confront her own painful history. Twenty-five years ago, Hollie's university friend Moira vanished without a trace at the very same fairground. Now, as she investigates the superintendent's death, long-buried secrets from that fateful night begin to surface.

When the broken body of a seventy-one-year-old woman is found beneath the Humber Bridge, a sign around her neck with the words ‘Pure Evil’ spray-painted in red, Detective Hollie Turner can’t help but wonder–who would want this frail elderly woman dead? As she starts to delve into the victim’s personal life, Hollie discovers that the woman, Sister Brennan, ran a local mother and baby home at the Church of St Mary and the Angels. The unit may have shut down years ago, but the pain and anguish of those who were forced to give up their babies remains.

1866: Kitty McKenzie's path has taken her from the slums of York to the inhospitable bush of colonial Australia. Yet when she believes her dreams will never be attained, she is shown that sometimes life can be even better than what you wish for. Kitty is gifted land in the far north of New South Wales. Life at the northern property is full of hardships - however, Kitty's strength of will and belief in herself give her the courage most women of her time never realise they have. A decided thorn in her side is the arrogant and patronising Miles Grayson, owner of the adjourning run.

It's a crisp spring morning when Cass drops her husband, a respected lecturer, to the beach for his medically prescribed swim. While waiting for him, something catches her eye. A young woman runs towards her husband and embraces him—until he holds his hand over her face and she falls down on the stones, dead. In the backseat of the car, their seven-year-old son sits quietly. When her husband returns, he says nothing. Neither does Cass. Afraid to speak up in the immediate aftermath, Cass embarks on a solitary quest to unravel what has taken place.

I’m out on an early morning dog walk when I find the body. It’s Harry, the man I was dating. It should be the worst thing that has ever happened to me.... But it has happened to me before. Six months ago I found the body of Ash, another man I’d been seeing. The police arrested me, and the trauma nearly destroyed me. I moved back home and changed my life. Now, it’s a bright sunny morning, the air is fresh, and I’m finally feeling like I can move on. I can’t wait for my second date with Harry....

When Jessica’s grandfather left for war, he promised to keep a record of each day he was apart from her grandmother. The diary was lost along with him—until now, when a mysterious, handsome Italian man named Alessandro shows up at Jessica’s door with the diary in hand. Immediately enchanted by her grandfather’s accounts of Italy’s glittering golden hours, Jess decides to spend a summer in Tuscany before she’s due to take over at her family’s farm. She hopes she can visit the places her grandfather once did—and finally find out what really happened the night he died.

At twenty-seven, I’m too young to be a widow. I’m trying my best to start over though: new city, new job running my own little shop. I try to fade into the background where I can, but the police won’t let me disappear completely. There are too many unanswered questions about the night my husband died.

Philippa Taylor (Pepper to her friends) has big dreams. When she closes her eyes, she can picture exactly who she ought to be. The problem is, it's about as far away from her real life in a small coastal town in Suffolk as she can imagine. So when her elderly friend Josephine persuades Pepper to accompany her on a trip to Europe, she jumps at the chance to change her routine. And when Pepper bumps (literally) into the handsome Finn in Lisbon, it seems as though she might have finally found what she's been looking for.

Seventeen-year-old student Kyle Wilson is lying in the fetal position of a derelict school outbuilding. As Detective Hollie Turner studies the boy’s lifeless body, pushing back the tears pooling in her eyes, one question plays over in her mind. Who would want this teenage kid dead? Interviewing the tight-lipped students and staff, Hollie learns that Kyle was a loner with a penchant for secretly filming his peers and had been receiving threatening notes in his locker. The deeper Hollie digs, the more she realizes almost everyone at the academy has something to hide.

Returning home is never easy. Not when there is a serial killer at work… A completely unputdownable crime thriller full of authentic detail. DI Charley Mann left Yorkshire for the Met and a fast-track career – but now she's back, she's in charge and the area's first young, female DI. Her hometown, the Yorkshire countryside, and her old friends all seem unchanged. But appearances can be deceptive. When a brutal murder is discovered, Charley is forced to question everything, and the interest of her ex doesn't make it easier. Bodies keep appearing and the pressure is on.

Pearl Flowers has been hiding away for so long that she has forgotten what real life is like. Her quiet routine in a woodland cottage in France is a sanctuary, far away from her past life running a beauty salon. But then an unexpected phone call throws her calm world into chaos. Back in the UK, her estranged father Francis is dying. She hasn’t seen him for decades since he pushed her away and destroyed their family. And on his deathbed, Francis leaves her a gift - a diary, written in a code that only Pearl can understand.