Showing results by narrator "Simon Prebble" in All Categories

One of the most revered works in English literature, Great Expectations traces the coming of age of a young orphan, Pip, from a boy of shallow aspirations into a man of maturity. From the chilling opening confrontation with an escaped convict to the grand but eerily disheveled estate of bitter old Miss Havisham, all is not what it seems in Dickens’ dark tale of false illusions and thwarted desire.

A young woman begs Sherlock Holmes to help find her missing fiancé, but the great detective makes an uncharacteristic mistake. Then Sherlock’s daughter, Lucy James, takes on a missing-person case of her own, but she must also keep a vicious criminal away from Becky, Lucy’s 10-year-old sister-in-law. Little Becky soon becomes dangerously involved in both cases. No one foresees the devastating news that Sherlock Holmes has been murdered.

A chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe - London street urchin-turned-legendary swashbuckling adventurer - risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox...and Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent a contentious continent through the newborn power of finance.

A war no one fully understands has devastated the planet with radioactive fallout from massive cobalt bombing. Melbourne, Australia, is the only area whose citizens have not yet succumbed to the contamination. But there isn’t much time left, a few months, maybe more—and the citizens of Melbourne must decide how they will live the remaining weeks of their lives, and how they will face a hopeless future.

Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond is the last detective: a genuine gumshoe, committed to door-stopping and deduction rather than fancy computer gadgetry. So when the naked body of a woman is found floating in the weeds in a lake near Bath with no one willing to identify her, no marks, and no murder weapon, his sleuthing abilities are tested to the limit.

This groundbreaking audiobook by Michel Foucault, the most influential philosopher since Sartre, compels us to reevaluate our assumptions about all the ensuing reforms in the penal institutions of the West. For as Foucault examines innovations that range from the abolition of torture to the institution of forced labor and the appearance of the modern penitentiary, he suggests that punishment has shifted its focus from the prisoner's body to his soul-and that our very concern with rehabilitation encourages and refines criminal activity.

Lucy James and Sherlock Holmes must solve a mysterious locked-room murder at London's exclusive Diogenes Club. But Lucy is still coping with the traumatic after-effects of their last case, and her romantic relationship with a handsome young police detective is growing more complex. Emotions intensify and the dangers become life-threatening as they find themselves drawn into lethal conflict with the most ruthless gang leader in London.

Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard must contend with two dangerous enemies in New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd's Proof of Guilt. Can Rutledge solve the apparent murder of a top wine merchant while dealing with interference from his superior, the new Acting Chief Superintendent? Readers...

The trials of Dr. Daniel Waterhouse and the Natural Philosophers increase one-hundred fold in an England plagued by the impending war and royal insecurities - as the beautiful and ambitious Eliza plays a most dangerous game as double agent and confidante of enemy kings.

By 1939, Anglo-American journalist John Russell has spent over a decade in Berlin, where his son lives with his mother. He writes human-interest pieces for British and American papers, avoiding the investigative journalism that could get him deported. But as World War II approaches, he faces having to leave his son as well as his girlfriend of several years, a beautiful German starlet. When an acquaintance from his old communist days approaches him to do some work for the Soviets, Russell is reluctant, but he is unable to resist the offer. 

Following the shocking events of Never Say Die, Alex Rider's world has changed: his biggest enemy, the evil organization Scorpia, has been destroyed. Alex is hoping his life can finally go back to normal, that he can go to school and spend time with his friends - but very quickly everything changes. A new and dangerous criminal organization - Nightshade - is rising. When Alex discovers they've planned a mysterious attack on London, he will stop at nothing to take them down. But protecting his home city means facing off a ruthless new enemy and putting his life at stake, again.

London, 1899: When a mysterious packet is stolen from a diplomatic courier, Sherlock and Lucy are called upon to recover it before its ominous contents fall into the wrong hands. The Baker Street gang uncovers a dark, tangled web of intrigue and an evil plot that could very well bring all of England to its knees. When a notorious criminal is found dead in the bookstore basement, and the bookseller is arrested for the crime, the danger becomes very real, and very personal. Can Holmes and Lucy find the perilous packet, catch the murderous mastermind, and foil the fiendish plot?

Written by H.G. Wells, the great visionary author, this legendary novel is both timeless and thought provoking. Listeners will thrill to this chilling masterpiece as man boldly takes evolution into his own hands for the first time. Dr. Moreau, a scientist expelled from his homeland for his cruel experiments, continues his transplantations on a small South Pacific island, creating hideous creatures with manlike intelligence.

London, 1898. A vibrant young heiress has gone missing, and it’s up to Sherlock and Lucy to find her. Meanwhile, threatening letters from Egyptian revolutionaries begin turning up at newspaper offices, captivating Sherlock’s interest and sparking public fear and outrage. Then, the missing young woman is found dead in front of London’s most famous Egyptian monument.

Hailed as one of the world’s masterpieces of psychological realism, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high-court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face-to-face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?

In the first of all the Sherlock Holmes stories, Dr. John Watson, discharged from military service after suffering severe wounds, is at a loose end until a chance encounter leads him to take rooms with a remarkable young man. The arrogant, irascible Sherlock Holmes is a master chemist, a talented musician, and an expert on all aspects of crime.

Henry Grey is a man who needs a change. His job as an office worker is as tedious as the women his mother sets him up with. His new job transporting thoroughbred racehorses to exotic international destinations should perk up his mundane existence. However, when he intercepts a cryptic message hidden in the bottom of a smuggled bottle of birth control pills, Grey learns that horses are not his only cargo.

In the midst of conflict and unrest the Prince of Hed solves the puzzle of his future when he learns to harp the wind, discovers who the shape changers are, and understands his own relationship to Deth, harpist of the wizard Ohm.

“The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are, simply put, the best series now on the market.” —Stephen King Peter Robinson is one of the very best in the crime fiction business—a teller of dark police tales who stands firmly in the bestseller ranks alongside Ian Rankin and Elizabeth...

Recently recruited and trained as a special agent by MI6, the British secret service, 14-year-old West Londoner Alex Rider is sent to infiltrate an ultra-private school where the rich and powerful send their uncontrollable, rebellious sons. What he discovers in the mountaintop fortress of the campus are enough armed guards to repel an invasion-and new classmates who have become eerie copies of each other in their compliant attitudes and actions. This fast-paced yarn delivers technological wizardry and James Bond-like action.