“A stunning debut from a young historian who deserves to be recognized as a major talent in her field.” —Alison Weir, #1 New York Times bestselling author
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- Crown of Blood
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Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 3/12/19
Formats: Digital Audy
“Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same.” These were the heartbreaking words of a seventeen-year-old girl, Lady Jane Grey, as she stood on the scaffold awaiting death on a cold February morning in 1554. Minutes later her head was struck from her body with a single stroke of a heavy axe. Her death for high treason sent shockwaves through the Tudor world, and served as a gruesome reminder to all who aspired to a crown that the axe could fall at any time.
Jane is known to history as “the Nine Days Queen,” but her reign lasted, in fact, for thirteen days. The human and emotional aspects of her story have often been ignored, although she is remembered as one of the Tudor Era’s most tragic victims. While this is doubtlessly true, it is only part of the complex jigsaw of Jane’s story. She was a remarkable individual with a charismatic personality who earned the admiration and affection of many of those who knew her. All were impressed by her wit, passion, intelligence, and determined spirit. Furthermore, the recent trend of trying to highlight her achievements and her religious faith has, in fact, further obscured the real Jane, a young religious radical who saw herself as an advocate of the reformed faith―Protestantism―and ultimately became a martyr for it.
Crown of Blood is an important and significant retelling of an often-misunderstood tale: set at the time of Jane’s downfall and following her journey through to her trial and execution, each chapter moves between the past and the “present,” using a rich abundance of primary source material (some of which has never been published) in order to paint a vivid picture of Jane’s short and turbulent life. This dramatic narrative traces the dangerous plots and web of deadly intrigue in which Jane became involuntarily tangled―and which ultimately led to a shocking and catastrophic conclusion.
- Crown of Blood
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Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 3/12/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Cane Creek Regulators
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Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 6/01/17
Formats: Digital Audy
The South Carolina backcountry is no place for a young girl to grow up in the 1760s, but sixteen-year-old Emily Stewart wouldn’t have it any other way. She loves the settlement of Ninety Six where her father Breck Stewart runs a tavern with his family, including Emily’s embittered older brother, Donnan. But there’s much to fear, too. Gangs of murderers, thieves, and robbers terrorize the country with impunity. Pleas to the government in Charlestown fall on deaf ears. As the savagery continues, Breck Stewart is finally forced to take a stand, forming a vigilante group called the Cane Creek Regulators. The settlers take the law into their own hands—even though such an act will be considered treason and could land everyone riding with the vigilantes in a colonial prison—or on the gallows.
- The Cane Creek Regulators
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Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 6/01/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Echoes of Sherlock Holmes
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Edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger
Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 10/11/16
Formats: Digital Audy
A brand-new anthology of stories inspired by the Arthur Conan Doyle canon
In this follow-up to the acclaimed In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, expert Sherlockians Laurie King and Leslie Klinger put forth the question: What happens when great writers/creators who are not known as Sherlock Holmes devotees admit to being inspired by Conan Doyle stories? While some are highly regarded mystery writers, others are best known for their work in the fields of fantasy or science fiction. All of these talented authors, however, share a great admiration for Arthur Conan Doyle and his greatest creations, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
To the editors’ great delight, these stories go in many directions. Some explore the spirit of Holmes himself; others tell of detectives inspired by Holmes’ adventures or methods. A young boy becomes a detective; a young woman sharpens her investigative skills; an aging actress and a housemaid each find that they have unexpected talents. Other characters from the Holmes stories are explored, and even non-Holmesian tales by Conan Doyle are echoed. The variations are endless!
Although not a formal collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories, some entries do fit that mold while others were inspired by the Conan Doyle canon. The results are breathtaking, for fans of Holmes and Watson as well as listeners new to Doyle’s writing.
- Echoes of Sherlock Holmes
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Edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger
Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 10/11/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Marquis Takes a Bride
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By M. C. Beaton
Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 10/15/14
Formats: Digital Audy
Miss Jennie Bemyss is in a position that any intelligent young lady would envy. The wealthy, worldly Marquis of Charrington has proposed a marriage of convenience that will leave him free to pursue his pleasures and leave Jennie free of his undoubtedly depraved desires.
At the same time, handsome, charming Guy Chalmers, whom Jennie has loved since childhood, proposes to aid her in enjoying her freedom to the fullest.
