Donada Peters has narrated 19 audiobooks on Listento.it by 8 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 180 ratings. The most-rated is A Great Deliverance.
A Great Deliverance
Summary
To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale's lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they'd hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell's raiders. Now into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an ax in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry". Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale's dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley - and in their own lives as well.
©1989 Susan Elizabeth George (P)2018 Random House Audio
Mr. Churchill's Secretary
Summary
For fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Laurie R. King, and Anne Perry, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary captures the drama of an era of unprecedented challenge - and the greatness that rose to meet it. London, 1940: Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for codebreaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined - and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history. Ensnared in a web of spies, murder, and intrigue, Maggie must work quickly to balance her duty to King and Country with her chances for survival. And when she unravels a mystery that points toward her own family’s hidden secrets, she’ll discover that her quick wits are all that stand between an assassin’s murderous plan and Churchill himself. In this daring debut, Susan Elia MacNeal blends meticulous research on the era, psychological insight into Winston Churchill, and the creation of a riveting main character, Maggie Hope, into a spectacularly crafted novel.
©2012 Susan Elia Macneal (P)2012 Random House Audio
In the Presence of the Enemy
Summary
Hailed as the "king of sleaze", tabloid editor Dennis Luxford is used to ferreting out the sins and scandals of people in exposed positions. But when he opens an innocuous-looking letter addressed to him at The Source, he discovers that someone else excels at ferreting out secrets as well. Ten-year-old Charlotte Bowen has been abducted, and if Luxford does not admit publicly to having fathered her, she will die. But Charlotte's existence is Luxford's most fiercely guarded secret, and acknowledging her as his child will throw more than one life and career into chaos. Luxford knows the story of Charlotte's paternity could make him a laughingstock and reveal to his beautiful wife and son the lie he's lived for a decade. Yet it's not only Luxford's reputation that's on the line: It's also the reputation - and career - of Charlotte Bowen's mother. For she is undersecretary of state for the Home Office, one of the most high-profile junior ministers and quite possibly the next Margaret Thatcher. Knowing that her political future hangs in the balance, Eve Bowen refuses to let Luxford damage her career by printing the story or calling the police. So the editor turns to forensic scientist Simon St. James for help. It's a case that fills St. James with disquiet, however, for none of the players in the drama seem to react the way one would expect. Then, tragedy occurs, and New Scotland Yard becomes involved. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley soon discovers the case sends tentacles from London into the countryside, and he must simultaneously outfox death as he probes Charlotte Bowen's mysterious disappearance. Meanwhile, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, working part of the investigation on her own and hoping to make the coup of her career, may be drawing closer to a grim solution - and to danger - than anyone knows. In the Presence of the Enemy is a brilliantly insightful and haunting novel of ideals corrupted by self-interest, of the sins of parents visited upon children, and of the masks that hide people from each other - and from themselves.
©1996 Susan Elizabeth George (P)2018 Random House Audio
Well-Schooled in Murder
Summary
"The Lynley books constitute the smartest, most gratifyingly complex and impassioned mystery series now being published." (Entertainment Weekly) When 13-year-old Matthew Whately goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigious public school in the heart of West Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley receives a call for help from the lad’s housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their jurisdiction and deeply involved in the search for a child - and then, tragically, for a child killer. Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinarily evil is going on behind Bredgar Chambers’s cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew’s death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds - and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making....
©1990 Susan Elizabeth George (P)2018 Random House Audio
A Traitor to Memory
Summary
Elizabeth George "reigns as the queen of the mystery genre", raves Entertainment Weekly, which named her novel In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner one of the 10 best books of 1999. The author who has enthralled millions with masterworks of dazzling novels of literary suspense returned with her most astonishing work yet.
"Ms. George proves that the classiest of crime writers are true novelists," proclaimed the New York Times, and each of her previous 10 novels had been an instant international best-seller. With A Traitor to Memory, George returned to the themes that had made her a master of the genre she had made distinctly her own - the classic detective story that is also a richly rewarding tapestry of passion, loyalty, and betrayal. She is a writer like no other, and her novels mark a magnificent literary achievement.
"To listen is to be, but to play is to live...." So believes Gideon Davies, 28-year-old musical wunderkind, a virtuoso violinist whose talents are internationally celebrated. When Gideon finds himself center stage, unable to play, his tortured search for his music - and for the truth behind the appalling event that shaped his life - will lead him to the very heart of love's darkest manifestations.
