Another classic from the queen of the blockbuster novel. Tom and Octavia Fleming have the perfect power marriage: he is a spin-doctor and she runs a consultancy to the charity industry. They are attractive, rich, successful...Then Octavia discovers Tom is having an affair and not only the discovery but the affair itself have consequences that are potentially fatal - both to the marriage and its power. For this is no ordinary affair, but one that leads to terror and danger, threatening other people, damaging other lives.
Details: 15 years after the Painter case had been closed someone wants the case re-examined, history changed, and Wexford proved wrong. Read by George Baker. Ideal for: Perfect for both collectors and new fans of award-winning crime novelist Ruth Rendell.
Otto, an ordinary German living in a shabby apartment block, tries to stay out of trouble under Nazi rule. But when he discovers his only son has been killed fighting at the front he's shocked into an extraordinary act of resistance, and starts to drop anonymous postcards attacking Hitler across the city. If caught, he will be executed. Soon this silent campaign comes to the attention of ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich, and a murderous game of cat-and-mouse begins. Whoever loses, pays with their life.
It was a vicious, calculated murder. The killer selected his victim at Euston station, followed her home on the tube, and strangled her to death in front of her child. At the same time, killed in the same way, a second body is discovered at the back of King's Cross station. It is a grisly coincidence that eerily echoes the murder of two other women, stabbed to death months before on the same day... DI Tom Thorne who sees the link and comes to the horrifying conclusion: this is not a serial killer the police are up against - there are two of them. Finding the body used to be the worst part of the job. Not any more. Now each time a body is found, Thorne must live with the knowledge that somewhere out there is a second victim, waiting to be discovered. However while the methods might be the same, Thorne comes to realise that he is hunting two very different killers. One is ruthless and in control, while his partner in crime is submissive, compliant, terrified... Read by Robert Glenister
Read by Mary Stuart Masterson. Florida is full of predators, from the animals who thrive in its humid heat to the humans who stalk the air-conditioned malls, and they all give Dr Kay Scarpetta the opportunity and means to do what she does best - persuading the dead to speak to her. Scarpetta is called in to assist when a young woman's body is discovered in Massachusetts. She has been tortured, sexually abused, her body tattooed with handprints. The same handprints Scarpetta's niece, Lucy, has seen on the flesh of her latest casual pick-up. Meanwhile, Scarpetta and Pete Marino are investigating the disappearance of a family in Florida. A neighbour had appealed to them directly, insisting that the local police were not taking the case seriously, but as they search and find the tell-tale signs of abduction, they also discover that someone had assumed the identity of the neighbour, and she is now dead. They've been set up. And it becomes terrifyingly clear that someone is tracking their every move.
Sixteen-year-old Amanda McCready has disappeared. Her anxious aunt contacts Patrick Kenzie to investigate. It is not the first time she has gone missing, as Patrick well knows - he was the investigator who worked on her case when she was kidnapped before, as a four-year-old. But this is not a simple case of a runaway girl. In fact, nothing in Amanda's life has been simple: brought up by the world's worst mother, neglected throughout her childhood, she has nonetheless blossomed into a formidably intelligent young woman. A young woman so bright that she can seemingly out-think and out-manoeuvre anyone... For Patrick, the case leads him down Boston's darkest, most dangerous streets - and into a world of shocking secrets that will threaten not only Amanda's life, but also his own and that of his partner Angie Gennaro.
Read by Richard Ferrone. Danger stalks Lucas Davenport at work and all too close to home, in the superlative thriller by the number-one New York Times-bestselling author. The Republicans are coming to St. Paul for their convention. Throwing a big party is supposed to be fun, but crashing the party are a few hard cases the police would rather stayed away. Chief among them is a crew of professional stick-up men who've spotted several lucrative opportunities, ranging from political moneymen with briefcases full of cash to that convention hotel with the weakness in its security system. All that's headache enough for Lucas Davenport - but what's about to hit him is even worse. A while back, a stray bullet put a pimp and petty thief into a wheelchair, and ever since, the man has been nursing his grudge into a full head of psychotic steam. He blames Davenport for the bullet, but it's no fun just shooting him. That wouldn't be painful enough. Not when Davenport has a pretty 14 year old adopted daughter whom he can target instead. And then there's the young man with the 50-caliber sniper rifle and the right-wing crazy background, roaming through a city filled with the most powerful politicians on earth...