Jennie should feel happy to be ignored by a man whom she properly should despise. She should feel even happier to be courted by a man whom she has so long adored.
Why, then, does Jennie feel so confused?
- The Marquis Takes a Bride
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By M. C. Beaton
Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 10/15/14
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Refining Felicity
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By M. C. Beaton writing as Marion Chesney
Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
When Amy and Effy Tribble, two charming but impoverished spinster sisters, lose out on a much needed inheritance, they place an advertisement in the Morning Post and hire themselves out as professional chaperones. Vowing to prepare even the most difficult misses for marriage, the Tribble sisters will spend a London season on each client in this delightful Regency series, the School for Manners.
Felicity Baronsheath, their first assignment, turns out to be more of a challenge than they could ever have imagined. Not only is Felicity indifferent to the idea of marriage but she has been permitted to roam free on her father’s estates, hunting and carousing like any young lord. When her neighbor, the Marquess of Ravenswood, agrees to help the Tribbles set up their London town house, he confirms their observation that Felicity is a spoiled brat. And when Felicity insists on remaining unrefined, the Tribbles begin to fear that her season—and their new business venture—will end in disaster.
- Refining Felicity
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By M. C. Beaton writing as Marion Chesney
Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Perfecting Fiona
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By M. C. Beaton writing as Marion Chesney
Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
When Fiona Macleod is sent by her guardian aunt and uncle to spend a London season with the Tribble sisters, it is something of a last resort. At nineteen Fiona is a beautiful and wealthy Scottish heiress. Yet for some mysterious reason, her several proposals of marriage over the past few years have all fallen through at the last moment.
Amy and Effy Tribble, professional chaperons whose School for Manners has recently made them the talk of fashionable London society, are always short of cash and gladly take on Fiona as a new client. They promise to reform the girl, train her in proper comportment and the feminine arts, and guarantee a mutually profitable marriage by the end of the season, taking Fiona off her guardians’ hands forever. But when Fiona arrives at the Tribble sisters’ shabbily genteel London townhouse, she shocks them by behaving perfectly. They are thoroughly puzzled by their seemingly demure new client, until they take Fiona to her first ball and realize that their charge is an incorrigible flirt.
Face-to-face with Lord Peter Havard, the season’s most unattainable rake, Fiona loses her composure, betraying her real feelings—and the Tribbles are forced to confront the truth about her past. It may be too late to salvage Fiona’s reputation, but the Tribbles—who have never claimed to be perfect—must also consider their own reputations.
- Perfecting Fiona
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By M. C. Beaton writing as Marion Chesney
Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Hand That First Held Mine
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Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 4/12/10
Formats: Digital Audy
Lexie Sinclair yearns for more than her parents’ genteel country life. She makes her way to the city, where she meets a magazine editor, Innes, a man unlike any she has ever imagined. He introduces her to the thrilling world of bohemian postwar London, and Lexie learns to become a reporter, to know art and artists, to live fully, unconventionally, and with deep love. And when she finds herself pregnant by a man wholly unsuitable for marriage or fatherhood, she doesn’t hesitate a minute to have the baby on her own.
Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood after a traumatic birth. Her boyfriend, Ted, shaken by nearly losing her in labor, begins to recover lost memories from his own obscured childhood. As the memory flashes return with ever more disconcerting frequency, we discover a heartbreaking and beautiful revelation that connects these two women and their stories.
A stunning portrait of motherhood and the artist’s life in all their terror and glory, Maggie O’Farrell’s newest novel is a gorgeous inquiry into the ways we make and unmake our lives, and how even our most accidental legacies connect us.
- The Hand That First Held Mine
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Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 4/12/10
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
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Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 1/01/06
Formats: Digital Audy
Iris Lockhart is busy tending to the everyday business of her vintage clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment when she receives a stunning phone call. Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never even knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital—where she has been locked away for over sixty years.Iris’ grandmother, Kitty, always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme’s face.
Esme has been labeled harmless, sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But Esme is still a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit?
Weaving Esme’s tragic story together with Iris’ modern dilemmas, O’Farrell’s gothic, intricate, cross-generational tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the complex longings of women will haunt listeners long past its final page.
- The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
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Read by Anne Flosnik
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Release Date: 1/01/06
Formats: Digital Audy