Showing results by narrator "Angela Ness" in All Categories

Highland Scotland was no place for a woman in the early 1500s. Life was turbulent and short, battles were waged, and sisters and daughters were traded as pawns in marriage. Catherine Campbell was one such young bride, betrothed to Lachlan Maclean and sent from her fine home to join him on the Isle of Mull, to bear his sons and heirs. But Lachlan proved to be nothing like the man of Catherine’s dreams, and she was forced to resign herself to enduring life with him for the sake of duty. Until the day when he threatened to take away the one thing she couldn’t sacrifice: her daughter.

Featuring beloved characters from Code Name Verity and The Pearl Thief, as well as a remarkable new voice, this brilliant, breathlessly plotted novel by award-winning author Elizabeth Wein is a must-listen. 'The hair stood up at the back of my neck. Those letters meant something. And with the cipher machine, I'd worked it out myself.' 1940. Facing a seemingly endless war, 15-year-old Louisa Adair wants to fight back, make a difference, do something-anything to escape the Blitz and the ghosts of her parents, who were killed by enemy action.

Vik Island weight-loss group Losers Club is on the mainland for the Police Scotland Bravery Awards and, even better, they're staying in a posh hotel. Diet sheets have been abandoned and Gordon's dungarees are straining at the seams, so what could be nicer than a gentle stroll up Bennachie to offset all those breakfast sausages? When the Losers stumble upon the body of a young woman on the hillside, they quickly become entangled in a web of deceit surrounding local road protestors.

At the age of eleven youngLizzie Mudies life changes forever. With the death of her mother in the most shocking disaster, Dundee has ever seen, Lizzie is forced to grow up quickly. She discovers a strength beyond her years and when an unexpected legacy bestows upon her the dilapidated Green Tree Mill, she is determined to turn things around.

Beneath the surface lie deadly secrets... DI Shona Oliver agreed to move to Dumfries with her ex-banker husband when their teenage daughter got in with a bad crowd in London. As a Glasgow native, she's back on home turf. Living on the shores of the Solway Firth allows Shona to continue as an RNLI volunteer, and a call out to recover a woman's body indicates foul play. Police in Cumbria take the case but links back to Scotland keep Shona's team involved. As they investigate, reports of people trafficking and a spate of thefts from local shops compete for attention with a large scale drug bust.

Edinburgh student Rose MacLeod has been losing time for as long as she can remember. Days and weeks disappear, leaving terrifying gaps in her memory. Now she is seeing horrifying visions - waking nightmares of violence and death. Around the world young women like her are being killed, and Rose has a ringside seat. Mal Fergusson was raised to hunt demons across Scotland. With his father dead and his brother in a coma, he no longer believes in the grand battle between good and evil. Instead, he scrapes a living as an investigator and hit man for the supernatural Mafia of Edinburgh. 

When Scotland's leading virologist goes missing, Mona and Paterson from the Health Enforcement Team are dispatched to London to find him. In a hot and unwelcoming city, Mona has to deal with a boss who isn't speaking to her, placate the professor's overbearing assistant and outwit the people who will stop at nothing to make sure the academic stays lost. Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh, Bernard is searching for a missing prostitute while Maitland is trying to keep the chair of the Parliamentary Virus Committee from finding out quite how untidy the HET office is.... 

When Alice Mistlethwaite is shipped off to boarding school in Scotland, it's nothing like she imagines. Run by the mysterious Major, there are no punishments, and the students are more likely to be taught about body painting or extreme survival than maths or English! Then Alice's dad goes missing, and she must run away to find him. Can she persuade her new friends to help? So begins an epic quest across wild Scottish highlands and islands, where the children will face danger and excitement at every turn.

When a visiting yachting couple go missing from the Shetland oil capital of Brae, sailing skipper Cass Lynch overcomes her mistrust of the land world to ask for help from her old adversary DI Gavin Macrae. He discovers a link to international art theft and warns Cass to steer clear - but when one of her sailing pupils goes missing, she goes alone to discover the secrets of the Neolithic tomb known locally as a ‘trowie mound’.... Ghosts, folklore and a nail-biting finale at the local show come together to make an atmospheric, fast-moving thriller.

