Caroline Lennon has narrated 101 audiobooks on Listento.it by 45 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 471 ratings. The most-rated is Little House in the Big Woods.
Silence
Summary
Father Aloysius Walsh spent the last years of his life painstakingly collecting evidence of a yearlong killing spree, unparalleled savagery that blighted Ireland's borderlands at the end of the 1970s. Pinned to his bedroom wall, a macabre map charts the grim territory of death - victims, weapons, wounds, dates - and somehow, amid the forest of pins and notes, he had discerned a pattern. So why did Father Walsh deliberately drive through a cordon of policemen and off the road to his death? Why, when Inspector Celcius Daly arrives at the scene, does he find Special Branch already there? And why is Daly's mother's name on the priest's map?
©2016 Anthony Quinn (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Impossible Dream
Summary
In 1898 three young girls leave a Dublin orphanage to enter a life of domestic service. They are placed in the home of Captain Charles Whitmore, but he is preparing to set off on a long sea voyage. His wife, Georgina, desperate to break free from a violent marriage, is relieved that the captain will be gone, but she is left in poverty. Then an organisation that helps women escape abuse makes Georgina an offer. They propose that her house should become a school to train women for employment in the American West. Can the orphan maids dare dream of a better life for themselves?
©2018 Gemma Jackson (P)2020 Story Sound
The Long Gaze Back
Summary
Spanning four centuries, The Long Gaze Back features 22 new stories by some of the most talented Irish women writers working today. Taken together, the collected works of these writers reveal an enrapturing, unnerving, and piercingly beautiful mosaic of a lively literary landscape. The anthology presents an inclusive and celebratory portrait of the high calibre of contemporary literature in Ireland. These stories run the gamut from heartbreaking to humorous, but each leaves a lasting impression. They chart the passions, obligations, trials and tribulations of a variety of vividly drawn characters with unflinching honesty and relentless compassion. These are stories to savour.
©2015 Editor’s Introduction © Sinéad Gleeson, 2015, Individual stories © Respective authors (P)2018 W.F. Howes Ltd
The Hungry Road
Summary
Now, the number one Irish best seller and award-winning novelist is turning her hand to the definitive adult novel of those hard times, with The Hungry Road. Ireland’s hopes for freedom are dashed with the arrival of a deadly potato blight that strikes terror in the heart of its people. 1845. Seamstress Mary Sullivan’s dreams of a better future are shattered as she looks out over their ruined crop. Refusing to give in to despair, she must use every ounce of courage and strength to protect her family as they fight to survive. Dr Dan Donovan is medical officer to the Skibbereen Union. The arrival of ‘The Hunger’ soon brings starving men, women and children crowding into the town and the workhouse, desperate for assistance. Fr. John Fitzpatrick’s faith is tested by the suffering that surrounds him as his pleas for help fall on deaf ears. Inspired by true Irish heroes, The Hungry Road is the heartbreaking story of the Great Irish Famine told by one of Ireland’s best-loved writers.
©2020 Marita Conlon-McKenna (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Postcards from the Heart
Summary
Life is looking up for Saffy. After six years it seems like her boyfriend, Greg, is going to propose. Things couldn’t be more different for Conor and Jess. Even after seven happy years and two kids, she won't get married. But everyone's keeping secrets, and things aren’t quite what they seem. It's going to take some tough questions, and even tougher answers, before anyone's being honest - even with themselves. Postcards from the Heart is a book about four friends in their thirties. It's about love, lust, life, death, balloon rides and missing hamsters. But most of all it's about figuring out how to stop saying 'I don't' and how to start saying 'I do'.
©2011 Ella Griffin (P)2011 W F Howes Ltd
Secrets in the Snow
Summary
Perfect for fans of Karen Swan and Lulu Taylor. As the winter snow falls on the small Irish village of Ballybray, Roisin O’Connor and her young son, Ben, are saying goodbye to their beloved neighbour Mabel Murphy. Mabel lived a bold and colourful life, but the arrival of her brooding nephew ‘blow-in’ Aidan Murphy just makes life more complicated for Roisin. However, in one final act of love, a message arrives from Mabel that changes everything. And as winter turns to spring and the cold snow melts, the secrets both Roisin and Aidan are hiding must be revealed at last....
©2020 Emma Heatherington (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Keep You Safe
Summary
A mother always knows best. Doesn't she? For single mother Kate O'Hara, there was no decision to make. Her daughter, Rosie, is one of a small percentage of children with a disorder that prevents them from being immunized. All Kate can do is hope that herd immunity keeps the disease at bay and her little girl safe. For Madeleine Cooper, vaccinations were a leap of faith she wasn't prepared to take. Which was why, following much soul searching, she and her husband declined controversial measles shots for their daughter, Clara. All she can do is pray that it was the right decision and, if her little girl becomes sick, she gets through it unscathed. But when both girls wind up in the same elementary school class, telltale red spots appear on Clara Cooper's chest and on Rosie's a few days after. When one child recovers as the other's health becomes more critical, the two mothers find themselves across a very deep divide - when all they wanted was to keep their children safe.
