Showing results by author "Alex Smith" in All Categories

Quiet Riot, the politics podcast with more passion, less shouting and lots of laughter

From Alex T. Smith, bestselling author of the Claude series and How Winston Delivered Christmas, comes a fantastically festive Christmas adventure about a gorgeous grumpy character. Inspired by The Krampus and with a hint of The Grinch, The Grumpus is a heartwarming story that celebrates the...

Haunted by his inability to track down and save his missing wife, DCI Robert Kett leaves the Metropolitan Police behind and moves to Norwich with his three young children, hoping to heal their broken family. But his newfound peace doesn’t last. Two newspaper delivery girls have gone missing in the city, and the clues point to a serial kidnapper. Kett is dragged into the centre of one of the darkest cases of his career - a case that pits him head-to-head against a horrifying evil.

From the internationally bestselling creator of Claude and Mr Penguin comes a brand-new tongue-in-cheek murder mystery series, stylishly illustrated in black and white, and perfect for fans of Robin Stevens, Enola Holmes and Knives Out. When the tyrannical family patriarch Sir Ignatious Gristle...

When a young woman is brutally murdered in the Norfolk countryside, the locals blame Black Shuck - a legendary wild dog. There’s only one problem: The wounds weren’t made by an animal. DCI Robert Kett is battling a black dog of his own. With his wife still missing, and the injuries from his last case leaving him in constant pain, everything seems impossible - not least looking after his three young children.

DCI Kett is back, heading Norfolk Constabulary’s brand-new Extreme Crime Task Force. And it’s just in time. The body of a woman bound in thorns has been discovered in Norwich’s historic Cow Tower. In her mouth is a severed finger wrapped in a scrap of red cloth, and the first few lines of a fairy tale. “Once upon a time, a young maiden waited to be saved from a hideous monster.” The finger belongs to another missing woman, and if Kett, Porter and Savage want to find her alive they must follow a chain of blood-drenched riddles, each victim leading to the next.

Every time you hear his voice, another child will die. DCI Robert Kett’s family may be whole again, but he is a broken man. Suspended from duty, he takes his girls out of the city for a much-needed holiday on the Norfolk Coast. Instead of the peace he desperately needs, however, Kett finds a community in chaos. Four teenagers are missing, and time is running out before they meet a horrific fate. Kett must follow a deadly trail of clues left by the man who took them, the only person who knows where they are. There’s only one problem. The kidnapper is already dead.

What if strategy could instead be clear, simple, bold, and even actually useful? That’s what No Bullsh*t Strategy is all about. It sweeps away all the garbled corporate nonsense and dry academic theorising to leave you with pure strategic sauce, which can be actioned right away. It’ll make you see your business in a totally new light, and effortlessly unlock insights you didn’t know you had in you. Even better, it makes strategy fun.

Ian Softley is a killer. He's the man governments call when they want somebody dead. His is a life of intimidation and brutality, of beatings and executions—including, ultimately, his own. Jack Softley's life is a world away from his brother's. A high school English teacher, devoted father, and all-round nice guy, Jack tries to stay as far from trouble as possible. But when he receives word that Ian has been murdered, he finds himself dragged into a storm of violence and danger. Because the same people who killed his brother want him dead too.

He will find the truth. Even if it kills him. Five months ago, DCI Robert Kett’s wife Billie was snatched from a London street. Five months of no leads, no evidence, and no suspects. Until now. When a routine police search uncovers a chamber of horrors beneath one of the city’s most expensive houses, detectives find a clue that points to Billie’s fate, and to the identity of her kidnapper - an enigmatic killer known as the Pig Man.

For years, DCI Robert Kett has tracked down the country’s most dangerous kidnappers and serial killers, earning a reputation as the best man to call to catch the worst men. The tables are about to turn.

When Blake Barton opens the door to a stranger one morning, he comes face to face with an unimaginable evil. Because this stranger claims to be the devil, and he promises to kill Blake—not now, but in six days, six hours, and six minutes exactly. Plunged into a nightmare race to save his wife and young son, Blake finds himself fighting not only the stranger but an army of young men who call themselves the devil's disciples—men who will do anything to please their master. As time runs out, Blake realizes that in order to fight evil, he must find the devil inside himself.

In the middle of one of Norfolk’s most brutal winters, a frozen body is discovered on the legendary Stone of Lyng. With Robert Kett out of action, the case falls to DC Kate Savage and DI Pete Porter, and it quickly becomes clear to them that the young man wasn’t just killed—he was sacrificed. And he isn’t alone. Within a week, another dead man is found on one of Norfolk’s ancient stones with the same unthinkable mutilations. Somebody is acting out a ritual, and if Savage and Porter can’t stop them then many more people will die.

DCI Robert Kett’s efforts to return to a normal life are dashed after he receives a phone call from his mother, Mary—a woman he hasn’t spoken to in almost two decades. When she invites him and the girls to visit her in the isolated village where she has been staying, Kett sees an opportunity to heal their fractured relationship. But this is no family reunion. Mary Kett needs his help. A young couple have been brutally murdered and their newborn son is missing—a note left in his crib saying that the baby will die if the police are called.

After the horrors of their last case, DCI Kett and the rest of Norfolk Constabulary’s Extreme Crime Task Force are in need of a break. And that’s just what they think they’re getting when Superintendent Clare takes them on a team building exercise in the middle of a quiet Norfolk village. But what was supposed to be a weekend of recovery and fun soon becomes something much more sinister, when two local men turn up dead—poisoned by a horrific new designer drug nicknamed Jaw Breaker.

A Simon & Schuster audiobook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every listener...

A Simon & Schuster audiobook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every listener...

Aaron Hill has it all—athletic good looks and the many privileges of a star quarterback. His Sundays are spent playing NFL football in front of a televised audience of millions. But Aaron’s about to receive an unexpected handoff, one that will give him a whole new view of his self-centered...

Harmon Tomeral and his friends wanted nothing more than to go to space, and they have beaten the odds, time and again. They developed a mech and won the Top Fleet Marine Competition. They brought back a battlecruiser from an unknown system and made it their own. They made allies who helped them achieve great victories, and they ultimately founded new colonies in what has become known as the Salvage System.

As a child, did you hide under your blankets when you were scared of the dark? After listening to some of the scariest stories from new and up-and-coming authors, we won’t blame you if you start hiding again. Take a journey with us into the twisted mind of horror. “The Fallout” travels through the unknown, while “Feast” will make you never want to love again. Listen to these and many more stories to know what it truly means to be afraid of the dark.