A Dark Secret
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Narrated by:
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Kate Lock
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Written by:
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Casey Watson
About this listen
Just when Casey thinks her foster care duties are done, she’s asked to look after Sam, a troubled nine-year-old with a violent streak who drove his previous guardians to release him of their care. It soon unfolds, however, that this is no simple case.
Determined to get to the root of Sam’s behaviour, Casey is committed to uncover his mysterious past only to find out something far darker than she ever imagined....
Having recently said good-bye to their last foster child, Miller, the Watson family are taking a bit of a break. But it’s while Casey is having fun catching up with her friends that she receives a call from her new link worker. Social services are desperately trying to find a settled home for nine-year-old Sam, who has autism and some serious behavioural problems.
Removed from his mother less than a week ago, Sam has been staying with respite carers. But with two young children of their own, they now find themselves unable to hold on to the little boy as he is bullying them relentlessly. It’s not an isolated situation, either. Apparently Sam’s own siblings begged not to be placed with their older brother - they were both adamant that they were too afraid of him.
The Watsons agree to accommodate Sam, who, despite his tiny stature, turns out to be quite the whirlwind - destroying anything and everything in his path. In addition to the outward behaviours, it quickly becomes evident that there is a much darker past that has blighted the boy’s life. As Casey tries to get to the bottom of it, she discovers there are no files on Sam, only the testament of his previous neighbour. Thankfully, Mrs Gallagher is only too happy to help. And to talk. But it soon transpires that there is a great deal more to Sam’s secret history....
©2019 Casey Watson (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedYou may also enjoy...
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Amazing
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Unsafe
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Damian is just seven when he is taken in by foster carer Cathy Glass. His mother, Rachel, loves her three young children dearly, but she is vulnerable, naïve and unable to cope on her own. Cathy sets about helping Damian overcome his eating issues, with the hope that he will eventually return home. But when Rachel’s new boyfriend, Troy, arrives on the scene, Cathy becomes deeply concerned. She soon realises that Damian and his siblings are in great danger.
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Cathy winding down
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Written by: Cathy Glass
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I Just Want to Be Loved
- Written by: Casey Watson
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- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After taking a few weeks off work, Casey is presented with a new foster child: 14-year-old Elise, whose Mum left her at just five years old. At first, she’s no trouble at all, that is until she falsely accuses another carer, Jan, of acting inappropriately towards her. It turns out this isn’t the first lie Elise has told—her previous carer was constantly following up allegations Elise had made of people bullying her, trying to have sex with her or hurting her physically.
Written by: Casey Watson
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I Want My Daddy
- Written by: Casey Watson
- Narrated by: Kate Lock
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A 5-year-old boy, Ethan, is brought to Casey in the middle of the night after the sudden death of his young mother after a drug overdose. Estranged from her parents, Ethan’s mum had been abused by her ex-partner, and began taking drugs to cope. Ethan is obviously lost and bewildered, and regularly wakes up screaming for his mum in the night. He begins to lash out at other kids at school and his behaviour becomes more volatile.
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Mummy, Please Don’t Leave
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- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Please Don't Take My Baby
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
"I'm going to love my baby and give her lots of attention," Jade said. "I'll show my mum she's wrong." Jade, 17, is pregnant, homeless, and alone when she's brought to live with Cathy. Jade is desperate to keep her baby, but, little more than a child herself, she struggles with the responsibilities her daughter brings. Cathy is worried as soon as Jade arrives: she's never looked after a pregnant teenager before, but none of the mother-and-baby carers is free.
-
-
Amazing
- By Kathy Janzen on 2020-01-30
Written by: Cathy Glass
-
Groomed
- Danger lies closer than you think
- Written by: Casey Watson
- Narrated by: Kate Lock
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's late on Friday night when Casey's mobile starts to ring. She is expecting it to be her daughter, Riley. But it isn't Riley. It's a woman from the Emergency Duty Team. So begins Casey and Mike's latest fostering challenge - a 15-year-old girl called Keeley who's run away from her long-term foster home 25 miles away.
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I was born and broken in Birkenhead, abused from infancy by a network of every kind of pervert from ‘thinks it’s love’ to ‘show it hurts’. I was unwanted, beaten, sold, swapped, photographed, filmed, left for dead, corrupted, blamed, betrayed, ignored and orphaned. But I was also born with a fire inside me. I call it my Phoenix Fire. I am no victim—that word only describes what happened to me. Nor am I a survivor because that implies I am over it. I am a Phoenix—a work in progress. This is my story....
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The Night the Angels Came
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A new memoir from Sunday Times and New York Times best-selling author Cathy Glass. When Cathy receives a call about a terminally ill widower terrified of leaving his son all alone in the world, she is wracked with sadness and indecision. Can she risk exposing her own young children to a little boy on the brink of bereavement? Eight-year-old Michael is part of a family of two, but with his beloved father given only months to live and his mother having died when he was a toddler, he could soon become an orphan.
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Written by: Cathy Glass
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Daddy's Little Princess
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Beth is a sweet-natured child who appears to have been well looked after. But it isn't long before Cathy begins to have concerns that the relationship between Beth and her father is not as it should be. Little Beth, aged 7, has been brought up by her father Derek after her mother left when she was a toddler. When Derek is suddenly admitted to hospital with psychiatric problems, Beth is taken into care and arrives at Cathy's.
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Great book
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Written by: Cathy Glass
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The Silent Witness
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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A Different Kind of Story
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Written by: Cathy Glass
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The Asylum
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For 46 years, Carol Minto has quietly gone about her life, carrying with her the most extraordinary and heartbreaking secrets. In The Asylum, Carol tells the full story of how she overcame unimaginable suffering, to find the happiness and solace she has today as a mother and grandmother.
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Painful to listen to.
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Written by: Ann Cusack - contributor, and others
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A Baby's Cry
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Overall
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Performance
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Yikes!!
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Written by: Cathy Glass
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A Boy Without Hope
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Written by: Casey Watson
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Hidden
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the author of Number One bestseller Damaged comes the poignant and shocking memoir of Cathy's recent relationship with Tayo, a young boy she fosters whose good behaviour and polite manners hide a terrible past. Tayo arrives at Cathy's with only the clothes he stands up in. He has been brought to her by the police, but he is calm, polite, and very well spoken, and not at all like the children she normally fosters. The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo's history, but apart from his name and age, it is blank.
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Excellent and exciting
- By Cheryl Harnum on 2022-11-22
Written by: Cathy Glass
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A Long Way from Home
- Written by: Cathy Glass
- Narrated by: Denica Fairman
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The true story of two-year-old Anna, abandoned by her natural parents, left alone in a neglected orphanage. Elaine and Ian had travelled halfway round the world to adopt little Anna. She couldn't have been more wanted, loved and cherished. So why was she now in foster care and living with me? It didn't make sense.
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Not the best story
- By Nightskymama on 2020-07-08
Written by: Cathy Glass