Showing results by narrator "Simon Mattacks" in All Categories

The Birthday Boys tells the story of Scott's doomed expedition through the voices of five men on the voyage. As Scott, Petty Officer Taff Evans, ship's doctor Edward Wilson, Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Captain Lawrence Oates step forward for their place in the narrative, the reader is gripped by the characters themselves alongside the vividly evoked period.

In the isolated village of Lambourn there is great excitement when a family of itinerant bell-founders arrives to forge a new church bell. Thomas the Falconer is charged by his master to find answers, but instead finds himself trying to restore order in the community when the village constable is also found dead. As panic ensues, Thomas does what he does best - following the trail and hunting his prey.

Isobel Swan, a sixth form student, has been murdered. First, her ring finger is severed, then her throat is cut. With the investigation going nowhere fast, Detective Inspector Nick Dixon is sent undercover as a trainee teacher into Isobel’s boarding school. But to find the killer, he must first confront his inner demons and lay to rest the ghosts lurking in his own past. If he can… As Dixon digs deeper, the stakes have never been higher and a murder has never felt so personal.

Private investigator Dan Armstrong can't believe his luck when he's invited to the luxury villa of none other than Alice Graceland, movie legend and queen of the silver screen. Alice isn't looking to bankroll Dan's writing, but instead she wants him to play host at a murder mystery evening with a glamorous (but suspiciously tense) collection of Hollywood royalty. It should be a meeting of old friends - but just how friendly are they? As the murder mystery evening takes a sinister turn, Dan and Oscar find themselves navigating more than the city's canals to find the truth.

Alex Reeve - known as OPERATIVE 66 - is a former special-ops soldier and one of the UK's most lethal weapons. Previously a member of SC9, an elite covert unit with a remit to assassinate the country's enemies, Reeve was framed for treason and now lives a nomadic existence - as the merciless killers he once trained alongside hunt him down. For a chance of a normal life, Reeve must expose and dismantle the sinister SC9. So when a series of brutal killings in Germany have all the hallmarks of an SC9 tactic.

The Realm of Dreich is a getaway for the rich and powerful, a medieval-inspired town in the middle of a vast frozen wilderness. Now it’s the site of a wedding, intended to join two feuding families who have spent centuries in an uneasy truce with each other. When Tommy Carpenter asks his best friend, Nate Garrett, to help him with the security of the wedding, Nate reluctantly agrees, knowing that it will be a long weekend of work and, in all probability, treachery.

Dan Armstrong hasn’t done much retiring since moving to Tuscany, and with his new career as a successful private investigator taking off, it seems murder seems to follow him. He’s hoping a much-needed trip to beautiful Portofino will give him the break he needs and quality time with girlfriend Anna. Portofino is a celebrity paradise, and holidaying on a nearby superyacht is a group of British media stars, all famous for being infamous. Dan isn't impressed by their status or wealth, but when he overhears an argument between two of the group, he suspects something fishy could be going on…

Ruslan Akulov, the legendary Ukrainian assassin known as Wolf Six, wakes to find the plane he’s on plummeting, and with no real memory of how he got there. Surviving the crash, only to be detained by a small-town sheriff and accused of two murders, that for once he didn’t commit, Akulov must piece together the fragments of his concussed memory to understand how his last mission in Canada as a black asset for the CIA went so catastrophically wrong. Yet far darker forces are hunting him.

On a cold Manchester night, Victor Mitchum and his loyal-ish dog witness something they were never meant to see. Living on the streets has made Victor good at watching people—which is exactly why private investigator Kasper Dąbrowski recruits him to help find a missing woman. But as Victor watches from the shadows, he realises he has stumbled into something far more dangerous. Working alongside Kasper and his sister, Victor discovers he’s not just tracking kidnappers—he’s watching killers. And now they know someone is watching them.

In Andy McDermott's brilliant fifth novel, Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase are on the hunt for the lost pyramid of Osiris... Discredited, jobless and broke, archaeologist Nina Wilde and ex-SAS soldier Eddie Chase have problems of their own - until Macy's plea for help sends them on a deadly quest...

