Dangerous Women
London, 1841.
The Rajah sails for Australia.
On board are 180 women convicted of petty crimes, sentenced to start a new life half way across the world.
Daughters, sisters, mothers - they'll never see home or family again. Despised and damned, all they have now is each other.
Until the murder.
As the fearful hunt for a killer begins, everyone on board is a suspect.
The investigation risks tearing their friendships apart . . .
But if the killer isn't found, could it cost them their last chance of freedom?
Based on a real-life voyage, Dangerous Women is a sweeping tale of confinement, hope and the terrible things we do to survive.
OUT OF THE DARK
Rob Stone comes back from the horrors of the First World War with a ruined face and a broken heart.
Unable to forget the things he's seen, and haunted by the ghost of his dead captain, all that Rob has left is a picture of the captain's family. He sets out to find them, hoping that by giving them the photograph, he can bring peace to the captain's ghost and to his own troubled heart.
A HIDDEN LIFE
When Constance Barrington dies, she leaves behind a wealthy estate and a complex family network. But when the whole family gathers to hear her last will and testament, they are in for a terrible shock. Constance – possessed of a long memory and a spiteful disposition – altered her will shortly before her death. The new provisions are far from fair; some benefit hugely and others hardly at all. Constance’s granddaughter, Louise, is bequeathed the copyright for her late grandfather’s novels (barely remembered, long-since out of print and valuable only as a reminder of the man she loved). It is a paltry inheritance and one that comes to symbolise the inequity at the heart of the Barrington family. Soon, old family feuds and long-hidden resentments come to the surface, and with them, secrets start to emerge. But it is through Louise’s inheritance – those dusty, long-forgotten books – that the most explosive secret of all will come to light, bringing with it a very different future for her and the rest of the family.
LOVE, OR NEAREST OFFER
What if your estate agent could find you not just your perfect house, but your perfect job, your perfect partner... your perfect new life?
On paper, Iris Atkins is an estate agent, but she's not just good at finding suitable houses for her clients. In fact, she has a gift: Iris is able to see into their lives and understand exactly what is missing and what they need - and not just in bricks-and-mortar terms either.
Of course, concentrating so much on fixing other people's problems doesn't leave much time for examining your own. Over the course of one whirlwind year Iris discovers that while she may know what's best for everyone else, she doesn't necessarily know what's best for herself - and what she finds out could make her happier than she'd ever dreamed of.
MADE IN HEAVEN
Suzannah (known as Zannah) and Adrian are planning to marry in May, the loveliest time of year. Zannah has always wanted a beautiful, traditional wedding and feels she missed out the first time round when she married Cal, father of her daughter Isis.
Now, the two families are to meet for the first time. Will the slightly bohemian Gratrixes from Cheshire and the wealthy Ashtons from the Home Counties like each other? The meeting will take place on neutral territory, at a lunch party in the home of Zannah’s great aunt Charlotte in London – but no one anticipates the reaction when Zannah’s mother and Adrian’s stepfather first meet, and a series of events is set in motion with consequences no one expected…
As the story unfolds, full of drama, conflict, revelations, reconciliations and romance, the two families plus several outsiders move forward towards the inevitable Big Day. Not everyone will get what they want. Not all marriages are made in heaven…
Facing the Light
An extended family gathers in late August to celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of its formidable matriarch, Leonora. She is the daughter of the famous Edwardian painter Ethan Walsh, whose paintings are kept at the family home, Willow Court in Wiltshire. At Leonora’s house party will be her daughters, Gwen and Rilla, whom she raised alone after she was widowed in her late twenties; Rilla’s stepdaughter Beth; and Gwen’s husband and three children with their spouses and lovers. One outsider joins the group: Sean Everard, a television director who’s making a documentary about the life and work of Ethan Walsh. All families have their dark side and Leonora’s is no exception. By the time the marquee is dismantled and all the guests have gone their separate ways, two shocking past events have come to light, to rock complacency and change for ever the lives of Leonora and her daughters.
COVER YOUR EYES
Eva was once a legendary fashion designer until, mysteriously, she retired. Now widowed, she lives with her family in Salix House, the home she's owned and loved for forty years. When the family announces it's time to sell, Eva is deeply reluctant. The house contains memories and secrets that are part of her, although she never shares them.
Megan is a fashion journalist working in London who interviewed Eva for a magazine. Torn apart by the brutal end of a love affair, Megan is drawn back to Salix House and Eva.
Decades apart in age, the two women share a bond. Both are hiding something, but perhaps together they can confront their fears, their past pain and their uncertain futures - and discover the truth of Salix House's secrets.
HESTER’S STORY
Hester Fielding was once the leading ballerina of her day. Her life is the stuff of drama: a bleak Yorkshire childhood transformed by the discovery of her amazing gifts as a dancer; a dangerous love affair that can only lead to heartbreak; and a secret that would topple her from her pinnacle of fame if it ever came out.
Now Hester has returned to Yorkshire, to Wychwood where, each year at Christmas, a ballet is performed on Twelfth Night in the little theatre there. Just before the company arrives at Wychwood, Hester receives a phone call that brings back haunting memories.
As the dancers prepare for the opening night of Sarabande, and loyalties shift and tempers flare, the past comes crashing into the present in ways that Hester could never have predicted.