Karen Cass has narrated 167 audiobooks on Listento.it by 121 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 1,289 ratings. The most-rated is The Reunion.
Princes of the Renaissance
Summary
A history of the Renaissance told through the lives of its most influential patrons. From the late Middle Ages, the independent Italian city states were taken over by powerful families who installed themselves as dynastic rulers. Inspired by the humanists, the princes of 15th- and 16th-century Italy immersed themselves in the culture of antiquity, commissioning palaces, villas and churches inspired by the architecture of ancient Rome, and offering patronage to artists and writers. Many of these princes were related by blood or marriage, creating a web of alliances that held society together but whose tensions sometimes threatened to tear it apart: thus were their lives dominated as much by the waging of war as the nurture of the artistic talent. In a narrative that is as rigorous and closely researched as it is accessible and informative, Mary Hollingsworth sets the princes' aesthetic achievements in the context of the volatile, ever-shifting politics of a tumultuous period of history.
©2021 Mary Hollingsworth (P)2021 W F Howes
The Guinea Pig Club
Summary
The history of the Guinea Pig Club, the band of airmen who were seriously burned in aeroplane fires, is a truly inspiring, spine-tingling tale. Plastic surgery was in its infancy before the Second World War. The most rudimentary techniques were known only to a few surgeons worldwide. The Allies were tremendously fortunate in having maverick surgeon Archibald McIndoe - nicknamed ‘the Boss’, or ‘the Maestro’ - operating at a small hospital in East Grinstead in the south of England. McIndoe constructed a medical infrastructure from scratch. After arguing with his superiors, he set up a revolutionary new treatment regime. Uniquely concerned with the social environment, or holistic care, McIndoe also enlisted the help of the local civilian population. He rightly secured his group of patients, dubbed the ‘Guinea Pig Club’, an honoured place in society as heroes of Britain’s war.
©2018 Emily Mayhew (P)2019 Aurora Audio Books
Nothing to Lose
Summary
He’s looking for his next victim. She looks just like his last. Primrose Hill, London. Criminal profiler Ziba MacKenzie arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder with a disturbing sense of déjà vu. Nine days earlier, another woman’s body was found: same location, same MO, same physical appearance. For the police, it’s clear a new serial killer is on the loose. But for Ziba, it’s even more sinister - because the victims look just like her. Ziba has been the focus of a killer’s interest before and knows that if she gets too close again this case could be her last. Still, she’s not one to play by the rules - especially when her secret investigation into her husband’s murder begins to attract unwanted attention. With someone watching her every step, can Ziba uncover what connects the two victims before she becomes one herself?
©2019 Victoria Selman (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Love and Freindship and Other Delusions
Summary
Love and Freindship was written when Jane Austen was just 14. Now updated in this sparkling satire by Beth Andrews, the story follows Isabel and her daughter, Marianne, when they attend the theatre in Bury St Edmunds and encounter Isabel’s old friend, Laura Lindsay, who gives her journal to Marianne to read. It is a revelation to the younger woman as she reads of one hilarious, madcap romantic escapade after another. There is love at first sight, marriage the same day, the befriending of another young woman as romantic as Laura herself, exaggerated sentiment and complete disregard for the feelings of others. Havoc inevitably ensues. This is Jane Austen retold but retaining her huge capacity for laughter and enjoyment of the absurd.
©2014 Beth Andrews (P)2015 Soundings
The Undesired
Summary
Aldis hates her job working in a juvenile detention center in rural Iceland. The boys are difficult, the owners are unpleasant, and there are mysterious noises at night. And then two of the boys go astray.... Decades later single father Odinn is looking into alleged abuse at the center. The more he finds out, though, the more it seems the odd events of the 1970s are linked to the accident that killed his ex-wife. Was her death something more sinister? Yrsa Sigurdardottir is a huge European best seller with both her crime and her horror novels. You might want to sleep with the light on after listening to The Undesired.
©2015 Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, Victoria Cribb. (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton
Candleford Green
Summary
Now in her early teens, Laura moves to the village of Candleford Green to work in the post office under the tutelage of her cousin Dorcas Lane, and grow into womanhood. In Candleford Green, new ideas and new ways are coming in from the outside world, from Dorcas' famous telegraph machine to the scandalous sight of ladies riding bicycles. There are also new people entering Laura's life: the curmudgeonly old servant Zillah, the grand Sir Thomas, the Irish Harvesters and the ardent young gamekeeper Philip White. As Laura adjusts to this world, the traditions and ways of her country childhood seem further and further away - and a different future beckons.
©1941 Flora Thompson (P)2019 Soundings
Witch Switch
Summary
Tiga Whicabim is settling in to the witchy world of Ritzy City. Peggy is Top Witch, and Tiga is enjoying life at the Brews' house with Fluffanora. But when Fran the Fabulous Fairy visits Linden House and finds Peggy has gone, leaving evil Felicity Bat in charge - the girls realise something is very wrong. When witches all across town start to disappear, Tiga and Fluffanora set out to investigate and discover an unsolved mystery that might just be the key to it all.
