New books Issue 62 March 2018

Talking Books

Adult fiction

Archer, Jeffrey. Tell Tale. 2017. Short stories. TB24208.

Find out what happens to the hapless young detective from Naples who travels to an Italian hillside town to find out ‘Who Killed the Mayor?’ Revel in the stories of the woman who dares to challenge the men at her Ivy League University during the 1930’s in ‘A Gentleman and a Scholar’, and another young woman who thumbs a lift gets more than she bargained for in ‘A Wasted Hour’.

Read by Robert Bathurst. 5 hours 4 minutes.

Carr, Carol K. India Black And The Shadows Of Anarchy. 2014. Historical crime. TB24090.

Madam of espionage mystery: book 3. India Black is invited to meet with Prime Minister Disraeli who has a secret mission for her. Revolt has spread across Europe and reached the shores of England, anarchists have been assassinating the upper classes. India has been asked to infiltrate the ranks of the group responsible for these attacks, the sinister Dark Legion.

Read by Penelope Freeman. 10 hours.

Corrigan, J. A. Falling Suns. 2017. Thriller. TB24176.

Ex-DI Rachel's son is murdered. Her cousin Michael is found guilty and incarcerated in a psychiatric unit. Four years later, and back in the police force, Rachel discovers that Michael's freedom is likely. She decides upon revenge. As she closes in on her target, her friend Jonathan, a journalist, uncovers information about her mother and others in her family and begins to suspect that she might be about to murder the wrong man.

Read by Alison Campbell. 12 hours 3 minutes.

Gaston, Diane. Bound By Duty. 2015. Mills and Boon romance. TB24070.

Scandalous Summerfields: book 1. Tess Summerfield's life is changed when she's rescued from drowning by the mysterious Marc. Forced to shelter with him in a deserted cottage, she spends the night wrapped in his arms for warmth. When they are discovered the tongues of the town start wagging, and Marc knows the only way to silence them is to marry Tess. But his duties as a spy soon tear Marc away from the marriage bed.

Read by Josephine Arden. 9 hours 55 minutes.

Gatiss, Mark. St Anthony's Fire. 1994. Science fiction. TB24072.

New Doctor Who adventures; When Ace decides she wants a period of solitude on the planet Massatoris, the Doctor and Bernice visit a nearby world famous for its natural beauty. But the rain-drenched jungles of Betrushia are in turmoil because a vicious, genocidal war is raging between its lizard-like natives.

Read by John Sackville. 9 hours 21 minutes.

Grossman, David. A Horse Walks Into A Bar. 2017. General fiction. TB24211.

An audience that has come expecting an evening of amusement instead sees a comedian falling apart on stage; an act of disintegration, a man crumbling, as a matter of choice, before their eyes. They could get up and leave, or boo and whistle and drive him from the stage, if they were not so drawn to glimpse his personal hell.

Read by Joe Barrett. 5 hours 52 minutes.

Groves, Annie. A Christmas Promise. 2013. Family stories. TB24075.

Article Row: book 5. Tilly is heartbroken when Drew, the love of her life, returns to America and doesn’t come back. For Tilly’s friends, Agnes and Sally, the war has also dealt them a cruel hand and, along with the rest of the country, they have had their share of pain. But they say that it is always darkest just before the dawn, so could it be that this war, and the girls’ fortunes, is finally beginning to turn?

Read by Mira Dovreni. 10 hours 26 minutes.

Haywood, R.R. Executed. 2017. Science fiction. TB24170.

Extracted: book 2. The team of heroes extracted from their timelines to stop the impending apocalypse didn’t think they needed a leader. But they’ve got one anyway. With their mission in tatters, Miri has been called in to steady the ship. And to focus them on their assignment: preventing the end of the world. The problem is, the world doesn’t know it’s in danger.

Read by Carl Prekopp. 11 hours 41 minutes.

James, Sophia. Marriage Made In Rebellion. 2016. Mills and Boon romance. TB24097.

