Showing results for "F" in Small Town & Rural

Bristol detective DS George Cross, champion of the outsider, the voiceless and the dispossessed. DS George Cross can be rude, difficult and awkward with people. But his unfailing logic and dogged pursuit of the truth means his conviction rate is the best on the force. An outsider himself, having been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, DS Cross is especially drawn to cases concerning the voiceless and the dispossessed. Now, Cross is untangling the truth about a young woman who died three days ago.

As the winter chill grips the Highlands, a body is discovered burned alive in a solstice bonfire, kicking off a harrowing Christmas season. When a retired businessman is found hanging from a tree and another associate is savagely murdered in his isolated home, the team is stretched to the limit. With DCI Helena Grant away for a romantic holiday with crime writer Bill Emsworth, McKay must navigate a series of baffling killings under mounting pressure—amidst staff shortages and the relentless Scottish winter.

Set in the eccentric backwater of Karakarook (pop. 1,374), New South Wales, this is the story of Douglas Cheeseman, a shy and clumsy engineer with jug-ears who meets Harley Savage, a woman who is known for being rather large and abrupt. Douglas is there to pull down a quaint old bridge, and Harley aims to foster heritage. They are clearly on a collision course - but when they meet they are unaware that something unexpected is going to happen....

Rural West Cork, Ireland. Two Kids, Joseph and Paul, and their struggling, poet father, Fraser, are battling grief and poverty. When a letter arrives with a summons to Dublin and the promise of publication, it offers a chink of light—the hope of rescue. But Dublin is a long, wet and hungry way from West Cork in the mid-'70s, especially when they have no money—just the clothes they stand up in and an old, battered suitcase. So begins an almost anti-roadtrip of flipsides and contradictions.

After the untimely death of their biological father, triplets Eva, Rosa and Hannah find themselves the unlikely owners of Heatherly Hall, the vast manor house overlooking their home village of Westenbury. But the beautiful house comes with almost as much baggage as it does land, not least high running costs and expectations. It's up to the sisters to find a way to keep Heatherly Hall going and, most importantly, in the family. But with drama in their private lives and secrets about to emerge, can the sisters stick together to focus on the task at hand?

Maggie and Ibby make up a happy - if unconventional - family. After meeting at university, they now live in the village of Applecroft in the West Country. Okay, so Ibby’s gay and prone to disastrous dates, while couples’ counsellor Maggie spends her days helping people with their relationship problems despite having no sex life of her own. Nevertheless, they’re devoted to bringing up teenage daughter Amelia – the result of a drunken one-night stand when they were students. Until a face from the past disrupts their quiet lives.

Connie Darke is trying to run away from the traumas in her past, and it's led her home, to the small rural council estate she left almost 20 years earlier. Matilda Reynolds has spent most of her long life in the Worcestershire village of Stonecastle, and she's content there, with her animals and her solitude. Until a fall lands her in hospital, and Matilda has to turn to her strange young neighbor Connie for help looking after her home. Out of their tentative arrangement, each woman gains a new sense of community.

1911, on a winter's night in arid New South Wales wool country, mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins discovers the bodies of three young people. They are scions of the richest family in the district, savagely murdered on a road that Hawkins should have been patrolling, had he not been busy bedding the local schoolteacher.

With her heart in tatters, Rose Bennett swaps her hometown of London for sunny Australia, but arrives to find the Shingle Valley shrouded in winter. As the weather improves, Rose starts to unlock the secrets of the valley - from bonfire ceremonies and wine-making traditions, to eccentric locals and their histories.... And soon, Rose falls in love with the valley, the wines, the two children she’s caring for and with the handsome and brilliant Mark Cameron, owner of the troubled Kalkari Wines estate.

When he unexpectedly loses his job, Herbie struggles to find new meaning. His wife, the great love of his life, has long left him for a Southerner, and his daughter has fled Belfast for London in search of work and an easier life. But a local cafe under new ownership, a friend in need and an unexpected spark of romance give Herbie something to wake up for. By turns moving and funny, topical and sharp, it is a life-affirming story of a life not yet over.

