Showing results by narrator "Ciaran Saward" in All Categories

In a sleepy Devon village, a woman is taken from the streets. Local vet Jenny is horrified. This kind of thing doesn’t happen here. But it’s not the first time she’s been so close to a crime scene. The daughter of a prolific serial killer, she’s spent her whole life running from who she really is. And the crime is harrowingly similar to those her father committed all those years ago.

Conrad has a lot on his plate, and recovering from a punctured kidney is only the start. Top of his to-do list is a trip to Cornwall for an interview with Morwenna Mowbray, vessel and victim of Fae magick. Before he can go, Tom Morton has news on the missing book, the Codex Defanatus. And soon it becomes clear that all roads lead across the Irish Sea, to a country where Conrad has no jurisdiction, no allies, and where his enemies are not one, but two Fae queens.

The nation of Torwyn is run on the power of industry, and industry is run by the Guilds. Chief among them are the Hawkspurs, whose responsibility it is to keep the gears of the empire turning. That’s exactly why matriarch Rosomon Hawkspur sends each of her heirs to the far reaches of the nation. Conall, the eldest son, is sent to the distant frontier to earn his stripes in the military. It is here that he faces a threat he could have never seen coming: the first rumblings of revolution.

A personal portrait of a fascinating people, a sideways history, and an entertaining travelogue, Why the Dutch Are Different is the story of an Englishman who went Dutch. And loved it. 

Mina’s Bollywood extravaganza is a huge hit–especially when a surprise celebrity makes a dramatic entrance. While everyone queues for a selfie, Conrad is wondering why a Fae Princess has descended on him. It turns out she has a problem, and her problem is about to become Conrad’s problem: amidst the dark Satanic mills of Lancashire, something is attacking the Fae.

The king’s watch needs you.... Because there’s a Dragon on the loose. Conrad Clarke is ready to claim his reward. He’s saved the girl, so surely he can rest on his laurels? Just a bit? Not a chance. First, he has to pass a new test. A magickal test. And then there’s a missing Dragon’s egg to investigate.... Even with a new partner, Conrad is soon in deep trouble. Deep Dragon-shaped trouble. It’s time to use his secret weapons: Charm and humor. Armed with them, who needs a fire-resistance spell? Dragons? Bring them on.

Conrad Clarke, former RAF pilot and alleged gangster, gets a text – and a visit – from The Allfather. Odin has a challenge for Conrad: Sign up to protect England from wild magick and get a commission in the King’s Watch. All he has to do is find a missing witch. Simple. Conrad never could resist a challenge. Before you can say “Ragnarok”, he’s plunged into a world of gods, mages, witches, dwarves, and one very aggressive giant mole.

In Clerkswell, the great and the good assemble for a Samhain party. In Manchester, mages prepare for the Warden Hustings. But on a tree in the Furness Peninsula hangs the body of a man. Someone thinks they have settled a score, but all they’ve done is start a feud. A storm is brewing, and Conrad has to stop it turning into all-out war. Fate has dealt him a difficult hand—another new partner, the implacable opposition of the Lakeland Mages, and having to shield the members of his non-magickal team. So Conrad does what he does best: grits his teeth and rides into the storm. 

The Rhine is one of the world's greatest rivers. Once forming the outer frontier of the Roman Empire, it flows 800 miles from the social democratic playground of the Netherlands, through the industrial and political powerhouses of Germany and France, to the wealthy mountain fortresses of Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

The Mage-King of Wessex has passed away, and the stage is set for a battle royal: the richest mage in England versus the most powerful coven of witches. And Conrad finds himself in the middle. The struggle is a civilized one at first - Lord Mowbray and the Daughters of the Goddess meet for a conference in Mowbray’s Mage Palace of Pellacombe, with Conrad, Mina, and Saffron sent to see fair play. Until first tragedy and then murder plunge the staff kingdom of Wessex into a dangerous crisis, and Conrad has to draw on all his team’s powers and his own experience to avoid a bloodbath.

