Showing results by narrator "Donald Davenport" in All Categories

With his cape, canes and shovel hat, portly amateur sleuth Dr Gideon Fell cuts an eccentric figure - but his odd appearance belies his sharp intellect and astonishing faculty for deduction. Created by crime novelist John Dickson Carr and supposedly based on fellow author G. K. Chesterton, Dr Fell appeared in 23 novels between 1933 and 1967. This radio collection comprises all eight of the BBC adaptations based on Carr's best-selling books.

The Water and the Wine is set on the Greek island of Hydra in a '60s artistic community. The author lived there as a child. The main focus is on Leonard Cohen and his lover/muse, Marianne Ihlen. Each night, the artists and writers meet and discuss their ideas about life, art, philosophy, and religion. The Silver family (loosely based on the author's own family) arrive on the island and are drawn into a world of creativity and excitement but also infidelity, jealousy, and dysfunctional relationships. Ultimately, the novel asks the question: What is the price of creativity?

Hollywood in the 1920s: The motion picture industry is booming, and Irving Thalberg knows it takes more than guts and gumption to create screen magic that will live forever. He’s climbed all the way to head of production at newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is determined to transform Leo the Lion into an icon of the most successful studio in town.

Milt Grabaur has left his life, home, and teaching career in Ohio to start anew. The Summer Winds trailer park in Palm Springs, butted up against the San Jacinto mountain range, seems the perfect place to forget the pain of nursing his beloved husband through Alzheimer's and seeing him off on his final passage. Billy Blue is a sexy California surfer type who once dreamed of being a singer but now works at Trader Joe's and lives in his own trailer at Summer Winds. He's focused on recovery from the alcoholism that put his dreams on hold.

Is Idina Moorfield going crazy or has an ancient magic found its source? Her family says she’s not a true Moorfield and will never be good enough for the family business. Sometimes what looks like the worst day ever, is the beginning of our best adventure. Idina takes that first step into a new life and gets the hell away from them to forge her own future. But her calling is the one thing they are the most against. She joins the military just like Uncle Rick. The other family outcast. What is everyone in the Moorfield family so afraid of?

Life can be sweet when you’re a supermodel icon. Sean Foster's life is like a fairytale. Leaving his North Dakota home, he travels the world with his wife and young daughter, on an adventure funded by his reality star mentor. It’s almost enough to make a guy forget about the chronic lung condition he has lived with since childhood. Cystic fibrosis has hung over his head like a dark cloud, and now, other dark omens have joined the party. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but it will take love, compassion and faith in family to find it.

Step out for a Saturday night at The Q - the small town gay bar in Appalachia where the locals congregate. Whose secret love is revealed? What long-term relationship comes to a crossroad? What revelations come to light? The DJ mixes a soundtrack to inspire dancing, drinking, singing, and falling in (or out) of love.

Leaving the Country of Sin is a tale of Rafferty, who was saved as a teenager from delinquency and slapped into a six-year hitch in the army to avoid jail. Early on, his anger and fierce resolve catch the attention of an officer in charge of a small cadre of soldiers who provide unique, subdued solutions to problems too sensitive for more obvious snipers or commandos. Later, Rafferty, having determined to retire on Galveston Island, which he had visited as a child with his uncle, hovers between seeing his past deeds as a patriotic service and just another form of murder.

After years of physical and emotional torment, Asia has decided to take her own life. The only problem is that someone else has planned to take their life as well - at the same time, and in the same place. Her final act has been thwarted, and worst of all: Someone now knows her most intimate secret. Written from a dual perspective, The Space Between Fire and Ashes delves into the deepest recesses of the adolescent mind to explore the power of human connection, and the essence of what wills our spirits to endure against all odds.

When Sandi is bumped from economy to first-class on a flight to Houston, she finds herself stuck with a new seatmate who is rich, handsome, and talks a lot. Sandi wants nothing to do with the pretty boy, as she doesn’t trust guys who look like him. The young man is intrigued by Sandi, and he works hard to keep her engaged in conversation as he desires to win her friendship, and with great hope, her heart.