Detective Dave Burrows has longed for the top job in the Stock Squad but never thought he'd be acting in that role while his partner and best mate, Detective Bob Holden, is treated for melanoma. Bob is keen to get back on the road and Dave can't wait to go bush either, expecting the trip will be much the same as usual. But the trip doesn't play out that way. Multiple bomb blasts in the small country town of Kallygarn send shock waves through the state of WA, and Dave and Bob are once again drawn into the underworld of crime.

After the family's devastating tragedy, Detective Dave Burrows is crystal clear that his wife, Mel, is no longer interested in their marriage. Before Dave can talk to Mel, he and his partner, Bob Holden, are sent to investigate a suspected sheep stealing at a station north of Carnarvon where they very quickly realise that this crime is a lot more than just stock theft. As a ferocious tropical storm floods the airstrip and uncovers more than anyone expected, Dave and Bob find themselves isolated, outnumbered and in extraordinary danger.

Stifled by English society, Molly Bentley has always yearned for adventure. When her father offers to send her to the bustling port town of Albany in Western Australia, Molly readily agrees, even if it means assuming a secret identity. With only her chaperone Mrs Caldicott to answer to, her life of freedom can finally begin. Until Molly is knocked down in the streets, nearly trampled, and a threatening letter is slipped into her hands.

Felix Carrington helps run the family's wedding venue business as the in-house wedding photographer for Carrington Farm. His personal passion? Taking unexpected shots of his local environment. And it's through an unlikely and close friendship with 84-year-old Winnifred Knightly that Felix is able to access one of his favourite places to photograph, the faded grandeur of Peppercorn House and its overgrown gardens.

When Sassi Stapleton receives a middle-of-the-night phone call to tell her that her beloved grandmother is unwell, she quickly puts her job on hold, packs her ute and sets off on the long drive home, knowing her grandfather will need her. Less than an hour away from Sassi's hometown, Barker, she swerves to miss a roo and her car rolls down an embankment. By the time Sassi is found, her grandmother has already passed away.

Anna and Matt Butler were childhood sweethearts with a dream of owning their own land, a dream they achieved through hard work and determination. But as the seasons conspire against them and Matt is involved in a terrible accident, the couple face financial ruin and the loss of their farm. As they fight for everything they hold dear, they suddenly find themselves caught up in events much bigger and more dangerous than they could ever have imagined.

Sully McCoy has spent the last twenty years distancing himself from his father's reputation and has made a good life for himself and his daughter in Rockne Heads. Yet now Alex Kelly is back in town and somehow still turning his life upside down. He thought he'd never see her again. And Alex is making it perfectly clear that she's not here to relive old memories—she's here to end them once and for all.

Meg's life is woven into the fabric of St. Stephens. It's a tapestry made of two precious children, a hidden truth, and a husband whose ideas of a perfect wife do not match her own. When Meg puts her foot down on a third kid, gets a job, and is empowered by the same book group that was meant to keep her in her place, her marriage begins to disintegrate. Set in a tiny Mormon community, this is a novel about resilience and courage – the fierceness of mother-love and the power that comes with never forgetting who you really are.

Country-girl Cressida Knight fills her days with her farm, a mischievous pet bull called Reggie and her volunteer emergency services work. The busier she keeps, the less she thinks about the cowboy who left her behind. She's convinced the small-town Woodlea grapevine that she's moved on, but now it's time to move on for real. Champion bull rider Denham Rigby shares Cressy's deep love for the land and all he's ever wanted was to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Cressy through life. But three years ago a dark family secret left him no choice but to run.

The scars country vet Ella Quinlivan hides are not solely on the outside. Men are off limits. She fills her world with her friends, work and the colourful community of small town Woodlea. She also becomes custodian of a sandstone cottage of an elderly friend whose teenage daughter went missing two decades ago. With a broken marriage behind him, Saul Armstrong is determined to recapture his dreams by bringing American bison to the Australian bush. He intends to stick to his side of the high wire fence that divides his farm from his distracting new neighbour, Ella.