©2015 Sibéal Pounder (P)2016 W F Howes Ltd
The Staycation
Summary
Two families. One cancelled flight. And a last-minute house swap.... Things get desperate for strangers Harriet and Sophie when they become stranded with their families in Heathrow's Terminal 5. Each woman has her own reason for really, really, really needing the family holiday they've anticipated for months. But Iceland's volcano has other plans for them. When their flights are cancelled, the families swap houses and discover that sometimes the best things in life happen close to home. This ash cloud has a silver lining, even if no one can quite see it yet. For fans of Sarah Morgan and Sue Moorcroft.
©2020 Michele Gorman (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group
Closer to Home
Summary
Family. Secrets. Murder. Newly promoted DI Kate Fletcher has reluctantly returned to her hometown after a 20 year absence and a recent divorce. The discovery of a child’s body near the estate where Kate grew up has her rushing back to Thorpe - a place of bad memories and closed mouths. As her team investigate the murder, they keep hitting dead ends. The community is reluctant to reopen old wounds and retell old stories. But Kate’s history refuses to stay buried. Then another child disappears.... Can Kate solve the case and right the wrongs from her past?
©2017 Heleyne Hammersley (P)2017 W. F. Howes Ltd
New Year, New Guy
Summary
Soundings and Choc Lit present the audio edition of New Year, New Guy. When Laura’s bride-to-be sister, Polly, organises a surprise reunion for her fiancé and his long lost American friend, Laura grudgingly agrees to help keep the secret. And when the plain-spoken, larger-than-life Hunter McQueen steps off the bus in her rainy Devon town and only just squeezes into her tiny car, it confirms that Laura has made a big mistake in going along with her sister's crazy plan. But could the tall, handsome man with the Nashville drawl be just what reserved Laura Williams needs to shake up her life and start something new?
©2020 Angela Britnel (P)2020 Soundings
Beneath a Stormy Sky
Summary
1879: Shipwrecked off the West Coast of Australia, Louisa Reynolds is aided by an aboriginal girl and a kindly doctor, eventually making a fresh start in the town of Albany. Unexpected new friendships with two men, old gentleman George and dashing Connor, give her joy - but when she accepts an invitation to stay at George's sheep station, the locals are scandalised by a single woman in the company of men. Louisa's growing feelings for Connor are shattered by a revelation - and it is gentle George who she suddenly marries. Only, settling into station life comes with its own problems, financial and otherwise. Confronted by a devastating fire and a gang of bushrangers, Louisa feels as though her world is spinning out of control. Can she save the sheep station? And how long can she deny the love she feels for Connor?
©2019 AnneMarie Brear (P)2020 Aurora Audio Books
Rules of Attraction
Summary
To the owner of the Distinguished Academy of Governesses Dear Madame Owner, I am looking for an experienced companion for my sweet, elderly, slightly dotty aunt, and that companion must be: 1. Tall, blonde and twenty-seven years of age. 2. Desirous of living in an ancient castle in an isolated area of Lancashire. 3. Not nervous about any sinister rumors about me. 4. You. Sincerely, the newly titled Marquess of Raeburn From the owner of the Distinguished Academy of Governesses My dear, mysterious Lord Raeburn, Coincidentally, I fulfill all your requisites. However, as condition to accepting this position, I insist on the following: 1. That no interest be shown in my past. 2. That I have the free time to explore Lancashire for reasons that I will not divulge. 3. That you not bother to deny your culpability in the disappearance of your wife. 4. That we will not indulge in familiarity that will surely lead to another disastrous, passionate interlude between us. Sincerely, Hannah Setterington
©2001 Christina Dodd (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Over to Candleford
Summary
In the little hamlet of Lark Rise times are changing and Laura is growing up. Although she must attend the nearby village school, she would far rather read and make up stories in her head. Real-life excitement comes, however, when she and her beloved younger brother Edmund are allowed to walk on their own to the grand market town of Candleford to stay with their relatives one summer. There, Laura discovers the joys of the shops, the ways of boy-talk with her cousins and the secret world of 'Bookworms Ltd' with her Uncle Tom, before an offer arrives that will determine her future.
©1941 Flora Thompson (P)2019 Soundings
The Make
Summary
Murder, loyalty and vengeance collide in Jessie Keane's gritty fourth audiobook. Life is good for Gracie Doyle - running her Manchester casino keeps her busy. Until the police turn up at her door one day and her world is turned upside down. She is given news that her two estranged brothers have been viciously attacked. George is in hospital on a ventilator, and, worringly, Harry is missing. Gracie has no option but to leave the good life and dip her toe into the murky waters of her East End past. She leaves for London in an attempt to avenge her brothers and in doing so uncovers some unsavoury secrets about the lifestyle they've been leading. Their little games have got them into big trouble with the wrong people.... She must keep her wits about her and try to find Harry, or it could prove fatal....
