Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Worthing" in All Categories

When five-year-old Elsie Button was snatched from a garden in a sleepy town on the Welsh island of Anglesey, and a local man later confessed, it sent shockwaves through the tight-knit community. How could one of their own do such a thing? Especially when his own little girl was the same age – and the victim's best friend. Kathryn and her family left under the cloak of darkness one night, unable to bear the shame, and the anger of their neighbours. She hardly remembers that time. Now, she suffers the consequences of living under an assumed name, always looking over her shoulder.

Our dream home. A fresh start. But the house comes with secrets — and so do the neighbours. The moment we moved in, I knew something was wrong. A cracked stove. Scribbles on the wall. The lights flicking off every evening — always at the same time. Our daughter crying in the night, pointing at the corner of her room. "She has no face." Now the gifts are arriving. Notes through the door. A bottle left in the kitchen with no explanation. And my daughter won't stop screaming in her sleep. Everyone thinks I'm imagining it. But I know what I saw. What I heard.

Three years ago, Patricia Mullner's 17-year-old son Andrew vanished without a trace. No note. No body. Just a hole in her life that nothing, neither alcohol nor her husband Thomas's comfort, can fill. Once a devoted mother, Patricia now drifts through her days in a fog of grief and regret. But beneath the sorrow lies something darker. Because Patricia isn't just mourning her son, she's hiding something. Now, someone is watching. Someone who knows what Patricia did. Someone who's waited long enough.

Claire McBride, a lawyer dedicated to justice, receives devastating news—her cancer has returned, and this time, it’s terminal. Desperate to take control of her final days, she embarks on a dangerous mission to punish those from her past who have escaped the law.

Last night's fight was bad, I just wish Freya would let me know she's okay. I must try harder, it's just been rough for both of us since the divorce from her father. But I know I should've been there to pick her up from school yesterday. I can't keep missing pickup . . . I'm at my desk when phone rings. It's the call that every parent dreads. 'Freya never turned up for school this morning.' Oh my god. Freya's only thirteen. If she's not at school and she's not replying, something bad must have happened. I know it. It's late morning now, has she been missing for hours?

Jenny Starling is spending Christmas in a snowed-in country house cooking all the traditional food she loves. But the family she’s working for are not full of the seasonal spirit. In fact, they seem to hate each other. On Christmas Eve, someone is found dead on the kitchen table. And the head of the family is blaming Jenny! But with an incompetent detective called in, and seemingly no motive for the murder, Jenny will have to give the police a hand. She will stop at nothing to clear her name and find the real murderer.

When war breaks out, Rose Flaherty is eager to do her bit. Swapping city life in Birmingham for the fields of Somerset, she joins the Land Army to help keep Britain fed. But life on the farm is tough, the work backbreaking – and the farmer’s son, Jimmy, isn’t exactly welcoming. An accident in the orchard brings Rose into the path of nurse Daisy and ATS clerk Elsie, and soon the three girls form an unbreakable bond. But even their quiet corner of the countryside can’t escape the shadow of war.

An ancient labyrinth of eerie subterranean ruins and creeping shadow, the dead city of Mordavia has long concealed a secret of unimaginable power. Now, as vast armies gather and war drums thunder, the perilous treasures of this cursed city are about to be unleashed. Lord-Celestant Kalyani Thunderblade leads her Celestial Vindicators into battle, determined to ensure that the city’s secrets remain forever under lock and key.

'Under Their Roof...does so much more than chronicle her time living with the Wests. It's a desperately sad insight into what makes someone vulnerable to abusers... but ultimately, this is a book about the triumph - however painful and even fluky - of good over evil.' Simon Hattenstone, GUARDIAN...

My mother lied to me. My family is not my own. If it wasn’t for the genealogy test, I would never have known I was the child of another woman. Now I’m learning that I have four brothers I have never met. And one of them is a serial killer. My brother is taunting me to play his vicious game – solving his clues before he spills more blood. Who can I trust? How can I find and stop him before it is too late? And what if it is me he really wants?

