Showing results by narrator "David Thorpe" in All Categories

Hatushaly and his young wife, Hava, are living a good life, working to reopen the burned-out Inn of the Three Stars in the prosperous trading town of Beran's Hill. But there is a great deal more to this bucolic scene than meets the eye. Both Hatu and Hava were raised on the secret island of Coaltachin, and though they may appear to be no more than a young couple in love preparing for the midsummer festival where their friends Declan and Gwen will be wed, they are in fact assassins on a mission, waiting instructions from their masters in the Kingdom of Night.

From stress to saturated fats, HIIT to HRT, veganism to vitamins, This Book Could Save Your Life debunks the fads and explores the real science of better health. What's the best way to lose weight (and keep it off)? How can you ensure a good night's sleep? What are the real superfoods? Cutting through confusing statistics and terrifying headlines, here is the truth about dieting, drugs, 10,000 steps a day, bacon, calorie counting, coffee, dairy, sleep, fibre, hangovers, salt, sugar, cardio, sunscreen, statins, vitamins and much more.

Imagine a year without spending - or even touching - money. Former businessman Mark Boyle did just that and here is his extraordinary story. Going back to basics and following his own strict rules, Mark learned ingenious ways to eliminate his bills and discovered that good friends are all the riches you need.

New York isn't ready for Britain's most dangerous ex-assassin.... John Milton has finally found a place to escape the bloodshed: off-season Coney Island. No tourists. No special ops. Just peace and quiet. But when a local boy witnesses a grisly murder, Milton can't resist investigating. Milton uncovers a vicious drug kingpin and a group of crooked cops from a notorious precinct known as The Alamo. Against such dangerous foes, Milton's quest for redemption could come to an end.

The Call of the Road reveals the epic battles of all of the racing seasons since the first Tour de France, looking beyond the results to see the drama - not just on the road but within the teams and between individuals - and the politics and scandal that continue to fascinate cycle road race fans everywhere.

One of the Claridge's kitchen porters is found dead—strangled. He was a recent employee who claimed to be Romanian, but evidence suggests he may have been German. Detective Chief Inspector Coburg has to find out exactly who he was, and what he was doing at Claridge's under a false identity. Once he has established those facts, he might get an insight into why he was killed, and who by.

Eighteen years ago, on a mission in Iraq, Captain John Milton made a reckless decision with serious consequences. But it was Major Connor Gordon who really paid the price. Now Milton is on a different mission: to atone for his past sins. A human rights activist has vanished without a trace and his dying mother is desperate to know the truth. When the mysterious disappearance leads Milton all the way to the Western Isles of Scotland, he sees an opportunity to find his old friend Connor and finally make amends. Milton is determined to track both men down, wherever his search may lead.

On his way home from a remote Pacific island, Dr Saunders travels with two strangers: the treacherous Captain Nichols, and Fred, a handsome Australian with a shadowy past. Driven to shelter from a storm on the island of Banda, the trio meets good-natured Erik Christessen and his fiancée, the cool and beautiful Louise. A tense, exotic tale of love, jealousy, murder and suicide, which evolved from a passage in Maugham's earlier masterpiece, The Moon and Sixpence.

When an inmate is found unresponsive in his high security cell at Belmarsh prison, he's rushed to hospital for treatment. The prisoner is human trafficker and international fixer Tristan Huxley, a man a lot of people have good reason to want dead. But Huxley mysteriously never makes it to the hospital. He may have plenty of enemies but it seems he has some very powerful friends too.

A joint operation between Britain and France, the 1916 Battle of the Somme was an attempt to gain territory and dent Germany's military strength. By the end of the action, the Allied Forces had made just twelve kilometres. For this slight gain, more than a million lives were lost. In this classic military memoir, Staff Sergeant Sidney Rogerson vividly captures the last spell of frontline duty performed by the 2nd Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment.

