Black Dagger Crime S.
5 total works
A beautiful Cornish coastal village is the setting for a highly sinister conspiracy involving a kidnapped baby, mysterious monks and an almost irresistible new perfume...
'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book Review
Martha works for an advertising agency, filming a TV commercial on location on the stunning Cornish coast. The client is the eccentric owner of a chemicals company that has invented a new, almost irresistible perfume, and Martha is in charge of shooting the romantic ads - unfortunately starring his beautiful but highly manipulative daughter-in-law.
Before long, Martha finds herself embroiled in the conspiracy over the perfume's true origin - to say nothing of a kidnapped baby, sinister monks, her own long-since vanished ex-husband and a series of exploding soup cans. And what of her own floundering love life...?
'Witty and acute ... a nice romantic thriller' Punch
"Gabriel!" But calling was pointless, and he stopped at once, embarrassed by the sound of his voice . . . Nobody was here in the small apartment, nobody but himself.
Lonely sixteen-year-old Gabriel, son of a Nobel Prize winner, has gone missing, and with a life-threatening heart condition his family are desperate to find him before it's too late. Amnesia-stricken stepdad Thomas, spiteful mother Bella, and her sardonic twin brother Bo, all have their own selfish reasons to pursue him to Greenwich Village, New York where he was last seen.
But Gabriel doesn't want to be found . . .
Jumping between each character's perspective over the course of seven years, awardwinning author Joan Aiken expertly pieces together a complex and dynamic family history that leads to every parent's nightmare in her modern suspense novel, Voices in an Empty House.
'Miss Aiken's book is immensely enjoyable - her gift for gothic romantic charm is as effectively deployed as ever' TLS
Lucy Culpepper doesn't take no for an answer. An aspiring pianist she dreams of being taught by the renowned Max Benovek and will defy all odds - life threatening illness, a missing great aunt, and a disgruntled uncle - to achieve it.
After finding out her Uncle Wilbie has used up her college fund, Lucy discovers a selection of enchantingly beautiful paintings in the attic. Being the miserly man he is, Wilbie wants to keep any possible profits for these paintings and bargains on sending Lucy to England to find the artist - Great-aunt Fennel. Knowing Benovek lives in London she snaps up the opportunity and undertakes the adventure of a lifetime.
But though Benovek proves easy to find and immediately takes Lucy to heart, she sets off to Yorkshire only to find that her old aunt Fennel has vanished. Lucy's search entangles her in a mystery of murder and deceit . . . can they discover who is the real aunt Fennel?
Awardwinning author Joan Aiken brings a shocking finale to a witty and entertaining plot full of unexpected twists and turns in modern suspense novel, The Embroidered Sunset.