The complete and unabridged mysteries of Agatha Raisin from the popular BBC Radio 4 Series, read by Penelope Keith. When high-flying PR supremo Agatha Raisin retires to a small Cotswold village, she doesn't expect too much excitement. However, country life turns out to be anything but peaceful... Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body - Carsely's traditional Christmas festivities are interrupted when a meddling Health and Safety officer is found lying dead in the petunias. Agatha is on the case, but with so many people having threatened the life of the victim, it's hard to know where to start. As the Pig Turns - When a policeman turns up on a spit instead of the expected hog roast, Agatha fully intends to leave the investigation to the police. But she soon changes her mind when she learns that the dead man's ex-wife has hired her rival to investigate the case. Hiss & Hers - Our heroine has fallen in love - again. But alas for Agatha, she finds the object of her affections murdered, having been bitten by a poisonous snake and buried in a compost heap. But if she can't have George the gardener, at least she can have the satisfaction of finding his murderer... Includes 18 CD's. Running time is 19 hours and 15 minutes.
From the humblest of beginnings a millennia ago, Lothaire the Enemy of Old rose to power, becoming the most feared and evil vampire in the immortal world. Driven by his past, he will not rest until he captures the vampire Horde's crown for himself. The discovery of his Bride, the female meant only for him, threatens to derail his plot. Elizabeth Peirce is a mere mortal, a glaring vulnerability for a male with so many deadly foes bent on annihilating anything he desires. Yet soon he discovers his Bride's secret. A magnificent power dwells inside the fragile human, one that will aid his quest. But to possess that power, he will have to destroy her. Will Lothaire succumb to the torments of his past, or seize a future with her? Read by Robert Petkoff
Read by Janet McTeer. When the body of a young girl is found dumped on the banks of the Thames, even the police are shocked by the brutality of her murder: horrifically mutilated, severed in half and drained of blood, her death is a terrifying mirror image of a 1940s case in Los Angeles knows as 'The Black Dahlia'. That case was never solved, but now Detective Inspector Anna Travis must race against time to catch this 'copycat killer', dubbed 'The Red Dahlia' from the flower his victim wore in her hair. But there are no suspects and a media frenzy is spiralling out of control. Anna needs help from the brilliant and volatile Detective Chief Inspector James Langton, but the frictions of their romantic relationship are complicating the case. A second girl is murdered and as Anna and Langton close in on the prime suspect, they uncover a terrifying web of sadistic sexual evil and a family's murderous secrets.
Designed to follow the new-look series of Miss Marple books for the 21st century. This edition is completed and unabridged and read by Miss Marple herself, Joan Hickson. Miss Marple senses danger when she visits a friend living in a Victorian mansion which doubles as a rehabilitiation centre for delinquents. Her fears are confirmed when a youth fires a revolver at the administrator, Lewis Serrocold. Neither is injured. But a mysterious visitor, Mr Gilbrandsen, is less fortunate ? shot dead simultaneously in another part of the building. Pure coincidence? Miss Marple thinks not, and vows to discover the real reason for Mr Gilbrandsens visit. Read by Joan Hickson
Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is first on the scene as a stolen car crashes on a misty, wet Manchester morning. The driver is dead, but the biggest shock awaits her when she discovers the body of a child wrapped in plastic in the boot of the car. As Jessica struggles to discover the identity of the driver, a thin trail leads her to a set of clothes buried in the woods and a list of children's names abandoned in an allotment shed. With the winter chill setting in and parents looking for answers, Jessica must find out who has been watching local children, and how this connects to a case that has been unsolved for fourteen years. The fourth fantastic title in the 'Jessica Daniel' series from Amazon UK No. 1 bestseller Kerry Wilkinson. Read by Becky Hindley
Most people who get promoted at work are pleased, but for Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel it comes with the knowledge that she is replacing her mentor who was stabbed in a bar fight. She barely has time to start doubting her abilities before a body is found in a locked house with seemingly no way in or out. DS Daniel not only has to prepare for a court date against the scourge of the force, legal expert Peter Hunt, she also has to hold off a journalist who seems to know more than she does about her case. With a car that even junior officers joke about, an investigation with no leads and a best mate whose love life is finally settling down, she has enough on her plate and that's before a second body turns up in identical circumstances to the first. How can a murderer get to victims in seemingly impossible situations and what, if anything, links the victims? This No. 1 Kindle bestselling novel is the first in the Jessica Daniel series.