Conrad and Mina take a time-out from trouble in Spain. It’s their own little Garden of Eden, until a Tarot reader tells him that his troubles have barely begun. Expelled from Paradise, Conrad and the team have to chase the trail of a new source of Alchemical Gold. A source that already has Dwarves, Gnomes, and human Mages at each other’s throats. 

In November 1974, British MP and former cabinet minister John Stonehouse walked into the sea off a beach in Miami and disappeared, seemingly drowned. Then he was found—on the other side of the world, in Australia—and his extraordinary story began to come to light: a Labour cabinet minister and a devoted family man, also in a long-term affair with his secretary, and a spy for the Czech State Security agency, who had committed fraud and attempted to fake his own death to escape catastrophic business failures.  

Fortunes rise and fall in Wilbur Smith's tale of warring siblings and illegal diamond trading, The Diamond Hunters. The Van Der Byl Diamond Company, willed by its founder to his son Benedict, his sister Tracey and their estranged foster brother Johnny Lance, turns out to be a bequest of hatred. For it is couched in such terms as to offer Benedict the instrument of destruction of his bitterest rival. 'Destroy Johnny' is the old man's implacable message. And so, consumed with envy for Johnny, Benedict sets out in ruthless pursuit of this goal.

Conrad’s 11x great grandfather has been haunting his house since 1622, keeping a secret and biding his time. A secret that spells trouble for the world of magick. The King’s Watch want to Summon him. The keepers of the secret don’t want that to happen. They unleash a fire Mage to stop the summoning and don’t care who dies on the way. And when Spectre Thomas finally makes an appearance, he passes the guilt of old sins on to Conrad’s shoulders. 

Emily dreams of one day owning a house where her son, Josh, and the little one on the way can grow up, but when her husband, Aidan, insists on leaving his lucrative job as a luxury car salesman, she senses something more is afoot - even while she harbours a secret of her own. What is Aidan hiding, and will it jeopardize their young family’s future? 

Through the fascinating account of their quest, Mark Pilkington reveals the long history of UFOria and its parallels in little-known tales from the murky worlds of espionage, psychological warfare, and advanced military technology. Along the way he discovers that the truth about flying saucers is stranger and more complex than either the ufologists or debunkers would have us believe. 

This wonderfully funny audio collection contains eight adventures from the master of animal tales, Dick King-Smith. Perfect for young listeners, this magical collection features one of Dick King-Smith's most loved stories: The Hodgeheg. Other timeless classics included in this collection are: Poppet, E.S.P, The Mousebutcher, The Merrythought, Lightning Strikes Twice, A Narrow Squeak, and Under the Mishmash Tree.

Conrad needs a rest. The universe has other ideas. He had planned the perfect weekend in the English Lake District - tie up some loose ends before spending the night with his girlfriend. Simple. What could possibly go wrong? Everything is the answer. An innocent man is murdered to cover up magickal misdeeds, and before they can draw breath, Conrad and his partner in magickal crime-fighting, Vicky Robson, are on the trail of a mage who hides behind dark magick to kill at a distance.

The latest freshers have more than fitting in to fear when a forbidden entity is unleashed in an ancient seat of learning. New arrivals Nick and Annabel feel out of place at university, but when they are attacked by a creature straight out of their worst nightmares, their first term becomes less pass-fail than do-or-die. As the bodies pile up, their college’s dark secret cannot stay hidden for long. And when their tutors fall prey to mysterious forces, can Nick and Annabel enroll the night climber Giles to help banish the beast before freshers’ year becomes their last? 

Russia is the largest country in the world, with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. Over a thousand years this multifaceted nation of shifting borders has been known as Rus, Muscovy, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Thirty years ago, it was reinvented as the Russian Federation. Russia is not an enigma, but its past is violent, tragic, sometimes glorious, and certainly complicated. Like the rest of us, the Russians constantly rewrite their history. They too omit episodes of national disgrace in favour of patriotic anecdotes, sometimes more rooted in myth than reality.