Showing results by narrator "Steve West" in All Categories

Ranna Abramson wants to disappear. But she knows she can’t keep running when a former enemy tracks her down in Mumbai with dire news: her onetime lover, journalist Alex Derksen, has disappeared back home in South Africa. Torn between her desire for him and fear of a homecoming, Ranna knows she’s the only one who can find him. But only two things in South Africa would welcome her - the inside of a cell or the bottom of a grave. There, to the police she’s the prime suspect of three murders. To the press she’s the serial killer Black Widow.

Across London, hospital patients are dying - in shockingly unnatural circumstances. A sadistic young woman is targeting them as they lie helpless in their beds, eking out every last sensation of pain as their lives ebb to an excruciating close. The killer is a sadist, but careful too, so the police bring in forensic psychologist Dr. Alex Madison to track down what is clearly an extraordinary and damaged mind.

Cora Grim, daughter of the Grim Reaper, is suddenly thrust into her father’s role. Leaving the Underworld on her own to bring back the dead souls, she discovers that the Master of Death neglected to tell her one thing. She can still fall in love.

Poppy is a quiet girl, right up until she steals a car and drives it through a shop window. Max is a nice guy, but then he kills his whole family. Just for fun. Amar always seems so happy, so why is he trying to jump to his death from the school roof? No one can figure out why teenagers are behaving so strangely - and dangerously. Stories of impossible car accidents, random attacks, even cold blooded murder make Miss Quill's class sit up and take notice. Kids are going berserk, and some of them are even dying.

Born in London, in 1889, Charlie Chaplin grew up in dire poverty. Both his parents were in show business, but severe alcoholism cut short his father's flourishing career, and his beloved mother first lost her voice, then lost her mind to syphilis. Charlie, at age seven, was committed to the Hanwell School for Orphans and Destitute Children. How then did this poor, lonely child become such an extraordinary comedian, known and celebrated worldwide? Chaplin cut his teeth in British music halls, but it was America that made him.

When Anikka Lachlan's husband, Mac, is killed in a railway accident, she is offered - and accepts - a job at the Railway Institute's library and searches there for some solace in her unexpectedly new life. But in Thirroul in 1948, she's not the only person trying to chase dreams through books. There's Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war but who has now lost his words and his hope. There's Frank Draper, trapped by the guilt of those his medical treatment and care failed on their first day of freedom.

Widdicombe shares secrets for how to crash the parties, climb the ladder, avoid the paparazzi, or make small talk with Henry Kissinger and Anna Wintour. Endlessly fun and extremely telling, Gatecrasher makes the unnerving argument that Paris Hilton conquering pop culture two decades ago lead to Donald Trump winning the White House. “As the gossip pages go, so goes the country,” he says.

After her brother loses their entire family fortune in a wager he cannot afford, Alice ventures into the Rose Briar Woods to make a deal with the formidable Fae marquis who now owns her family’s estate—a portrait in exchange for her brother’s freedom. But instead of Lord Ambrose, the young artist meets a mysterious masked man who saves her when her carriage is attacked by goblins. Right away, Alice realizes Lord Ambrose is not what she expects. He’s kind when the Fae are supposed to be cold. And he’s hiding a painful past—one that seems to have something to do with Alice.

She wakes up, goes to work. Watches the clock and checks her phone. But underneath this monotony there's something else going on: Something under her skin. Charting the feedback loop of memory, the senses, and modern distractions with wit and precision, our narrator becomes increasingly anxious as the day moves on: Is she overusing the heart emoji? Can drinking eight glasses of water a day really fix everything? Why is the etiquette of the women's bathroom be so fraught? How does she define rape? And why can't she stop scratching?

