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Find out moreBrowse audiobooks narrated by John Hopkins, listen to samples and when you're ready head over to Audiobooks.com where you can get 3 FREE audiobooks on us
An explosive, fast-paced espionage thriller for fans of Frank Gardner and Mick Herron. ‘Dark and twisted, A Time to Lie is a tense and timely novel’ Adam Hamdy A divisive prime minister. A long-buried body. A plot to bring him down… The bigger the secret the more dangerous it is to lie… On the morning of the Tory Party conference, the bones of a young woman’s hand are discovered in a London building site. Jed Fowkes, Special Adviser at the Treasury, confronts Prime Minister Robin Sandford with a terrible accusation. He claims the hand belongs to someone they once knew well: a young woman whom Sandford murdered years ago. With his career on the brink of ruin, the Prime Minister’s only hope is to enlist the unofficial help of MI5. A decision which leads him into a new world of espionage, illegal trafficking and murder. And the deeper he goes, the more treacherous the game becomes. Because now it’s not just his life on the line; it’s the future of the state itself… ‘A pulse-pounding thrill-ride that hooked me from the chilling opening, A Time To Lie delivers on every, explosive level’ Chris Whitaker ‘Dark and twisted, A Time To Lie is a tense and timely novel’ Adam Hamdy
Show moreBrought to you by Penguin. An extraordinary and vivid introduction to the country of Nicaragua and its politics from the Booker-winning author of Midnight's Children. In this brilliantly focused and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Salman Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of revolution. Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986. What he discovered was overwhelming: a land of difficult, often beautiful contradictions, of strange heroes and warrior-poets. Rushdie came to know an enormous range of people, from the foreign minister, a priest, to the midwife who kept a pet cow in her living room. His perceptions always heightened by his sensitivity and his unique flair for language, in The Jaguar Smile, Rushdie brings us the true Nicaragua, where nothing is simple, everything is contested, and life-or-death struggles are an everyday occurrence. 'Stirring and original' New York Times 'A masterpiece of sympathetic yet critical reporting' Edward Said © Salman Rushdie 1987 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Show more‘Absolutely broke my heart… I didn’t emerge for breath until I’d tearfully finished the last page. Wonderful.’ Being Anne, 5 stars Dorset, 1935. Stationmaster Ted has never cared much for romance. Occupied with ensuring England’s most beautiful railway runs on time, love has always felt like a comparatively trivial matter. Yet when he meets Annie Galbraith on the 8.42 train to Lynford, he can’t help but instantly fall for her. But when the railway is forced to close and a terrible accident occurs within the station grounds, Ted finds his job and any hope of a relationship with Annie hanging in the balance… Present day. Recovering from heartbreak after a disastrous marriage, Tilly decides to escape from the bustling capital and move to Dorset to stay with her dad, Ken. When Ken convinces Tilly to help with the restoration of the old railway, she discovers a diary hidden in the old ticket office. Tilly is soon swept up in Ted’s story, and the fateful accident that changed his life forever. But an encounter with an enigmatic stranger takes Tilly by surprise, and she can’t help but feel a connection with Ted’s story in the past… Don’t miss this haunting and evocative timeslip novel. Readers LOVE The Stationmaster’s Daughter: ‘A MUST READ in my book!!’ NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars ‘Utterly perfect… A timeslip tale that leaves you wanting more… I loved it.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘I may have shed a tear or two!… A definite emotional rollercoaster of a read that will make you both cry and smile.’ Debbie’s Book Reviews, 5 stars ‘Oh my goodness… The pages turned increasingly quickly as my desperation to find out what happened steadily grew and grew.’ Ginger Book Geek, 5 stars ‘Very special… I loved every minute of it.’ Jessica Belmont, 5 stars ‘Brilliant… Very highly recommended!!’ Donnasbookblog, 5 stars ‘Touched my heart! A real page turner… The perfect read for cosying up. I can’t recommend this gorgeous book enough.’ Dash Fan Book reviews, 5 stars
