Sheila Dearden has narrated 14 audiobooks on Listento.it by 3 authors, with an average listener rating of 3★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is This Haunted World Book Three: Highgate.
Kingshold
Summary
The King is Dead. Long live the people. Mareth is a bard, serial underachiever, professional drunk, and general disappointment to his father. Despite this, Mareth has one thing going for him. He can smell opportunity. The King is dead and an election for the new Lord Protector has been called. If he plays his cards right, sings a story that will put the right person in that chair, his future fame and drinking money are all but assured. But, alas, Mareth has a conscience after all. Neenahwi is the daughter of Jyuth, the ancient wizard who founded the kingdom of Edland, and she is not happy. It's not just that her father was the one who killed the King, or that he didn't tell her about his plans. She's not happy because her father is leaving, slinking off into retirement, and now she has to clean up his mess. Alana is a servant at the palace and the unfortunate soul who has to attend to Jyuth. Alana knows that intelligence and curiosity aren't valued in someone of her station, but sometimes she can't help herself. And so she finds herself drawn into the Wizard's schemes. Chance brings this unlikely band together to battle through civil unrest, assassinations, political machinations, pirates, and monsters, all for a common cause that they know, deep down, has no chance of succeeding - bringing hope to the people of Kingshold.
©2018 D. P. Woolliscroft (P)2019 Tantor
This Haunted World Book Three: Highgate
Summary
From Shani Struthers, the best-selling author of The Venetian and The Eleventh Floor, comes the third in the This Haunted World series: Highgate. With sometimes harrowing scenes, this is her darkest novel yet and not for the faint-hearted! Highgate, perhaps the most famous cemetery in the world, is renowned for its Victorian Gothic splendour, famous residents, its vampire and, of course, ghosts.... Lucy Klein, 42, is not only obsessed with Highgate, she works there too, organising tours for those with an interest in some of the finest Victorian funerary architecture in existence. Single, and on the shy side, she is nonetheless content with her life, or so she thinks. When she meets the enigmatic Zak Harborne, she realizes what she’s been missing and quickly falls in love. Suddenly, it is the business of living that interests her. 1972, and Emma Matthews, a 19-year-old history student, also feels as though she’s on the outside. After visiting a derelict Highgate with a group of friends, she starts to feel a connection, a sense of meaning to her life, amongst the tombstones, the crosses, and the angels. Returning to Highgate over and over, she discovers both a paradise and a garden decidedly more savage. Grace Derby is just 11 when she encounters the gentleman, tall and with a tall hat, a long black coat and a cape about his shoulders. It is the 1850s and street urchins such as her are not accustomed to kindness from those belonging to the upper echelons. Proffering money for food, for her and her family, he asks nothing in return. Curious about the man with the kind blue eyes, she follows him one day…all the way to Highgate. For some, it seems, all roads lead to Highgate....
©2019 Shani Struthers (P)2020 Shani Struthers
Rise to Me
Summary
From Shani Struthers, author of The Haunting of Highdown Hall. "This isn't a ghost we're dealing with. If only it were that simple…." Eighteen years ago, when psychic Ruby Davis was a child, her mother - also a psychic - suffered a nervous breakdown. Ruby was never told why. "It won't help you to know," was the only answer she was ever given. Fast forward to the present and Ruby is earning a living from her gift, running a high street consultancy - Psychic Surveys - specialising in domestic spiritual clearance. Boasting a strong track record, business is booming. Dealing with spirits has become routine, but there is more to the paranormal than even Ruby can imagine. Someone - something - stalks her, terrifying but also strangely familiar. Hiding in the shadows, it is fast becoming bolder. The only way to fight it is for the past to be revealed, no matter what the danger. When you can see the light, you can see the darkness, too. And - sometimes - the darkness can see you.
