Showing results by narrator "Helen Barford" in All Categories

At 43, Christina Lennox thought her future was settled: marriage to Ed, children, a house of their own. But this is not that future: her marriage has ended, fractured by the stress of five rounds of IVF and two miscarriages. Overwhelmed by grief and disappointment, Ed has relocated to San Francisco and Christina's dream of becoming a mother rests on persuading him to let her go ahead with one final round of IVF, using the last frozen embryo they have stored at the clinic.

In 1903, fishermen find a wrecked boat containing a woman, who has been badly beaten, and a young girl. In 1993, All Hallows is now a boarding school. Following his mother’s death and his father’s hasty remarriage, Lewis Tyler is banished to Dartmoor, stripped of his fashionable clothes, shorn of his long hair and left feeling more alone than ever. There he meets Isak, another lost soul, and whilst refurbishment of the dormitories is taking place, the boys are marooned up in the attic, in an old wing of the school.

When the body of Lauren Shaw is discovered laid out on the altar of St Mary the Virgin church in Eastbourne, it sends a chill to the core of those who have lived in the area for a long time. They remember another woman whose slain corpse was placed in the same spot 60 years ago. Dee Doran is as intrigued as the rest but focused on her investigation of the whereabouts of a missing person from the Polish community. But as she starts asking questions, Dee finds the answers all point to the same conclusion - someone is keeping secrets, and they will do whatever it takes to keep them safe.

Emer Doran's life was torn apart when her sister, Kitty, drowned. Her body was never recovered. Twenty years later, Emer sees a woman who is the image of Kitty and is convinced her sister is alive. Dee Doran jumps at the chance to get to know her long-lost cousin when Emer calls asking to meet. But it is not the happy family reunion Dee had expected. Emer is desperate for Dee's help to find out what really happened to Kitty. As Dee works to uncover the truth, one thing becomes clear: there is a tangled web of lies that date back many years.

When Paisley Fitzwilliam is summoned to receive the track of stars that will determine her future, she is filled with hope. But the fate she is dealt throws everything upside down: the stars assert that she will suffer great losses, fail in her endeavours...and die within the next nine months. Then her mother goes missing, and the closely guarded secret around her brother Dax is more at risk than ever before. It seems that the previous metal nightsilver might hold the key. Can Paisley defy her stars and change the course of history?

Olga Pushkin, Railway Engineer (Third Class) and would-be best-selling author, spends her days in a little rail-side hut with only Dmitri the hedgehog for company. While tourists and travellers clatter by on the Trans-Siberian Express, Olga dreams of studying literature at Tomsk State University and escaping the sleepy, snow-clad village of Roslazny. But Roslazny doesn't stay sleepy for long. One day Olga arrives at her hut only to be knocked unconscious by a man falling from the Trans-Siberian, an American tourist with his throat cut from ear to ear.

When well-to-do Hester learns of her sister Mercy's death at a Nottinghamshire workhouse, she travels to Southwell to find out how her sister ended up at such a place. Haunted by her sister's ghost, Hester sets out to uncover the truth, when the official story reported by the workhouse master proves to be untrue. Mercy was pregnant—both she and the baby are said to be dead of cholera, but the workhouse hasn't had an outbreak for years. Hester discovers a strange trend in the workhouse of children going missing.

When Paisley Fitzwilliam escapes the clutches of the Dark Dragon, she has just one thing on her mind—getting her brother Dax back from the icy Northern Realms, where he was whisked away by fierce and mysterious dragon riders, the Krigare. With the Dark Dragon and the King's Guard now on her trail, she faces danger at every turn. To rescue her brother and keep the Heart Stone from the clutches of the Dark Dragon, Paisley must harness her power and seek new and dangerous alliances.

Cassie McNamara was found guilty of the murder of her husband, Paul Cavellini, but she has always protested her innocence. Upon her release, she is ready to start over and hires local journalist, Dee Doran, to prove she was wrongfully convicted. Cassie and Paul's young daughter, Grace, was adopted by Paul's family. When 18-year-old Grace goes missing and her body is found, all eyes turn to Cassie as the prime suspect in her daughter's death. Then, Cassie, just like Grace, disappears.