Penniless Lords: book 3. Severely wounded Captain Lucien Howard, has a boat waiting to take him home. The beautiful woman who saved his life will be compromised if she remains in his company. Lucien thinks of his family and his crumbling estate. He can’t stay in war-torn Spain. Yet neither can he stop his arms from tightening about Alejandra as he breathes her in.

Read by Candida Gubbins. 7 hours 30 minutes.

Lear, James. The Sun Goes Down. 2016. Gay fiction. TB24077.

Mitch Mitchell: book 4. Mitch finds himself investigating the demise of a young, gay lance corporal. The police have ruled it a suicide, but the young man's boyfriend claims it was murder. Suspecting an official cover-up of a queer scandal, Mitch gets to work on an investigation that leads him into a labyrinth of lies, false identities and secret sex. Contains sex scenes. Contains swear words.

Read by Russell Bentley. 8 hours 51minutes.

MacDonald, Rowena. The Threat Level Remains Severe. 2017. General fiction. TB24147.

Arty, House of Commons secretary Grace has been counting the tea breaks in the same dull job for approaching a decade. New recruit Brett, a smooth, high-flying Australian, is on a mission to shake up the dusty backrooms of power and on a collision path with Grace. Office life begins to look up when Grace receives an email from an admirer with musical and poetic talents.

Contains sex scenes. Contains swear words.

Read by David Thorpe and Madeleine Hyland. 9 hours 19 minutes.

Martin, Andrew. Soot. 2017. Historical crime. TB24150.

York, 1799. In August, an artist is found stabbed to death with a pair of scissors. Matthew Harvey's death is much discussed in the city. Harvey is a renowned cutter and painter of shades, or silhouettes, the latest fashion in portraiture. It soon becomes clear that the murderer must be one of the artist's last sitters, and the people depicted in the final six shades made by him become the key suspects. But who are they?

Read by Sean Baker. 9 hours 26 minutes.

Massie, Allan. Dark Summer In Bordeaux. 2012. Crime. TB24079.

Bordeaux: book 2. With his son's safe return, Superintendent Lannes and his wife can have some joy amid the grim reality of Vichy France. Then an elderly professor with communist leanings is found bludgeoned to death in a park. Lannes hopes it will be a "an old-fashioned, pre-War murder", but it proves to be nothing of the sort as Lannes is sucked into shady areas of collaboration and compromise.

Read by Leighton Pugh. 9 hours 3 minutes.

Menczer, Jane. An Unlikely Agent. 2017. Historical crime. TB24104.

London, 1905. After a stranger on the tram hands Margaret a newspaper open at the recruitment page, Margaret finds herself in a new position as a secretary in a backstreet shop. But she is in fact working for a highly secret branch of the intelligence service, Bureau 8, whose mission is to track down and neutralise a ruthless band of anarchists known as the Scorpions.

Read by Emma Fenney. 13 hours 56 minutes.

Montefiore, Santa. Last Voyage Of The Valentina. 2014. General fiction. TB24080.

Alba always feels like an outsider. She hardly knew her Italian mother and her English father acts as if Valentina never existed. On board the houseboat named after her mother, Alba's life is little more than a selfish search for fun and pleasure. But the discovery of her mother's portrait sends Alba back to Italy to find her family and the truth about Valentina.

Read by Joan Walker. 12 hours 35 minutes.

Smith, Frederick E. 633 Squadron: Operation Rhine Maiden. 1976. War fiction. TB23962.

633 Squadron: book 2. The Germans are developing a new anti-aircraft rocket, code name Rhine Maiden, which possess the most deadly threat so far to the Allies' invasion plans. So the top brass decide that 633 Squadron should first flatten the rocket factory, and then make a daring strike on an underground target buried deep in a Bavarian valley in broad daylight.

Read by Gordon Griffin. 11 hours 34 minutes.

Taylor, Elizabeth. Angel. 2006. General fiction. TB24083.

