Showing results by narrator "Deryn Edwards" in Literature & Fiction

Bella Tyson is a famous 40-something crime writer suffering from writer’s block ever since a bitter divorce two years before. When a fan offers her the use of an apartment in Venice, Bella jumps at it, hoping a change of scene will have her writing again. Once there, she soon meets Will, a charming Englishman, who shows her around the city. Enchanted by both Will and her new surroundings, Bella decides to write a supernatural murder mystery and begins researching local legends and the city’s more sinister side, including an illicit visit to the island of Poveglia, spooky former home of Venice’s asylum.

November, 1915. For young housemaid Anwen Rhys, life is hard in the Welsh mining village of Dorcalon. She cares for her ill mother and younger sister Sara, all while shielding them from her father’s violent temper. Anwen comforts herself with her love for her childhood sweetheart, Idris Hughes, away fighting in the Great War. Yet when Idris returns, he is a changed man, quickly breaking off their engagement. But when there is an explosion at the pit, Anwen and Idris put their feelings aside to unite their community. Can Anwen find hope again?

Ever since Jimmy was a boy, he’s known two things: the rough streets of Merthyr Tydfil and that one day he would marry Enid Hardcastle. But when Enid disappears without a word, his life takes a different turn. Determined to make something of himself, Jimmy pours his heart into his job at Mr Baxter's workshop, dreaming of the future he and Enid might one day share. Yet, just as his hard work begins to pay off, a man arrives claiming to be Mr Baxter’s illegitimate son, threatening Jimmy’s chance of inheriting the business he was promised.

It's an early autumn day like any other as Miles Avery drives his wife, Jacqueline, to the station. Nothing remarkable crops up in conversation, nor do either of them appear anything other than their normal selves. At the station, Jacqueline gets out, takes an overnight bag from the back seat, then turns towards the platforms. This is the last anyone sees of her. Three weeks later, Miles calls the police. Enquiries are made, but there is no evidence of her boarding a train, or even entering the station.

When local teenagers discover a body at the disused Denbigh Asylum, it seems that his murder might be linked to a modern slavery ring trafficking young people from the Indian subcontinent. However, social media then reveals that the victim was involved in a toxic relationship which may provide a clue to his death. When there is another murder, the focus of the investigation switches again. With time running out, Ruth and the Llancastell CID team must find the killer before they flee the country and disappear.

From the Sunday Times best-selling author of The Pool House, this dark and twisty thriller is perfect for fans of BBC's The Replacement, The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. You trust your friend, so you'd trust her daughter. Wouldn't you...? When an old university friend gets in touch with a request for work experience for her daughter, magazine editor Amy agrees. Twenty-year-old Josie walks into Amy's office, moves into the basement of her Notting Hill house and is soon helping out with her children after Amy's nanny is hit by a car.

When Barbara Pym died in 1980, she left a considerable amount of unpublished material. This volume contains an early novel, Civil to Strangers, three novellas and an autobiographical essay, 'Finding a Voice', Pym's only written comment on her writing career.

When the body of a local boat tour operator is found on the beach beside Llandudno Pier, it seems that her murder might be linked to an ongoing rivalry with a new boat tour company. However, when it is discovered that the victim had recently started a relationship with a much younger man, the focus of the investigation changes.

Horace was 10, Ethel seven, when Jim Cooper, home from the trenches, minus an arm and just about managing on his own, found them huddled in a doorway on a wet night in Walworth. Slightly against his better judgement he took them in, fed them cocoa and put them to sleep in his bed. A few days later he found that - somehow - he had become the unofficial guardian of Horace and Ethel.

Island life suits Susan, and she can’t imagine ever moving from her beloved Isle of Wight. So it gives her real pleasure to see her young lodger Colette settle in to life by the sea, especially knowing that she has such a troubled past.