©2017 Melissa Hill (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
Happy Ever After
Summary
When the honeymoon is over, real life begins.... Newly married Debbie is at her wits' end about her and Bryan's mounting debts, but there's no way he's going to stop living the high life and become a stay-at-home husband. Meanwhile, Debbie's dad has just found out his workaholic second wife, Aimee, is pregnant. He couldn't be happier, but she's horrified. Is their marriage going to last? Debbie's mum, Connie, has met a gorgeous new man and is all set to make a life of her own. But her family need her more than ever to sort out all their problems. Will she put her family first, as always, or can she walk away and finally make a fresh start? Will anyone be happy ever after?
©2017 Patricia Scanlan (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio
Coming Home
Summary
Two sisters...two very different lives. Alison's American dream is in tatters. Her high-flying career is on the skids, and her Upper East Side apartment is now way beyond her means. But pride prevents her from telling her family back home just how bad things are. Olivia is fraught trying to juggle family, career, preparations for Christmas, and organizing a surprise party for their mother's 70th birthday. How she envies - and sometimes resents - her sister Alison and her life of excitement and affluence in New York. Coming home for the holidays is the last thing Alison wants to do, especially now that she's met a rather attractive neighbor. But family ties are strong. Alison and Olivia must sort their differences and throw a party, and Christmas might just bring changes for Alison that she could never have imagined.
©2010 Patricia Scanlan (P)2015 Simon & Schuster
An Ocean Between Us
Summary
What if your life was built on a lie? When Cora Gartland learns that her husband has been killed in a car crash in Ireland her world falls apart. But then she is told that there was a woman in the car with him, a woman identified as his wife, Amelie. Devastated, she flies to Dublin to try to make sense of her husband's secret life. As she grieves, she must learn to survive, and to do that she must find the truth. What else has he been keeping from her, and how will she survive this betrayal?
©2020 Ann O'Loughlin (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group
Bloodmoon
Summary
Sister Fidelma returns in Bloodmoon, the 29th Celtic mystery by Peter Tremayne, acclaimed author of Penance of the Damned and Night of the Lightbringer. If you love Ellis Peters, you'll be gripped by Bloodmoon and the Sister Fidelma series. Ireland. AD 671. Sister Fidelma has a mission, and she is sworn by oath to reveal her purpose to no other. The secret investigation leads Fidelma and her companions to the abbey of Finnbarr to question the abbot. But before they have a chance to speak to him, the abbot is found murdered - and the young girl suspected of the crime has fled the scene. Despite their protests, Fidelma's cohorts agree to accompany her in pursuit of the girl for answers. But as vicious rumours spread, accusing Fidelma's family, the Eóghanacht Kings of Cashel, of conspiring to assassinate the High King and abduct his wife, Sister Fidelma's life is placed in mortal danger. Unable to tell the truth of her quest to anyone, including her husband, Eadulf, Fidelma's time is running out - and now she has no choice but to face the challenge, and her enemies, alone.
©2018 Peter Tremayne (P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
Hurt
Summary
Lucy Black must protect the young and vulnerable... but can she protect herself? Late December. A 16-year-old girl is found dead on a train line. Detective Sergeant Lucy Black is called to identify the body. The only clues to the dead teenager's last movements are stored in her mobile phone and on social media - and it soon becomes clear that her 'friends' weren't what they claimed to be. Lucy is no stranger to death: she is still haunted by the memory of the child she failed to save, and the killer she failed to put behind bars. And with a new boss scrutinizing her every move, she is determined that - this time - she will leave no margin for error. Hurt is a tense crime thriller about how, in the hands of a predator, trust can turn into terror. Brian McGilloway was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1974, and teaches English at St Columb's College, Derry. He lives near the Irish borderlands with his wife and their four children.
©2013 Brian McGilloway (P)2013 Audible Ltd
The Seventh Trumpet
Summary
Sister Fidelma returns in another gripping Celtic mystery by Peter Tremayne, acclaimed author of The Subtle Serpent, Suffer Little Children and many more. Ireland, AD 670. When the body of a murdered young noble is discovered not far from Cashel, the King calls upon Sister Fildema and her companion Eadulf to investigate. The only clue to the noble's identity is an emblem originating from the nearby kingdom of Laign. Could the murder be somehow related to the violence erupting in the west of the kingdom? The turmoil is led by a fanatical figure claiming to have been summoned by 'the seventh angel' to remove the 'impure of faith' from the land, and Fidelma and Eadulf soon find themselves struggling with a tangled skein of murder and intrigue. What is the mystery that connects the dead noble, a murdered alcoholic priest, and a menacing abbot who has built his abbey into a military fortress? When Sister Fidelma herself becomes the victim of abduction, it is up to Eadulf to find and save her from imminent death, so that the mystery can be solved.
