Showing results by publisher "Soundings" in All Categories

Merryn Burton is excited to travel down to Cornwall to start her first big job for the London art dealers she works for. But as soon as she arrives at Pencradoc, a beautiful old mansion, she realises this will be no ordinary commission. Not only is Pencradoc filled with fascinating and possibly valuable artwork, it is also owned by the Penhaligon brothers - and Merryn’s instant connection with Kit Penhaligon could be another reason why her trip suddenly becomes a whole lot more interesting....

Amory Ames might be wealthy, but she is unhappily married to playboy Milo and so willingly accepts her former fiancé Gil Trent's plea for help in preventing his sister Emmeline from meeting a similar fate. Amory and Gil set off for the Brightwell, a sprawling seaside hotel in Devon where Emmeline and her intended, Rupert Howe, are holidaying. An unresolved history between Gil and Rupert surfaces, and after a late-night quarrel the luxurious hotel is one guest fewer by morning.

The cinder path which led from the Northumberland farmhouse would always symbolise defeat for Charlie MacFell. People saw him as a born loser who always got the dirty end of the stick. At the root of the matter were boyhood humiliations by his brutal father - but was that all there was to Charlie MacFell Then an opportunity emerges for Charlie to display his inner strengths and integrity, and to give the lie to those who had thought him to be of no account.

A marriage to secure true love. Having fallen in love with Sarah at first sight, Litrik ter Breukel vowed to go slowly because of her youth and innocence. But perhaps he simply needed to propose!

Abigail Beadle has given two decades of her life to caring for her late father and looking after the centuries-old family home. She has never married because Lucas Chadwick, the man she loved when she was young, left the village with his family. When her loathed stepmother dies, Abigail is glad to be released from the woman's nagging and bullying, but the will she left casts doubt on Abigail's inheritance. It is not until Lucas returns to the village and helps to get to the bottom of the complicated situation that Abigail begins to believe her life might be able to start at last.

Even in wartime, East End girl Nancy Evans has reason to hope. She's a rising star in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, and she'll be walking down the aisle any day now...but then a brutal night of bombing changes her life forever. Newly pregnant and single, Nancy swaps her blue uniform for a pinny, taking on housekeeping duties for handsome village doctor David Denny. And though Nancy tries to stay cheerful and contribute to the war effort in any way she can, it isn't long before she finds herself leaning on David for comfort....

Armistice Day 1940. The Blitz Detective John Jago finds himself despatched to Pimlico to investigate a suspicious death. A young man, Terry Watson, has been found in an Anderson shelter, battered about the head, and with two white poppies in his pocket. As the investigation delves into Watson's background, Jago and his assistant DC Craddock find themselves knee-deep in Pimlico's shady underworld and connections with Oswald Mosley's BUF party. It will take all their skills to uncover the truth behind the pacifist's brutal death.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic Deep Waters. Four amateur yachtsmen are toasting the completion of a trip from Falmouth to Spain in adverse weather conditions with a well-earned glass of cognac. But with just one mouthful, one of the friends drops dead. Who could be behind the poisoning, and why?

South Africa, May 1879. Ensign Sebastian Early of the 24th Foot is warming to his role as the Provost-Marshal in the British army encampment at Landman’s Drift. When an unidentified corpse turns up in camp after a reported hunting accident and is hurriedly buried, Sebastian quickly discovers that the man, a lieutenant, was in fact killed in an illegal duel, which means that his death should be treated as manslaughter, or even murder.

Rory Connor was a gambling man and he had a gambler's luck. From the day he was born, his mother had known that Rory would be the one to make something of his life. At seven years old he was earning money from odd jobs and by 14 he was in full-time work. By the time he was 19, he had escaped the factory to become a rent-collector. Now, at 23, ambition was in full flow and he was always looking to bigger and better games to play.