©2015 Crooked Cat Publishing (P)2017 Shani Struthers
44 Gilmore Street
Summary
From Shani Struthers, author of The Haunting of Highdown Hall. 44 Gilmore Street, the third in the popular Psychic Surveys series. We all have to face our demons at some point. Psychic Surveys - specialists in domestic spiritual clearance - have never been busier. Although exhausted, Ruby is pleased. Her track record, as well as her down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach, inspires faith in the haunted, who willingly call on her high street consultancy when the supernatural takes hold. But that's all about to change. Two cases prove trying: 44 Gilmore Street, home to a particularly violent spirit, and the reincarnation case of Elisha Grey. When Gilmore Street attracts press attention, matters quickly deteriorate. Dubbed the "New Enfield", the ghost of Gilmore Street inflames public imagination, but as Ruby and the team fail repeatedly to evict the entity, faith in them wavers. Dealing with negative press, the strangeness surrounding Elisha, and a spirit that's becoming increasingly territorial, Ruby's at breaking point. So much is pushing her towards the abyss, not least her own past. It seems some demons just won't let go....
©2016 Crooked Cat Publishing (P)2017 Shani Struthers
Descension: A Gripping Supernatural Thriller
Summary
Descension is the fifth book in the best-selling Psychic Surveys series, featuring plot twists, compelling characters, and a mystery at its dark heart! This is what we're dealing with here: the institutionalized. Brookbridge housing estate has long been a source of work for Psychic Surveys. Formerly the site of a notorious mental hospital, Ruby and her team have had to deal with spirits manifesting in people’s homes, still trapped in the cold grey walls of the asylum they once inhabited. There have been plenty of traumatic cases but never a mass case – until now. The last remaining hospital block is due to be pulled down. It is a building teeming with spirits of the most resistant kind - the institutionalized. With the help of a newfound friend, as well as Cash and her colleagues, Ruby attempts to tackle this mammoth task. At the same time, her private life is demanding attention, unravelling in ways she could never imagine. She's about to delve deep into madness. Will she ever find her way back? Discover the Psychic Surveys series today: Psychic Surveys Book One: The Haunting of Highdown Hall Psychic Surveys Book Two: Rise to Me Psychic Surveys Book Three: 44 Gilmore Street Psychic Surveys Book Four: Old Cross Cottage Psychic Surveys Book Five: Descension Psychic Surveys companion novels Eve: A Christmas Ghost Story Blakemort Thirteen Please note: Only Eve, Blakemort, and Thirteen are stand-alone stories. The main books in the Psychic Surveys series are best heard in sequence, and there will be six in total.
©2018 Shani Struthers (P)2018 Shani Struthers
Old Cross Cottage: A Gripping Supernatural Thriller
Summary
Although this is book four in the Psychic Surveys series, and some series elements continue, it can also be read as a standalone. It's not wise to linger at the crossroads... In a quiet Dorset Village, Old Cross Cottage has stood for centuries, overlooking the place where four roads meet. Marred by tragedy, it's had a series of residents, none of whom have stayed for long. Pink and pretty, with a thatched roof, it should be an ideal retreat, but as new owners Rachel and Mark Bell discover, it's anything but. Ruby Davis hasn't quite told her partner the truth. She's promised Cash a holiday in the country but she's also promised the Bells that she'll investigate the unrest that haunts this ancient dwelling. Hoping to combine work and pleasure, she soon realizes this is a far more complex case than she had ever imagined. As events take a sinister turn, lives are in jeopardy. If the terrible secrets of Old Cross Cottage are ever to be unearthed, an entire village must dig up its past.
©2017 Shani Struthers (P)2018 Shani Struthers
Tales of Kingshold
Summary
I am Mareth, and I collect tales - tales that do not make the official histories. Join me and learn the secret stories of those who sparked the wildfire. Stories from our past, from that fateful summer and its aftermath. If you loved Kingshold, discover the next installment in the epic Wildfire Cycle. Tales of Kingshold, book one-point-five of the Wildfire Cycle, includes four novelettes and six short stories.