Purgatory is the lawless moon colony of billionaire Fletcher Brass: a mecca for war criminals, murderers, sex fiends, and adventurous tourists. You can't find better drugs, cheaper plastic surgery, or a more ominous travel advisory anywhere. But trouble is brewing in Brass' black-market heaven. When an exiled cop arrives in this wild frontier, he immediately finds himself investigating a string of ruthless assassinations in which Brass himself and his equally ambitious daughter are the chief suspects.

The Inquisitives are the "private eyes" of the Eberron world, solving murders with magic and steel. A diplomat has been murdered and an innocent man has been accused. An up-and-coming young Inquisitive is brought in to solve this high-profile case, but corruption, money, and power stand in her way.

Explore the dark under-belly of Eberron with it's version of the private detective - The Inquisitives! A series of grisly murders has shaken the small city of Aruldusk. Both the Church and the Crown send in agents to investigate. But when the body count continues to rise, these rival factions will have to learn to work together to track down the killers - even if it means hunting through the highest reaches of power.

From the best-selling author of Republic of Fear, here is a gritty and unflinching novel about Iraqi failure in the wake of the 2003 American invasion, as seen through the eyes of a Shi‘ite militiaman whose participation in the execution of Saddam Hussein changes his life in ways he could never have anticipated.

It’s 1914. The Great War grips the world - and from the Western Front a strange story emerges...a story of St. George and a brigade of angels descending from heaven to fight beside the beleaguered British troops. But can there be any truth to it?

Known since school as "The A Team", Nick, Dan, Jan, and Will have been best friends for years. But now they're older, and their bond is stretched by partners, children, and the tightening net of secrets that are threatening to emerge. On the morning of Nick and Lisa's wedding, their friend Penny is found poised on the hotel window ledge, soaking wet and ready to jump. As the A Team rally around her, they soon realize that none of them are being as honest with themselves - or with each other - as they think they are....

When Ollie Sweet is very publicly dumped by ‘The One’, his seemingly perfect world dissolves into misery, self-pity, and a bizarre rooftop meeting with a suicidal man in flip-flops. While most would seek out the support of loved ones at such a torrid time, natural-born journalist Ollie asks the subscribers of his website: how did they get over their failed relationships? When Ollie follows some of their more extreme advice, chaos inevitably ensues.

Evangelist Brock T. Hanson believes Colin Douglass to be the prophet he’s been waiting for his whole life, the man who will lead the faithful back to Earth and trigger the most momentous event since Creation itself. But there’s a problem. Actually, there are several. First, Colin Douglass himself doesn’t believe a word of it and is the kind of chap who’d rather stay at home with a nice cup of tea than cross the galaxy on some foolish, idealistic crusade.

Across the Aramtesh Empire, scent is everything. Prayers only reach heaven on sacred incense, and perfumes are prized status symbols. Seventeen-year-old Rakel has an uncanny ability with fragrances, but her skills aren't enough to buy her dying father more time. Ash bears the tattoos of an imperial bodyguard. When his prince, Nisai, insists on a diplomatic mission to an outer province, Ash is duty-bound to join the caravan. It's a nightmare protecting Nisai on the road. But it's even harder for Ash to conceal a secret that could see him exiled or executed.

Luke Kanowski is a young playwright: Intense, magnetic, fleeing a disastrous upbringing in the North East. Arriving in London, he meets Paul Driscoll, an aspiring producer, and beautiful, fiery Leigh Radley, the girl Paul loves. Luke, Paul and Leigh set up a radical theatre company, living and working together, forging a connection in the smoky late nights of Chelsea’s run-down flats and damp rehearsal rooms above pubs, candlelit during power cuts, where a new generation of writers and directors is fighting for its place.

Rob has always loved Anna, but she never wanted him. He paints her portrait over and over again. Now one night, she phones him, desperate for help. He rushes to her place, but when he gets there she's dead—sprawled across her living-room floor, a crimson gash in her chest. Now he’s the prime suspect for her murder. Her face on his canvas. Her kiss goodbye on his lips. Her blood on his hands. No one believes him, and does he even trust himself?