Showing results by publisher "Soundings" in All Categories

Great Plumstead is buzzing with news that the American GIs have arrived on the nearby aerodrome. However, when a serious accident forces Thea to step back from her work, she must focus her full attention on Rookery House. There is an impossible amount to get done - and a new arrival to accommodate. Will she manage to keep things afloat? Prue is as busy as ever, finding homes for evacuees while worrying about her sons, Jack and Edwin, who are involved in key Allied battles overseas...

It's almost Christmas, and Gwinny Tuffel's thoughts are on what she'll buy for DI Birch and whether she can adopt another furry friend. But sorting through her late father's papers leads her into his mysterious past, pointing to an enigmatic liaison with someone now living in a Somerset commune. Gwinny and DI Birch find themselves unexpectedly snowed in with a group of retired spies, along with an energetic Cocker Spaniel, and embroiled in a murder case. Will they uncover the culprit and escape in time for Christmas?

It is a cold December night and Sylvie Dugdale is weeping as she walks by the Mersey. She fails to notice an approaching figure, and jumping to one side to avoid collision, she finds herself struggling in the ice-cold river. Constable Brendan O'Hara, just coming off duty, sees the girl's plight and dives in to rescue her. He is dazzled by her beauty but discovers that Sylvie's husband is in prison, and the closeness that Brendan soon longs for is impossible. But he is able to help her escape from Liverpool....

September, 1940. The sun is shining, and in the midst of the good weather Londoners could be mistaken for forgetting their country was at war - until the familiar wail of the air-raid sirens heralds an enemy attack. The Blitz has started, and normal life has abruptly ended - but crime has not. That night a man's body is discovered in an unmarked van in the back streets of West Ham. When Detective Inspector John Jago is called to the scene, he recognises the victim: local justice of the peace Charles Villiers. The death looks suspicious, but then a German bomb obliterates all evidence.

Former lawyer Merrin McKenzie has returned to her hometown of St Ives, the stunning coastal town in Cornwall. She has settled back into life there in a lovely cottage, and new friendships are beginning to blossom.

When Elsie and Bert Jones move with their children, Ann and Arthur, to Candle Lane, a modest street in Battersea, they miss their comfortable house in Wimbledon. But the move is the right thing to do, as it will enable Bert to finance his new removal business. They are a warmhearted family, and Elsie soon makes friends with her less fortunate neighbour, Ruth, and her daughter, Sally. But before long Elsie realises that all is not well in the house next door....

Accused of killing her brother, Rachel Cade is sent to the workhouse to await trial. There, handsome landowner Jared Lytton comes to her rescue. Despite being vindicated, Rachel is forced to leave the village. She meets the widow Beulah Thomas and her son, William. Working on their farm, she is treated with kindness, and when William asks for her hand in marriage, she agrees. But Rachel cannot forget Jared Lytton, whose path seems destined to cross hers.

December 1930. With the Depression biting deeper, it looks like many children in the East End will wake up to nothing on Christmas morning. Widower Robbie Graham earns just enough to put food on the table for his children, Ben and Ruthie. Local cake shop owner Flo Hawkins can't bear the thought of any child having nothing for Christmas. Along with her sister, Honour, she hatches a plan to bring some festive cheer to the community.

Aunt Mildred declared that no good could come of the Melbury family Christmas gatherings. So when Sir Osmond Melbury, the family patriarch, is discovered - by a guest dressed as Santa Klaus - with a bullet in his head on Christmas Day, the festivities are plunged into chaos. Nearly everybody stands to reap some sort of benefit from his death excepting Santa Klaus, the one person who seems to have had every opportunity to fire the shot.

The Bottle Factory Outing follows Freda and Brenda, who work together in an Italian-run wine-bottling factory. A work outing becomes a pivotal moment that promises different experiences for each woman: excitement for Freda and apprehension for Brenda. The intense emotions of that chilly day of freedom fundamentally alter their lives, ensuring nothing will return to its previous state.

John Pearce is hiding in Gravelines with his mysterious companion, known to him as Oliphant. Although they find a crew willing to take them back to England, they learn on the journey that Pearce’s old enemies, the Tolland brothers, are still active on the route and may have been responsible for the murder of Catherine Carruthers. Back in England their problems continue: Pearce must seek to mend fences with Emily Barclay, in a relationship in which nothing is simple.

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.

Crime author Dick Markham is in love again; his fiancée, Lesley Grant, the mysterious newcomer to the village. When Grant accidentally shoots a fortune teller through the side of his tent at the local fair - following a very strange reaction to his predictions - Markham is reluctantly brought into a scheme to expose his betrothed as a suspected serial husband-poisoner. That night the enigmatic fortune teller - and chief accuser - is found dead in an impossible locked-room setup, casting suspicion onto Grant and striking doubt into the heart of her lover.

The Pratchett family have to contend with coalman Alfie Pratchett's obsessive jealousy. A bully, his two teenage children, John and Millie, have learned to dodge him and his moods. The main concern of ugly duckling Millie - who looks nothing like her handsome brother John - is to protect their mum, Eileen. When crisis strikes the Pratchetts' home, Alfie is forced to watch his whole world gradually collapse around him. Their old life has gone forever, and a new one has begun - one in which rape, debt, alcoholism and insanity play their parts. And redemption is a long time coming.

In a gloomy flat off Islington High Street, Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale and Sergeant Beddoes find an old woman dead. The Princess Olga Karukhin, who fled from Russia at the time of the Revolution, has lived in terror of being discovered ever since. Olga's grandson, Ivan, appears to have run from the scene but is later seen returning to the flat as though oblivious to the terrible crime. Taking place between 22nd and 24th December, Nightingale's enquiry takes him across London, culminating in the wrapping up of the mystery on Christmas Eve.

The hedonism of London in the Roaring Twenties is a world away from Annabel Tarleton's ordinary country existence. Until a chance meeting with the charming Richard Hansen at a society ball changes her life for ever. Annabel finds herself trapped inside a marriage that behind closed doors is cruel. Annabel has no choice but to flee and will do everything to save herself and her unborn baby. But the very powerful expect to get what they want....

No turkey. No fruit to make a decent pudding. No money for presents. Your children away from home; your husband, father and brothers off fighting. How in the world does one celebrate Christmas? That was the situation facing the people of Britain for six years during the Second World War. From the family whose dog ate the Christmas roast, leaving them to enjoy “Spam with all the trimmings”, to the exhibition of handmade toys for children in a Singapore prison camp, these firsthand stories are by turns tragic, poignant and funny.

October 1381. Brother Athelstan is summoned to the church of St Benet’s in Queenhithe to investigate the murder of a priest. Parson Reynaud has been found stabbed to death inside his own locked church. Other disturbing discoveries include an empty coffin and a ransacked money chest. Who would commit murder inside a holy church? Who would spirit away a corpse the night before the funeral - and who would be brave enough to steal treasure belonging to the most feared gang leader in London?

December, 1380. When the corpse of Sir Robert Kilverby is discovered in a locked room, Brother Athelstan accompanies the King’s coronor to investigate. For the late Sir Robert had in his possession a sacred bloodstone which he was planning to donate to the Abbey of St Fulcher-on-Thames.

Dora and her old enemy Lucy are paired up on the children's ward for the final three months of their training. The two nurses couldn't seem more different, but they may have more in common than they think, as each hides a secret heartache. And there are new faces. Jess is the feisty eldest daughter of a notorious East End family and determined to prove herself as a ward maid. New trainee nurse Effie can't wait to escape her small Irish village, and make her way as a nurse in London.