Read by Boyd Gaines. Death in the Afternoon is an impassioned look at bullfighting by one of its true aficionados. It reflects Hemingway's conviction that bullfighting was more than mere sport and reveals a rich source of inspiration for his art. The unrivalled drama of bullfighting, with its rigorous combination of athleticism and artistry, and its requisite display of grace under pressure, ignited Hemingway's imagination. Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great elegance and cunning. Death in the Afternoon is also a deeper contemplation of the nature of cowardice and bravery, sport and tragedy, and is enlivened throughout by Hemingway's sharp commentary on life and literature.
Read by Stacy Keach. Before he gained wide fame as a novelist, Ernest Hemingway established his literary reputation with his short stories. Set in the varied landscapes of Spain, Africa, and the American Midwest, this definitive audio collection traces the development and maturation of Hemingway's distinct and revolutionary storytelling style - from the plain bald language of his first story to his mastery of seamless prose that contained a spare, eloquent pathos, as well as a sense of expansive solitude. These stories showcase the singular talent of a master, the most important American writer of the twentieth century.
Read by Samantha Bond. It is late at night on a notorious council estate in East London. A van - garishly painted with a grinning clown's face on the side - is being driven erratically. When the police pull over the driver to question him, they discover the body of a young woman inside the van. A murder suspect...an arrest...a confession...A case done and dusted? But their suspect claims his victim is not his first, but his third. Two unsolved murders, three confessions. Five years earlier, a 13-year-old girl disappeared in broad daylight on a busy London street. DCS James Langton headed the investigation and left no stone unturned. The fact that the case was not solved has haunted him ever since. The enquiry has opened up again but, unable to lead it due to ill health, Langton brings in DCI Anna Travis to oversee this complex case. Meanwhile the murder team begins the laborious task of verifying the details of the confessions and uncovering the identity of the second victim. And then the suspect changes his story. Do they have a serial killer in custody or a compulsive liar?
Kim Hicks reads this thrilling murder mystery - the ninth book in the 'Anna Travis' series from bestselling author Lynda La Plante. Six months after the body of Josh Reynolds, a London nightclub owner, was found and determined by police and coroner to be a suicide, DCS James Langton tasks DCI Anna Travis to review the case. Reynolds died from a single gunshot wound to the head, the gun held in his right hand. But details are emerging that suggest someone else may have fired the gun... As soon as she wraps up the case, Langton tells Anna, she can join him at the FBI Academy in Virginia for training. Meanwhile, a Senior FBI Agent, Jessie Dewar, crime scene expert, is seconded to Anna's team as part of her research and immediately the competence of the original investigation team is questioned...
Former Soviet Secret Service agent Leo Demidov has built himself a new life as a civilian with his wife Raisa, and their two teenage daughters, Elena and Zoya. The Soviet Union is a country trying to reassert itself after the murderous excesses of Stalin and the chaos of the following years, and as the Cold War continues powers inside Russia seek to topple their great enemy, the United States of America. Communist allies within the United States will prove vital players in this game of intrigue and revolution. Raisa and their two daughters travel to the United States on a diplomatic mission, but a horrifying tragedy destroys everything Leo and Raisa have built. Leo must get to the States somehow and find out what happened. Exiled from the Soviet Union and separated from his family, Leo's quest takes him through the stark wilderness of Afghanistan, reawakening all his old instincts and forcing him to confront his demons. But whatever it costs, wherever he must go, he will find Agent 6. Read by Gareth Armstrong
Read by Gareth Armstrong. Leo Demidov's last case forces him to question what we live for when we've lost the people we love... Moscow, 1950. Former Secret Service Agent Leo Demidov is forbidden to travel with his wife and daughters to New York as part of a 'Peace Tour', meant to foster better relations between the two Cold War enemies. Leo's natural paranoia reaches its peak: Why has his family been selected? What is being planned? When Leo's worst fears are realised and a tragic murder destroys everything he loves, he demands only one thing: that he is allowed to investigate and find the killer who has struck at the heart of his family. Crippled by grief, his request denied, Leo sees no other option that to take matters into his own hands, thousands of miles from the crime scene. In a surprising, thriller story that spans decades and continents - from the backstreets of 1960s New York to the mountains of Afghanistan in the 1980s - Leo will stop at nothing as he hunts the one person who knows the truth: Agent 6.
Read by Armand Schultz. An invaluable CIA Asset has gone missing, and with him, secrets that in the wrong hands could prove disastrous. The only question is: can Mitch Rapp find him first? Joe Rickman, head of CIA clandestine operations in Afghanistan, has been kidnapped and his four bodyguards executed in cold blood. But Mitch Rapp's experience and nose for the truth make him wonder if something even more sinister isn't afoot. Irene Kennedy, director of the CIA, has dispatched him to Afghanistan to find Rickman at all costs. Rapp, however, isn't the only one looking for Rickman. The FBI is too, and it quickly becomes apparent that they're less concerned with finding Rickman that placing the blame on Rapp. With CIA operations in crisis, Rapp must be as ruthless and deceitful as his enemies if he has any hope of finding Rickman and completing his mission. But with elements within his own government working against both him and American interests, will Rapp be stopped dead before he can succeed?