Widow Emma accepts a Wyoming rancher's proposal to escape a precarious situation in Boston. While she must get away quickly, she hopes that she has made the right decision. But Wyoming will turn her life upside down, and her heart will never be the same. Widower rancher Ross still mourns for his late wife. When his children tell him all they want for Christmas is a mother, his heart breaks, for he knows he can never provide that. Ross does not believe he will ever be ready to marry again. As Christmas approaches, Ross' life is turned on end.

Phil Branson is so ready to take the next step. The well-liked manager of a popular retirement community in Montana, he can’t believe he’s attracted the woman of his dreams. But when his sweetheart wins a major role in a television show, he quickly sees his wedding plans going up in Hollywood flames. Dismayed when his fiancée’s hectic schedule seems to take priority over their relationship, Phil contemplates postponing the ceremony.

Rick and Ernie found the perfect apartment on Chicago’s West Side. Before they’re settled, Rick begins having all-too-real disturbing “dreams”. Each time, an emaciated young man with sad brown eyes appears, terrifying and obsessing him. From their next-door neighbor Paula, Rick learns about Karl and Tommy, who lived there before them. When she shares a photo of her with Tommy and Karl, Rick is shocked and troubled. Tommy is the man who appears to him in his dreams. The ghostly visitations compel Rick to uncover the truth about Tommy’s disappearance.

Sam, a reclusive underachiever with a long track record of failed marriages and aspirations, must face, in one short spurt of time, the imminent prospects of middle age, professional outplacement, and unwanted responsibilities toward both his father and his son, two men from whom he has made a long and careful effort to distance himself. A Place Apart is at once witty and wry and beautiful, filled with vivid description and sharp dialogue. It hits solidly on dilemmas faced daily by many people in many places by telling a compelling story of one man in one place.

One woman with a deep desire to serve and help and one brave man who will stop at nothing to save his people fight for what they love. As two Old West cultures collide with differing beliefs of right and wrong, of what constitutes justice and savagery, blood spills on the Great Plains. But the young couple's love may overcome all their differences.

For Conrad Burrell — husband, father, and successful attorney in the autumn of his life — the world has come apart. Having long ago lost his first wife, the mother of his grown daughter and a widow herself, to youth and pride, he’s now lost his second to a violent accident. “You think you’re finished, that you have no more stories in you,” his ex-wife warns, and he fears she’s right. After a lifetime of meeting the expectations of others, none are left but his own, and he must discover whether love survives death as well as divorce.

After testifying against a New York crime family, Vincent Wallace enters the Federal Witness Protection Program, taking refuge in The Sanctuary, a large but mismanaged retirement community in Montana. Aware of its troubled history, the home office transfers Phil Branson, their best troubleshooting manager, to get the property back on its feet. But Phil quickly discovers far more than he bargained for, as he is shocked to learn that one of his residents is targeted for death by the Giovani crime family, and the clock is ticking.

His story begins after his creation at the hands of an old German craftsman in 1930s Illinois. Over the course of the next half century, he is pulled along by the current of rivers, pushed by the energy of providence and influenced by the power of the human spirit.

The Brothers Silver follows Jules and Leon as they try to find their unanchored way through the cultural upheavals of the second half of the 20th century. The younger Leon lives on the drug-addled edges of society. The older brother, Jules, falls into a destructive relationship that parallels his past insecurities and chaos. What lies in store for the Silver brothers? Recovery or turmoil?

Felix Boyd would do anything for his family, even if it means leaving them for a job on another planet.... Working as a silica harvester, he earns just enough money to keep his wife and son afloat. When selection for the colony ships begins, he hopes Melissa and Jake will be among the first to come, and that they’ll all be reunited. But it’s never that easy.