©2018 D. P. Woolliscroft (P)2019 Tantor
Scandalized by My Prince
Summary
Dr. Aubriella Byrne isn’t the adventurous sort. The most daring thing she’s ever done is travel to visit her cousin in Kent to research her doctorate. Until she catches a glimpse of a man in another era through a mirror—she takes a leap of faith and goes to his time to find him. Killian Lynwood, Earl of Thornbury finds Aubriella wandering the lands outside his castle. She has an ethereal beauty and frailty that makes him want to protect her. Safeguarding those he loves has been his duty since he was a small boy, starting with his mother. Aubriella quickly becomes a female he cares deeply for. Aubriella isn’t sure if she should tell him who she is, or more importantly where she’s from, but secrets and lies have a way of unraveling. Killian has a few of his own he doesn’t want to come to light. The decision to trust each other is a hard one. Sometimes love isn’t enough and their secrets might destroy everything.
©2018 Dawn Brower (P)2018 Dawn Brower
Legion: A Gripping Supernatural Thriller
Summary
Legion is the sixth in the best-selling Psychic Surveys series, that features plot twists, compelling characters, and a mystery at its dark heart! What if evil won't let go? Along a sheltered lane, deep in the Sussex countryside, sits a house that is sometimes called home, the tenants it has held unable to forget it. When Ruby Davis gets a distressed call from Rosie Cowell, the latest inhabitant, little does she know that her life too will change forever, from the moment she steps over the threshold. Unlike other houses of its kind, such as Bolskine and Borley, Blakemort has no reputation. Indeed, there is no written record of it anywhere; its history is quite untraceable. But Blakemort exists, and it exists for one purpose only. To torment. How do you fight a house like Blakemort? Even with a team on your side, and the light encircling you? Is it possible to take on a darkness this deep? In Legion, Blakemort is back. Did it ever truly go away? Psychic Surveys, Book One: The Haunting of Highdown Hall Psychic Surveys, Book Two: Rise to Me Psychic Surveys, Book Three: 44 Gilmore Street Psychic Surveys, Book Four: Old Cross Cottage Psychic Surveys, Book Five: Descension Psychic Surveys, Book Six: Legion Psychic Surveys, Book Seven Available Spring 2020 Psychic Surveys, Companion Novels: Eve: A Psychic Surveys Prequel Blakemort Thirteen Rosamund Other books by the author: This Haunted World Book One: The Venetian This Haunted World Book Two: The Eleventh Floor Jessamine (Jessamine Series Book One) Comraich (Jessamine Series Book Two)
©2019 Shani Struthers (P)2020 Shani Struthers
Rosamund
Summary
A shorter novel, Rosamund feeds into the best-selling Psychic Surveys series, and is the story of sub-character Rosamund. It can also be listened to as a standalone.
Could you find your way through Hell?
Ruby Davis runs Psychic Surveys, a high street company specializing in domestic spiritual clearance. Having inherited her ability to see beyond the veil that separates this world and the next from her mother Jessica, she is busy helping grounded spirits to cross the great divide. In turn, Jessica inherited her gift from her mother Sarah, and Sarah from Rosamund.
Throughout the early 20th century, Rosamund Davis was a woman held in high regard concerning her mediumship abilities and her pioneering work with London’s famous psychical society. She published many papers on psychic matters, although there are some that remain unpublished, for the eyes of the Davis family only. It is these unavailable works concerning the non-spirit that fascinate many - entities born of negative thoughts that subsequently take on their own energy. Entities known as demons.
But what caused her to write about such dark matter?
From her own notes, in her own words, this is Rosamund’s account.
©2019 Shani Struthers (P)2019 Shani Struthers
Comraich
Summary
An extreme land breeds extreme emotions. Comraich - Gaelic for Sanctuary - that's what this ancient fortress of a house in the Highlands of Scotland has offered its generations, a haven from the world beyond. The nesting instinct kicking in, a pregnant Jessamin decides that Comraich, which she shares with her partner Fionnlagh Maccaillin, needs refreshing. Getting to work in one of the spare bedrooms she makes a startling discovery, one that pulls her into a world of the intense and disturbing passions of others that have been here before. Jessamin has to decide. Will delving deeper into Comraich's history bring hope and peace to this troubled house or return her to a darkness she's only recently left behind?