©2011 Jessie Keane (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
Some Trick
Summary
Hailed a “Best Book of the Year” by NPR, Publishers Weekly, Vulture, and the New York Public Library
Finalist for the 2019 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction
For sheer unpredictable brilliance, Gogol may come to mind, but no author alive today takes a listener as far as Helen DeWitt into the funniest, most yonder dimensions of possibility. Her jumping-off points might be statistics, romance, the art world’s piranha tank, games of chance and games of skill, the travails of publishing, or success. “Look,” a character begins to explain, laying out some gambit reasonably enough, even if facing a world of boomeranging counterfactuals, situations spinning out to their utmost logical extremes, and Rube Goldberg-like moving parts, where things prove “more complicated than they had first appeared” and “at 3 a.m. the circumstances seem to attenuate.” In various ways, each tale carries DeWitt’s signature poker-face lament regarding the near-impossibility of the life of the mind when one is made to pay to have the time for it, in a world so sadly “taken up with all sorts of paraphernalia superfluous, not to say impedimental, to ratiocination.”
©2018 Helen DeWitt (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Dangerous
Summary
Dangerous by Jessie Keane is a deadly story of London's criminal underworld from the best-selling author of Nameless. Whatever the cost, she would pay it.... Fifteen-year-old Clara Dolan's world is blown apart following the death of her mother. Battling to keep what remains of her family together, Clara vows to protect her younger siblings, Bernadette and Henry, from danger, whatever the cost. With the arrival of the swinging '60s, Clara finds herself swept up in London's dark underworld, where the glamour of Soho's dazzling nightclubs sits in stark contrast to the terrifying gangland violence that threatens the new life she has worked so hard to build. Sinking further into an existence defined by murder and betrayal, Clara soon realizes that success often comes at a very high price....
©2015 Jessie Keane (P)2016 Macmillan Digital Audio
For the Dogs
Summary
This is the story of Ella and Lucas. Ella is touring Italy with her boyfriend, unaware that her entire family has been murdered, that her father's business dealings are questionable, and that someone is about to attempt to kill her. Lucas is a retired hitman, keeping an eye on Ella as a favour for her father. He saves Ella from her would-be killers, but a complex dance ensues, with Ella determined on revenge, and Lucas equally determined to leave that life behind, to reconnect with his former girlfriend and the daughter he's never known. Please note: For the Dogs has been published elsewhere under the title The Hunter's Prayer.
©2012 Kevin Wignall (P)2012 Audible Ltd
The Little Book of Humanism
Summary
The Sunday Times best seller We all want to lead a happy life. Traditionally, when in need of guidance, comfort or inspiration, many people turn to religion. But there has been another way to learn how to live well - the humanist way - and in today's more secular world, it is more relevant than ever. In The Little Book of Humanism, Alice Roberts and Andrew Copson share over 2,000 years of humanist wisdom through an uplifting collection of stories, quotes and meditations on how to live an ethical and fulfilling life, grounded in reason and humanity. With universal insights, The Little Book of Humanism is a perfect introduction to and a timeless anthology of humanist thought from some of history and today's greatest thinkers.
©2020 Andrew Copson and Alice Roberts (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK
In My Wildest Dreams
Summary
"Reminiscent of the classic movie Sabrina, this heartwarming Victorian-era treatment will please Christina Dodd's many fans." -- Publisher's Weekly Since she was a little girl, Celeste has had one burning desire: to marry rich, handsome Ellery Throckmorton. The education she receives at the Distinguished Academy of Governesses gives Celeste a refinement that complements her ravishing beauty, and makes her bold romantic dream more attainable. But, alas, temptation gets in the way... For wherever Celeste turns, it is not Ellery she encounters, but his intriguing older brother Garrick. She cannot disregard the fluttering of her heart whenever Garrick deigns to smile at her. And the passion she senses smoldering beneath his formidable control tempts her in a manner a lady must never allow... In My Wildest Dreams
©2001 by Christina Dodd. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Knock
Summary
She lives in fear of...the knock. Dora O’Brien had a good start in life, but things went bad when she began to mix with the wrong company. Pregnant by her gangster lover, she found herself on the streets and then in the grips of a bent copper called Donny Maguire. When her daughter Angel is born, Dora is already under the influence of drink and drugs and handed around to Donny’s mates. Growing up in the shadow of her mother’s abusive relationship, Angel is nothing like her mother, but when matters turn murderous, Angel is forced to grow up fast, and survival becomes the name of the game. For some, being on the wrong side of the law is the safest place to be.... No one uncovers the underworld like Jessie Keane.
©2020 Jessie Keane (P)2020 Macmillan Digital Audio