The Interpretation of Murder is an inventive tour de force inspired by Sigmund Freud's 1909 visit to America, accompanied by prot?g? and rival Carl Jung. When a wealthy young debutante is discovered bound, whipped and strangled in a luxurious apartment overlooking the city, and another society beauty narrowly escapes the same fate, the mayor of New York calls upon Freud to use his revolutionary new ideas to help the surviving victim recover her memory of the attack, and solve the crime. But nothing about the attacks - or about the surviving victim, Nora - is quite as it seems. And there are those in very high places determined to stop the truth coming out, and Freud's startling theories taking root on American soil.
Everyone fell under the spell of Jimmy Sutane, the charming and talented song-and-dance man. Everyone, that is, except the spiteful practical joker who put a pin in his stick of grease-paint and pasted 'Last Week' over the 'House Full' notices. Nothing too deadly. But as soon as Albert Campion is called in to investigate, people begin to die, and there's no shortage of suspects when the first victim's death is so convenient for so many. As the death toll rises and the tension mounts, Margery Allingham's imperturbable detective loses his heart - and his customary detachment - when he falls violently in love with Jummy Sultane's wife... Read by Philip Franks
A classic Marple mystery, superbly read by Joan Hickson. Available for the first time on audio. Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his ?counting house? when he suffered an agonising and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals. Yet, it was the incident in the parlour which confirmed Jane Marples suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme? Read by Joan Hickson
She's Pilgrim Hospital's most unusual patient, and on this Saturday night, a media circus is gathered to record every minute of her visit to the X-ray department. Crammed into the small CT scan room are reporters, TV cameras, a select group of medical technicians - and forensic pathologist Maura Isles. Maura is there because the patient being scanned tonight isn't alive. She's probably been dead for centuries. She is, in fact, a mummy. As the CT scan proceeds, everyone in the room leans in close - and gasps in horror as an image of a bullet is revealed. Maura declares it a possible homicide case and calls in Detective Jane Rizzoli. When the preserved body of a second victim is found - and then a third - it becomes all too clear that not only is a maniac at large but he is taunting them. And that, unless Maura and Jane can find and stop him, he will soon be adding yet another chilling piece to his monstrous collection. Read by Laurel Lefkow
All twelve BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of Agatha Christie's bestselling Miss Marple mysteries, starring June Whitfield: Miss Jane Marple, the deceptively mild spinster sleuth, is one of Agatha Christie's best-loved creations, and in these BBC Radio 4 dramatisations June Whitfield has made the role her own. These 12 intriguing mysteries see Miss Marple confronted by murder wherever she goes, from her home village of St Mary Mead to a smart London hotel to a tropical island paradise. But armed with her sharp wits and her knowledge of human nature, she is never daunted, and never wrong when it comes to identifying the killer. On 2 CDs and with a star cast including Joan Sims, Ian Lavender, Sian Phillips, Maurice Denham, Windsor Davies and Imelda Staunton, these adaptations are sure to thrill all fans of the indomitable Miss Marple. Includes: - A Pocket Full Of Rye - At Bertram'S Hotel - The Body In The Library - The Mirror Crack'D From Side To Side - A Caribbean Mystery - Nemesis - The Moving Finger - Sleeping Murder - The Do It With Mirrors - 4.50 From Paddington - Murder At The Vicarage - A Murder Is Announced
'The history of crime detection has produced no more famous name than that of Sexton Blake'. William Franklyn stars as paperback hero Sexton Blake, with David Gregory as his assistant Tinker, in four original BBC Radio dramatisations from 1967. Lost from the BBC archives for over 40 years, these rediscovered episodes are presented on CD for the very first time. "The Eight Swords": When a woman is found dead at Paula's hair salon, Sexton Blake is called in to investigate. "A Murder of Crows": Over the past six weeks, two men have been murdered. And both shared the name George Crow. "Double and Quit": The top-secret Department 7 recruit Sexton Blake as a special agent. "You Must Be Joking": A friend from Blake's club dies the day after receiving a sinister limerick. Special bonus episode: "Murder on the Portsmouth Road": In one of Britain's earliest surviving drama recordings (from 1930), Arthur Wontner stars as Sexton Blake, tracking down a killer on a stormy night.
