Showing results by narrator "David Thorpe" in All Categories

Nicolas Picard is riding home from Exeter when he's attacked by a snarling wildcat. Yet, when the body is found, there are lacerations on his neck put there by a human hand. He is involved in a land dispute and his wife claims to be the benefactor on his behalf. Picard's mistress emerges to stake her claim then a third woman—wife of the deceased original owner of the land—comes forward. Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret have three human wildcats trying to tear out each other's throats.

John Milton is working in a hotel kitchen while searching for information on the Group Fifteen agent who betrayed him in Russia. His plans are upended when a deadly shooting places an innocent young girl in his path. Aided by an enigmatic woman he meets in the hotel, he rescues the girl and plunges headfirst into a deadly feud between two criminal families feuding in the run-up to a high-stakes MMA fight. In the underbelly of the city, where alliances are as brittle as glass, Milton must navigate through treacherous secrets and betrayals.

September 1940. The height of the Blitz. When the Savoy advertises its series of underground shelters, a crowd of people from East London arrive at the hotel and demand entry. There they find a shelter worthy of the Savoy's clientele, but the next morning, after the air raid and when the Stepney protestors have left, it is discovered that one of the hotel's guests is dead, stabbed through the heart.

There is no better hiding place for clues - or red herrings - than inside the pages of a book. With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of tales perfect for every book lover and armchair sleuth, featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives such as Nigel Strangeways, Philip Trent and Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. But listeners should be warned that the most riveting tales often conceal the deadliest of secrets.

A knock on the door in the middle of the night catches ex-Special Forces Simon Peake off guard. He only recognizes the face of one of the three men standing on the other side, and the 'help' they need is to dispose of a dead body crumpled in the trunk of their car. The problem is - the woman in the trunk isn't dead at all. In a matter of moments, Peake makes a call to help and protect this stranger, but it's a decision that will drag him back into the dark and dangerous world of drug cartels, mob bosses, and rogue CIA operatives who will stop at nothing to use Peake as a pawn in their games.

Horniman, Birley and Craine is a highly respected legal firm with clients reaching to the highest in the land. When a deed box in the office is opened to reveal a corpse, the threat of scandal promises to wreak havoc on the firm's reputation - especially as the murder looks like an inside job. The partners and staff of the firm keep a watchful and suspicious eye on their colleagues, as Inspector Hazlerigg sets out to solve the mystery of who Mr Smallbone was - and why he had to die.

Jack Havoc, jail-breaker and knife artist, is on the loose on the streets of London once again. In the faded squares of shabby houses, in the furtive alleys and darkened pubs, the word is out that the Tiger is back in town, more vicious and cunning than ever. It falls to Albert Campion to pit his wits against the killer and hunt him down through the city's November smog before it is too late.

Dreamworlds, magic; faerie - an entrancing collection from 'One of the greatest writers of this century' Arthur C Clarke Of all the weavers of magic, there is none like Lord Dunsany. During his long lifetime he wrote more than sixty books including novels, plays, poetry collections most...

The familiar call of the common cuckoo, "cuck-oo", has been a harbinger of spring ever since our ancestors walked out of Africa many thousands of years ago. However, for naturalist and scientist Nick Davies, the call is an invitation to solve an enduring puzzle: How does the cuckoo get away with laying its eggs in the nests of other birds and tricking them into raising young cuckoos rather than their own offspring?

After escaping an assassination attempt in Iceland, former operative turned Russian asset NORTH STAR disappears without a trace. Burdened by guilt and driven by vengeance, Control orders Cooper to track him down and neutralise the threat. The hunt leads to Cyprus, where NORTH STAR has fortified his retreat into an impenetrable stronghold. With time running out, Cooper and Control resort to unconventional methods to breach his defences and exploit his vulnerabilities.

He is the proud torchbearer of the Beatles, the greatest band in the history of popular music, and one of the most closely-studied artists in show business, yet secrets and surprises remain in the life of Sir Paul McCartney. The full story is told in Fab. Howard Sounes, author of the acclaimed Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, spent more than two years investigating every aspect of Sir Paul’s life and work, including interviewing over 200 people.

Just returned from years overseas on a secret mission, Albert Campion is relaxing in his bath when his servant Lugg and a lady of unmistakably aristocratic bearing appear in his flat carrying the corpse of a woman. At first Campion is unwilling to get involved, but he is forced to bring his powers of protection to bear on the case, and to solve not only the mystery of the murdered woman but also the alarming disappearance of some well-known art treasures.

Bloomsbury presents Lives of Bitter Rain by Adrian Tchaikovsky, read by David Thorpe. SHORTLISTED FOR THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST SERIES 2025 City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring ‘Perfection’ and ‘Correctness’ to an imperfect world. But before these ruthless...

Albert Campion is summoned to the village of Kepesake to investigate a particularly distasteful death. The body turns out to be that of Pig Peters, freshly killed five months after his own funeral. Soon other corpses start to turn up, just as Peter's body goes missing. It takes all Campion's coolly incisive powers of detection to unravel the crime.

Disappearing into London's bustling East End and holing up in a vacant flat, Milton becomes involved with his neighbour Sharon and her troubled son Elijah, who are caught in an increasingly bloody turf war between two rival gangs. Unable to ignore the threat, Milton sets about protecting mother and son, meeting violence with violence. But his involvement puts him in the sights of the government's next best killer, and before long Milton is not just fighting to save a family and a home—he's fighting to stay alive...

In a world where loyalty is fleeting and alliances are temporary, John Milton is on a mission that will bring him face-to-face with enemies old and new. When his friend, Alex Hicks, finds himself pursued by mysterious adversaries, the two men are thrust back into the web of international espionage. Navigating a perilous path that stretches from the war-torn streets of Ukraine to the icy wastelands of Siberia, Milton will stop at nothing to protect his friends and expose a conspiracy that could topple governments and jeopardize global security.

The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews and crime thrillers published under their family name. Following a convergence of the whole household at their Oxfordshire home, Ruth—the middle sister—decides to spend some weeks there recovering from the pressures of the writing life. Their next return is heralded by the tragic news that Ruth has taken her life after an evening at the Surrays' hosting a set of publishers and writers, one of whom is named as Ruth's literary executor in the will she left behind.

Meet John Milton. He considers himself an artisan. A craftsman. His trade is murder. Milton is the man the government sends after you when everything else has failed. Ruthless. Brilliant. Anonymous. Lethal. You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd but you wouldn't want to be on his list. In this second dip into his case files (see 1000 Yards for a further novella), Milton is sent to Italy to investigate the death of a colleague from Group 15.

August 2022. Simon Sharman is out for revenge, pursuing the assassin of his former colleague across war-torn Ukraine. Back in London, a Russian spy ring at the heart of the British Establishment remains active, attempting to sabotage the West's support for Ukraine. In the fiercely contested Donbas region, Simon finds himself sucked into a terrifying shadow conflict between Russia and the West. Can a lone spy make a difference to the course of a conflict?

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.