Showing results by narrator "Patricia Gallimore" in All Categories

When several shots are fired into the bistro where husband and wife crime-fighting duo Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley are meeting their boss, they discuss the shooting with their friend, Detective Chief Inspector James Carrick. Several years previously Carrick was also targeted by a criminal, Benny Cooper, who was eventually convicted of involvement in child pornography. Benny and his accomplice are now out of prison, and soon the intimidation of Carrick and his family returns.

Callum Hughes has been labelled a killer and a psycho - by the press, by his classmates and by the family of the boy he stabbed. Roger Gough has been labelled a victim. He is described by everyone as a sporty, funny, and popular boy who was brutally murdered by Callum. But things are rarely so black and white.

Smashing through the Arctic Ocean with the crew of a Russian icebreaker, herding reindeer across the tundra with Lapps and shadowing the Trans-Alaskan pipeline with truckers, Sara Wheeler discovers a complex and ambiguous land belonging both to ancient myth and modern controversy. A fascinating combination of history, science and reflection in which Wheeler meditates on the role of the Arctic and how it has been changed by man.

It’s the late 1960s and Nico Gachet is a young French student on the run in England. After making some terrible mistakes he must take drastic measures if he is to save his life and the lives of those he loves. Hoping to make amends for a terrible crime, Nico plans a dangerous liaison in the heart of the city.

A head teacher's work is never done, especially if, like Jane Cowan, you're a victim of your own success. Her responsibilities are compounded by an influx of children, most of whom do not speak English, following their families supplying cheap labour. Jane can't turn a blind eye to the conditions in which many of these families are living, even more so when some children simply disappear. When everything points to the shadowy dealings of people smugglers in the area, she has her work cut out.

Newly retired, ex-chief superintendent Fran Harman and her partner, Mark, have volunteered to assist West Mercia police in reinvestigating an unsolved crime. Twenty years ago a car was found abandoned on an isolated forest road running, its hazard lights still flashing, the passenger door open. In the back were two child seats. One was empty; in the other lay a desperately ill baby. Neither the baby's mother nor the elder child were ever seen again.

For the record, the word "parlour" is not used, nor is the relatively recent insidious "lounge", except about airports, hotels and liners.' 'Boys should be taught at a very early age - six or seven - to say "Sir" to an older man.' 'When there are servants, the plates for the first course are never put on the table until everyone is seated.''I cannot stress too often that on every formal occasion, whether it is Luncheon, a Bazaar or a Meeting, a hat should be worn.'

When a woman arrives in A&E clutching a child in a pink blanket, Martha Gunn is not quite ready to make the discovery that the evening has in store for her. The baby has been mummified. A post-mortem reveals the child to be a new born boy, deceased for over five years. As always coroner Martha Gunn reserves judgement until she is able to question the mysterious woman who brought in the body...

Ingrid Langley’s career as a crime author provides great cover when she is asked by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, for whom she works part-tim alongside her husband Patrick, formerly of MI5, to attend an international writers’ festival in Cannes to investigate fellow author, Clement Hamlyn, who is suspected of using the event to meet with a wanted criminal.

Actress Vena Burford is 'resting' between jobs. But needs must, and with few voice-over jobs in the pipeline, Vena takes on a few jobs for friends and family around the idyllic Stratford-Upon-Avon. But interior design leads her to violent threats and showing prospective buyers around houses ushers in a drug-smuggling ring. Vena comes to know all too well that the countryside is far from quiet.

It was Heather's silver wedding anniversary. But this important milestone did not mark her marriage to Tom, her often-absent airline pilot husband and father of their two teenage children. It was for her first marriage - a wildly romantic, secret affair, when she and Iain - 12 years older than her and the heir to a Scottish baronetcy - had eloped immediately after her final school speech day. She was just 16 at the time.

Currently on leave, Patrick Gillard is considering whether to carry on in his hazardous job as "adviser" to the National Crime Agency when his father, the local rector, asks for his help. A parishioner, Mrs Anne Peters, has paid him a visit, convinced that the wrong body was cremated at her late husband’s recent funeral. Patrick promises to investigate with the help of his wife and working partner, Ingrid Langley.

After a tragic miscarriage, Beth Tresaile returns to Owles House, the place of her miserable childhood, accompanied by her best friend, Kitty Copeland. Beth feels she can no longer go on unless she gets revenge on her estranged mother, Christina, who abandoned her on a cold winter’s night. But there are many shocks in store for Beth, who discovers that much of her childhood was built on deception. Kitty is captivated with Cornwall and Beth reluctantly - but later gladly - becomes involved with the locals.

Jane Cowan's abusive ex-husband has always tracked her down whichever town she lives in, whichever job she takes, whichever name she uses. However, now he is in prison for a long stretch, she feels brave enough to accept a promotion: she is to be head teacher of the Wrayford Primary School in Gloucestershire. While facing everyday battles from a lack of resources to teachers who are set in their ways, Jane encounters a persistent intruder on the school grounds.

Johnny Harvey is disillusioned and restless – injured in the war, older than the pilots he trained and disturbed at the changing of society, he watches his friends marry as life seems to pass him by. Sixteen-year-old Tess Viant, crippled with polio and abandoned by her heartless family, is befriended by Jill Harvey. Jill is delighted to be pregnant after four years of marriage to Tom – but when complications arise, it’s Tess who has to help

1949: one year in the childhood of Candida Lycett Green in the remote village of Farnborough in Berkshire. Here she lives with her father John Betjeman and her mother Penelope Chetwode, in one of the bleakest and highest spots on the windswept downland.Candida runs wild with the 'gang' of village children. Stimulated by regular excursions to the cinema in Wantage, Candida and her best friend June became fascinated by the idea of love.

On a bright spring morning, John Hyde opens the gates to the grounds of Moreton Corbet Castle, a local medieval ruin, and discovers the body of a homeless man with his throat slashed. Detective Inspector Alex Randall and his team soon face some disturbing questions: was this a random attack, or does someone have a vendetta against the homeless? For coroner Martha Gunn, establishing the man's identity is essential, but there are no clues.

When a local lad that vicar's wife Jodie Welsh employed to help in her garden disappears, along with Jodie's expensive camera, nearly everyone assumes the worst. But Burble's disappearance marks the start of a series of increasingly disturbing incidents - until the body shows up, and Jodie must use all her skills to unmask a ruthless killer.

In 1849, the Poltraze Estate has been deserted by Squire Nankervis, and 16-year-old Clemency Kivell is stunned when her father, Seth, announces that he wants to buy it. Trespassing in the abandoned big house, rebel-in-spirit Clemency encounters Kingsley Faraday, who tells her he’s bought Poltraze, but will not be the new squire.

Cornwall, 1920s. Beth Tresaile has been happily reconciled with her estranged mother for over a year and is looking forward to her best friend Kitty Copeland spending Christmas with them. But Kitty’s request that her brother Stuart join them throws Beth in turmoil for Stuart and Beth were once lovers, and she lives in fear of her friend discovering her secret shame. But Stuart’s arrival sets in motion events that even Beth could not have expected….