15 year-old Angel knows she is different, that she is destined to become a fêted author and the owner of great riches. After reading her first novel the publishers are certain it will be a success. Curious as to who could have written such a book, they are unprepared when Angel steps forward.

Read by Ruth Sillers. 10 hours.

Tracy, P. J. Nothing Stays Buried. 2017. Crime. TB24108.

Monkeewrench: book 8. It's a hot June morning when homicide detectives Magozzi and Rolseth discover the body in the woods. And the playing card left with the victims points to the trademark of a serial killer, intent on playing out the deck. Meanwhile Grace and her team have been working on a private missing person's investigation. But when Magozzi and Gino turn to Grace for help, they realize the evidence is bafflingly entangled. Contains swear words.

Read by Stacia Keogh. 7 hours 43 minutes.

Udall, Tor. A Thousand Paper Birds. 2017. Literary fiction. TB24166.

After the death of his wife, Audrey, Jonah sits on a bench in Kew Gardens, trying to reassemble his life. Abrasive Chloe finds solace in the origami she folds. Milly, a child, roams Kew, finding beauty everywhere she goes. Harry's purpose is to save plants from extinction. Audrey links these strangers together. And as the mystery of her death unravels, the characters learn that stories, like paper, can be refolded and reformed.

Read by Gavin Osborn. 9 hours 13 minutes.

Williams, Dee. Sorrows And Smiles. 2013. Family stories. TB24178.

When young Pam King starts to go out with Robbie, she can't understand her grandmother Ivy's fury. What terrible secret is Ivy refusing to reveal? It's loneliness that makes Pam accept a date with Lu Cappa. Before she knows it, they're married. Even then, Pam knows Lu's still jealous of Robbie. And when Robbie comes back into their lives, it could be the last straw.

Read by Kim Hicks. 9 hours 31 minutes.

Adult non-fiction

Autobiography and biography

Cryer, Barry. Butterfly Brain. 2010. TB23914.

Barry Cryer has collaborated with some of the great names in comedy from the mid-1950s onwards. Baz recalls, reminisces, recounts and other words beginning with 'R', on a trip down Memory Lane, pausing only for tea and macaroons at the Stannah Stairlift Cafe. What memories, if only he can remember them! At 74, a third of his life has already passed and he invites you to enjoy this nostalgic account of it. Contains swear words.

Read by Ric Jerrom. 5 hours 45 minutes.

Hawksley, Lucinda. Katey: The Life And Loves Of Dickens's Artist Daughter. 2006. TB24096.

Katey Dickens was a nineteenth-century artist and socialite, and the beautiful daughter of Charles Dickens. Blessed with a privileged upbringing in a family that moved between London, France, Switzerland and Italy, Katey pursued her love of painting, acted in her father's plays, modelled for John Everett Millais and, as the daughter of the most famous writer of the time, enjoyed a high profile in Victorian society.

Read by Laura Costello. 15 hours 55 minutes.

Mackness, Tracy. Jail Bird: The Life And Crimes Of An Essex Bad Girl. 2013. TB24100.

Tracy Mackness has always had a flair for business, not all of it legal. Despite being banged up with some of the UK's toughest female prisoners, she proved to be a model inmate, and found her forte working on the prison farm. Never shy of hard work, Tracy left prison with numerous qualifications in pig husbandry and set up her own business, The Giggly Pig. Contains violence and swear words.

Read by Annie Aldington. 6 hours 45 minutes.

Tomalin, Claire. Mrs Jordan's Profession: The Story Of A Great Actress And A Future King. 2012. TB24084.

Acclaimed as the greatest comic actress of her day, Dora Jordan lived a quite different role off-stage as lover to Prince William, third son of George III. Unmarried, the pair lived in a villa on the Thames and had ten children together until William, under pressure from royal advisers, abandoned her.

Read by Ruby Thomas. 12 hours 29 minutes.

Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: King And Court. 2017. TB24123.

This biography of Henry VIII is set against the cultural, social and political background of his court, the most spectacular court ever seen in England, and the splendour of his many palaces. It tells of the development of both monarch and court during a crucial period in English history. As well as challenging some recent theories, it offers controversial new conclusions based on contemporary evidence.