Show moreBrought to you by Penguin. Award-winning writer and filmmaker Laurence Rees has spent nearly 20 years meeting people who were tested to the extreme during World War II. He has come face-to-face with rapists, mass murderers, even cannibals, but he has also met courageous individuals who are an inspiration to us all. His quest has taken him from the Baltic States to Japan, from Poland to America, and from Germany to China. Here he presents 35 of his most electrifying encounters. Meet Estera Frenkiel, a young Jewish woman given the chance to save ten fellow Jews from deportation and death; Peter Lee, a British officer brutally treated by his Japanese captors; Zinaida Pytkina, a female member of the Soviet Union's infamous SMERSH organisation, who took pleasure in killing a German Prisoner; Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier so fanatical that he refused to surrender until 29 years after the end of the war; and Petras Zelionka, a Lithuanian who shot Jewish men, women and children for the Nazis. The devastating first-hand testimony in Their Darkest Hour is both a lasting contribution to our understanding of the war and a powerful insight into the behaviour of human beings in crisis. © Laurence Rees 2007 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Show moreBrought to you by Penguin. Aidan Poole logs on to his laptop late at night to Skype his girlfriend, Zoe. To his horror, he realises that there is someone else in her flat, and Aidan can only listen to the sounds of a violent struggle - and then the chilling sound of silence. Aidan is desperate to find out if Zoe is OK. But then why is he so hesitant to call the police? When his messages finally reach them, DCI Jonah Sheen's and his team take the case - and discover the body. They soon find that no-one has a bad word to say about Zoe, a big-hearted young woman at the centre of a curious web of waifs and strays, every one relying on her for support. Each of these so-called friends is hiding dark secrets and buried resentments: has one of them been driven to do something unspeakable? Or might Aidan have the biggest secret of them all? © Gytha Lodge 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Show moreNot since Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber have old stories been made to feel so electrically new. Not since Wim Winders' Wings of Desire have the numinous and the everyday been so magically combined. It's in the nature of myth to be infinitely adaptable. Each of these startlingly original stories is set in modern Britain. Their characters include a people-trafficking gang-master and a prostitute, a migrant worker and a cocksure estate agent, an elderly musician doubly befuddled by dementia and the death of his wife, a pest-controller suspected of paedophilia and a librarian so well-behaved that her parents wonder anxiously whether she'll ever find love. They're ordinary people, preoccupied, as we all are now, by the deficiencies of the health service, by criminal gangs and homelessness, by the pitfalls of dating in the age of #metoo. All of their stories, though, are inspired by ones drawn from Graeco-Roman myth, from the Bible or from folk-lore. The ancients invented myths to express what they didn't understand. These witty fables, elegantly written and full of sharp-eyed observation of modern life, are also visionary explorations of potent mysteries and strange passions, charged with the hallucinatory beauty and horror of their originals.
Show more'Compulsive reading' JANE CORRY 'Full of tension' KAREN HAMILTON She wants your life - and she'll do anything to get it... Erica has always wanted to be exactly like her neighbour, Faye: beautiful, thin, and a mother. But Faye's life isn't as perfect as it seems - she has a terrible secret, and slowly but surely, it is threatening to destroy her and everything she holds dear. When Faye's daughter Tamsin goes missing after school, the police turn to Erica. But is Erica the only one who has been enviously watching Faye? Or is there another threat hiding in the shadows...? An unsettling, claustrophobic thriller about jealousy, greed and desire from Sunday Times bestseller Amanda Robson.
Show morePenguin presents the audiobook edition of She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge, read by John Hopkins, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Joe Coen and Gytha Lodge. Six friends. One killer. Who do you trust? On a hot July night in 1983, six school friends go camping in the forest. Bright and brilliant, they are destined for great things, and young Aurora Jackson is dazzled to be allowed to tag along. Thirty years later, a body is discovered. DCI Sheens is called to the scene, but he already knows what's waiting for him: Aurora Jackson, found at long last. But that's not all. The friends have all maintained their innocence, but the body is found in a hideaway only the six of them knew about. It seems the killer has always lurked very close to home...
Show moreThe Missing of the Somme has become a classic meditation upon war and remembrance. It weaves a network of myth and memory, photos and films, poetry and sculptures, graveyards and ceremonies that illuminate our understanding of, and relationship to, the Great War.
Show moreMr. Field wants a new life, a life cleansed of the old one's disappointments. A concert pianist on the London scene, his career is upended when the train he is travelling on crashes into the wall at the end of a tunnel. On a whim, he uses his compensation pay-out to buy a house he has seen only once in a newspaper photograph. Together with his wife, Mim, Mr. Field sets out in the hope that the house will make him happier, or at least less unhappy.
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