Showing results by narrator "Lewis Hancock" in All Categories

Having shot someone in the chaos of 1963 Berlin, Joe Wilderness finds himself locked up, with little chance of escape. But an official pardon through his father-in-law, Burne-Jones, a senior agent at MI6, means he is free to go. His newest operation will take him back to Berlin, now the dividing line between the West and the Soviets. When the Russians started building the Berlin Wall in 1961, two 'Unfortunate Englishmen' were trapped on opposite sides. In 1965 there is a plan to exchange the prisoners on Berlin’s bridge of spies.

1950. Chief Inspector Troy learns that his sergeant has been conducting an affair with the known mistress of infamous London racketeer Otto Ohnherz. Troy is immediately intrigued by the mysterious origins of Ohnherz's second-in-command, Jay Fabian, who is a major contributor to all three British political parties and claims to have survived the concentration camps, yet lacks any identification beyond his word. Why would a refugee be trying to buy influence? So begins a novel of swapped identities in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust, each chapter adding a new layer of intrigue.

At 12.16 a.m. on Wednesday, June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded in the service pantry of the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. A 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, was found holding the smoking gun and convicted of murder. That is the official history - but Tim Tate and Brad Johnson have uncovered a different story.

Spring 1941: After 10 years spying for the Americans, Wolfgang Stahl disappears during a Berlin air raid. The Germans think he's dead. The British know he's not. But where is he? MI6 convince US Intelligence that Stahl will head for London, and so Captain Cal Cormack, a shy American 'aristocrat', is teamed with Chief Inspector Stilton, fat, 50, and convivial, and between them they scour London.

It's 1960s London, and spy Joe Wilderness should be living like James Bond. But alas, in the wake of an embarrassing disaster for MI6, Wilderness has been posted to remote northern Finland in a cultural exchange program to promote Britain abroad. Bored and with nothing to spy on, he strikes a deal with his old KGB pal Kostya to smuggle vodka into the USSR - but there is something fishy about Kostya's sudden appearance. Could it be connected to cobalt mining, a critical component in atomic bomb casings? Wilderness's posting is getting more interesting, but more dangerous too....

Bereft of the three people she has held most dear - her mother, her husband and her daughter - Celia is on the verge of suicide. Then one night on an exotic island she meets Larraby, a successful portrait painter, and through a long night of talk reveals how she is afraid to commit herself to a second chance of happiness with another person, yet is not brave enough to face life alone. Can Larraby help Celia come to terms with the past or will they part, her outcome still uncertain?

John Holderness, known to the women in his life as ‘Wilderness’, comes of age during World War II in Stepney, breaking in to houses with his grandfather. After the war, Wilderness is recruited as MI5’s resident ‘cat burglar’ and finds himself in Berlin, involved with schemes in the booming black market that put both him and his relationships in danger.

Meret Voytek, pupil of professor Viktor Rosen, a Jew in exile from Germany, watches as Vienna comes under Nazi rule and the repercussions for the Jews. Across Europe, Dr Karel Szabo, a Hungarian physicist, has been interned on the Isle of Man. Rescued by the Americans, they recruit him in building an atomic bomb. Moving from Vienna and Auschwitz to the deserts of New Mexico to London, fate carries the enemy alien, Szabo and gentile Voytek, across the battlefields of the destructive war.

March 1938. The Germans take Vienna without a shot being fired. Covering Austria for the English press is a young journalist named Rod Troy. Back home his younger brother joins the CID as a detective-constable. November 1938. Kristallnacht. The Jews leave Vienna - Sigmund Freud with an American escort on a sleeper train, Josef Hummel tied to the underside of a box car.

In April 1956, at the height of the cold war, Khrushchev and Bulganin leaders of the Soviet Union are in Britain on an official visit. Chief Inspector Troy of Scotland Yard is assigned to be the official bodyguard and to spy on the Soviets. Soon after, a Royal Navy diver is found dead in a mutilated state in Portsmouth Harbour. Troy embarks on an investigation that takes him to the rotten heart of MI6, to the distant days of his childhood and into the dangerous arms of an old flame.

