Showing results by narrator "Christopher Simpson" in All Categories

Vikas Swarup's spectacular debut novel, the inspiration for the award-winning film, opens in a jail cell in Mumbai, where Ram Mohammad Thomas is being held after correctly answering all 12 questions on India's biggest quiz show, Who Will Win a Billion? It is hard to believe that a poor orphan who has never gone to school could win such a contest. But through a series of exhilarating tales, Ram explains to his lawyer how episodes in his life gave him the answer to each question.

From his Missouri farm, the boy traveled west. In his hand was a Navy Colt given to him by Jesse James. By his side was the old mountain man named Preacher, who would teach young Smoke Jensen everything he needed to fight like the devil and die like a man. And in his heart...was vengeance. His enemies destroyed everything he'd ever loved. But they made one mistake. They let Smoke Jensen live.

Adapted For The Film Slumdog Millionaire. Eighteen-year-old Ram Mohammad Thomas has been arrested after answering twelve questions correctly on a TV quiz show to win one billion rupees. The producers have accused him of cheating his way to victory. Twelve extraordinary events in street-kid Ram's life - how he was adopted as a foundling orphan by a priest; came to have three names; fooled a professional hit man; even fell in love - give him the crucial answers.

When Frank Morgan sets up camp in a lush valley in Montana, the last thing he expects to see is fires lighting up the night sky as fields, farms, and homes are torched by gunslicks hired by two powerful ranchers. For the ranchers, the battle lines have been drawn in the form of newly settled farmland that's cutting through the ranges, separating cattle from grazing land and water. But the settlers are breaking no law and no one is going to prevent them from building their homes and becoming a real town.

The hero of Hanif Kureishi's debut novel is a dreamy teenager, desperate to escape suburban South London and experience the forbidden fruits which the 1970s seem to offer. When the unlikely opportunity of a life in the theatre announces itself, Karim starts to win the sort of attention he has been craving, albeit with some rude and raucous results.

The last thing Jason Fury wants is to lead this wagon train west to California. Hell, he just wants to head back east, where a smart young man like himself has a real shot at a better life. But halfway across Oklahoma the wagon train is attacked by bloodthirsty Commanche and Jedediah Fury - the leader of the settlers and Jason’s father - is counted among the dead. Before he knows it, Jason’s leading the wagons into Arizona Territory, where the squabbling settlers decide to stop for good and start a town they’ll name Fury in honor of Jedediah.

The town called Fury, Arizona was started with a lick and a prayer and has been fighting for its life ever since. But in spite of drought, strife, and an attack by Mexican bandits, Fury has managed to grow and thrive. Jason Fury, the sheriff, is partly responsible for the town's success. He should be; Fury was named after his father. But now, a new relentless threat has appeared on the horizon. Lone Wolf and his Apaches are determined to bring the town to its knees.

Esmay Suiza wasn't a member of a great Navy family like the Serranos. She'd had to make her way on grit alone, which meant it wasn't likely she'd ever make admiral and "hoist her own flag." Well, that was fine with her: all Esmay wanted was a secure berth where she could be part of something greater than herself, and otherwise just live her life in peace.

For Ky, it’s not just about liberating the star systems subjugated by Turek and defending the rest of the galaxy’s freedom. There’s also a score to be settled and payback to be meted out for the obliteration of the Vatta Transport dynasty...and the slaughter of Ky’s family. But the enemy have their own escalation efforts under way - including the placement of covert agents among the allies with whom Ky and the surviving Vattas are collaborating in the war effort.

When Bram and his best pal Molly meet a lonely boy called Sanjit in Dublin’s Natural History Museum, they can see he needs some friends. So, they, along with Molly’s gang, The Sackville Street Spooks, take him under their wing.

Dublin, 1858. Bram Stoker: boy seeking adventure (and things to write about). Molly Malone: part-time fishmonger and full-time sneak thief! When Bram runs away from boarding school and meets streetwise Molly, he finds all the excitement he's ever wanted. Together they explore the city, with its Sackville Street spooks, hoodlums and heroes – and let's not forget the very creepy Count Vladimir Grof-Constantin de Lugosi. As Bram looks for inspiration for the famous book he has yet to write – Dracula – our two heroes stumble upon a dastardly plot to steal…the Irish Crown Jewels!

Hewey Calloway and his brother Walter are young men looking for work. Their first job puts them in the middle of a territory war between two powerful ranchers, C.C. Tarpley and Eli Jessup. It's a tough trail for two green cowpunchers and the forks in that trail may lead the brothers in different directions.

For Ky, it’s not just about liberating the star systems subjugated by Turek and defending the rest of the galaxy’s freedom. There’s also a score to be settled and payback to be meted out for the obliteration of the Vatta Transport dynasty...and the slaughter of Ky’s family. But the enemy have their own escalation efforts under way - including the placement of covert agents among the allies with whom Ky and the surviving Vattas are collaborating in the war effort.

Jamal is a successful psychoanalyst haunted by his first love and a brutal act of violence from which he can never escape. His coming of age in the 1970s forms a vivid backdrop to the drama that develops 30 years later, as he and his friends face an encroaching middle age with the traumas of their youth still unresolved.

Dublin’s dogs are mysteriously disappearing! No guard dogs means thieves are running riot, and with no sheepdogs to herd the animals in Smithfield market, the city is overrun with sheep and goats…and even worse, Dublin’s cats are having an absolute field day! The dwindling doggy population is being blamed on a curious creature known as the Irish Yeti, a tall, terrifying shaggy beast with snow-white fur and red, glowing eyes. Bram Stoker, Molly Malone and the Sackville Street Spooks are fascinated by this monster, but when Molly’s own dog goes missing, the friends decide enough is enough.

Best friends Molly and Bram are on a mission in London. Famous writer Charles Dickens has been kidnapped! The pals set out to search the darkest corners of the city. On their travels, they meet all sorts of characters, among them a foul-mouthed fowl and Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. Can they solve the riddle of the disappearing Dickens before it's too late?

Ozark Free Territory, 2071: The Kurian Order has reigned for 50 years. Using the dreaded power of their Reaper avatars, the alien, vampiric Kur hold dominion over the earth and its inhabitants. Yet there are those who would rather die fighting than surrender to the unquenchable thirst of the enemy - those like David Valentine.

In the near future bees, are extinct - until five unconnected individuals, in different parts of the world, are stung. Immediately snatched up by ominous figures in hazmat suits, interrogated separately in neutral Ikea-like chambers, and then released as 15-minute-celebrities into a world driven almost entirely by the internet, these five unforgettable people endure a barrage of unusual and highly 21st-century circumstances. A charismatic scientist with dubious motives eventually brings the quintet together....

Under the hot sun, the Jeddah streets make a scene from an old black-and-white movie: the women dressed like long, dark shadows and the men in their light cotton tunics. Naser’s friends have all left town for cooler climes but he can’t get away: he’s an outsider in Saudi and he needs to hold down his job at the local carwash. During his time off, he sits beneath his favourite palm tree, writing to the mother he has left behind in Africa and yearning for the glamorous Egyptian actress he hopes to meet one day.