When she wangles the job of skippering a Viking longship for a film, Cass Lynch thinks her big break has finally arrived - even though it means returning home to the Shetland Islands, which she ran away from as a teenager. Then the 'accidents' begin - and when a dead woman turns up on the boat's deck, Cass realises that she, her family and her past are under suspicion from the disturbingly shrewd Detective Inspector Macrae.

Nobody likes the North Edinburgh Health Enforcement Team, least of all the people who work for it. An uneasy mix of police and health service staff, Mona, Bernard and their colleagues stem the spread of the Virus, a mutant strain of influenza, by tracking down people who have missed their monthly health check. Now two young female students are missing. Why were they drinking in a bikers' bar? Who are the mysterious Children of Camus cult? And why is the German government interfering in the investigation?

They have survived the worst they could imagine - now they must face the future. After a catastrophic storm tears through the village of Eyemouth in 1881, the villagers have slowly started to move on. Inconsolable at the loss of her husband, Rosabelle Maltman has left Scotland to start a new life, leaving her son behind. Meanwhile, Jessie, her sister-in-law, is finding ways to manipulate the men of the village for her own gains.

When a Scottish village is struck by grief, those left behind must help one another find hope. It is 1881, and when a violent storm devastates the Scottish fishing village of Eyemouth, few families escape unscathed. Newlywed Rosabelle Maltman loses her husband, and her mother-in-law Effie loses her husband and three sons. For these women and their neighbours in the close-knit community, life will never be the same again. Yet as the months pass, the women must learn to look to the future, to live and to love again.

The body of Paul Shore toppled onto him, a stream of blood pooling around them on the concrete. Bernard lay back and waited to see if he too was going to die. An undercover agent gone rogue is threatening to shoot a civil servant a day. As panic reigns, the Health Enforcement Team races against time to track him down - before someone turns the gun on them. 

A potentially deadly, mutant strain of flu has hit the UK. It's up to the North Edinburgh Health Enforcement Team to contain it, by making sure all citizens attend their monthly health check. But now the pandemic's spreading.... On Friday, three civil servants leading virus policy hold a secret meeting at the Museum of Plagues and Pandemics. By Monday, two are dead and one is missing. Can Mona and Bernard of the HET find the missing official before panic hits the streets?

Caroline and Daniel are twins whose mother died when they were babies. They grow up in a conventional family, their aunt and uncle raising them, and they are truly close only to each other. After their father's remarriage, they're sent to separate boarding schools. When the twins become medical students, a serious accident occurs that somehow seems to happen without damage to either of them, but they cut themselves off from the rest of their family because of it, causing first bewilderment and then anger....

Isla's got the designer clothes and dream job as head stylist at an exclusive salon. She's been so single-minded in this quest that she's forgotten to have a life outside of it. When her aunt is in desperate need at her own salon, Isla heads to the remote island of Auchenmor to help. Finn is 35, and reality has just hit him hard. Now his best friends are about to have a baby, and everything is changing. When into his life walks Isla...

With intolerance and inequality increasingly normalised by the day, it's more important than ever for women to share their experiences. We must hold the truth to account in the midst of sensationalism and international political turmoil. Nasty Women is a collection of essays, interviews and accounts on what it is to be a woman in the 21st century. People, politics, pressure, punk. Keep telling your stories.

Slàinte! A Christmas Eve party at snow-covered Vik castle, where the Christmas Star diamond is on display. Good food, dancing and a visit from Santa. What could possibly go wrong? When Santa appears down the chimney, looking far more crispy than expected, it is clear that something has gone very wrong. With the castle cut off from help, a murderer in their midst and the Christmas Star stolen, it's up to Losers Club to investigate. As they follow the network of secret passages to learn more about their fellow guests, they realize that everyone has a motive. Including one of their own.

From an irresponsible baron whose body is discovered beneath a silver birch tree, to a classic detective duo solving a historic case as the lights go out across Europe, and an exclusive Tony Hill and Carol Jordan story, the characters McDermid conjures are enigmatic and dangerous. These evocative, atmospheric tales will shock and delight.