As the Luftwaffe make their last desperate assault on the city, Londoners take to the shelters once again and eagerly await the signal for D-Day. In the East End children lead police to a charred, dismembered corpse buried in a bombsite. The victim is German, and it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary murder.

It is 1958. Newly promoted Chief Superintendent Frederick Troy of Scotland Yard is on a Continental trip with his older brother, Rod, who is taking the entire family on 'the Grand Tour' for his 51st birthday. After a concert in Vienna, Frederick Troy is approached by an old friend - Soviet spy Guy Burgess, who says something extraordinary: 'I want to come home.' MI5 send an agent to debrief Burgess - but the man is gunned down yards from the embassy, and Troy finds himself a suspect. As he fights to prove his innocence, Troy finds that Burgess is not the only ghost who returns to haunt him.

Turner Raines is Mr Heartbreak. Everybody leaves him. They walk out, they run away...they die. When his oldest friend, Mel Kissing, dies with an ice pick through his skull, Raines picks up the thread and sets out to ask 'who?' and 'why?' But this is America in 1969, and one death is just a drop in the ocean. The Vietnam War is ripping the country to pieces, the Woodstock Festival is in full swing and Norman Mailer is standing as candidate for mayor of New York.

There's a killer on the loose in the Lake District, and the calm of an English summer is shattered. For newly qualified crime-scene investigator Grace McColl, it's both the start of a nightmare and the chance to prove herself after a mistake that cost a life. For detective constable Nick Weston, recently transferred from London, it's an opportunity to recover his nerve after a disastrous undercover operation that left him for dead. And for a lonely, loveless teenage girl, Edith, it's the start of a twisted fantasy - one she never dreamed might come true.

On 17 August 1860, wealthy widow Mary Emsley was found dead at home, killed by a blow to the head. What followed was a murder case that gripped the nation.There was an abundance of suspects, from disgruntled stepchildren and a spurned admirer to a trusted employee, former police officer and spy. A sensational trial culminated with a public execution, but years later the case caught Arthur Conan Doyle’s attention. Convinced that an innocent man had been convicted and executed, he could never find the real murderer, but now, best-selling author Sinclair McKay has solved the case.

A new breed of gangster appears and the battle for the East End begins. Chief Superintendent Frederick Troy is quite literally caught in the crossfire, when he is hit by the blast from a car bomb.

The uncanny abilities of London crime-scene specialist Kelly Jacks to coax evidence from the most unpromising of crime scenes once earned her the nickname of The Blood Whisperer. Then, six years ago, Kelly woke next to the butchered body of a man, the knife in her hands and no memory of what happened. Now released after serving her sentence for involuntary manslaughter, she gets a job at a crime-scene cleaning firm.

The traditional Appleby Horse Fair hosts the largest gathering of Gypsies and Travellers in Europe. The sudden influx of more than 40,000 visitors into the small Lakeland town has always caused its share of problems. But it’s also known as a good time to settle old scores. This year, the Fair brings with it with the discovery of two bodies near the River Eden - one very recent and another a long-time buried. As CSI Grace McColl and Detective Nick Weston search for answers, old secrets are revealed, old wounds are reopened and tensions threaten to erupt into violence.

What if a candidate who promised hope and change had agreed to staff his campaign with Wall Street insiders in exchange for very secret campaign cash? And what if those insiders then made sure that none of their own ever got caught when the financial crisis exploded? Michael M. Thomas has written a shocking, wildly plausible thriller about the insider's insider who brokers the deal - and changes American history forever.

The body of a young woman who went missing from a Florida nightclub is found in a dumpster. A horrifying scene, but nothing compared to what she had to endure before her murder. She was drugged and tortured – all broadcast live for the twisted pleasure of a snuff club. Detective Manny Alvarez works the homicide alongside young hotshot Assistant State Attorney Daria DeBianchi.