Genre Fiction

Jack Higgins (the pen name of Henry Patterson) was the internationally bestselling author of 85 novels. He shot to fame with The Eagle Has Landed, which sold 50 million copies worldwide and became a hit film. Adapted for radio, it is included here, together with its gripping sequel The Eagle Has Flown and the sensational Falklands War thriller Exocet.

1984. On board The Carousel cruise ship in the middle of the Mediterranean, two-year-old Robert vanishes from his cabin while his family sleep soundly beside him. Despite the frantic efforts of his mother Kimberly and stepfather Jason, he is never found. 2024. Lily balances a busy career as a psychotherapist with her responsibilities as a wife, mother and mediator between her divorced parents. Her older brother Robert's disappearance has cast a dark shadow over Lily's family her whole life.

One of the most iconic structures in the Four Lands is Paranor, the fortress home of the Druid Order. Legend holds that it was erected by an Elven leader known as Galaphile Joss. But who was this Galaphile, and how and why did he choose to establish this center of magic and learning?

Award-winning Japanese author and poet Mieko Kawakami brings Ashes of Spring, a collection of short stories set in everyday life in Japan just before the pandemic lockdown.

After a devastating loss, Grania Ryan flees her life as an artist in New York and returns home to Ireland and the arms of her loving family. While out walking the windswept cliffs of West Cork, she comes across Aurora, an enigmatic eight-year-old girl. Mysteriously drawn to the troubled child, Grania soon discovers that the histories of their families are strangely and deeply entwined.

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime… In reality it was a business trip, prettied up as a romantic mini break, but the man behind the wheel was meant to be Candice Hart’s boss and (married but separated, I swear!) lover. Not Danny the new guy! Not only is Candice faced with a new driver, but the office’s far too handsome hipster expects her to share the cramped space inside his “fully” restored VW Beetle, aka The Love Bug, and put up with his constant opinions about her life…

Everyone in Halfmoon Quay, the picture-perfect village clinging to the edge of the Cornish coast, knows Rick Penrose is the person to turn to for help. Friendly and reliable, not to mention drop-dead gorgeous, he’ll do anything for anyone. When his teenage crush Anya moves back to the quay for a fresh start, he has the perfect solution. She needs a job and his great uncle needs help to run his hotel. It’s a win-win.

Meet Emma. Emma is sick. She can’t work because of a neurological condition, so is stuck in her family’s tiny council house. Emma is sick of being told to ‘get over it’. Her stepfather, her doctors, strangers – everyone has an opinion. Emma is sick of being the other woman. Her boyfriend Adam is perfect: he’s got a great job and an amazing home. His wife Celeste is the problem. Emma is sick of being underestimated. All she needed was a target. And now she has Celeste… Emma is sick. Just not in the way you thought.

The sixteen stories and two screenplays that make up Volume One of the Emmy® Award–winning Netflix Original series Love, Death & Robots.

Queen Margaret knows she must protect the crown - and her son Prince Edward's claim to it - at all costs. With her husband, King Henry, increasingly frail, it is up to Margaret to fight for their inheritance. And as the Wars of the Roses rage on, her enemies and their wives lurk close, threatening to unravel everything she is trying to protect.

Sophia is determined to grow old disgracefully and refuses to be invisible. She craves fiery passion and steamy romance, not targeted ads for funeral plans. After a heart-shattering breakup, she ditches love to date a new man each week for a year. As she flirts, fumbles and sips fizz through an array of encounters, from an opera buff in a cape to an orgasm whisperer, she discovers it's never too late to rewrite your own love story, even if it's not the one you expected…

When our story begins, Julia Child is an eager but inexperienced codebreaker longing to prove herself in the male-dominated world of intelligence, and Josephine Baker is, well, Josephine Baker—a world-famous entertainer who is now leading a double life as a spy for the French Resistance. When a golden opportunity arises to infiltrate a high-stakes Nazi gala in Vichy France, Julia must put aside her by-the-book mentality to assist her unorthodox new partner.

Victor and Zoey are getting old, well old-er, and it’s beginning to be a real problem. Best friends for a decade, they have seen each other through bad dates and office drama, late nights and hungover brunches, during their years together in New York City. As their wild twenties come to a close, though, the dynamic between the two is shifting. Coming off a tough breakup, Victor dedicates his energies toward building a career writing celebrity profiles for one of the last glossy magazines left, while Zoey navigates the terrain at her nascent fashion startup.

Scotland, 1940: Isla Donaghue is just sixteen when her mother dies, and her idyllic life comes to an abrupt end. Unable to cope, Isla’s father sends her to the poorhouse when he joins the merchant navy. Horrified at the harsh conditions of the poorhouse, Isla is determined to escape. Enlisting the help of her newfound friends Meg and Sophie, she devises a plan to flee to Liverpool.

