Audiobooks narrated by Sarah Nichols

May 1940. Hitler invades France, a move that threatens all of Europe, and three lives intersect at Wickwythe Hall, an opulent estate in the English countryside-a beautiful French refugee, a take-charge American heiress, and a charming champagne vendeur with ties to Roosevelt and Churchill, who isn't what he seems. There, secrets and unexpected liaisons unfold, until a shocking tragedy in a far-off Algerian port binds them forever ...Wickwythe Hall is inspired by actual people, places, and events, including Operation Catapult, a sea action in which Churchill launched a bloody attack on the French fleet to keep the powerful ships out of Hitler's reach. Over one thousand French sailors, who just days before fought side by side with the British, perished. Humanizing this forgotten piece of history, Wickwythe Hall takes the reader behind the blackout curtains of upper-class England, through the bustling private quarters of Churchill's Downing Street, and along the tense back alleys of occupied Vichy, illustrating what it took to survive in the dark, early days of World War II.

Judithe Little (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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Untimely Death: A Shakespeare in the Catskills Mystery

This witty and wise work is the first in Elizabeth J. Duncan’s charming new mystery series. A Catskills resort’s production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet takes a wickedly ironic turn when the leading lady, Lauren Richmond, is first poisoned and then stabbed. Who would extinguish the life of such a beautiful young thespian? It seems like just about everyone had a motive to pull the ropes on her final curtain call. At the center of this Shakespearean tragedy is Charlotte Fairfax, formerly the costume mistress of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Upstate New York is a long way from the royal stage, but Charlotte is always the queen of her domain. As this small production’s costume designer, she has stitched her way into everyone’s lives, learning more than anyone could possibly imagine about the rise and fall of Lauren Richmond. “In a departure from Wales and her Penny Brannigan series, Duncan introduces a charming new sleuth and plenty of quirky characters sure to appeal to her base and to cozy fans in general.”—Kirkus Reviews

Elizabeth J. Duncan (Author), Sarah Nichols, Sarah Nicholson (Narrator)

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To Catch a Cat

The last thing eleven-year-old Robin wants to hear is that his mother and her new husband are extending their honeymoon indefinitely. Not that staying with his Aunt Mags is so bad, but there’s her boyfriend to contend with, and the members of the school gang are insisting that he complete a dare before they let him join the group. They want Robin to kidnap Mrs. Nordling’s prize-winning cat when no one is home. Getting into the Nordling’s house is easy, and Robin manages to find the cat and put him in his bag. As Robin is leaving, however, he stumbles upon a terrifying scene—Mr. Nordling leaving the master bedroom with blood all over his body. Robin is momentarily paralyzed and then flees down the stairs. He can’t be sure whether or not he has been seen, but realizes that in order to stay safe, he will have to hide the unusual-looking cat. Meanwhile, Mr. Nordling is getting desperate. He knows that if he can find the unmistakable cat he will also find the witness to his brutal crime. He begins a frantic search for the young boy, but his infuriating neighbor won’t leave him alone. She is beginning to understand what happened that night, and he decides that he will have to deal with her too. In her thirty-sixth published mystery, Marian Babson delights readers again with her usual charm and lighthearted humor. To Catch a Cat will capture the hearts of feline lovers and mystery fans alike.

Marion Babson (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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These Old Shades

Society believes the worst of Justin Alastair, the notorious Duke of Avon. When he encounters a young boy, Léon, who is running from his abusive brother, Avon employs the boy as his page, parading him around parties and other society events in full view of his bitter rival, the Comte de Saint-Vire. But the truth is soon uncovered: Léon is in fact a girl named Léonie and is actually the legitimate child of the Comte and his wife. While Avon is intent on his plan to reveal the Comte’s duplicity and ruin him publicly, he is charmed by Léonie’s kindness, falls in love, and becomes a changed man. First published in 1926 to great commercial success, These Old Shades showcases Heyer at her romantic best and remains a charming and entertaining listen for all fans of historical romances.