When Enzo shoots an illegal migrant from his bedroom one night, it triggers a series of events that embroil old and young, rich and poor, native and foreign. Over two weeks in May, all these characters will face challenging choices as they grapple with their own past and with present dangers. For although the Tuscan spring looks as ravishing as a Renaissance painting, the realities of modern life make it harder and harder to believe that there is more that unites us than what keeps us apart.

Amid the sun-soaked hills of southern Italy lies the Romano family olive grove, where Lara lives with her daughter Rose and her granddaughter Bea. Lara has spent a lifetime trying to forget the traumatic events that led to her desperate escape from Dorset seventy years ago. But when she sees Bea—a passionate horticulturalist most at home in nature—being swept off her feet by Matteo, a handsome and charismatic restaurateur, Lara fears her granddaughter is in danger of making the same mistake as Lara did all those years ago.

A fresh start where no-one knows her name is exactly what Catie is looking for from her Sicilian escape. When Catie meets handsome Giancarlo, she has stumbled across a love that could last forever... If only she can admit the truth about her past. But the scars of betrayal from her broken marriage and fragile family are only part of the story.

Enid Hardcastle has always had a hard life, but when her family can’t make ends meet and are moved to the workhouse, it feels like things can’t get any worse. But luckily for Enid, her friendship with local boy Jimmy gives her the strength. Also from the cold, hard streets of Merthyr, Jimmy has made his name as an entrepreneur, repairing boots and hand-delivering them to the fine people of the town. Enid has seen for herself that you can make a better life for yourself, so with Jimmy’s help, she sets about trying to save her family. But there are even darker places than the workhouse...

Spring 1919. WW1 might be over, but the inhabitants of Dorcalon in the Welsh Valleys still feel the pain of the war that took so many of their men. Polly Smith is trying to survive her own battle at home. After her abusive husband, Gus, was finally jailed, Polly has been raising her two-year-old son alone. But being a single mother isn't easy, and Polly finds it harder still as Gus's criminal activities leave her with a bad reputation. Lonely and struggling for money, Polly retreats as she becomes the subject of cruel gossip.

Everyone that meets Kat Keating is mesmerised. Beautiful, smart and charming, she is everything a good girl should be. Her sister Eleanor, on the other hand, knows she can't compete with Kat. On the awkward side of tall, clever enough to be bullied, and full of the responsibilities only an older sibling can understand, Eleanor grows up knowing she’s not a good girl.

This charming series of Victorian murder mysteries features mild-mannered Inspector Witherspoon of Scotland Yard and, more importantly, Mrs Jeffries, his housekeeper. A policeman's widow herself, her quick wits allow her to nudge the Inspector in the right direction to solve the crime. Murder strikes at a Jubilee Ball in Queen Victoria's honour, which is also attended by Inspector Witherspoon and Mrs. Jeffries. The victim was a widely disliked member of the Hyde Park Literary Circle, where investigations into the crime open old wounds and reignite petty grievances...

July, 1916. In the Rhymney Valley, young mother Violet Jones is caring for four-year-old Clarice and baby Benjy on her own, while husband Charlie fights on the Front Line. When tragedy strikes, Violet’s life becomes even harder. Violet takes in a relative to help make ends meet. As the Great War takes its toll on the nation, Violet faces her own battle. Can she protect her children? And will she ever find joy out of the depths of despair?

Every summer Bea, Marissa and Emma meet at Seastone, Emma's family home on the remote Suffolk coast, to retreat from their daily lives and take comfort in their friendship. Over the years, their paths have not been easy. For Bea, the aftermath of a broken-hearted love affair influences the decisions she makes. For Marissa, the fear that her traumatic past will catch up with her haunts her still. And, for Emma, the sacrifices she has made for her family leave her full of longing and regret.

1884 - When Betsan Morgan’s mother succumbs to a devastating illness, she doesn't think her life could get much worse. But then her father moves in his new beau, an unserious flitty woman and coincidentally also the bargirl in the pub he works in, and she soon learns her house is no longer a home. All she can do is sit in the attic and stare at the portrait of her mother. Her new stepmother, Elinor, couldn’t even let them have the grace of keeping it in the hallway.