Emma Rini is in a rut so deep she could shelve books there. While her sister awaits her first baby, and her parents kick off retirement with vow renewals and travel, Emma stays put among the stacks of the family bookshop. In fact, she can’t remember the last time she took a vacation. Or had a romance that hovered above disappointing. When her parents assume she’ll take over the shop for them without a break, she realizes she needs to get away—back to the nineteenth century.

Fifty-two-year-old Michelle Banks is struggling to keep all the plates spinning. She’s a perimenopausal district nurse, caring for elderly parents. Her husband is wasting their money on children’s TV memorabilia, her teenage daughter is riddled with anxiety and her 16-year-old son is behaving secretively. Alexa is the only one who knows how much Michelle is juggling. Listening in via four smart speakers, she also knows that it’s about to get even worse. So, when Michelle pleads for help, Alexa decides to go rogue.

Gerard is 12. He hates his name, but loves flying round the streets of Glasgow on his bike, or mucking about with his gang, the Broncos. He’s a bright kid, but trouble seems to follow him. No one really knows what it’s like at home for Gerard; he’s used to carrying a lot on his small shoulders. Gerard doesn’t always make good decisions. And on one April morning, in the blink of an eye, he makes a very bad one – one that will upend his whole world.

Pur produit des années soixante, Athene Forster n'est pas pressée de se marier. Cette jolie fille trop gâtée est devenue une jeune femme aussi capricieuse qu'imprévisible, et elle multiplie les écarts de conduite. Aussi ses parents accueillent-ils avec soulagement la nouvelle de son mariage avec Douglas Fairley-Hulme, héritier de bonne famille. Mais à peine deux ans plus tard, la rumeur court qu'elle a une liaison, et le scandale la rattrape. Trente-cinq ans plus tard, Suzanna Peacock s'efforce de vivre une vie aussi paisible que celle de sa mère a été tumultueuse.

Kitty learned early on in her marriage that her husband, Bill Dunbar, isn’t reliable with money. So when they inherit the Dunbar family hotel at the start of the war, she's hopeful that their financial worries are over… until the bailiffs turn up! With Bill away fighting, it’s up to Kitty to turn things around for her family, or risk ruin. Lily worked as a chambermaid at Dunbar’s before the war. She met Daniel there, but their relationship was complicated by class differences and the disapproval of Daniel’s mother.

1946: World War II is over, and Emma Clarkson is poised to take flight. With dreams of attending university, she’s ready to leave behind the wild beauty of Sable Island, the only home she’s ever known. But when a handsome British sea captain is rescued from a nearby shipwreck, her destiny is forever changed. Emma falls deeply in love with Oliver Harris, but their romance is not meant to be. Oliver returns to the sea, while Emma vows to forget him and pursue her own ambitions.

In this series we listen to short stories that are NOT by perhaps the most well-known author of this type. But the many other rich talents in the volume may have treated the subject matter a little differently, or were perhaps just overlooked in the stampede to applaud the winner, but these authors are of equal merit.

A timeless holiday classic, The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens is a heartwarming tale of love, family, and redemption. Set in a cozy Victorian home, the story follows John Peerybingle and his wife Dot, whose simple yet contented lives are disrupted by a series of misunderstandings, mysterious arrivals, and surprising revelations. A seemingly ordinary cricket, chirping beside their hearth, becomes a symbol of warmth, hope, and the unseen forces that guide us through hardship.

Tras perderlo todo en un doloroso divorcio, decide regresar al lugar donde creció, la casa de su bisabuela Scarlett Stanton, una famosa escritora que murió dejando una novela inconclusa. Noah Harrison, es el atractivo y arrogante autor de bestsellers que la editorial designó para terminar el manuscrito. Aunque a ella no le entusiasma la idea, ahora él y Georgia están obligados a trabajar juntos para encontrar el mejor final de la obra.

Harrison William Shepherd, da ragazzino, si tuffa nell'imboccatura di una grotta sottomarina ed riemerge in uno cenote, nel mezzo della giungla messicana, bordato di coralli spezzati e dal fondo ricoperto di ossa umane. Ossessionato da quel passaggio, comincerà a riempire taccuini interi di storie e ricordi.

Timothy and Jonah, wealthy entrepreneurs with a spoiled son, hide sins from their past—one involving a death on a cruise, the other a crime in Bali. Nathan and Samantha, the hot ex-nanny turned trophy wife, grapple with infertility and a shocking paternity secret. Bartosz and Angelika (he’s a chef, she’s a former sex worker) carry debts to the other couples they don’t even realize they owe. Over fourteen days, the couples bond—but their pasts are too deeply intertwined to stay hidden. The sly concierge, Putu, knows more than he lets on.