Showing results by narrator "Robin Laing" in All Categories

Every day, Mary wakes up before dawn to make breakfast from scratch. She tends the garden and feeds the animals. Every night, Mary makes sure she has dinner on the table for when her husband Cal gets home from work. She puts on his favourite lipstick and greets him with a smile. 'I've missed you.' It's not true and he knows it. But he likes to hear it all the same. Their cabin is hidden deep in the woods in the Scottish Highlands, and Mary doesn't remember the last time she saw another living soul. She tries not to think about her life before too much.

Suzy Medley is having a bad day...when a shabby terrier turns up at her door. Just like Suzy, Scout has been abandoned, although only Suzy has been left with a financial mess and a business in tatters thanks to her ex. Suzy takes Scout in, and her chaotic world changes in unexpected ways: strangers have never been more welcoming, and her teenage kids can’t wait to come home to visit. Then a chance encounter on a windy Hebridean beach makes things more complicated, because Suzy isn’t the only one who needs a friend.

Initially published in 1775, A Journey to the Western Isles recounts a three-month trip to upper Scotland that Samuel Johnson undertook with James Boswell a couple of years previously. During their adventure, they discover a novel culture, stunning landscapes and welcoming locals – all described in Johnson's captivating prose.

As ecologists Paul Jepson and Cain Blythe show, rewilding is a new and progressive approach to conservation, blending radical scientific insights with practical innovations to revive ecological processes, benefiting people as well as nature. With its sense of hope and purpose, rewilding is breathing new life into the conservation movement and enabling a growing number of people to enjoy thrilling wildlife experiences previously accessible only in remote wilderness reserves.

Guy de Maupassant is renowned as one of the fathers of the modern short story. A protégé of Flaubert, he was celebrated for his naturalistic fiction, and wrote over 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books and one volume of verse in his short but highly productive lifetime. He died in an asylum aged just 43. This collection brings together dramatisations of some of his finest works.

Jake has left it late, and the only summer job he can find is on the remote Scottish island of Elsay. Still, that sounds fine–the work isn’t too hard, the pay’s all right, and the scenery is great. But he soon has second thoughts about staying. His boss, Fraser, is a bit of a rogue, while Fraser’s cute but snippy daughter, Alva, takes against him from the start. And the oddball characters in the local pub aren’t exactly welcoming.

Before he was a policeman, DI Declan Walsh was a Corporal in the Special Investigation Branch of the Royal Military Police, resigning after a case went terribly wrong, ending with Declan and his SIB partner, Lance-Corporal Moses killing the main suspect of a case in self-defence.

Two years ago, a series of daring highway robberies terrorised London's financial elite. Now, When Treasury Minister Adrian Carmody is held up by a masked highwayman on a black motorcycle—the start of several such robberies, torn from the story books—history is repeating itself; but this time, there's a body count.

In the cutthroat world of biohacking, where the quest to reverse aging teeters on the edge of madness, the line between success and disaster is razor-thin. Stephen Kline, a powerful sponsor of the Rejuvenation Royale Tournament, is found dead in his cryotherapy chamber—a brutal murder that sends shockwaves through the elite competition. As DCI Declan Walsh and his team delve into the high-stakes world of biohacking, they uncover a labyrinth of cutting-edge science, where competitors push the boundaries of biology and technology in their quest to cheat time.

When legendary TV actor Montgomery Pryce is shot in the chest by an arrow and killed while on stage during a Robin Hood convention, Detective Inspector Declan Walsh and the team of the Last Chance Saloon are brought in to solve the murder, only to find that nearly everyone there holds a bow capable of loosing the arrow.

When the body of convicted serial killer Jacob Spears, AKA the 'Essex Ripper' is found, hanged outside the walls of onetime Newgate Prison, DI Declan Walsh and the team of the Last Chance Saloon find themselves in a race against time—as they hunt a vicious vigilante, targeting serial killers, and leaving a trail of executed bodies at locations connected to London's violent capital punishment past.