©2012 Peter Tremayne (P)2012 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
The Compromise
Summary
Childhood friends Juliet, Rebecca, Rose, and Matthew grew up in a small village outside Dublin. Now privileged, wealthy, and powerful, they appear to have it all. But when Juliet is involved in a suspicious accident and lies trapped between life and death at the bottom of a cliff, a secret that has been hidden for years threatens the seemingly perfect lives of the close-knit group.
©2014 Zoe Miller (P)2014 W F Howes Ltd
The Mother's Story
Summary
"I was six when my father died so my mother has been everything to me. Wherever I go I tell the world about my wonderful mother. I'm a singer today because of her encouragement. She has been the biggest influence in my life” - Daniel O'Donnell. Irish singing star Daniel O'Donnell's mother, Julia, grew up on a remote island off the northwest coast of Ireland, going barefoot and doing hard labour as a child during the poverty-stricken 1920s. The hard work continued through her teenage years as she picked potatoes in the fields and travelled to Scotland to gut fish in the ports. After she married and settled in Kincasslagh, Julia's beloved husband, Francie, was forced to leave his family for months on end to work on farms, again in Scotland. The work was physically demanding and eventually took its toll. Sadly, Julia found herself widowed and penniless with five children while still in her forties. In this classic and inspiring story of triumph over adversity, Julia tells how she battled through this dark period by knitting sweaters into the early hours of every night to support her family. They were sold in America by relatives and the money was sent back to Ireland by post. Then, in an amazing twist of fate, this hard-working woman and dedicated mother watched from the wings as her offspring flourished in life. Her daughter Margo and son Daniel went on to achieve fame as chart-topping singers. In The Mother's Story, Julia takes us on a journey from her humble beginnings growing up in a thatched cottage on Owey Island, to a glitzy lifestyle mingling with celebrities and royalty. Poignant, warm and laced with great humour, Julia's story gives us a fascinating insight into this remarkable Irish family's life.
©2007 Julia O'Donnell (P)2012 Magna Publishing, Random House Audiobooks 2012
Mother of the Bride
Summary
A summer wedding - what could be more perfect?
A warm and uplifting novel from the number one best-selling Irish author.
Everyone knows that Amy and Dan are made for each other. So when they announce their engagement their families are over the moon, especially Amy's mother, Helen. What could be more exciting than planning a daughter's wedding?
But as the countdown to the Big Day begins, and mother and daughter throw themselves into creating the wedding of their dreams, not everyone's prepared for the commotion this involves.
Bride-to-be Amy sees her best laid wedding plans start to unravel, and things go from bad to worse as Helen struggles to pick up the pieces and get her family back on track. Amy and Helen each discover what love and marriage are all about...but is it too late?
It's not easy being a mother, let alone the Mother of the Bride!
©2010 Marita Conlon-McKenna (P)2011 Magna Story Sound
Dial P for Poison
Summary
“My career in the San Francisco PD ended the day I arrested my husband.” Maggie Doyle gives her cheating ex and crumbling career in the San Francisco PD the proverbial middle finger, and moves to the Wild West...of Ireland. Lured by her aunt’s promise of a restful Irish vacation, Maggie agrees to help out at the Movie Theater Café in exchange for bed and board. Things are looking up - until the most hated woman on Whisper Island is poisoned at the café. With her aunt as the prime suspect, Maggie and her rock-hard muffins are hurled into the murder investigation. With the help of her UFO-enthusiast friend, a nun, and a feral puppy, Maggie is determined to clear her aunt’s name. Can she catch the murderer before they strike again? Or will her terrible baking skills burn down the cafe first?
©2017 Sarah Tanner (P)2020 Sarah Tanner
Bad Blood
Summary
A young man is found in a riverside park, his head bashed in with a rock. The only clue to his identity is an admission stamp for the local gay club. DS Lucy Black is called in to investigate. As Lucy delves into the community, tensions begin to rise as the man's death draws the attention of the local gay rights group to a hate-speech pastor who, days earlier, had advocated the stoning of gay people and who refuses to retract his statement. Things become more complicated with the emergence of a far-right group targeting immigrants in a local working-class estate. As their attacks escalate, Lucy and her boss, Tom Fleming, must also deal with the building power struggle between an old paramilitary commander and his deputy that threatens to further enflame an already volatile situation. Hatred and complicity abound in the days leading up to the Brexit vote in McGilloway's new Lucy Black thriller. Compelling and current, Bad Blood is expertly crafted and acutely observed.
©2017 Brian McGilloway (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
He's Got to Go
Summary
What do you do when the man in you life lets you down? Show him the door? Chuck his clothes out of the window? If only it was that easy - especially when you've got an eight year old to think about and a part-time job that barely pays the milk bill.
©2002 Sheila O'Flanagan (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Family Gift
Summary
Four women, all at different stages of their life, are brought together as they overcome the challenges that life tends to throw in our way - and learn to embrace the surprises, too, as each faces a second chance at happiness.
©2019 Cathy Kelly (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group