Read by Phyllida Nash. 25 hours 44 minutes.

Wright, Martine. Unbroken: My Story Of Survival From 7.7 Bombings To Paralympics Success. 2017. TB24160.

In 2005, Martine was a marketing manager. In 2015 she was voted one of the '50 Most Powerful Women in British Sport' by the Independent. In between those dates, her life changed forever when she lost both of her legs in the London tube bombings of 7.7. She lost 80% of her blood, was in a coma for ten days and underwent ten months of surgery. 'Unbroken' is her inspiring account of how she turned trauma and tragedy into hope.

Read by Zara Ramm. 6 hours 58 minutes.

Gardening

Fish, Margery. We Made A Garden. 2002. TB24146.

We Made a Garden is the story of how Margery Fish, the leading gardener of the 1960s, and her husband Walter transformed an acre of wilderness into a stunning cottage garden, still open to the public at East Lambrook Manor, Somerset, England. A quirky classic, this book details her creation of a landmark cottage garden, as well as her battles with her husband in the process, who preferred the standard suburban approach.

Read by Elizabeth Proud. 4 hours 44 minutes.

History

Keay, John. Midnight's Descendants: South Asia from Partition To The Present Day. 2015. TB24044.

This is an epic narrative history that compares and contrasts the fortunes of all the countries that make up South Asia (the preferred term for the partitioned subcontinent of modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, plus Nepal and Sri Lanka). It also incorporates the rich story of South Asia’s diaspora and looks at the rise of India as a global force.

Read by Christopher Oxford. 18 hours 11 minutes.

Strathern, Paul. The Artist, The Philosopher And The Warrior: Leonardo, Machiavelli And Borgia: A Fateful Collusion. 2010. TB24051.

In the autumn of 1502 three giants of the Renaissance period - Cesare Borgia, Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli - set out on one of the most treacherous military campaigns of the period. Cesare Borgia was a ferocious military leader. Niccolò Machiavelli was a witty and subversive intellectual. And Leonardo da Vinci was a visionary master and the most talented military engineer in Italy.

Read by Chris Courtenay. 17 hours 33 minutes.

Natural History

Lewis-Stempel, John. Meadowland: The Private Life Of An English Field. 2015. TB24099.

Meadowland gives a unique and intimate account of an English meadow’s life from January to December. John Lewis -Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn. He includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil beneath. Their births, lives, and deaths are stories that thread through the book.

Read by Greg Wagland. 6 hours 33 minutes.

Poetry

Oswald, Alice. Falling Awake. 2016. Poetry. TB23839.

Alice Oswald's poems are always vivid and distinct, alert and deeply, physically, engaged in the natural world. Mutability - a sense that all matter is unstable in the face of mortality - is at the heart of this collection and each poem is involved in that drama: the held tension that is embodied life, and life's losing struggle with the gravity of nature.

Read by Veronika Hyks. 1 hour 10 minutes.

Virgil. Georgics. 2009. TB24085.

Virgil's affectionate poem of the land brings us the disappointments as well as the rewards of the countryman's year-round devotion to his crops, his vines and olives, livestock great and small, and the complex society of bees. Part agricultural manual, part political poem and allegory, the Georgics' scenes are real and vivid, and the poet-farmer Peter Fallon makes us feel the sights, sounds, and textures of the Italian landscape.

Read by Andrew Cullum. 4 hours 28 minutes.

Politics and government

Marshall, Tim. Worth Dying For: The Power And Politics Of Flags. 2017. TB24177.

Flags have been the visual representation of our hopes and our destinies. They represent the politics of high power and the politics of the mob. From the renewed sense of nationalism in China, to troubled identities in Europe and the US, to the carefully constructed flag of Islamic State, Tim Marshall unravels the past and present to provide insight into the symbols that continue to unite and divide us.

Read by Ric Jerrom. 10 hours 40 minutes.