The night my mum disappeared, after a panicked 3am phonecall, I knew something was wrong. The police tried to reassure me. There had to be a logical explanation they said – perhaps she’s taking a break after the tragic death of my father. But I know my mum. Or do I? She would never leave without telling me. Or would she? The harder I look, the more I discover deep, dark family secrets I was not privy to. Worrying secrets I was never meant to know. Which means my parents have lied to me my whole life.

Something happened to me when I was nine. My childhood memories before that fateful day are gone. Extinguished. The aftermath has become a living nightmare with a guilt that runs so deep that I’m not sure I can ever tell anyone. I fear I've left it too late. The burden of my secret and the hurt and pain that silence cost each and every member of my family is too overwhelming. But you can't avoid fate and now I have the opportunity to right the wrongs inflicted on us. There was no justice. Not then. Not now. But I can change that.

As a man holds his wife's fragile hand, he recounts a journey like no other... Daniel and Olivia are destined to be together. At least, Daniel thinks this the night he sees Olivia across a sea of people. As he backpacks through Australia, Daniel and Liv continue to cross paths, yet never speak. Until one night, Liv joins Daniel for a drink. And that night everything changes. Back in London, stuck in a monotonous routine, Daniel finds himself daydreaming of the woman with amber eyes and fiery hair.

Cynthia and Alex have always been like sisters. Living and working for years on Cynthia's mother's sprawling farm, they've raised their families together. It was the perfect life until the fateful night that Alex finds Hannah, one of Cynthia's eighteen-year-old twins, inexplicably murdered in her own home. Soon Alex's life is spiralling out of control as she questions everything she knows and everyone she trusted. And when local detective, Stefani Warner starts investigating Hannah's murder, one prime suspect quickly rises to the fore: Daniel, Alex's nineteen-year-old son.

July knows 18 things about her mother. But not the truth. Summer, 1995. On her tenth birthday, July's teacher sets the class a project to find out about a relation they don't know. It's easy for July to choose her subject. She doesn't remember her mother, who died when she was small, and her father refuses to talk about her. Ever. The only memories she has of her are flashbacks from the accident that claimed her mother's life. But then she receives the note: 'She didn't die in a car accident.'

It was an ordinary school day, the day I lost my little brother. One moment he was on the roundabout and then was gone. Gone. Missing. They all blamed me. I was in charge. Even though I was only ten years old. They sent me away. The hurt, the shame, the questions. The not knowing. I tried to move on. It’s been nineteen years in exile and now somebody wants me back. Someone with a dark secret.

When Jane Bell uncovered that her next-door neighbour planned to blow up their local primary school, she tried to get the police to listen to her. When they chose to do nothing, she took matters into her own hands. Jane Bell saved the children. She is a hero. She stopped a terrorist attack. She murdered a man. Jane Bell committed a crime, and no matter what her reasons are, surely she must face the legal repercussions of her actions? Now several people follow Jane’s case, each with their own thoughts on what happened. Is Jane the hero or the villain? It’s up to you to decide.

October 1943. Nancy Dalton, working at the RAF base at Scampton in Lincolnshire, has been holding vigil for the Lancaster bomber pilots whose missions seem endless. But her watchfulness has not prevented her own pilot brother from failing to return. In the midst of mourning him, fresh recruits arrive to continue the war effort, among them charismatic Canadian Steve Allard. The months ahead will be long and hard, with danger a constant companion, and although both Steve and Nancy never intend to complicate wartime life with romance, their attraction becomes impossible to ignore.

Have you ever wanted to be someone else? Vanessa has always found it easy to pretend to be somebody different, somebody better. When things get tough in her real life, all she has to do is throw on some nicer clothes, adopt a new accent and she can escape. That's how it started: looking round houses she couldn't possibly afford. Harmless fun really. Until it wasn't. Because a man who lived in one of those houses is dead. And everyone thinks Vanessa killed him.

At the end of the Second World War, Dottie Tanner locked away the past, blocking out the heartache she experienced as a special operative working alongside the Resistance. Sixty years later, Dottie remains independent and proud of everything she has achieved, but time is running out. Watching the V.E. Day Celebrations on television reignites a flame. After a lifetime of resisting the lure of France, she decides to face her demons.