©2018 Shani Struthers (P)2019 Shani Struthers
Ioth, City of Lights
Summary
Be careful what you strive for. The people won and now Mareth is Lord Protector of Edland. But winning an election is a lot different than governing a country, especially when the empire of Pyrfew is expanding into the Sapphire Sea. In the interests of peace, Mareth must dispatch Alana to Ioth, city of a thousand lights, to convince the ruling merchants to turn their back on the empire. Neenahwi, armed with the knowledge revealed in her coming of age ceremony, desperately wants to determine Pyrfew's plans and to take the fight to the emperor. But Llewdon, ancient elven emperor of Pyrfew, has had decades to develop his schemes and his agents are embedded in the least expected places. Everything seems to revolve around the disappearance of Jyuth's master a millennia ago. Will the heroes of Kingshold be able to survive fire belching ships, strange slimes, sinister doppelgängers, demon dogs, greedy merchants, and past vices to lead Edland to safety?
©2019 D. P. Woolliscroft (P)2019 Tantor
The Haunting of Highdown Hall
Summary
Psychic Surveys: Book 1: The Haunting of Highdown Hall "Good morning, Psychic Surveys. How can I help?" The latest in a long line of psychically-gifted females, Ruby Davis can see through the veil that separates this world and the next, helping grounded souls to move towards the light - or 'home', as Ruby calls it. Not just a job for Ruby, it's a crusade and one she wants to bring to the High Street. Psychic Surveys is born. Based in Lewes, East Sussex, Ruby and her team of freelance psychics have been kept busy. Specializing in domestic cases, their solid reputation is spreading - it's not just the dead that can rest in peace but the living too. All is threatened when Ruby receives a call from the irate new owner of Highdown Hall. Film star Cynthia Hart is still in residence, despite having died in 1958. Winter deepens and so does the mystery surrounding Cynthia. She insists the devil is blocking her path to the light long after Psychic Surveys have 'disproved' it. Investigating her apparently unblemished background, Ruby is pulled further and further into Cynthia's world and the darkness that now inhabits it.
©2014 Crooked Cat Publishing (P)2017 Shani Struthers
Promises to Keep
Summary
Promises to Keep is the seventh in the best-selling Psychic Surveys series that features plot twists, compelling characters, and a mystery at its dark heart! Perfect for fans of James Herbert, Darcy Coates, and Stephen King. Heavily pregnant, Ruby Davis has handed over the reins of her psychic business to Corinna, Theo, and Ness, who all lament the loss of her leadership. Corinna, at the helm, is determined to keep up their brilliant track record, with case after case continuing to come in. But something has caught her attention. Not a case, exactly, but a dark local mystery. Rayners Wood forms part of a local landscape feature known as the Devil's Triangle, with Chanctonbury Ring and Cissbury Ring being the other points of the formation, and all associated with cults and black magic. Called to the Bows' home in Lindfield, where the family is experiencing psychic phenomena, Corinna senses a link between the woods and another house in the village, one that the spirit at the Bows' house is trying to warn them about - Low Cottage. Further investigations reveal that certain houses in Lindfield form a triangle of their own, with Low Cottage and Rayners Wood being the bottom points of each formation, indicating something hellish. Corinna has been warned by Ruby to keep their work as ordinary as possible after Blakemort, to keep the original purpose of the business: to specialize in spiritual domestic clearance and nothing more. But with Psychic Surveys, very often, the ordinary leads to the extraordinary, and as more links are forged between Low Cottage and Rayners Wood, mortal danger awaits....
©2020 Shani Struthers (P)2020 Shani Struthers