Bea Abbot's plans are disrupted by the unexpected arrival of one of her clients, bearing a brown leather briefcase full of expensive jewellery. Magda Summerleys has been working as a housekeeper for wealthy art expert Lucas Rycroft, who, she says, entrusted her with the briefcase for safekeeping - and who seems to have disappeared without trace.Drawn into the tangled affairs of the dysfunctional Rycrofts, Bea soon discovers that other members of the family are determined to get their hands on the jewels - by whatever means necessary.

1944. With deadly doodlebugs terrorising London, Bessie Rushbrook agrees to give shelter to eight-year-old evacuee Marigold in her home. But, the little girl is no stranger, and Bessie must honour the promise she gave to Marigold's mother and not reveal her connection to the child. Marigold's arrival stirs up Bessie's memories from the past when the world was at war the first time. She is forced to face her actions from those days and question the secret that she's long kept hidden. When Grace is injured in London, Bessie makes the heart-wrenching decision to confess her secret.

Bullion! is the ultimate locked-room mystery. A ship transporting gold bullion is travelling from Melbourne to London. The gold is packed into chests and stored in a separate locked and sealed room. But mysterious whispering is heard in the night and chests seemingly disappear and return, leading the crew to think they’re losing their minds. Can the second mate get to the bottom of the mystery?

When the teenage girl who's been hanging around near the house knocks on the door and tells her she's her granddaughter, Cassie is shocked rigid. There's only one way this can be true: if Evie is the daughter of the baby Cassie gave away for adoption when she was herself a troubled teenager. Is this a trick? Or is Evie's tale true? When she finds out why the girl has come to find her, it brings a tangle of other problems that she can't ignore. This was the last thing she expected to be dealing with as she moves into her new home in a leisure village in Wiltshire.

There comes a time in every teacher's life when he must face his nemesis - the Ofsted Inspection. On the third day, with the atmosphere at Leighford High decidedly fraught, one of the Inspectors is found stabbed to death. Events move quickly, and the Head is arrested on suspicion of the murder. But Peter Maxwell, Head of Sixth Form, cannot help but notice that Sally Meninger, the Ofsted Humanities expert, is not as distraught at her colleague's death as one might expect....

May 1381.The Great Revolt draws ever nearer. The Upright Men openly roam the streets of London, waiting for the violence to begin. Their mysterious envoy, the Herald of Hell, appears at night, terrifying those who oppose them. But who is he? When his chancery clerk is found hanged in a notorious Southwark brothel, Brother Athelstan is summoned to investigate. In the dead man's possession was a manuscript containing a great secret which he had been striving to decipher. Can he crack the code before the Great Revolt begins?

Pargeting is a highly skilled trade. And Pargeters is the name given to the Suffolk home of John Mercer in honour of Adam Woodley, the craftsman who had decorated it so lovingly. Over two generations, and throughout the turbulent years of the Civil War, Pargeters comes to stand as a symbol of unity for a household divided by conflicting political loyalties and abandoned by its menfolk. And it is the mistress of Pargeters, Sarah Woodley-Mercer, who holds the small household together in this troubled time.

France, 1963. Taken out of his home town as part of a nationwide “initiative”, Inspector Lucas Rocco finds himself in the village of Poissons-Les-Marais, Picardie – and answerable to his former army CO Francois Massin. On his first day he finds a murdered woman wearing a Gestapo uniform lying in a British military cemetery. When the body is removed from the mortuary before Rocco can finish his investigation, he traces the paperwork to the dead woman’s father, industrialist Philippe Bayer-Berbier.

The houses in Saffron Lane are being filled with artists thanks to the efforts of Nell and Angus. Ginger doesn’t win a place there but gets a job running the small café/art gallery, taking refuge there from her abusive bully of a son. When she meets Iain, sparks fly between them, the first time she’s felt attracted to anyone for years. But will her son spoil it?

When Daisy Holt was dismissed from her post as a nursemaid she set off cheerfully into the jungle of mid-Victorian London. When Kitty Hammond, proprietress of the “select establishment” off Leicester Square discovered her she was quick to realise that Daisy has a rare talent and would make a successful entertainer. And there it was that she met the impoverished artist John Skelton. To him Daisy represented the perfect model – the one to inspire his work.