Showing results by narrator "Rupert Degas" in All Categories

Lorenzo Cumi is a 14-year-old misfit. To quell the anxiety of his concerned, socially conscious parents, he tells them he’s been invited on an exclusive ski vacation with the popular kids. On the morning of the trip, Lorenzo demands that his mother drop him off before they arrive at the train station, insisting that his status will be compromised if he shows up accompanied by his mother. Reluctantly, she agrees, and as soon as she is safely out of the vicinity, he turns around and makes his way back to his neighborhood, to put his real plan in motion.

No More Parades is the second of four in Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End tetralogy, a work that Ford hoped would contribute to the obviating of all future wars. The novel follows Christopher Tietjens, a wealthy British landowner and the last British Tory; his unfaithful wife, Sylvia; and his mistress, Valentine Wannop. Highlighting the tension between traditional values and the new reality of a world marred by war, the novel details Tietjens' turmoils in both his personal life and on the warfront—and what follows when those struggles become one and the same.

Danny ‘Badger’ Baxter has a talent for surveillance. But now Badger has a bigger job than photographing dissident Republicans in muddy Ulster fields, or Islamic extremists on rain swept Yorkshire moors. MI6 have a plan to assassinate the Engineer – a brilliant maker of Improvised Explosive Devices, the roadside bombs which account for 80% of British casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. The spooks know he is planning to leave his home in Iran. They just need to find out when and where he is travelling.

Even the dead like to keep their secrets.... When William Gove, a dying millionaire and patriarch of a vast estate in Essex, asks Daniel Connell to execute his will, Daniel has no idea what he's getting himself into. Rather than leave his fortune to his three children, Gove has chosen 10 names at random from the phone book. When he dies, Daniel sets out to track down the recipients.

Rumors are swirling around the dark corners of Westgate that a brutal vigilante is dealing violence and havoc in the guise of Shadowbane. Kalen and Myrin have just arrived from Luskan, in search of Kalen's former apprentice, Rhett. Though Kalen believes Rhett to be dead, Myrin won't give up hope as she in turn seeks more information about her past. And Kalen too must find his place, perhaps in the Eye of Justice - the organization that trained him - though that's the last place he wants to end up. But who are is this mysterious vigilante who wields the vaunted sword Vindicator?

Long presumed dead after a long period of inactivity, the gentleman burglar Arsène Lupin makes a triumphant return to solve the disappearance of a small fortune. Set in Paris during the Second World War, Lupin's investigation leads him to Captain Patrice Beval and his love, Coralie, a volunteer nurse who valiantly helped save Beval's life. Lupin soon learns that Coralie is in danger and, after a bloody murder case, is determined to protect Coralie and Beval from the sinister culprit afoot – while finding the missing gold, of course.

The Ragpicker—a man, bonded into a mysterious 'secondskin' that has prolonged his life after the digital apocalypse—wanders the lush, deserted Earth, haunted by failing avatars and fragmented texts. He’s searching for traces of his long-dead husband but his journey is interrupted by a girl, Ysmany, fleeing her remote village in order to save a baby orphaned by a military-grade secondskin, ‘The Server,’ the fanatical ruler of their town. Together they cross the flourishing, treacherous landscape towards sanctuary.

In The Star of the Week, Jack is chosen to be the Star of the Week at school, but he wants to be a good friend too. Can he do both?

Jack's filming a cooking show with his best friend Billie. But what will happen if he messes everything up?

The city of Luskan has always been a den of pirates, thieves, and murderers. But lately, things have gotten much worse. A ship crashes offshore with nothing but corpses. Every day, people go crazy and brutalize those around them. And the only signs that even the most hardened criminals still walk the streets at night are bones. Luskan's sister city, Waterdeep, has sent a detachment to quarantine the unclean city - to let the filth within die, rather than infect the rest of the Realms. But Myrin has slipped inside, declaring that she will save Luskan.

The respectable middle-class Twist family is settling in for their usual Sunday lunch. Husband and wife Roger and Becky are there, along with their daughter, Lucy, and her husband, Frank. But then they're joined by an uninvited guest. His name is John, and he knows everything about them—including their darkest secrets. After he manipulates his way into the house, John soon has them bound at their wrists and ankles. But what is the agenda of this twisted stranger?

In the new friend, Jack has found a lost puppy. It is so cute. But can he convince his mum and dad to let him keep it?

Ronald Faulkner was born and raised for the first quarter of his life in Australia. He was a troubled and rebellious surfer and tearaway, giving his mother a rough time after his father died when he was just seven years old. Although dreaming of a career in the Australian Royal Navy, fate had other ideas and, through a series of chance encounters, he found himself embarking on a career in the theatre not unlike his father, the silent film actor John Faulkner, and his mother, Sheila Whytock, a ballerina.

A Man Could Stand Up—is the third of four installments in Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End tetralogy, which follows Christopher Tietjens, a wealthy British landowner and the last British Tory; his unfaithful wife, Sylvia; and his mistress, Valentine Wannop. Opening on Armistice Day (November 11, 1918), A Man Could Stand Up—serves as the climax of the series. Highlighting the tension between traditional values and a rapidly changing social order, the novel details Christopher and Valentine's trials as the post-war world takes shape around them.

When Melbourne lawyer Nathan Smithson takes on the case of mad, wealthy Edward Fonçeca's inheritance trial against his ruthless brother in 1902, he must unearth long-buried family secrets to have any chance of winning. Brazil, 1852: François, the Count de Castelnau and French Consul to Bahia falls dangerously ill on a naturalist expedition and is delivered by a Tupi Indian to the Fonçeca household. 

During the Depression the ebullient American entrepreneur Charles Flanagan assembles 2,000 runners from all corners of the earth, to run from Los Angeles to New York for prize-money of $150,000. Flanagan’s Trans-America runners face 3,000 miles, across the Mojave desert and the frozen Rockies, running a daily average of 50 miles for three months. The American sports establishment, however, is desperate to crush what it sees as a professional challenge to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

His life at a crossroads, Ric Peters is torn between his perilous job and dreams of a future with Elaina. But their trip to New Zealand throws them into chaos as they are swept up in a whirlwind of danger and dark family secrets. As Ric grapples with accusations of murder back in Indonesia, the discovery of a mysterious skull at a toxic waste site near his family’s home deepens the mystery.

The New Mythic: the new voice of 21st century speculative fiction. An all-new anthology of chilling horror, apocalyptic science fiction and awe-inspiring fantasy, by an award winning ensemble of international writers.

Five days before Christmas, Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper sits at his desk at the Johannesburg major crimes squad, ready for his holiday in Mozambique. A call comes in: a respectable white couple has been assaulted and left for dead in their bedroom. The couple’s teenage daughter identifies the attacker as Aaron Shabalala— the youngest son of Zulu Detective Constable Samuel Shabalala—Cooper’s best friend and a man to whom he owes his life.

This is a story from the Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories collection.