Chloe Massey has narrated 17 audiobooks on Listento.it by 14 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 2,712 ratings. The most-rated is The Guest List.
The Guest List
Summary
A Reese's Book Club Pick “I loved this book. It gave me the same waves of happiness I get from curling up with a classic Christie.... The alternating points of view keep you guessing, and guessing wrong.” (Alex Michaelides, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Silent Patient) "Evok[es] the great Agatha Christie classics.... Pay close attention to seemingly throwaway details about the characters’ pasts. They are all clues.” (New York Times Book Review) A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times best-selling author of The Hunting Party. The bride - the plus one - the best man - the wedding planner - the bridesmaid - the body. On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?
©2020 Lucy Foley (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Dead Beat
Summary
Dead Beat introduces Kate Brannigan, a Thai-boxing, rock-and-roll female private detective from Manchester. As a favor to her rock journalist boyfriend, Kate agrees to track down a missing song-writer Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford. But little does she realize that finding Moira is only a prelude to murder. Juggling her other cases, including a search to uncover the source of counterfeit luxury goods, Brannigan finds herself for the first time on the trail of a killer.
©1992 Val McDermid (P)2019 W.F. Howes Ltd.
Storm in a Teacup
Summary
A physicist explains daily phenomena from the mundane to the magisterial.
Take a look up at the stars on a clear night and you get a sense that the universe is vast and untouchable, full of mysteries beyond comprehension. But did you know that the key to unveiling the secrets of the cosmos is as close as the nearest toaster?
Our home here on earth is messy, mutable, and full of humdrum things that we touch and modify without much thought every day. But these familiar surroundings are just the place to look if you're interested in what makes the universe tick. In Storm in a Teacup, Helen Czerski provides the tools to alter the way we see everything around us by linking ordinary objects and occurrences, like popcorn popping, coffee stains, and fridge magnets, to big ideas like climate change, the energy crisis, and innovative medical testing. She guides us through the principles of gases ("explosions in the kitchen are generally considered a bad idea. But just occasionally a small one can produce something delicious"); gravity (drop some raisins in a bottle of carbonated lemonade and watch the whoosh of bubbles and the dancing raisins at the bottom bumping into each other); size (Czerski explains the action of the water molecules that cause the crime-scene stain left by a puddle of dried coffee); and time (why it takes so long for ketchup to come out of a bottle).
Along the way, she provides answers to vexing questions: How does water travel from the roots of a redwood tree to its crown? How do ducks keep their feet warm when walking on ice? Why does milk, when added to tea, look like billowing storm clouds? In an engaging voice at once warm and witty, Czerski shares her stunning breadth of knowledge to lift the veil of familiarity from the ordinary. You may never look at your toaster the same way.
©2017 Helen Czerski (P)2017 Random House Audio
Violated: A shocking and harrowing survival story from the notorious Rotherham abuse scandal
Summary
The shocking first true account from one of the young girls who lived through and survived the Rotherham sex abuse scandal. In the summer of 2014, the Rotherham sex abuse scandal sent shockwaves through the nation. A report revealed that since the 1990s, up to 1,400 young girls in the town had been regularly abused by sex gangs, predominantly comprised of Pakistani men. As the media descended on the small Yorkshire town, Sarah Wilson watched with horror and relief as her voice was finally heard after years of abuse. Sarah was just 11 years old when she was befriended by a group of older men. Bullied at school, naive and vulnerable, the gifts and attention they lavished on her were what she craved; she just wanted to belong. But soon she was hooked on alcohol and drugs, and then they owned her. She was just 12 years old when she was bundled into a car by a man in his 30s and forced to have sex with him. Soon the gang were driving her to places where she was raped by scores of men. Falling through the system, from social services to school, no one was able to help her. She escaped when she became too old for the men at nearly 16. Finally a victim of the Rotherham scandal tells her story in the hope that other young girls will not fall prey to the same evil that she endured.
©2015 Sarah Wilson (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Star Struck
Summary
"McDermid has a sharp ear for the dialogue and intrinsic humor of the Manchester dialect.... She manages, as always, to combine her wit and exuberant writing with a careful and clever plot and oodles of perceptive social observation." (The Times (London)) Bodyguarding had never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan's wish list. But somebody's got to pay the bills at Brannigan & Co., and if the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star, the fast-talking, computer-loving, white-collar-crime expert has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai-boxing kit. Soon, however, offstage dramas overshadow the fictional storylines, culminating in the unscripted murder of the self-styled "Seer to the Stars", and Kate finds herself with more questions than answers. What's more, her tame hacker has found virtual love, her process server keeps getting arrested, and the ever-reliable Dennis has had the temerity to get himself charged with murder. Nobody told her there'd be days like these....
