Domestic Fiction Thriller

My name is Isabella Butterworth. Your name is Isabella Butterworth. We’re around the same age. We live in the same town. But your life is more exciting than mine, isn’t it? Richer, dramatic, more fulfilling. Imagine if I’d never found out about you. But I have. Because someone mistook me for you. And now I can’t stop thinking about you because I know you’re in trouble. You need my help. And I need a way to get to know you.

When Corie Geller asked her parents to move from their apartment into the suburban McMansion she shares with her husband and teenage daughter, she assumed they'd fit right in with the placid life she’d opted for when she left the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force of the FBI. But then her retired NYPD detective father gets a call from good-natured and slightly nerdy film professor April Brown—one of the victims of a case he was never able to solve. When April was a five-year-old, she’d emerged unscathed from the arson that killed her parents. Now, two decades later, April is asking for help.

Divorce lawyer Leigh Huyett knows all too well that most second marriages are doomed to fail. But five years in, she and Pete Conley have a perfectly blended family of her children and his. To celebrate their anniversary, they grab some precious moments of alone time and leave Pete’s son, Kip, a high school senior, in charge of Leigh’s 14-year-old daughter, Chrissy, at their home. Driving back on a rainy Friday night, their cell phones start ringing. After a raucous party celebrating his college acceptance to Duke and his upcoming birthday, Kip was arrested for drunk driving.

When former beauty pageant queen Sage Miller leaves her life in New York City for a quiet life in the suburbs down South, she thinks she has finally found solace from her dark past riddled with bad habits. Sage, now married and a stay-at-home mom of two, is learning that you can have it all… just not at the same time and not unless you get creative. Replacing her tiara with a messy bun and late-night parties with rocking her young children to sleep, her new life behind a white picket fence seems like the cleanest place to hide her dirtiest secrets.

Marguerite, a beautiful woman, has disappeared from her small town in Upstate New York. But is foul play involved? Or did she merely take an opportunity to get away for fun, or finally make the decision to leave behind her claustrophobic life of limited opportunities? Her younger sister Gigi wonders if the flimsy silk Dior dress, so casually abandoned on the floor, is a clue to Marguerite's having seemingly vanished. The police examine the footprints made by her Ferragamo boots leaving the house, ending abruptly, and puzzle over how that can help lead to her.

Ann and Wade have carved out a life for themselves from a rugged landscape in Northern Idaho, where they are bound together by more than love. With her husband's memory fading, Ann attempts to piece together the truth of what happened to Wade's first wife, Jenny, and to their daughters.

I had it all: a fantastic husband, two great kids, an exciting career. And then, at the age of forty-three, I found out I would be dead before my next birthday. My mother also died young. I was seventeen, and she warned me that women would flock to my suddenly single father like stray cats to an overturned milk truck. They did. And one absolutely evil woman practically destroyed his life, mine, and my sister’s. I am not letting that happen to my family. I have three months, and I plan to spend every waking minute searching for the perfect woman to take my place as Alex’s wife.

Set against a ticking clock, this "haunting" and "atmospheric" thriller pits a ruthless cult against a mother's love, revealing that our darkest secrets are the hardest ones to leave behind (Sally Hepworth, New York Times best-selling author of The Good Sister).

When a mysterious package lands on Louisa Hancock's doorstep, the Philadelphia museum curator can hardly anticipate the nightmare that's about to envelop her. The package is addressed to her father—an expert in Viking culture—and inside is a ninth-century sword, a chilling thank-you note, and photos of two dead bodies in a tableau evoking a Nordic funeral. The gruesome images match a recent crime scene.

Then: Morning light shines into the nursery, casting shadows across the pale pink walls and wooden cot in the middle of the room. She opens the door expecting to hear the soft coo of her daughter, Sofia, stretching herself awake. But the room is silent. The cot is empty. Her little girl has vanished. Now: Twelve years have passed, but Emily will never forget the night her life changed forever, and she’s happy to have her daughter back beside her. A teenager now, Sofia started asking questions about when she was a baby.