Scott-Clark, Cathy. The Exile: The Flight Of Osama Bin Laden. 2017. TB24121.

This is the extraordinary inside story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in the years after 9.11. Following the attacks on the Twin Towers, Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, eluded intelligence services and Special Forces units for almost a decade. Using remarkable, first-person testimony from bin Laden's family and military closest aides, 'The Exile' chronicles this astonishing tale of evasion, collusion and isolation.

Read by Chris Kayser. 24 hours 53 minutes.

Society

Eddo-Lodge, Reni. Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race. 2017. TB24169.

In February 2014, Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote about her frustration with the way discussions of race and racism in Britain were constantly being led by those who weren't affected by it. Galvanised by the response she received, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings. The result is an exploration of what it is to be a person of colour in Britain today.

Read by Reni Eddo-Lodge. 5 hours 57 minutes.

Sport

McGeechan, Ian. The Lions: When The Going Gets Tough: Behind The Scenes. 2017. TB24102.

Ian McGeechan uses his coaching notes to provide his special insight and background into what it means to be a Lion, looking at selection, how to create the right environment and how to build the players into what he describes as 'Test-match animals'. Rich in anecdote as well as facts, he brings to life many of the rugby legends with whom he played or coached, including Gareth Edwards, Gavin Hastings and Martin Johnson.

Read by John Cormack. 10 hours 23 minutes.

A Selection Of Harper Collins Titles.

Adult Fiction

Bradford, Barbara Taylor. Secrets Of Cavendon. 2017. TB702359. Family story.

Cavendon Hall series: book 4. London 1949. The Earl of Mowbray's niece, Alicia Stanton, is making her mark in the glamorous film world. Alongside her, Victoria Brown, a wartime evacuee, is starting out as a fashion photographer. At Cavendon Hall, where they both grew up, the estate is facing bankruptcy. The aristocratic Ingham family is at odds with its loyal retainers, the Swanns. Can the families unite to save their future?

Read by Anna Bentinck. 12 hours 51 minutes.

Court, Dilly. The Mistletoe Seller. 2017. TB702325. Family story.

Angel Winter scratches a living selling mistletoe to the City gentlemen who pass through the market, hoping they will take pity on her as she shivers in the snow. She will never sell the one treasure that could feed her for a month, the gold and ruby ring that was hidden in her swaddling when she was abandoned as a baby. The ring could hold the key to the secrets of her past.

Read by Annie Aldington. 12 hours 44 minutes.

Fortin, Sue. The Birthday Girl. 2017. TB702364. Thriller.

When Joanne’s friends reluctantly accept an invitation to her birthday party, it quickly becomes clear that there is more to this weekend than they are expecting. One of them is hiding a secret. And Joanne is planning to reveal it… A weekend away in a cottage in the woods sounds like fun – until no one can hear your cries for help.

Read by Penelope Rawlins. 10 hours 23 minutes.

Harrington, Carmel. The Woman At 72 Derry Lane. 2017. TB702345. General fiction.

Beautiful, poised Stella lives with her successful husband, Matt. Stella appears to have it all. Next door, at number 72 lives Rea. Gruff, bad-tempered and rarely seen besides the twitching of her net curtains, rumour has it she's lost it all. When Stella and Rea's worlds collide they realise they have much in common. Both are trapped in a prison of their own making. Has help been next door without them realising it?

Read by Aoife McMahon. 10 hours 51 minutes.

Llewellyn, Sam. Storm Force From Navarone. 2017. TB702367. War fiction.

Guns of Navarone series: book 3. The surviving commandos are sent on a perilous journey through the Pyrenees to disable the greatest threat to the impending D-Day landings: the 'Werwolf' U-boats. But their Basque guides declare it mission impossible - D-Day is less than six days away.

Read by Jonathan Oliver. 10 hours 13 minutes.

MacBride, Stuart. Now We Are Dead. 2017. TB702537. Crime fiction.