Georgette Heyer (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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The Twelve Deaths of Christmas

As the Christmas holidays begin at Maude Daneson's rooming house, unsuspecting lodgers receive a most unwelcome present from the person responsible for a series of senseless and bizarre murders, a killer much more cunning than they had suspected. "A top-notch thriller...The identities of the murderer and the twelve victims come as a stunner."-Publishers Weekly

Marian Babson, Marion Babson (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor: Elizabeth I, Thomas Seymour, and the Making of a Virgin Queen

A power-hungry courtier and an impressionable young princess: the Tudor court had never been more perilous for the young Elizabeth, where rumors had the power to determine her fate. England, late 1547. King Henry VIII is dead. His fourteen-year-old daughter Elizabeth is living with the king's widow, Catherine Parr, and her new husband, Thomas Seymour. Seymour is the brother of Henry VIII 's third wife, the late Jane Seymour, who was the mother to the now-ailing boy king. Ambitious and dangerous, Seymour begins an overt flirtation with Elizabeth that ends with Catherine sending her away. When Catherine dies a year later and Seymour is arrested for treason soon after, a scandal explodes. Alone and in dreadful danger, Elizabeth is threatened by supporters of her half-sister, Mary, who wishes to see England return to Catholicism. She is also closely questioned by the king's regency council due to her place in the line of succession. Was she still a virgin? Was there a child? Had she promised to marry Seymour? Under pressure, Elizabeth shows the shrewdness and spirit she would later be famous for. She survives the scandal. Thomas Seymour is not so lucky. The "Seymour Scandal" led to the creation of the persona of the Virgin Queen. On hearing of Seymour's beheading, Elizabeth observed, "This day died a man of much wit, and very little judgment." She would never allow her heart to rule her head again. "Tudor historian Norton looks at Henry VIII's daughter and widow, but the real story here is Thomas Seymour...Juicy royal history that may or may not be true. Either way, the story of Thomas' comeuppance and Elizabeth's reaction makes for a quick, enjoyable read."-Kirkus Reviews

Elizabeth Norton (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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The Service of the Dead

Expertly recreating the social and political upheavals of late medieval Europe, acclaimed author Candace Robb introduces a new series starring Kate Clifford, a woman forged on the warring northern marches of fourteenth-century England. Political unrest permeates York at the cusp of the fifteenth century, as warring factions take sides on who should be the rightful king-Richard II or his estranged, powerful cousin in exile, Henry Bolingbroke. Independent-minded twenty-year-old Kate Clifford is struggling to dig out from beneath the debt left by her late husband. Determined to find a way to be secure in her own wealth and establish her independence in a male-dominated society, Kate turns one of her properties near the minster into a guest house and sets up a business. In a dance of power, she also quietly rents the discreet bedchambers to the wealthy, powerful merchants of York for nights with their mistresses. But the brutal murder of a mysterious guest and the disappearance of his companion for the evening threatens all that Kate has built. Before others in town hear word of a looming scandal, she must call upon all of her hard-won survival skills to save herself from ruin. "The novel resonates with its compelling portrayal of an England on the brink of crisis."-Publishers Weekly

Candace Robb (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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The Reservoir Tapes

Returning us to the extraordinary territory of Jon McGregor's Man Booker Prize long-listed novel Reservoir 13, The Reservoir Tapes take us deep into the heart of an English village that is trying to come to terms with what has happened on its watch.A teenage girl has gone missing. The whole community has been called upon to join the search. And now an interviewer arrives, intent on capturing the community's unstable stories about life in the weeks and months before Becky Shaw vanished. Each villager has a memory to share or a secret to conceal, a connection to Becky that they are trying to make or break. A young wife pushes against the boundaries of her marriage, and another seeks a means of surviving within hers. A group of teenagers dare one another to jump into a flooded quarry, the one weak swimmer still awaiting his turn. A laborer lies trapped under rocks and dry limestone dust as his fellow workers attempt a risky rescue. And meanwhile a fractured portrait of Becky emerges at the edges of our vision-a girl swimming, climbing, and smearing dirt onto a scared boy's face, images to be cherished and challenged as the search for her goes on.