©2001 Susan Elizabeth George (P)2018 Random House Audio
Missing Joseph
Summary
Deborah and Simon St. James have taken a holiday in the winter landscape of Lancastershire, hoping to heal the growing rift in their marriage. But in the barren countryside awaits bleak news: The vicar of Wimslough, the man they had come to see, is dead - a victim of accidental poisoning. Unsatisfied with the inquest ruling and unsettled by the close association between the investigating constable and the woman who served the deadly meal, Simon calls in his old friend Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley. Together they uncover dark, complex relationships in this rural village, relationships that bring men and women together with a passion, with grief, or with the intention to kill. Peeling away layer after layer of personal history to reveal the torment of a fugitive spirit, Missing Joseph is award-winning author Elizabeth George's greatest achievement.
©2008 Elizabeth George (P)2018 Random House Audio
In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner
Summary
Calder Moor is a wild and deadly place: Many have been trapped in the myriad limestone caves, lost in collapsed copper mines, injured on perilous gritstone ridges. But this time, when two bodies are discovered in the shadow of the ancient circle of stones known as Nine Sisters Henge, it is clearly not a case for Mountain Rescue. The corpses are those of a young man and woman. Each met death in a different fashion. Each died violently.
To Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, brought in to investigate by special request, this grisly crime promises to be one of the toughest assignments of his career. For the unfortunate Nicola Maiden was the daughter of a former officer in an elite undercover unit, a man Lynley once regarded as a mentor. Now, as Lynley struggles to find out if Nicola's killer was an enemy of her father's or one she earned herself, a disgraced Barbara Havers, determined to redeem herself in the eyes of her longtime partner, crisscrosses London seeking information on the second murder victim.
Yet the more dark secrets Lynley and Havers uncover, the more they learn that neither the victims nor the suspects are who they appear to be. Once again, they come up against the icy realization that human relationships are often murderous...and that the blood that binds can also kill.
©2009 Elizabeth George (P)2018 Random House Audio
Playing for the Ashes
Summary
"The story begins with my father, actually, and the fact that I'm the one who's answerable for his death. It was not my first crime, as you will see, but it is the one my mother couldn't forgive." In her astonishing New York Times best-seller, acclaimed author Elizabeth George reveals the even darker truth behind this startling confession. Playing for the Ashes is a rich tale of passion, murder, and love in which Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers once again find themselves embroiled in a case where nothing - and no one - is really what it seems. Intense, suspenseful, and brilliantly written, Playing for the Ashes will make listeners "search out the sleuthing pair's first six adventures...a treasure", as Cosmopolitan predicted in their review.
©1994 Susan Elizabeth George (P)2018 Random House Audio
A Place of Hiding
Summary
An isolated beach on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel is the scene of the murder of Guy Brouard, one of Guernsey’s wealthiest inhabitants and its main benefactor. Forced as a child to flee the Nazis in Paris, Brouard was engaged in his latest project when he died: a museum in honor of those who resisted the German occupation of the island during World War II. It is from this period of time that his murderer may well have come. But there are others on Guernsey with reason to want Guy Brouard dead: his wives, his business associates, his current mistress, the underprivileged teenagers he mentored - any of whom might have harbored a secret motive for murder. As family and friends gather for the reading of the will, Deborah and Simon St. James find that seemingly everyone on the history-haunted island has something to hide. And behind all the lies and alibis, a killer is lurking. In order to bring this person to justice, the St. Jameses must delve into Guernsey’s dark history - both past and present - and into the troubled psyche of someone who may have exacted retribution for the most unspeakable crime of all. In A Place of Hiding, best-selling novelist Elizabeth George marks new territory in the darker landscapes of human relationships. She tells a gripping, suspenseful story of betrayal and devotion, war and remembrance, love and loss...and the higher truths to which we must all ultimately answer.
©2003 Susan Elizabeth George (P)2018 Random House Audio
Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles
Summary
An exhaustively researched novel weaves both historical fact and plausible fiction in bringing the story of Mary Queen of Scots to life.
©1992 Margaret George (P)1998 Books on Tape
The Memoirs of Cleopatra
Summary
This novel allows the unscrupulous and proud Queen of the Nile to recount her own tale. A masterful recreation of history.
