Showing results by narrator "Prendergast Colleen" in All Categories

Halifax, 1876. On the death of her mother and sister, Isabelle Gibson is left to fend for herself and her brother in a privately run workhouse. After the matron's son attacks her, Isabelle decides to escape by agreeing to marry a farmer she has never met. But Farrell is a drunkard and in constant feud with his landlord, Ethan Harrington. When he deserts her, Isabelle and Ethan are thrown together. But both are married and must hide their growing love.

It’s December 1902, and Rose O’Leary is looking forward to her baby girl’s first Christmas. But then tragedy strikes: her husband dies at the shipyard where he works, and within days his friend Nathaniel makes it plain he’s determined to have her. Rose flees with her child but soon finds the world is a cruel place for a beautiful woman with no protection. More tragedy ensues, and yet, although she’s bruised and broken, Rose is a fighter.

When 18-year-old Eve runs away from her small village to start a new life in the city, she quickly discovers that Leeds is not everything she expected it to be. Wandering the cold streets in search of shelter, timid Eve can only find work as a barmaid at the Bluebell Inn - a place her strict parents would never approve of. Serving ale and cheap gin to the rowdy crowd, Eve eventually catches the eye of dashing Sergeant Joseph Oates - but his intentions are not honourable, and he will leave her with more than just a broken heart.

Yorkshire 1944. The end of the war feels tantalisingly close, but Air Transport Auxiliary girls Bobbie, Viv and Mary have plenty more flights in their beloved Spitfires yet - battling everything from snow to enemy fire on their journeys. Risking their lives doing their bit for their country, this Christmas they're determined to have some festive fun. But as they set about bringing good tidings for all, a stern and mysterious new flyer in the form of Peggy arrives. What secret is Peggy hiding?

When an anonymous call sends police to a house in Sheffield, a dead couple are discovered in the kitchen. When Detective Inspector Lucy Miller is handed the investigation, she is thrilled. But when her boss is involved in a traffic collision the investigation is stripped from her and given to DCI Bennet. But Miller refuses to quit. Soon Bennet realises that Miller is interfering with his investigation and warns her off the case. However, when a link is made to a cold case, she is drawn in deeper.

When 16-year-old Erin Ellis is attacked, she dies in the arms of her best friend, Molly, just metres from her home. Molly is the surviving girl but says she easily could have been the victim. It was a random mugging gone wrong. With inconclusive evidence, DS Grace Allendale must dig deep within the tight-knit Stoke community for leads. And she soon finds that someone had a motive to kill Erin. As the investigation unfolds, Grace is reminded of a horrifying case she worked on earlier in her career.

Holly Evans and her over-protective mother, Josie, are living a hand-to-mouth existence, moving constantly from one squalid dump to the next. When they move into an illegally sub-let council flat in Manchester’s rough Lansdowne Estate, Holly finally feels settled for the first time in her life - even if she is forbidden to go out, or even open the front door to callers when her mum’s at work due to fear of eviction. Increasingly cut off from friends at school, she soon feels isolated and alone in the world.

When a young boy falls from a balcony in a block of flats, DS Grace Allendale witnesses the shocking aftermath of the tragic event. But strangely, no one will admit to seeing anything - and the parents will only tell the police that it was an accident. Determined to sort the truth from the lies, Grace is thrown into a case that takes her to the darkest corners of the criminal world - and strikes closer to home than she could have ever imagined.

Lily turns 16 with two very different sides to her life: school, where she is badly bullied and home with her mum and dad, warm and comforting, but with its own difficulties. After a particularly terrible bullying incident, Lily's dad decides to give his daughter the tools to fight back. Introducing her to boxing, he encourages Lily to find her own worth. It is both difficult and challenging, but in confronting her own fears, she finds a way through, that illuminates her life and friendships.

When Frank Peter’s wife, Maureen, dies, he feels that his once-idyllic life on the Yorkshire Moors is over. And with a daughter emigrating to Australia and a son who has his own marital problems, Frank feels resigned to a life of loneliness. Then one night he finds a frightened young woman hiding at the back of his farmhouse. She explains that her name is Irena, and she was brought to this country by a man who promised her the world and then forced her into prostitution.