London, 1889: After Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat became a Victorian best seller, rowing on the Thames was the great craze of 1889. When an elementary school teacher in training takes a midnight swim in the Thames and witnesses a body being dumped, Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackerey are called to investigate. The duo uncover strange parallels with the enormously popular Victorian novel, but nobody will take them seriously. Following their instincts, they stick doggedly to the trail, which leads upstream to Oxford.

Living under new identities in rural France, trained killer Isabella Rose and her former handler Michael Pope are trying to lay low. Tired of hiding, all Isabella wants is the chance to live an ordinary life. But Isabella is an extraordinary young woman and the people pursuing her will never, ever, give up. Her unique abilities have attracted the attention of the Academy of Military Science in Beijing. And it’s not only Isabella who needs to stay in the shadows.

Summer, 1643: England is at war with itself. King Charles I has fled London, his negotiations with Parliament in tatters. The country is consumed by bloodshed. For Thomas Hill, a man of letters quietly running a bookshop in the rural town of Romsey, knowledge of the war is limited to the rumours that reach the local inn. When a stranger knocks on his door one night and informs him that the king's cryptographer has died, everything changes.

Disgraced former Foreign Office clerk Laurence Jago and his larger-than-life employer the journalist William Philpott have escaped America - and Philpott's near imprisonment for libel - by the skin of their teeth. They return to Laurence's home town of Helston in Cornwall in the hope of rest and recuperation, but instead find themselves in the middle of a tumultuous election. Only two men may vote in this rotten borough, and when one of them dies in suspicious circumstances, Laurence is ordered to investigate on behalf of the town's political patron, his old master the Duke of Leeds.

In Victorian London, race-walking, or 'wobbles', is all the rage. So on a Monday morning in November 1879, the crowds gather for Islington's bizarre six-day endurance walking race. By Tuesday, one of the contestants is dead. Tetanus from a blister is assumed, but then there is a second death, and this time it's definitely murder. A bemused Sergeant Cribb from Scotland Yard is called in, along with Constable Thackeray, and they soon discover that something foul is at play.

John Milton is a former assassin for the British government. He is a ronin, trying to atone for his past sins by offering his services to those people who have no one else to whom they can turn. Milton is keeping a low profile in London when he meets Eddie Fabian. Fabian confesses that he is considering suicide and that the reason for his depression was the abuse that he suffered as a child. Milton offers to help, but, before he can, Eddie is found dead in circumstances that Milton considers suspicious.

144 AD. Alaric Hengistson, leader of the Ravensworn, revels in his many fear-fuelled names whispered in the hearth flames. Cunning in battle, a ruthless war lord. He sleeps sound in the knowledge that he has been chosen by the Gods for a higher purpose – to rise up against the tyranny of an Empire. For years he has thwarted Rome’s attempts to gain control over the land that has long resisted them. His land. Germania. However the rules are changing, and new deals are struck between the conquering Roman legions and the feuding Germanic tribes. Deals that could prove Alaric’s downfall.

Forbidden in Victorian England, the grim and violent world of bare-knuckle fighting has gone underground. So when a headless body is found floating in the Thames, his hands "pickled" for fighting, Sergeant Cribb knows he is facing a challenge. Desperate for information, they select the young constable Henry Jago to infiltrate the gang, subjecting him to a rigorous program of purging, pickling, and training. Cribb is certain that the losing fighters are being killed, or worse, so getting Jago out just in time is crucial....

Why do people love trains so much? Tom Chesshyre is on a mission to find the answer by experiencing the world through train travel - on both epic and everyday rail routes, aboard every type of ride, from steam locomotives to bullet trains, meeting a cast of memorable characters who share a passion for train travel. Join him on the rails and off the beaten track as he embarks on an exhilarating whistle-stop tour around the globe, on journeys on celebrated trains and railways.

The ordered calm of Gloucester Abbey is shattered by the murder of one of the monks. The Abbey becomes paralysed with fear and the Abbot is ill-equipped to deal with such a heinous crime, especially as suspicion inevitably falls on the brothers themselves. Ralph Delchard, a former soldier in the era-defining Battle of Hastings, and Gervase Bret, an accomplished lawyer, are investigating a local land dispute when news of the vicious murder reaches them.