Jon Mcgregor (Author), Fiona Hardingham, Justine Eyre, Ralph Lister, Sarah Nichols, Simon Vance, Tim Gerard Reynolds (Narrator)

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The Mistress of Paris: The 19th-Century Courtesan Who Built an Empire on a Secret

Comtesse Valtesse de la Bigne was painted by Édouard Manet and inspired Émile Zola, who immortalized her in his scandalous novel Nana. Her rumored affairs with Napoleon III and the future King Edward VII kept gossip columns full. But her glamorous existence hid a dark secret: she was no comtesse. She was born into abject poverty, raised on a squalid backstreet among the dregs of Parisian society. Yet she transformed herself into an enchantress who possessed a small fortune, three mansions, fabulous carriages, and art the envy of connoisseurs across Europe. A consummate show-woman, she ensured that her life?and even her death?remained shrouded in just enough mystery to keep her audience hungry for more. Spectacularly evoking the sights and sounds of mid- to late nineteenth-century Paris in all its hedonistic glory, Catherine Hewitt's biography tells, for the first time ever in English, the forgotten story of a remarkable woman who, though her roots were lowly, never stopped aiming high.

Catherine Hewitt (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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The Hollow Tree

From the critically acclaimed author of Hekla's Children comes a dark and haunting tale of our world and the next. After her hand is amputated following a tragic accident, Rachel Cooper suffers vivid nightmares of a woman imprisoned in the trunk of a hollow tree, screaming for help. When she begins to experience phantom sensations of leaves and earth with her missing limb, Rachel is terrified she is going mad. But then another hand takes hers, and the trapped woman is pulled into our world. This woman has no idea who she is, but Rachel can't help but think of the mystery of Oak Mary, a female corpse found in a hollow tree and who was never identified. Three urban legends have grown up around the case; was Mary a Nazi spy, a prostitute, or a gypsy witch? Rachel is desperate to learn the truth, but darker forces are at work-for a rule has been broken, and Mary is in a world where she doesn't belong.

James Brogden (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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The Diamond Cat

The cat who swallowed more than a canary ... A lifetime of craving cuddlier companionship than her hectoring mother has led fortyish Bettina Bilby to board her neighbors' felines-an expectant tabby, a pampered blue-eyed Balinese, a depressed ginger Persian with a cod-liver-oil addiction, and Adolf, an imperious mouser with a patchwork face-for a long holiday weekend. But a freak storm sets the pigeon among the cats: a carrier bird downed on the doorstep with a tiny load of large, flawless diamonds. And Bettina's dilemma escalates as Adolf gobbles up one of the gems and a succession of elegant but shifty strangers prowl the gardens, offending the cats and bringing in their wake backdoor bloodshed and murder.

Marian Babson, Marion Babson (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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The Crusades

Looking into the past, the Crusades seem incomprehensible. What combination of religious fervor, hatred of people of different faiths, and gall led Europeans of 1100 AD to make their way thousands of miles to conquer the Holy Land? Why did they continue for 200 years? How did the Crusades change the world? The intriguing story is peppered with colorful characters. Over the centuries, this well-researched and written book argues, crusaders saw-and participated in-the evolution of warfare and the transformation of society from feudal fiefdoms to nations and empires. The story of the Crusades is a reminder, too, of the horrors wrought in the name of religion. The Crusades are seen by many Christians today as an exercise in fanaticism, an episode in which the teachings of Christ were used to justify the horrors perpetrated on innocents. That judgment is accurate, but not the whole story. The whole story is in these pages.

Abigail Archer (Author), Sarah Nichols (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Sarah Nichols