For months, Mitch Rapp has been steadily working his way through a list of the men responsible for the slaughter of 270 civilians including his own girlfriend in the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing - bullet by bullet. His next target - a Libyan diplomat - should be easy. Prone to drink and currently in Paris without a bodyguard, Rapp quickly tracks the man down and sends a bullet into his skull while he's sleeping. But in the split second it takes the bullet to leave the silenced pistol, everything changes. The door to the hotel room is kicked open and gunfire erupts all around Rapp. When the news breaks that Libya's Oil Minister has been killed along with three innocent civilians and four unidentified men, the French authorities are certain that the gunman is wounded and still on the loose in Paris. As the finger-pointing begins, Rapp's handlers have only one choice - deny any responsibility for the incident and race to do damage control. Rapp has become a liability, and he must not be taken alive by the French authorities. But alone in Paris, on the run from the authorities and from his own employers, Mitch Rapp must prepare to fight for his life. Read by Armand Schultz
Three classic BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - starring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot. A destroyed will, a shattered coffee cup, an old envelope - such are the seemingly unrelated details surrounding the murder of Mrs Inglethorp, mistress of Styles Court. Hercule Poirot, the methodical little Belgian, begins his first - and perhaps most fascinating - investigation. Murder at the Vicarage - starring June Whitfield as Miss Marple. In the sleepy little English country village of St Mary Mead, all is not as it seems. Under a seemingly peaceful exterior lurks intrigue, guilt, deception - and murder. Faced with a surfeit of suspects, only the inscrutable Miss Marple can unravel the tangled web of clues. The Sittaford Mystery - starring John Moffatt and Stephen Tompkinson. A blizzard has hit England. In the tiny village of Sittaford, on the fringes of Dartmoor, a party of six is gathered in Sittaford House, home of Captain Trevelyan. As evening draws in, a seance is proposed, but it reveals more than they had anticipated as the board spells out - TREVELYAN - DEAD!
In her new thriller, America's 1 bestselling Queen of Suspense delves into a legal battle over the guilt or innocence of a man accused of murdering his wife. Woven into her plot is an eerie, little-understood but documented medical phenomenon -- the emergence of a donor's traits and memories in the recipient of a heart transplant. Natalie Raines, one of Broadway's brightest stars, accidentally discovers who killed her former roommate and sets in motion a series of shocking events that puts more than one life in extreme peril. While Natalie and her roommate, Jamie Evans, were both struggling young actresses, Jamie had been involved with a mysterious married man to whom she referred only by nickname. Natalie comes face to face with him years later and inadvertently addresses him by the nickname Jamie had used. A few days later, Natalie is found in her home in Closter, New Jersey, dying from a gunshot wound. Immediately the police suspect Natalie's theatrical agent and soon-to-be-ex-husband, Gregg Aldrich. He had long been a "person of interest" and was known to have stalked Natalie to find out if she was seeing another man. But no charges are brought against him until two years later, when Jimmy Easton, a career criminal, suddenly comes forward to claim that Aldrich had tried to hire him to kill his wife. Easton knows details about the Aldrich home that only someone who had been there -- to plan a murder, for instance -- could possibly know. The case is a plum assignment for Emily Wallace, an attractive thirty-two-year-old assistant prosecutor. As she spends increasingly long hours preparing for the trial, a seemingly well-meaning neighbor offers to take care of her dog in her absence. Unaware of his violent past, she gives him a key to her home... As Aldrich's trial is making headlines, her boss warns Emily that this high-profile case will reveal personal matters about her, such as the fact that she had a heart transplant. And, during the trial, Emily experiences sentiments that defy all reason and continue after Gregg Aldrich's fate is decided by the jury. In the meantime, she does not realize that her own life is now at risk. A compelling novel that probes the mysteries of the human heart and mind, Just Take My Heart is Mary Higgins Clark's most spellbinding tale. Read by Jan Maxwell
Details: The body found under the hedge was that of a middle-aged woman, biggish and gaunt. The grey eyes were wide and staring, and in them Detective Chief Inspector Wexford thought he saw a sardonic gleam, a glare, even in death, of scorn. But that must have been his imagination, and imagination was almost all he had to go on. The woman was dead, but, as Wexford knew only too well, death, by murder is, in a way, not an end but a beginning... Read by George Baker. Ideal for: Ruth Rendell fans everywhere. Running time approximately: 3 hours. 3 CD's abridged.