We cannot know how to fix a problem until we understand its causes. But even for some of the most common mental health problems, three specialists might offer you three completely different treatments. As a cognitive neuropsychiatrist, Professor Anthony David brings together many fields of study, from social and cognitive psychology to neurology. The key for each patient might be anything from a traumatic memory to a chemical imbalance, an unhealthy way of thinking or a hidden tumour.

January 1941. When Detective Inspector John Jago is called to a house in London's Bloomsbury, he finds the body of a woman who's been attacked and left to die, her only crime seemingly being her kindness to strangers. She's taken victims of the Blitz and the war that's torn Europe apart and given them refuge in her home, but now she's a victim too—of murder. As Jago tries to find out who killed her and why, he uncovers a tangle of damaged hearts and minds.

When a badly decomposed body is discovered during an archaeological dig on the Sedgemoor battlefield, Avon and Somerset police are notified immediately. The remains are recent, and Detective Chief Inspector Peter Lewis knows exactly who they have found. A single stab wound from a curved blade implicates convicted serial killer Daniel Parker, who Lewis arrested fifteen years ago.

'Such a simple, clever book.' Rosemary Goring, The Herald We're not just losing the wild world. We're forgetting it. We're no longer noticing it. We've lost the habit of looking and seeing and listening and hearing. But we can make hidden things visible, and this book features 23 spellbinding...

A trainee jockey has been kicked to death by an aggressive stallion at the local stables. Deemed an accidental death, the case is closed. But when the jockey’s brother returns from active service, he sparks an armed siege, demanding the investigation be re-opened and the truth uncovered.

Sorcerer Nate Garrett lost much in the battle that devastated Asgard, but the war against darkness is far from over. He’s spent a year searching for Arthur, hell-bent on stopping the evil leader of Avalon and rescuing his friend Tommy from his clutches. Nate’s investigation brings him to Washington, DC, where he finds the city under siege. Just when all hope seems lost, Layla Cassidy and her team arrive to join the fight, but Avalon’s deadly plan to conquer the earth realm is underway.

A terrible storm is brewing in London, and Nathan Garrett, the sorcerer known as Hellequin, is the only one who can stop it. But his enemies have other plans. Harnessing the power of an ancient stone tablet, they cast Nate and his allies into another realm, where a bloody conflict rages between creatures twisted by magic. Meanwhile, with his friends' lives in danger, Nate must put centuries of differences aside, and place his trust in one of his greatest foes.

When a homeless man's body is found in a derelict school, appearing to have died of an overdose, Victor Mitchum knows it wasn't an accident. He knew Sawney from his own days on the streets. Sawney was clean, scared, and being hunted by dangerous people. Working with private investigators Kasper and Zofia Dąbrowski, and aided by his dog, Oscar, Victor traces the events that led to Sawney's death. His search leads him into Manchester's hidden places—disused buildings, private security firms, and communities forced to live in the margins.

In 1889, satirist Jerome K. Jerome fully intended to write a serious travel guide when he and his two best friends embarked on a boating trip up the river Thames to Oxford. But his musings on landmarks and local history were soon hijacked by his own digressive, waggish voice. And so, what began as a peaceful and edifying two-week exploration soon floated upriver into farce - aided, quite naturally, by a portly ration of cheese, some very bad weather, and a dog named Montmorency.

Rock climbers can’t afford to make careless mistakes. But Detective Inspector Nick Dixon’s former climbing partner, Jake Fayter, died doing just that. Or so it seems. Dixon suspects foul play, but his only leads are unreliable accounts of something odd happening in Cheddar Gorge seconds before Jake fell. The more Dixon learns about Jake’s life, the more he realises that Jake hadn’t been quite the man he remembered...and a lot of people could have wanted him dead. Once Dixon gets too close to the truth, those people will emerge from the shadows and kill to protect their secrets.