©1998 Val McDermid (P)2019 Recorded Books
Kick Back
Summary
In the second in the series, Kate Brannigan investigates the bizarre case of the missing conservatories (sunrooms attached to the back of a standing house), unearthing an unscrupulous lawyer (later found hanging from his balcony in flimsy women's apparel); a supersalesman with an overstuffed bank account; and a brother-sister pair who are double-crossing everyone. And this real estate fiddling ties in with a separate scam involving Kate's best buds - and murder of the most unexpected order. Clearly Kate has stumbled upon something very rotten in real estate. And little do the criminals realize that in proposing to write Manchester's canny, kick-boxing P.I. out of the picture, they have signed a deed for their own downfall.
©1993 Val McDermid (P)2019 W.F. Howes Ltd.
The Vintage Guide to Love and Romance
Summary
When Jessica Beam is thrown out of her flat, she finds herself relying on her only family. Things aren't going so well for Grandma, either. Her 1950s Good Woman guide books are out of print, and her mortgage is staggering. When a publisher throws them a lifeline - a new contract if they can prove the Good Woman guides still work - Jess and Matilda have to work together if they want a roof over their heads.
©2015 Kirsty Greenwood (P)2015 W.F. Howes Ltd
The Influence
Summary
Now a major Netflix movie "This is a chilling work and the fullest treatment of one of Campbell's recurring themes - the psychic violence family members wreak upon one another." (Publishers Weekly) Queenie is the aging matriarch of the Faraday family, and even death can’t break her hold over her 11-year-old granddaughter, Rowan. She’s buried with a locket that contains a lock of Rowan’s hair, and soon afterwards, Rowan is befriended by a mysterious, uncannily intelligent girl of her own age. Only her aunt Hermione suspects how sinister this is, but will retrieving the locket save her niece? By the time anyone sees what effect the ghostly influence on Rowan is having, it may be too late for her. if the child who takes her place in the family isn’t Rowan, Rowan may be somewhere else not quite like our world.... Flame Tree Press is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018, the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners and exciting, original voices.
©2019 Flame Tree Publishing (P)2019 Flame Tree Publishing
The Night Caller
Summary
I step out of my hiding place; now comes the thrill. My hand goes around his neck as I pull him close. He struggles, and his shoes skid across the walkway. Then I push. The splash resonates around the silent canal, but he never makes a sound. There isn’t a serial killer stalking the canals of Detective Sergeant Carrie Flynn’s hometown of Manchester. That’s what the police tell the local community, but Carrie knows that just isn’t true. Six years, a dozen victims…Carrie spends every night alone in her flat, going back over the hundreds of files, looking for the missing clue. Now, another person has vanished, only this time the police haven’t found a body. Carrie knows all too well what it feels like to have someone you love disappear without a trace. Her sister has been missing for 20 years, and Carrie will never stop searching for her. The victim’s relatives are distraught, and Carrie has no answers to give them. But why does the mother not want to answer questions? Who is the mysterious girl next door? What secrets are this family hiding? Then Carrie finally gets a breakthrough; years ago, she caught a glimpse of the killer and the distinctive tattoo on his arm. When she finds a picture of this tattoo, she knows she’s close at last. Carrie wasn’t there when her sister needed her most, but she will spend the rest of her life making sure no more twisted souls walk free. Can she finally solve the case that has cast a long shadow over her career, and will the demons in her own past help her to catch this deadly killer?
©2019 Jeanette Hewitt (P)2019 Audible, Ltd
Crack Down
Summary
There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with an investigation into a car sales fraud - nothing bad could happen. But by now Kate should know that with Richard you have to expect the unexpected. With Richard behind bars, Kate seems to be the obvious choice to look after his eight-year-old son - who proves even more troublesome than his father. Kate finds herself dragged into a world of drug traffickers, child pornographers, fraudsters, and violent gangland enforcers bringing her face-to-face with death in the most terrifying investigation of her career.
©1994, 2018 Val McDermid (P)2019 Recorded Books
The First Time Lauren Pailing Died
Summary
Lauren Pailing is born in the '60s and a child of the '70s. She is 13 years old the first time she dies. Lauren Pailing is a teenager in the '80s, becomes a Londoner in the '90s. And each time she dies, new lives begin for the people who loved her - while Lauren enters a brand-new life, too. But in each of Lauren’s lives, a man called Peter Stanning disappears. And, in each of her lives, Lauren sets out to find him. And so it is that every ending is also a beginning. And so it is that, with each new beginning, Peter Stanning inches closer to finally being found.... Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson and Maggie O’Farrell, The First Time Lauren Pailing Died is a book about loss, grief - and how, despite it not always feeling that way, every ending marks the start of something new.
