Showing results by narrator "Simon Mattacks" in All Categories

Thomas Finbow, falconer to Sir Robert Vicary, is sent to the remote Salisbury Plain by his master to assist on the estate of the impoverished Sir Giles Buckeridge. Thomas is to train a ramage hawk – an immature, half-wild bird – and to teach the arts of falconry to Sir Giles’s young ward, Gervase. It soon becomes clear, however, that Sir Giles has much bigger problems than falconry as he is struggling to secure respectable futures – and provide sufficient dowries - for his three spirited daughters.

The Birthday Boys tells the story of Scott's doomed expedition through the voices of five men on the voyage. As Scott, Petty Officer Taff Evans, ship's doctor Edward Wilson, Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Captain Lawrence Oates step forward for their place in the narrative, the reader is gripped by the characters themselves alongside the vividly evoked period.

Everyone remembers where they were when they heard that AJ Silver had died. In summer 1996, there was no avoiding the story that America's biggest teen pop sensation had plunged to his death on a rollercoaster at a family-run amusement park in rural England. Now, 27 years have passed, and – even if you’re too young to remember the event – you’ve probably heard AJ Silver's songs topping the charts again. So what better time to take a forensic look at what happened that summer?

AN ADRENALINE-CHARGED NEW WILDE & CHASE ADVENTURE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR Archaeologist Nina Wilde and her husband, former SAS soldier Eddie Chase, believe their globe-trotting adventures are over - the biggest worry being how their now-adult daughter Macy is going to spend her...

When pop megastar Zach Crystal dies in a fire at his remote mansion, his mysterious demise rips open the bitter divide between those who adored his music and his endless charity work, and those who viewed him as a despicable predator who manipulated and abused young and vulnerable girls. Online journalist Scott King, whose Six Stories podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the accusations of sexual abuse and murder that were levelled at Crystal before he died. But as Scott begins to ask questions and rake over old graves, some startling inconsistencies emerge.

When vandals destroy beach hut 512 on Brighton’s iconic seafront, they reveal a dead body that has apparently lain undisturbed for two months. But according to the hut’s owner, Sims, its locks rusted shut three months ago and she hasn’t had access to it since. So how could the man have got in, and why is there no evidence of the murderer?

Vivian Lestrange - celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse - has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. Reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself looking for publicity, it appears that crime is afoot when Lestrange's housekeeper is also found to have disappeared. Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim.

When Nathaniel Pickering, Lady Margaret's older brother is found murdered, Thomas takes her away to London, in search of gyrfalcons. Thomas's astute mind is unable to ignore the clues, and in uncovering some dark secrets, he places himself - and his mistress - in grave danger. Now a target himself, Thomas must face some of London's most notorious criminals, in a battle of both brain and brawn.

1594, Bishopsgate Ward, London. Within the walls and without, unease and uncertainty lurk beneath the noise and bustle of a smoky, teeming city. Matthew Cutler, newly widowed and caring for two spirited daughters, takes his position as constable for the parish of Spitalfields very seriously. So when Paulo Brisco, a quiet Venetian perfumer is found brutally murdered in his own shop, Cutler throws himself into his first major crime, and one which threatens to set all Bishopsgate alight.

When world-famous archaeologist and ex-soldier Max Hunter finds a mysterious artefact in a tomb beneath the Gates of Nineveh, his lifelong dream of finding The Atlantis Covenant comes one step closer. But there is a problem. He is not the only one looking for it and his discovery unleashes a high-speed hunt for the lost civilisation between a mysterious Swiss foundation, the FBI, and the world's most secretive society.

Ann Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet again Killjoy is the fourth mystery novel in the Inspector Ramsay series by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series. The youth theatre cast are in their places but Gus Lynch’s female...

Rory Connor was a gambling man and he had a gambler's luck. From the day he was born, his mother had known that Rory would be the one to make something of his life. At seven years old he was earning money from odd jobs and by 14 he was in full-time work. By the time he was 19, he had escaped the factory to become a rent-collector. Now, at 23, ambition was in full flow and he was always looking to bigger and better games to play.

Ann Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet again The Baby-Snatcher is the sixth and final mystery novel in the Inspector Ramsay series by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series. Marilyn Howe’s and her mother Kathleen are an...

In the isolated village of Lambourn there is great excitement when a family of itinerant bell-founders arrives to forge a new church bell. Thomas the Falconer is charged by his master to find answers, but instead finds himself trying to restore order in the community when the village constable is also found dead. As panic ensues, Thomas does what he does best - following the trail and hunting his prey.

Ten-year-old Ethan Clarke's disappearance gripped the nation. Just as his parents are starting to piece together a life 'after Ethan', their world is ripped apart once more when their daughter, Robin, disappears in almost identical circumstances. They've lost two children within a decade...and now doubts about their innocence are setting in.

Widower Kane Black is still ruinously married to his late wife, Lily. Grief has hollowed him… until he sees a woman with his wife’s inimitable beauty on the streets of Manhattan. He whisks her up to his towering penthouse, protectively under guard, nestling her in dark opulence where Lily’s memory is a possessive beguiling force.

Inside the minds of the world's most depraved serial killers. Sunday Times best-selling author Christopher Berry-Dee is the man who talks to serial killers. A world-renowned investigative criminologist, he has gained the trust of murderers across the world, entered their high security prisons and discussed in detail their shocking crimes. The killers' pursuit of horror and violence is described through the unique audiotape and videotape interviews which Berry-Dee conducted, deep inside the bowels of some of the world's toughest prisons.

December 1940. New Year’s Eve draws closer, but crowds will not be gathering on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate. After a quiet Christmas, the area has suffered London’s most devastating air raid since the start of the Blitz and waves of incendiary bombs have burnt the heart of British book publishing to the ground. Detective Inspector John Jago finds a desolate woman sitting among the ruins of her family business and must break the news—her husband’s been found shot dead at their home in Soho.

Ruslan Akulov, the legendary Ukrainian assassin known as Wolf Six, wakes to find the plane he’s on plummeting, and with no real memory of how he got there. Surviving the crash, only to be detained by a small-town sheriff and accused of two murders, that for once he didn’t commit, Akulov must piece together the fragments of his concussed memory to understand how his last mission in Canada as a black asset for the CIA went so catastrophically wrong. Yet far darker forces are hunting him.

Following a tip-off from a contact in the Dutch Security Service, HARPA Director James Gates tasks his deputy, Amy Fox, to raid a container ship and secure a cache of smuggled biblical relics. Among the haul, they hope to find an enigmatic statue made by John the Apostle and the answer to a riddle about the Apocalypse.