DCI Roberta Steel got caught fitting up Jack Wallace; that's why they demoted her and quashed his sentence. Now he's back on the streets and women are being attacked again. Wallace has to be responsible, but if DS Steel goes anywhere near him, his lawyers will get her thrown off the force for good. How much is she willing to sacrifice to stop him?

Read by Steve Worsley. 10 hours 34 minutes.

Mariani, Scott. The Bach Manuscript. 2017. TB702343. Adventure.

Ben Hope series: book 16. Ben impulsively decides to attend a reunion at his former university, Oxford. There he meets an old friend, Nick, a classical musician. After Nick’s brutal murder, Ben is drawn into the mystery of a missing music manuscript that may be a lost work by Johann Sebastian Bach. As his quest unfolds, so does the shocking truth about the lost manuscript, a secret dating back to the very darkest historical chapter of Man’s inhumanity to Man.

Read by Colin Mace. 10 hours 37 minutes.

Oliver, Jenny. The Vintage Summer Wedding. 2017. TB702341. Chick lit.

Anna can still remember her childhood dreams of becoming a Prima Ballerina and wearing a collective-gasp-from-the-congregation dress at her wedding. Years ago Anna left her cosy hometown village in a whirl of ambition. But when both those dreams come crashing down, she and her fiancé Seb find themselves back in Nettleton, their wedding and careers postponed indefinitely. This summer is showing Anna that your dreams have to grow up with you and sometimes what you think you wanted is just the opposite of what makes you happy.

Read by Ellie Heydon. 7 hours 59 minutes.

Proust, Marcel. Letters To The Lady Upstairs. 2017. TB702339. Classic fiction.

A charming, funny, poignant collection of twenty-three letters from Marcel Proust to his upstairs neighbour. We read of the comings and goings of a Paris building; of the effort required to live peacefully with annoying neighbours; of the sadness of losing friends in the war; of concerts and music and writing; of illness and of a growing, touching friendship between two lonely souls.

Read by Richard Hope. 1 hour 48 minutes.

Sheridan, Sara. The Secret Mandarin. 2017. TB702357. Historical fiction.

To shield her from scandal, Mary's brother-in-law, botanist Robert Fortune, forces her to accompany him on a mission to China to steal tea plants for the East India Company. But Robert conceals his secret motives - to spy for the British forces. As their quest becomes increasingly treacherous, Robert and Mary disguise themselves as a mandarin and man-servant. Mary revels in her new freedom and the Chinese way of life - and when danger strikes, finds unexpected reserves of courage.

Read by Ana Clements. 12 hours 39 minutes.

Adult Non-Fiction

Politics and Government

Shipman, Tim. Fall Out: A Year Of Political Mayhem. 2017. TB702353.

Fall Out is the story of British politics from the entry of Theresa May into Downing Street as Prime Minister through to the end of the general election campaign - and its aftermath. This book takes all who reads it to the heart of the political drama that is unravelling every day before us as Britain tries to work out its new place in the world post Brexit.

Read by Rupert Farley. 29 hours 4 minutes.

Warfare and Defence

Kix, Paul. The Saboteur :The Aristocrat Who Became France's Most Daring Anti-Nazi Commando. 2017. TB702366.

This celebrates unsung hero Robert de La Rochefoucald, an aristocrat turned anti-Nazi saboteur, and his exploits as a British Special Operations Executive-trained resistant. Whatever the mission, whatever the dire circumstance, de La Rochefoucauld acquitted himself nobly, with the straight-back aplomb of a man of aristocratic breeding: James Bond before Ian Fleming conjured him.

Read by Malcolm Hillgartner. 7 hours 14 minutes.

Children and young adult fiction

05+ Suggested Reading Age

Meddour, Wendy. The Secret Railway. 2016. TB24219.

Secret Railway: book 1. When a magical steam train puffs into their lives, brother and sister Leo and Ella find themselves on an incredible journey to save the Kingdom of Izzambard! Will they stop evil Griselda before she destroys all the magic in the kingdom? Will they get home in time for tea?