©2019 Alyson Rudd (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Blood Sisters
Summary
It's 1983, and best friends Vicky and Lucy swear that they will always be there for each other, that they'll never let anyone come between them. But fast-forward four years, and life on the Canterbury Estate has gotten very messy. Lucy has fallen for local policeman's son Jimmy. And Vicky is madly in love with Paddy, the charming but ruthless local bad boy. The boys are bitter enemies and determined to keep the two girls apart. But then Vicky is accused of murder, and even her drug-dealer boyfriend wants her mouth shut - permanently. Maybe Lucy is the only one who can save her.... Love, murder, revenge. Who can you really trust when there's blood on your hands?
©2017 Julie Shaw (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
Blue Genes
Summary
Kate Brannigan is having a bad weekend, her boyfriend's death notice is in the newspaper, her plans to capture a team of heartless fraudsters are in disarray, and a Celtic neo-punk band want her to rescue them from saboteurs. As if that isn't enough, Kate's business partner wants her to buy him out so he can emigrate to Australia, and private eyes with principles never have that kind of cash. Kate can't even cry on her best friend's shoulder, for Alexis has worries of her own. Confronting betrayal and greed, Kate fights to save her livelihood and her life.
©2018 Val McDermid (P)2019 Recorded Books
Clean Break
Summary
English kick-boxer and Rudyard Kipling fan Kate Brannigan appears in her fourth adventure, chasing down art thieves in Italy while unravelling a nasty case of product tampering in her homeland. When a precious Monet painting is nicked from a posh British estate where she arranged the security, the tough-talking PI is right on the job to get it back. Kate Brannigan goes head to head with organized crime when a routine industrial case starts leaving a trail of bodies across the northwest, forcing Kate to confront hard truths in her own life.
©2018 Val McDermid (P)2019 Recorded Books
If I Can't Have You
Summary
If I Can't Have You by Charlotte Levin is an all-consuming novel about loneliness, obsession and how far we go for the ones we love. My name is Constance Little. This is my love story. But this isn’t the way it was supposed to end. After fleeing Manchester for London, Constance attempts to put past tragedies behind her and make a fresh start. When she embarks on a relationship with the new doctor at the medical practice where she works, she’s convinced she’s finally found the love and security she craves. Then he ends it. But if life has taught her anything, it’s that if you love someone, you should never let them go. That's why for Constance Little, her obsession is only just beginning....
©2020 Charlotte Levin (P)2020 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd 2020
Mine
Summary
In this riveting tale of psychological suspense, a divorce lawyer risks her career, her sanity, and her life when she falls into an illicit, all-consuming affair with her client - who becomes the primary suspect in his estranged wife’s sudden disappearance. Young divorce lawyer Francine Day has methodically built her career doing everything right. She’s one big case away from securing her place among London’s legal elite. But when she meets her new client, Martin Joy, the natural caution that has protected Francine and fueled her rise melts away. Powerless to fight the irresistible magnetism between them, client and counsel tumble into a blistering affair that breaks every rule. Though Martin insists his marriage is over, Francine doesn’t believe him. Certain details he’s told her don’t quite add up. Consumed with a passion she cannot control and increasingly obsessed with Martin’s relationship with his wife, Donna, Francine follows the woman one night...and discovers her having dinner with her supposedly soon-to-be-ex-husband. The next morning, Francine awakens in her neighbor’s apartment with blood on her clothes and no recollection of what transpired after she spied Donna and Martin together. Then Francine receives more devastating news: Martin’s wife has vanished. That dinner was the last place anyone has seen Donna Joy alive. Suddenly, Francine finds herself caught in a dangerous labyrinth of deception, lies, and secrets, in which one false move could lead to her undoing. What happened that night and why can’t Francine remember? Where is Donna and who is responsible for her disappearance? The further Francine goes to find answers, the tighter the net seems to draw - around her lover, herself, and the life she’s meticulously built.
©2018 TJP Media Ltd. (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Cow Girl
Summary
Winner of the Comedy Women in Print Prize. Shortlisted for The Katie Fforde Debut Romantic Novel Award 2021. When her father falls ill, Billie returns home to the Yorkshire farm which she left behind for life in London. The transition back to country lass from city girl isn’t easy, not least because leaving London means leaving her relationship with Joely Chevalier, just as it was heating up. And when she gets to Yorkshire, Billie’s shocked to discover the family dairy farm is in dire straits – the last thing Billie expected was a return to the life of a farmer but it isn’t long before she’s up at five in the morning with manure up to her wellies. Can Billie must find a way to keep the cows happy, save the farm and save herself?
©2020 Kirsty Eyre (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited