Showing results by narrator "Laurel Lefkow" in All Categories

In her memoirs, Wallis Simpson described her time in China as her ‘Lotus Year’, referring to Homer’s Lotus Eaters, a group living in a state of dreamy forgetfulness, never to return home. That year, however, was also used to damn her in the eyes of the British Establishment. Determined to ‘save’ the monarchy, the British government’s ‘China Dossier’ of Wallis’s rumoured amorous and immoral activities in the Far East portrayed her as debauched, influenced by foreign agents, and unfit to marry a king. But little was known about how she spent that mysterious period in her life – until now.

An alternative history of the US space programme, dramatised by Dirk Maggs. What if John F. Kennedy survived the assassination attempt and developed the space programme? President Nixon, with the help of former president JFK, has just green-lit NASA’s first manned expedition to Mars. Aboard the expedition is Natalie York, a geologist who risks everything she loves for the chance to go to space; Phil Stone, former X-15 test pilot; and Ralph Gershon, a Vietnam War hero intent on being the first African American to reach another planet.

In 12 years, Michelle Lyons witnessed nearly 300 executions. First as a reporter and then as a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Michelle was a frequent visitor to Huntsville's Walls Unit, where she recorded and relayed the final moments of death row inmates' lives before they were put to death by the state. Michelle was in the death chamber as some of the United States' most notorious criminals, including serial killers, child murderers and rapists, spoke their last words on earth, while a cocktail of lethal drugs surged through their veins.

On a near-abandoned research base in an Arctic ice field, a skeleton crew works to ensure the centre doesn’t collapse amid treacherous storms. Officially, Trieste Grayling arrives in order to explore and film a sunken shipwreck for a documentary film; privately, she's working through a complicated grief. Trieste soon realises she's not the only one who was attracted to this intense isolation in order to escape her ghosts.

Windsor, 1940: War rages, and as bombs rain down across Britain, nowhere is safe: not even a royal palace. Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside. But when she learns that Windsor is compromised, Sophie must sacrifice everything she knows to save the future queen of England. Philadelphia, Present day: Digging into her great aunt’s family tree, Lacey Turner comes across a mysterious book bearing the stamp of Windsor Castle’s royal bindery. But how did it come to be in her family’s possession?

For 200 years she's been hiding. He gave her immortality. She tried to destroy him. Now he is searching for her. They must not meet. Or there will be a Reckoning.

Two couples' lives become scandalously entwined in this novel by best-selling author Elin Hilderbrand, the 'queen of the summer novel' ( People). Nantucket writer Madeline King has a new novel coming out, and it's got best seller potential. But Madeline is terrified, because in her desperation to revive her career she's done something reckless: reveal the truth behind an actual affair involving her best friend, Grace. And that's not the only strain on Madeline and Grace's friendship.

Her men and women still miscommunicate, still remain separate in different rooms, different houses, or even different worlds. With brilliant flashes of fantasy, humour, and unexpected violence, the stories reveal the complexities of human relationships and bring to life characters who touch us deeply, evoking terror and laughter, compassion and recognition – and dramatically demonstrate why Margaret Atwood is one of the most important writers in English today.

Migration, terrorism, the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism, the promise and peril of a technological and communications revolution: these forces shaped the life and work of Joseph Conrad at the dawn of the 20th century. In this brilliant new interpretation of one of the great voices in modern literature, Maya Jasanoff reveals Conrad as a prophet of globalization as we recognize it today.

The hotly-anticipated sequel to The Devil Wears Prada – the million copy bestseller that took the world by storm. Everything’s in place for the season’s hottest launch: Tall latte (with two raw sugars)? Check. Gucci trench (draped over desk)? Check. Outrageous, unreasonable demands? Check. Andy has just turned thirty and is an incredibly successful magazine editor, working closely with her best friend Emily, another Runway survivor.

This is the compelling story of two women, born centuries apart, and the ancestral legacy that binds them. Ella Turner tries hard to fit into the small, close-knit community of the French town that she has moved to. She even changes her name back to Tournier, and knocks the rust off her high-school French. However, isolated and lonely, she is drawn to investigate her Tournier ancestry, with heart-wrenching results.

The first part of Willa Cather’s Great Plains trilogy, O Pioneers! follows the tragedies and triumphs of Alexandra Bergson, a strong and independent young woman who inherits the family farm following the death of her father.

Elizabeth's eyes have failed. She can no longer read the books she loves or see the paintings that move her, but her mind remains sharp, and music fills the vacancy left by her blindness. When her father's journals are discovered on a shipwrecked boat, she enlists the help of a delinquent teen, Morgan, to read to her. As an unlikely friendship grows between them, Elizabeth is carried back to her childhood home - the lighthouse on Porphyry Island, Lake Superior - and to the memory of her enigmatic twin sister, Emily.

A killer is targeting lone women, torturing and murdering them. The precision of his methods leads Detective Jane Rizzoli to suspect he is medically trained. Then Jane makes a terrifying discovery. Years ago a young woman was assaulted in a similar way. She escaped by shooting her attacker dead. So why does it feel like he’s stalking her again?

Camille Gardner is a grieving mother who, five years after her daughter's death, is obsessed with the man she believes to be responsible. Because Camille wants revenge. Enter: the Collective. A group of women who desire justice above all else. A group of women who enact revenge on the men who have wronged them. But as Camille gets more involved in the group she must decide whether these women are the heroes or the villains. And if she chooses wrong, will she ever get out alive?

Susannah has two beautiful daughters, a high-flying medical career, a successful husband and an enviable life. Her hair is glossy, her clothes are expensive: she truly has it all. But when—on the hottest day of the year—her strict morning routine is disrupted, Susannah finds herself running on autopilot. It is hours before she realises she has made a devastating mistake. Her baby, Louise, is still in the backseat of the car, and it is too late to save her.

Baltimore, 1966. When Maddie Schwartz, having recently left her husband of over 20 years, helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl, her assistance leads to a job at the city’s afternoon newspaper. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the a city park lake. Cleo Sherwood was a young African American woman. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie - and the dead woman herself.

The in-crowd wears Gucci, but one girl wears her heart on her sleeve. When a chance meeting propels Bette into a new role as a party planner, she can hardly believe her luck. A job that pays you to party! Running with the cool Manhattan pack, gaining VIP access to the city's hottest spots, and meeting "everyone worth knowing" is a million miles away from the number-crunching and paper-pushing of her old banking job. Overnight, the greatest city in the world has become her sexy, late-night playground.

Jessica Fletcher has had plenty to worry about over her storied career, both as a best-selling novelist and as a part-time sleuth. But she's never had any reason to doubt her longtime publisher and trusted friend, Lane Barfield. When mounting evidence of financial malfeasance leads to an FBI investigation of Lane, Jessica can't believe what she's reading. So when it appears that Barfield has committed suicide, Jessica takes on the task of clearing his name. Sure enough, Jessica turns up several inconsistencies in the case against Barfield, as well as signs he might have been murdered.

Jessica Fletcher’s favorite gin-rummy partner, Mimi Van Dorn, checks into the brand-new Clifton Care Partners, a private hospital that’s just opened up shop in town, for a simple procedure - one that leads tragically, and inexplicably, to her death. Seeking justice in her inimitable fashion, Jessica decides to pursue her own investigation of the hospital and its shadowy business dealings. On the trail of what initially appears to be medical malpractice, Jessica digs deeper and learns her friend was actually a victim of something far more sinister.