A deadly game. An unstoppable killer. The perfect alibi. Lucy Anderson is late collecting her daughter from nursery. A mistake that could prove fatal. Her daughter is gone, and there is only one way Lucy can get her back. The ransom is simple: she has to kill someone.... And this is just the beginning. A deadly game with a domino effect has started as the real killer forces others to do his bidding. Can detective inspector Hannah Robbins find the killer’s next puppet before they’re forced to strike, or will this be the case where her opponent has found the perfect way to kill?

When a teenage girl is strangled while out for a run with her friends, it shakes the city of Stoke to its core. Why would anyone want to hurt a child? And who would have the audacity to murder in broad daylight? DS Grace Allendale and her team are brought in to bring a swift resolution, but investigating the case brings up no leads. It is as if the killer chose the girl at random and then disappeared. And then another young woman is found dead....

A social media shaming. A killer with a message. A deadly combination. When the body of a man is left in the city centre set up as a realistic police crime scene, DI Hannah Robbins is forced to enter a world that can break a person, a case and a reputation. Social media platforms light up, and Hannah is pitted against the raging online monster and a killer who has already lost everything. Can she catch the killer and put him behind bars, or will she become part of his sadistic game?

A killer is on the loose, attacking people in places they feel most safe: their workplaces, their homes. It’s up to DS Grace Allendale to stop the murders and prove herself to her new team. All clues lead to local crime family the Steeles, but that’s where things get complicated. Because the Steeles aren’t just any family, they’re Grace’s family. Two brothers and two sisters, connected by the violent father only Grace and her mother escaped. To catch the killer, Grace will have to choose between her team and her blood. But whom do you trust when both sides are out to get you?

Twenty-four hours after he walked away from court a free man, cop killer and gang leader Simon Talbot is found murdered. In his possession: the name of a protected witness from his trial. For DI Hannah Robbins, it's a race against time to find Talbot's killer and locate the bystander before it's too late. But as Hannah delves deeper into the past, she begins to question the integrity of the whole operation. Where do you turn when you can't trust the police?

Agatha Christie meets St Trinian's in this delightful new middle grade mystery series! Daphne is off to St Rita's, an exclusive girls' boarding school. It sounds awfully respectable, and Daphne herself is awfully respectable, too. She loves to read and is delighted to be offered the chance to interview for librarian's assistant's assistant immediately upon arrival. But it turns out nothing is quite what you'd expect at St Rita's....

Amy Knowles has always been the plain sidekick to her pretty best friend, Jules. And whilst the tearoom they both work in on the Monkpark Hall estate in Yorkshire is not exactly awash with eligible bachelors, it's obvious where the male attention is concentrated. There is one man who notices Amy. Joshua Wilson also works at Monkpark, where he flies his birds of prey for visitor entertainment.

Quinn and Piper are twins, but they've never met. Quinn has been trained to never tell a lie. Piper is a practiced liar. One twin can command the darkness; the other could hold the key to breaking the family curse. When they meet at their mother's funeral, their quest to learn truths that have been concealed from them begins, but they're shadowed by a dark spell that beckons them to run at night with a pack of murdering ghost hounds. Suspense, menace, mystery, witchcraft, family secrets, mistaken identity, and romance are interwoven in this brilliantly written novel.

Ottila McGregor is 30 years old and has decided it's time to sort her life out. She's going to quit drinking, stop cheating, and finally find true happiness. Easy, right? Of course not. For a start, there's Grace, her best friend, who believes self-improvement is for people in their 40s. Next there's Mina, her sister, who is mentally ill, and it might even be Ottila's fault. And then there's Thales, the Greek guy who works in the hospital cafeteria. He's probably the best, most dangerous person Ottila's ever met.

Welcome to The Estate - where even the darkest times have their lighter moments.... Cath Mason has learned to be tough. The things she's seen growing up on the Mitchell Estate, she's had to be. Yet, even broken and beaten by life at times, she's still the first person a woman in need of help seeks out. At Cath's house, there is safety in numbers as well as a place to hide. No matter what trouble comes to her door, she won't turn anyone away - because she knows what it's like to live with secrets and lies.