When East-End gangster and 'frenemy' to the Last Chance Saloon, Johnny Lucas, is accused of murdering a London gangland rival in his boxing club, he claims his brother was the killer. The only problem though is that his brother, Jackie, is actually Johnny's multiple personality. Pulled in to prove the case, DI Declan Walsh and his team soon realize that Johnny might be as innocent as he claims, as a new player is in town, claiming to be Johnny's brother Jackie in the flesh, a man who shouldn't exist yet can prove he does, is starting to carve out his own empire.

New Year's Eve, 1746. A castle in the depths of France. A thunderstorm. A pair of lovers in a hay-loft. A wounded soldier toppling from his horse. So begins the second instalment of the life of William Neilson, Scottish soldier in French service and Jacobite agent against his will. Around his neck, William carries the most precious jewel on the surface of the earth, but it is not his, and he must carry it to the exiled King of England, Scotland and Ireland in Italy. Before that, he wishes to see for a last time the woman he has loved for more than half his life.

No one thinks very much at all about carwash employee Davey Burnet, until one day he takes the wrong customer's motor for a ride. One kidnapping later, he and the carwash are officially part of Glasgow's criminal underworld, working for a psychopath who enjoys playing games like "Keep Yer Kneecaps" with any poor bastard who crosses him. Can Davey escape from the gang's clutches with his kneecaps and life intact? Perhaps this polis Ally McCoist who keeps nosing around the carwash could help. That's if she doesn't get herself killed first.

In 1720, the young William Neilson leaves Edinburgh to make his fortune in Europe, first sailing to Rotterdam and then on foot to Paris, where he meets and is immediately employed by the banker John Law. A day later he is in the Bastille, but not before he has encountered a young woman of surpassing beauty to whom Neilson will be devoted for the rest of his life.

After a fatal poisoning in Essence, the Michelin-Starred restaurant of celebrity TV chef Leroy Daniels, DI Declan Walsh and the team of the Temple Inn 'Last Chance Saloon' Command Unit find themselves in the middle of a multi-sensory gastro war, following an investigation that takes them deep into the dark kitchens of London, and a group of friends-turned-enemies all vying to become the next breakout venue—no matter what it costs to get there.

When Dave Mansford, founding member of 80's band Alternator is electrocuted live on stage during a comeback concert, DI Declan Walsh and the team of the Last Chance Saloon are brought in to investigate whether it was a simple accident, or vicious murder. However, as they investigate further they find the surviving members of Alternator in the middle of a multi-million-dollar rights sale, a band whose lead singer disappeared in 1998 and has never been declared dead, and whose biggest success, the 1987 album Secrets and Lies seems to be cursed.

In a condemned tower block in Glasgow, residents slowly trickle away until a young man is left alone with only the angels and devils in his mind for company. Stumbling from one surreal situation to the next, he encounters others on the margins of society, finding friendship and camaraderie wherever it is offered, grappling with who he is and what shape his future might take. The Voids is an unsparing story of modern-day Britain, told with brilliant flashes of humour and humanity.

Jamie was 19. He was an ambitious personal trainer who wanted to be a social media influencer. But now his hopes and dreams will never be realised. Jamie was found killed at the family home, discovered by his dad - who’s now been charged with his own son’s murder. In this gripping crime drama, revealed through recordings of sessions led by forensic psychiatrist Dr Alex Bridges (Lolita Chakrabarti), we hear from those closest to Jamie and find out more about the family’s secrets.

It is the near-future, and drug resistance has taken hold. Antibiotics are no longer available, and in the war between humanity and bacteria, one little girl is in the front line.... 10-year-old Sarah is not allowed to play outside. But one day, she and her brother break the rules and go into the nearby woods, where she scratches her knee. The wound gets infected, and soon becomes life-threatening. Now Sarah’s in a coma, in an isolated room in hospital. Her family and medical team are hoping this will stop the infection - but they’re running out of time.