Showing results by narrator "Laurence Bouvard" in All Categories

I stand at the very edge of the cliff face, looking at the roaring ocean below my feet. I’m in no danger; in fact, my husband and his sister talk just feet away from me, watching my every move. Since the car accident, I’ve struggled to remember a lot of important things in my life, like giving birth to my daughter, Violet. Or how perfect my marriage is. As I stare at the expanse of blue before me, I have a flashback to the crash—a detail so small it might seem insignificant to some, but to me it’s everything. So why is it so different from what everyone is telling me?

In the year 2038, the Earth has been ravaged by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Retroviruses run rampant through humanity. Economic disaster has destabilised the world, the US has undergone a socialist revolution, and the balance of power has changed. Then the aliens arrive. With no clear understanding of the visitors' intent, factions form, including the anti-alien group White Queen, working to turn humans against these extra-terrestrial tourists. 

When a town in South Dakota, USA, disappears, only a drunk, an old Indian and a truck driver notice. Investigators decide all three of them are crazy. Only they aren't, and they all swear that there was a town there that no one remembers. Then the same thing happens in England. A town is gone, but no one in the entire country will even acknowledge that it ever existed. Only one old bishop tries to impress on his local MP that he has missing constituents, and a member of the Black Dragoons - a military unit dedicated to protecting the country from supernatural threats - investigates.

Interlaken, Berne, 21st century. Several things happen after the car hits the rock. Tiff ceases to be pregnant. Stephen captures, like, the most wonderful bird - fleet, stealthy, and beautiful - a real "lifer". And the wallcreeper, the wallcreeper says "twee". The Wallcreeper is nothing more than a portrait of marriage, complete with all its requisite highs and lows: drugs, dubstep, small chores, anal sex, ecoterrorism, birding, breeding and feeding.

Can a fairytale ever come true? Like Cinderella at the ball, Lilley's fairytale wish is about to be granted. She'll swap her grey suits for a fabulous dress and killer heels, and dance the night away with the man every other woman wants...but only for one night. Alessandro Caetani does not do happily-ever-afters. Lilley has never taken such a risk before, but this is her night of living dangerously...

Solving the mystery behind your death can be murder. Charlotte wakes up at Hotel Atessa, home to murdered New York teenagers and HQ of The Dead Girls Detective Agency. Before she has time to adjust to her new, erm, dead self, she's thrust into the arms of her new afterlife companions, Lorna, Nancy and the cute - if slightly hostile - dead boy, Eddison. But where does this leave Charlotte and her boyfriend David? Is it possible to have a long-distance relationship from beyond the grave?

New York, 1938: As Martha looks out of her bedroom window at the blossom-covered trees in Central Park, she is a world away from the threat of the Second World War. Working as a children’s librarian, she is happy with her quiet life in contrast to her adventurous sister Charlotte who moved to Paris and works at a gallery owned by close family friend Anita. When a telegram from France arrives, Martha is shocked to discover that Anita has died and in that moment, she has to make the bravest decision of her life.

1890: When Katharine and her husband, Anselmo, set sail to Brazil to reap the spoils of the rubber boom, it seems as if they cannot fail. But when Anselmo dies suddenly on the treacherous waters of the Amazon, a pregnant Katharine must decide whether or not to continue her husband's dream, alone. Meanwhile her sister, Mabel, is struggling to support their family back in London. Navigating new worlds in the upper class, she discovers that life as a housemaid has its own dangers, and Mabel soon learns that the whims of men can prove deadly.

What is it that makes you "you"? What produces your likes and dislikes, fear and fantasies? What makes you different from other people, and what makes you the same as them? For thousands of years, people have tried to identify the spirit, soul, or mind that makes us human. And they have tried to work out how and why it makes our identity. Answers have ranged from the physiological to the psychological - the influence of early experiences and upbringing.

Joanna has spent 10 years married to a monster. Everyone thinks she has the perfect life, but behind closed doors she lives in constant fear of her husband. Escape seems impossible - and then a stranger offers her a chance to flee. On the run with her young daughter, Joanna finds herself in the mysterious town of Morro. With no memory of how she got there. And no idea of what the town truly is.

Cash is the puppy nobody wants - a pit-bull - a throwaway dog. A shivering wet bundle, Cash arrives in the life of twelve-year-old Mackenzie. And from that moment boy and dog share a love neither has ever known before. But when Cash is kicked out by Mackenzie’s father, she finds herself lost and alone in a cruel world. Will she ever find her boy again?

Sarah Jane Pullman is a good cop with a complicated past. From her small-town chicken-farming roots through her runaway adolescence, court-ordered army stint, ill-advised marriage and years slinging scrambled eggs over greasy spoon griddles, Sarah Jane unfolds her life story, a parable about memory, atonement, and finding shape in chaos. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she finds herself named the de facto sheriff of a rural town, investigating the mysterious disappearance of the sheriff whose shoes she's filling. 

Born in 1934, the daughter of a Jewish mobster, Arlyne Brickman (then Weiss) grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. She idolised gangster’s moll Virginia Hill and aspired to the same glamorous life. Addicted to the rush of danger and lawlessness, Brickman became involved with a succession of wiseguys, including Joe Colombo and Bonanna hitman Tony Mirra. But when a crew of loan sharks threatened her daughter, she turned informant.

Wade disappeared on us when I was six, and I never saw him again until I turned twelve, after Mom was buried. She always said he was a loser, even if he was our dad, but it turns out he was much more than that. He was also a thief. Like he was on the day he stole me and my little sister.

Winner of the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Prize. Auntie Mei is a live-in nanny for newborns and their mothers. She has worked for 126 families and looked after 131 babies, one set of clients easily replaced by the next. But the 132nd baby and his mother, Chanel, prompts a crisis in Auntie Mei's life - a tremor that threatens to destroy her resolute detachment.

Harper Flynn nearly died when gunmen attacked the L.A. club where she worked. A year later, Harper tries to rebuild her life - but is failing. Not only is she convinced there was a third gunman who escaped, but she also believes that he is targeting the survivors. The only person who will listen is Sherriff Deputy Aiden Garrison. But he has a secret of his own - one that makes him suspicious and highly volatile...

Money. Power. Prestige. These were the riches that destiny had awarded Edward Enger, but a greedy, ruthless family conspired against him and his own relentless desires enslaved him! As the descendant of a German immigrant, Edward built a business empire and dominated three generations of his family. Caldwell weaves the tale of a modern financial genius and the secret passions that obsessed him.

A heart-stopping debut thriller about a woman named Freedom, who will stop at nothing to save the daughter she knew for only two minutes and 17 seconds. Call me what you will: a murderer, a cop killer, a fugitive, a drunk.... Freedom Oliver has spent the last 18 years living a quietly desperate life under witness protection in a backwater of Oregon after being exonerated of her husband's murder.

Alexander Bajoran is the man who ruined Jessica Taylor’s family and drove their company out of business. So when she spots him at the resort where she’s working as a chambermaid, she and her cousin plot revenge. But the plan soon backfires when Jessica is seduced by the wealthy businessman…and becomes mother to his child!

A compelling and hard-hitting memoir which follows one woman's search, 20 years after the attack, for answers about her rapist. Joanna Connors was 30 years old when she was raped at knifepoint by a stranger. After this horrifying trauma, she became afraid of everything - flying, driving, travelling in a car while someone else drove. She had children but hovered over them constantly, terrified about what might happen to them as well.