Read by Josephine Arden. 2 hours 16 minutes.

07+ Suggested Reading Age

Morpurgo, Michael. The Giant's Necklace. 2017. TB24179.

It all began with a necklace, made of glistening pink cowrie shells. Cherry was determined it would be the longest necklace she had ever made; that it would be fit for a giant! She only needed a few more shells. So, she set out to search for them. As the storm blew in, Cherry realised that she was cut off from the shore. From then on, events began to take a dark turn.

Read by David Thorpe. 46 minutes.

9+ Suggested Reading Age

Hoffmann, E. T. A. The Nutcracker. 2017. TB24233.

On Christmas Eve, Fritz and Marie excitedly await the arrival of Godfather Drosselmeier and the marvellous gifts he brings for them every year. When Marie discovers a rather curious nutcracker doll amongst the presents, she suddenly finds herself caught up in an age-old battle and transported to a magical world of sugar-frosted castles, chocolate kings and true love.

Read by David Graham. 2 hours 4 minutes.

Powers, Mark. Spy Toys. 2017. TB24134.

Dan is a Cuddlestar bear. Because of a faulty chip he is so strong he could crush a car. Thrown on to the rejects pile, he meets Arabella, a Doll, who has a very short temper and is NOT good with children. Dan, Arabella and Flax (a police robot rabbit gone AWOL) are recruited by Auntie Roz, and together they make up THE SPY TOYS. Their mission: to protect the prime minister's eight-year-old son from being kidnapped.

Read by David Thorpe. 2 hours 11 minutes.

11+ Suggested reading age

Shan, Darren. The Lake Of Souls. 2003. TB24082.

The saga of Darren Shan; book 10. If you step through after Harkat, you might never come back. Is your friend worth such an enormous risk? A terrifying new world, a deadly new challenge for Darren Shan, the Vampire Prince. Darren and Harkat face monstrous obstacles on their desperate quest to the Lake of Souls.

Read by Luke de Belder. 6 hours 15 minutes.

13+ Suggested Reading Age

Davis, Ben. Welcome To Cringefest. 2016. TB24091.

Joe Cowley: book 3. Joe Cowley is back! And this time it's even more butt-clenchingly embarrassing and excruciating than before. From a 'Grand Gesture' involving Star Trek costumes and the school boyband, to being trapped in a portaloo that's about to be pushed over. Joe's completely up to his neck in it - literally! Welcome to Cringefest.

Read by Alex Wingfield. 5 hours 40 minutes.

McNab, Andy. Avenger. 2007. TB24103.

Boy Soldier: book 3. Danny and Elena work for the Firm, attempting to track down the vengeance-seeking Black Star before more 'Angels of Death' suicide bombers are despatched. The plan is locate Black Star and kill him. Fergus travels to the US to help, but Elena is in danger, and only Danny can save her, using the skills his grandfather taught him.

Read by David Thorpe. 7 hours.

Murray, Tamsyn. My So-Called Afterlife. 2015. TB24081.

Afterlife: book 1. Fifteen-year-old Lucy has been stuck in the men's loo ever since she was murdered there six months ago. No one has been able to see or hear her, until Jeremy. Just her luck that he's a seriously uncool geography teacher-type! But Jeremy is determined to help Lucy. He finds out how she can temporarily leave her toilet 'home' and meet other teenage ghosts. Jeremy is also determined to help her find her killer.

Read by Suzie Grimsdick. 5 hours 13 minutes.

15+ Suggested reading age

Tolcser, Sarah. Song Of The Current. 2017. TB24175.

Caroline Oresteia is destined for the river. Her father is a wherryman, as was her grandmother. So when pirates burn ships and her father is arrested, Caro volunteers to transport mysterious cargo in exchange for his release. Secretly, Caro hopes that by piloting her own wherry, the river god will finally speak her name. But when the cargo becomes more than Caro expected, she finds herself caught in a web of politics and lies.

Read by Stephanie Willing. 9 hours 45 minutes.

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