Showing results by narrator "Aoife McMahon" in All Categories

A funny and heartwarming debut for fans of Celia Imrie and Dawn French. Evie Gallagher is regretting her hasty move into a care home. She may be 75 and recently widowed, but she’s absolutely not dead yet. And so, one morning, Evie walks out of Sheldon Lodge and sets off on a Great Adventure across Europe. But not everyone thinks Great Adventures are appropriate for women of Evie’s age, least of all her son, Brendan, and his wife, Maura, who follow a trail of puzzling text messages to bring her home.

Durraghglass is a beautiful mansion in Southern Ireland, now crumbling in neglect. The time is the present - a present that churns with the bizarre passions of its owners' past. The Swifts - three sisters of marked eccentricity, defiantly christened April, May and Baby June, and their only brother, one-eyed Jasper - have little in common, save vivid memories of darling Mummy, and a long lost youth peculiarly prone to acts of treachery.

A thoughtful, captivating and ultimately uplifting novel from this uniquely talented author. She has just two weeks. Two weeks to teach him how to fall in love - with his own life. Adam Basil and Christine Rose are thrown together late one night, when Christine is crossing the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin. Adam is there, poised, threatening to jump. Adam is desperate - but Christine makes a crazy deal with him. His 35th birthday is looming and she bets him that before then she can show him life is worth living.

Joanne Phillips’ ordeal began aged 13 when she was gang-raped in her bedroom by local boys. Following the trauma, she dropped out of school, was befriended by an older man and was forced into prostitution aged 16. Over the next six years, she was raped by over 500 men, starved, beaten, and transported around the country to brothels. Forced to have sex with men from all walks of life including lawyers, stockbrokers, doctors, a parish councillor, Joanne was even made to have sex with her former school headteacher—who didn’t recognise her.

A missing girl. A case that's personal. A contract killer on Irish soil. Cat Connolly is back at work. Struggling to adjust to physical and mental scars, her workload once again becomes personal when her best friend, Sarah Jane, goes missing. Sarah Jane's a journalism student, the daughter of a decorated war correspondent, but what could she be working on that could lead to her disappearance? And how deadly will it get?

After a series of shootings at an Israeli peace rally, Washington sends for trouble-shooter and peace negotiator Maggie Costello. She follows a trail that takes her from Jewish settlements on the West Bank to Palestinian refugee camps, where she discovers the latest deaths are not random but have a distinct pattern. All the dead men are archaeologists and historians - those who know the buried secrets of the ancient past.

The story follows the four Robicheaux sisters as they return home for their parents' wedding, at the beautiful Hotel Sorrento where they all grew up as children. For the first time in 15 years, the sisters are back together—and it doesn't take long for long-buried secrets to surface...

On Doogort East Bog, Achill Island, a body is found. The close community is stunned to learn that it's Lisa Moran, a popular teacher who disappeared two days earlier. DS Lucy Golden is assigned to the case. For her, it's personal. As an Achill native, she knows that sometimes great evil can lurk in plain sight. Having moved back from Dublin, she has spent the last 10 years trying to prove herself to her colleagues after her husband was jailed for fraud. This is her chance to put the past behind her.

A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed, and suddenly, she realises how fragile her idyll is.

Lorna Byrne says we all see angels when we are young children but are gradually conditioned to screen them out. Here, for the first time, she has written stories, inspired by real life, of seven children whose lives were transformed and made better by their interaction with their guardian angels. Among these, there is a story of a little girl called Suzy, paralysed from birth and unable to play with other children.

Late at night, two powerful men meet in a secret location to discuss a long nurtured plan about to come to fruition. One is desperate to know there is nothing standing in their way - the other assures him everything is taken care of. Hours later, a high-ranking government official called Ryan Finnegan is brutally slain in the most secure building in Ireland - Leinster House, the seat of parliament. Inspector Tom Reynolds and his team are called in to uncover the truth behind the murder.

From the opening story about a married woman who takes a trip to the city with a single purpose in mind - to sleep with another man - Antarctica draws you into a world of obsession, betrayal and fragile relationships.

Abbey Andersen is the last person to go looking for change. Yes, it's tough that she barely sees her mother these days - but in San Francisco she has great friends, a steady relationship and a job she enjoys. When Abbey is contacted by Irish lawyer Ryan Gilligan, she learns in an instant everything she believed about her roots is a lie. She must travel to Dublin to find out more - but she's scarcely off the plane when she's plunged into a new crisis. One that will change everything not just for Abbey but for the family in Ireland who had no idea that she even existed.

Meet the Augustts...a loving Irish family who, like all families, are a bit complicated. But they are bound together by their love for each other and the way their words shape their world. Things become a little more complicated when the mother has a stroke, and the force of nature who is Granny Mae-Ann comes to try to take charge to keep the family together. She has a job on. There's the son, Jacob, with all his words trapped in his head by The Autism; the father, Mickey, struggling to express himself at all; and Jenny, the daughter, quietly writing it all down to try to make sense of it.

As temperatures soar across Europe during the hottest summer for 40 years, a series of hoax terrorist attacks is generating panic in London. Then a bus blows up on Oxford Street, and the hoaxes have suddenly become real. Student Brioni O’Brien has been desperately trying to contact her older sister since she unexpectedly returned early from travelling, so when Marissa’s bag is found near the site of the explosion, she fears the worst.

When twenty-three-year-old Hannah Kelly finds out that the beautiful rolling hills around her hometown could be destroyed by a new building development, she rushes back to Emerald Bay to rally the community. But arriving home at The Shamrock Inn, there’s another shock in store… the handsome and sparkling-eyed lead developer, Tom Flynn, has checked in as a guest. Is this Hannah’s chance to save the village?

When Liv Latimer says goodbye to her colleagues and finishes work for the holidays, she's looking forward to a Christmas to remember with her boyfriend Eddie. But before she makes it home, her phone rings, calling her back into work. And Liv is faced with a choice. Does she do as she's always done, and put herself second? Or, will she say no, so she can finally begin the life she's dreamed of? Liv's decision will turn her world upside down in ways she could never have imagined. Because whatever choice she makes, Liv is about to discover, fate finds a way...

Meet Belle. Belle has taken all the Christmas decorations down. This year they won’t be celebrating. As foster parents, Belle and Jim have given many children the chance of a happier start in life. They’ve loved them as if they were their own. They shouldn’t have favourites but little Lauren has touched their hearts. And now her mother is well enough to take her back and Belle can’t bear the loss. Hence, Christmas is cancelled. So when Jim crashes his car one icy December night, after an argument about Lauren, Belle can only blame herself.

You'll be wincing in recognition and scratching your head in incredulity, but like Marian herself you won't be able to stop laughing at the sheer delightful absurdity that is modern life - because each and every one of us is clearly making it up as we go along. She has wonderful and tickling words of advice for those fast approaching 50.

One unremarkable afternoon, Rosie watched her daughter Saoirse cycle into town, expecting to hear the slam of the door when she returned a few hours later. But the slam never came. Eight years on, after an extensive investigation into her disappearance, Rosie is the only person who stubbornly believes that her child might still be alive. When Rosie receives a call from her father, asking her to return home for the summer, she is forced out of her limbo. Life on the island of Roaring Bay revives old rivalries, but it also brings new friendships and unexpected solace.