Showing results by narrator "David Thorpe" in All Categories

A story from the collection Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose. Whilst John and Olga Hitchman are at the Theatre Royal enjoying their usual box, they become the victims of a professional thief who has his eye on their Fabergé egg as an Easter gift for his partner. Known only as 'Macavity', the name given to him by the press, this thief thinks he’s untouchable. But that was before he had detective Peter Diamond on his tail.

A story from the collection Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose. It’s Halloween, and thunder cracks overhead in the village of Odstock. Dr Tom Staniforth is giving a lecture on the legend of Tom Scamp, who was wrongly hung for a crime he didn’t commit, and the gypsy curse that has haunted the village ever since. But when a member of the audience presents the rusted key which hasn’t opened the cursed church in over 200 years, will all of Tom’s scientific and verifiable evidence rendering the curse a myth be cast into doubt?

A story from the collection Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose. Does your wife give you grief? Mr Cronk’s does. But how far would you go for a peaceful life? Mr Cronk has heard about the 'Fixer' - he can make people disappear, for a price.

A story from the collection Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose. The narrator of this short story is unimpressed when all he is bequeathed by his uncle George upon his death, a notorious diamond robber, is his noisy, blue and yellow macaw parrot called Roger. But when Roger is stolen, it becomes clear the parrot is more valuable than the narrator thinks.

A story from the collection Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose. Some might think that Bertie, Prince of Wales’ first case was the suspicious death of jockey Fred Archer in 1886, but here the self-important amateur sleuth recalls how his talent for deduction started much earlier in his youth, when he solved a mystery surrounding an Oxford boat race.

Bloomsbury presents Between Two Evils by Eva Dolan, read by David Thorpe. LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER As the country bakes under the relentless summer sun, a young doctor is found brutally murdered at his home in a picturesque Cambridgeshire village. Is his death connected to...

A parent's worst fear is realised when seven-year-old Libby Hallforth goes missing at a funfair; no witnesses, no leads, and no trace. Months later, human remains are found, but they're too old to be Libby. It's the tip of a gruesome iceberg - bodies, buried in pairs, carefully laid to rest in a ritualistic manner. For DI Jake Porter and DS Nick Styles, the trail for Libby is cold, and everyone is a suspect.

Newly appointed as land agent to the youthful Lord Croft, Matthew Rowsley finds plenty to keep him busy as he attends to his lordship's neglected country estate. But he's distracted from his tasks by the disappearance of a young housemaid. Has Maggie really eloped with a young man, as her mother attests - or is the truth rather more sinister? What's been going on behind the scenes at the grand country estate and where has his lordship disappeared to?

The year is 1999, and Internet companies are springing up everywhere. Anything seems possible for those who think big. So when David Lane - a quiet, cautious banker - is invited by his old friend Guy Jordan to help start up ninetyminutes.com, he decides that for once he will do something daring, something dangerous. If only he'd realised quite how dangerous. Because Guy falls out with Tony Jordan, his father and their biggest investor, bringing the company close to collapse. Then Tony is murdered - and David's roller coaster ride into danger and disaster begins.

When the world's most famous chocolate factory disappears, it is up to the Spy Toys to find out the truth - and fast! If the chocolate runs out, there could be riots from children everywhere! The Spy Toys are sent undercover into a school where they need to disguise themselves as regular pupils. Could this be their toughest challenge yet? They'll need all their wits about them to defeat this baddie. And one thing is for sure: these kids don't play nice!

November 1983: Three hundred feet beneath the Atlantic, submarine Lieutenant Bill Guth and his fellow officers suddenly receive the order they've long-dreaded - to launch their nuclear missiles in a retaliatory strike against the USSR. But in the unexpected chaos that follows, one person on board lies dead.... Norfolk, 2019: Bill Guth's annual family gathering is interrupted when a historian turns up unannounced to ask about the near-apocalyptic incident back in 1983. Bill refuses to answer. But that night, the historian is brutally murdered.

Permit me, lovely listeners, to take you back in time. The first thing that I want you to do is to close your eyes and breathe deeply. Okay, great, now open them again very slowly. Are you ready? Good, then let us begin. Featuring Lady Eliot, a brand-new detective agency with a terrible mystery to solve, an awful burglary, Mungo's heroics, Lady Eliot falling in love, a dazzlingly beautiful song about eggs and the awful, villainous penguin Count Visbek.

Jon Bartlett's path is clear before him: finish his last year of schooling, then off on the family's ships to learn the intricacies of interstellar trade. But a message of tragedy at home comes for him, and his expected life is flung far out of reach and he's cast into a role he never wanted.

Following a mysterious explosion, the offices of Excelsior Joinery Company are no more; the three directors are killed and the peace of a quiet town in Surrey lies in ruins. When the supposed cause of an ignited gas leak is dismissed and the presence of dynamite revealed, Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is summoned to the scene. But beneath the sleepy veneer of Evingden lies a hotbed of deep-seated grievances. Confounding Littlejohn's investigation is an impressive cast of suspicious persons, each concealing their own ax to grind.

Is John Milton on the path to redemption or the road to revenge? John Milton has done some bad things in his life. Very bad things. Now he’s looking for ways to make amends. But trouble always seems to be looking for him. Heading from San Francisco to Las Vegas, Milton’s solo road trip takes an unexpected turn when he picks up Jessica Russo, a young woman in distress at the side of the road. She urgently needs a ride and he’s happy to help her out. But what starts out as a simple favour quickly becomes something more sinister....

Cambridge, 1924. Detective Inspector John Redfyre’s dog discovers a corpse in the graveyard adjoining St. Jude's College. An army greatcoat and wellworn boots suggest the dead man may have been a former soldier, though the empty bottle of brandy and a card bearing the words 'An Invitation to Dine' on the victim ring a discordant note. Even more unsettling is the autopsy, which reveals death by strangulation and unusual contents in the stomach from the man's last meal.

Jack knows lots about starting a new school. Since Dad left, he and his mum have moved house five times. He also knows all about fitting in. The trick is to act exactly like everyone else and make sure no one ever notices him. But it's hard work and Jack doesn't have any good friends. That is, until Tyler comes along. Tyler might be the key to getting Jack to realise the very best thing he can be is...Just Jack.

A cure for Alzheimer’s would be worth billions. And well worth killing for. Simon Ayot is an Englishman working for Revere Partners, one of Boston’s top venture-capital firms. The firm’s star investment, worth millions of dollars for each of its partners, is BioOne, which is working on a cure for the disease. Frank, one of Simon’s bosses and his father-in-law, is found murdered at his summer house in the marshes, and Simon is in the frame. To stay alive, and to save his marriage, Simon must figure out who killed Frank. And who will be the next to die.

It is deep midwinter. Six ambitious vice presidents of Labouchere Associates are gathered together at an isolated mountain lodge in New Hampshire’s White Mountains for a weekend of corporate mind games. By Monday, one of them will become a partner and earn at least a million a year. And one of them will be dead.

Horniman, Birley and Craine is a highly respected legal firm with clients reaching to the highest in the land. When a deed box in the office is opened to reveal a corpse, the threat of scandal promises to wreak havoc on the firm's reputation - especially as the murder looks like an inside job. The partners and staff of the firm keep a watchful and suspicious eye on their colleagues, as Inspector Hazlerigg sets out to solve the mystery of who Mr Smallbone was - and why he had to die.