Polly’s fourth-grade daughter has been spending a lot of time with her classmate Sylvie—maybe too much. Sylvie’s clothes are a little…flashy…and her phone (a ten-year-old with a phone!) doesn’t seem to have any parental controls. It seems that Sylvie’s mother, with her vape pens and her too-high heels, may not be making good choices. As Polly tries to exert a positive influence, she discovers just how little anyone can tell about a family from the outside.

After years of learning how to manage her bipolar disorder, Emily Firestone finally has it under control. Even better, her life is coming together: she's got a great job, her own place, and a boyfriend, Paolo, who adores her. So when Paolo suggests a weekend sailing trip, Emily agrees - wine, water, and the man she loves? What could be better? But when Emily wakes the morning after they set sail, the boat is still adrift ... and Paolo is gone.

Dawn Decker is an American everywoman and the salt to her husband Wyatt’s sweet, media-friendly charm on their Tennessee-based home renovation reality TV show, The Perfect Home. While Dawn bristles at the trappings of their D-list celebrity status, Wyatt hungers for greater fame. The couple also faces infertility issues stemming from Wyatt’s low sperm count. He secretly orders experimental fertility drugs, and they conceive, but his personality takes a dark turn—he becomes moody, withdrawn, and even cruel.

A dark secret. A deadly obsession. No place to hide. Max Hunter, my boyfriend, booked the beautiful boat house on the Norfolk Broads as a surprise autumn break. A week away to heal after a fraught few months following my father’s death. A chance to put the lies and secrets behind us and to start afresh. But in the silence it feels like someone is out there. Watching, waiting and taunting me.

Ellie is leaving her husband … again. After twenty-two years of marriage and an unsuccessful separation, she can’t take it anymore. On the surface, she has a picture-perfect relationship. Jeff has been a steadfast spouse. But what seems like loyalty is in reality an obsessive desire for control. Ellie is slowly losing her sight, which means she needs more and more assistance, and Jeff will stop at nothing to ensure she feels helpless and reliant on him alone.

A Hollywood has-been, Sarah Lai’s dreams of success behind the camera have turned to ashes. Now a lecturer at an obscure college, this former producer wants nothing more than to forget those youthful ambitions and push aside any feelings of regret…or guilt. But when a journalist reaches out to her to discuss her own experience working with the celebrated film producer Hugo North, Sarah can no longer keep silent. This is her last chance to tell her side of the story and maybe even exact belated vengeance

Set against the backdrop of an eerie island town in the dead of winter, The Wife and the Widow is an unsettling thriller told from two perspectives: Kate, a widow whose grief is compounded by what she learns about her dead husband’s secret life; and Abby, an island local whose world is turned upside when she’s forced to confront the evidence of her husband’s guilt. But nothing on this island is quite as it seems, and only when these women come together can they discover the whole story about the men in their lives.

Leslie Flores has the perfect life - a loving husband, a happy newborn, and a New Mexico home straight out of a magazine. She’s been the perfect daughter, too, taking care of her ailing father in his final days. But Leslie has a dark secret - and it’s an expensive secret to keep. When she discovers she won’t receive a penny of her inheritance unless she finds her estranged sister, Robin, she sets out to track her down. Instead, upon arriving at Robin’s apartment, Leslie discovers her body.

Domestic diva Sophie Winston is getting into the Halloween spirit; her decorations for a community haunted house are so good, it's scary. Not to be outdone, rival domestic diva Natasha is throwing a spooktacular Halloween party at her house. But when Sophie arrives, she discovers one of Natasha's guests dead in a Halloween display and a pale, fanged partygoer fleeing the scene.

Lizzie Riley is sure that the local academy school, with its excellent reputation, is perfect for her eight-year-old son Tom. But there's something strange happening at school. Parents are forbidden from entering the grounds and there are bars across the classroom windows. Why is Tom coming home exhausted, unable to remember his day? What are the strange marks on his arm? And why do the children seem afraid to talk?