©1997 Margaret George (P)1998 Books on Tape
Girl, Serpent, Thorn
Summary
Girl, Serpent, Thorn is "an alluring feminist fairy tale" (Kirkus Reviews) about a girl cursed to be poisonous to the touch and who discovers what power might lie in such a curse. There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it's not just a story. As the day of her twin brother's wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she's willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn't afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison. Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming...human or demon. Princess or monster. A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books "With crystalline, sometimes sensuous prose, [Bashardoust] digs into her characters' motivations and manipulations, deftly keeping readers on the hook until the final, stunning turn." (Booklist, starred review)
©2020 Melissa Bashardoust (P)2020 Macmillan Young Listeners
Deception on His Mind
Summary
Balford-le-Nez is a dying seatown on the coast of Essex. But when a member of the town's small but growing Asian community is found dead on its beach, his neck broken, sleepy Balford-le-Nez ignites. Working solo without her longtime partner, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, Sergeant Barbara Havers must probe not only the mind of a murderer and a case very close to her own heart, but the terrible price people pay for deceiving others...and themselves.
©1997 Susan Elizabeth George (P)2018 Random House Audio
Payment in Blood
Summary
The career of playwright Joy Sinclair comes to an abrupt end on an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands when someone drives an 18-inch dirk through her neck. Called upon to investigate the case in a country where they have virtually no authority, aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers grapple for both a motive and a murderer. Emotions run deep in this highly charged drama, for the list of suspects soon includes Britain’s foremost actress, its most successful theatrical producer, and the woman Lynley loves. He and Havers must tread carefully through the complicated terrain of human relationships while they work to solve a case rooted in the darkest corners of the past and the unexplored regions of the human heart.
©2007 Elizabeth George (P)2019 Random House Audio
A Suitable Vengeance
Summary
"Ms. George proves that the classiest crime writers are true novelists." (The New York Times) Award-winning author Elizabeth George gives us an early glimpse into the lives of Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James, and Lady Helen Clyde in a superlative mystery that is also a fascinating inquiry into the crimes of the heart. Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton, has brought to Howenstow, his family home, the young woman he has asked to be his bride. But the savage murder of a local journalist is the catalyst for a lethal series of events that shatters the calm of a picturesque Cornwall village and embroils Lynley and St. James in a case far outside their jurisdiction - and a little too close to home. When a second death follows closely on the heels of the first, Lynley finds he can't help taking the investigation personally - because the evidence points to a killer within his own family. Praise for A Suitable Vengeance “Elizabeth George reigns as queen of the mystery genre. The Lynley books constitute the smartest, most gratifying complex and impassioned mystery series now being published.” (Entertainment Weekly) “Ms. George can do it all, with style to spare.” (The Wall Street Journal) “George goes to the head of the genre, with class.” (People)
©2007 Elizabeth George (P)2019 Random House Audio
Victoria
Summary
This biography of Victoria highlights the many dramas of her life. For example, she was fatherless at eight months and treated poorly by her family, but survived to become the only English queen comparable to Elizabeth I. The character of Victoria herself, stubborn and vital, is also drawn out.
©1987 Stanley Weintraub (P)1999 Books on Tape
Peter Pan
Summary
Peter Pan, the mischievous imp who refuses to grow up, lands in the Darling's proper middle-class home to look for his shadow. He befriends Wendy, John, and Michael and teaches them to fly (with a little help from fairy dust). He and Tinker Bell whisk them off to Neverland where they encounter the Red Indians, the Little Lost Boys, pirates, and the dastardly Captain Hook. Unlike the boiled-down, sugarcoated contemporary versions of Peter Pan, the original classic by Barrie is not only magical but witty, sophisticated, and delightfully odd.
©1993 Phoenix Recordings (P)2004 Tantor Media, Inc.
Jane Austen
Summary
With the same sensitivity and artfulness that are the trademarks of her award-winning novels, Shields here explores the life of a writer whose own novels have delighted readers for the past two hundred years. In Jane Austen, Shields follows this superb novelist from her early family life in Steventon to her later years in Bath, her broken engagement, and her intense relationship with her sister Cassandra. She reveals both the very private woman and the accomplished author behind the enduring classics Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma. With its fascinating insights into the writing process from a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Carol Shields' magnificent biography of Jane Austen is also a compelling meditation on how great fiction is created.
©2001 Carol Shields (P)2001 Books on Tape, Inc.
Through the Looking Glass
Summary
Through the Looking Glass is a sequel of sorts to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice, now slightly older, walks through a mirror into the Looking-Glass House and immediately becomes involved in a strange game of chess. Soon, she is exploring the rest of the house and meets a sequence of characters now familiar to most: Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Red Queen, Humpty Dumpty, and the Walrus, to name a few. The popular and linguistically playful poem "Jabberwocky" is also found in Through the Looking Glass.
(P)2006 Tantor Media Inc.