Domestic Psychological

Elizabeth is Joe’s foster mother, but she loves him like her own. The five-year-old, who adores superheroes and watching the birds outside, is the child she has dreamed of. As she looks into the garden, where he was playing just moments ago, her heart feels like it has been ripped from her chest. She was meant to save Joe from his birth mother who almost harmed his chances at life. The woman who has been trying to desperately get him back. She was meant to protect Joe from her husband. The man who, right now, lies to the police, saying he was making breakfast when Joe disappeared.

Knocking on the front door, clutching my son Noah’s small hand, my heart is beating fast. When my foster mother sees me, her hands fly to her mouth in disbelief and she pulls us inside, asking the question I don’t want to answer: Why have you come back? Soon the whole town is whispering about my miraculous return, fifteen years after I vanished in the middle of the night. But not everyone is happy to see me. My oldest friend thinks I’m keeping secrets, and they aren’t wrong. We were seen arguing the night I returned. And then my friend is found dead.

Mae Barlowe’s annual beach trip is anything but a vacation. It’s the anniversary of the worst day of her life. When her husband and best friend surprise her with a last-minute itinerary change in the form of a couples’ cruise, she struggles to hide her reservations about the new plan. A week spent cruising around in a tropical paradise sounds like a dream come true to everyone else, but for Mae, it’s an eerie reminder of chilling memories from her past. Once on board the ship, a mysterious stranger causes confusion among the group, leading them to ask unsettling questions of one another.

There have always been deaths in the small town of Eriston over the years - more than can easily be explained. People dying in their houses, behind locked doors. Sean Cole thought he'd spotted a pattern. Thought he was on the trail of a killer. Now he's dead, too. When his daughter, Rebecca, returns to the town, she realises that her father might have been onto something. But can she find the murderer before he finds her? Because if she can't, her father's shabby old Victorian house is no place to hide.

Kenzi Brannon's life was turned upside down when she moved into her family's abandoned home to raise her niece. Problems compound when her aging mother starts to remember things. And clues the police find regarding the knife don't match anything Kenzi knows about her family. Things go from bad to worse when she and her niece discover something horrifying in their house. But not even that compares to the strange ways her mom is acting.

Aidan Marlowe is the superstitious type. He's been playing the same lottery numbers for fifteen years, never hitting the jackpot. Until now. On the day of his wife's funeral. Aidan struggles to cope with these two sudden extremes: instant wealth beyond his imagination and the loss of the only woman he's ever loved, the mother of his twin children. But the money gives him and his kids options they didn't have before. They can leave everything behind. They can start a new life in a new town. So they do.

It’s 2011 and Deecie Jeffries’s missing person’s case in Austin, Texas, is still cold. New mom Bee, struggling with postpartum depression, is living in Portland, Maine, having left Austin–and those memories–far behind. Until Leo, her childhood crush and her estranged twin Gus’s best friend, suddenly resurfaces, drawing Bee back into their shared past. Bee’s predictable life is upended, pushing her to return to her childhood home and piece together a neighborhood’s shattered history.

Julia and Christopher Hygate have the picture-perfect life: gobs of money thanks to their lucrative shipping enterprise and an estate on a secluded island. When they meet Eve Sylvester, they know she is the exact person they should hire to be their child's nanny. Eve doesn’t have any living relatives, she’s lost touch with her friends, and her partner is out of the picture. Best of all, she’s expecting a baby. Eve thinks she’s landed the greatest gig—previously penniless, now she’ll live like a queen and have a promising future for her daughter. But the job seems too good to be true.

On her fortieth birthday, Celia Guest has reason to celebrate. She has a loving marriage, a beautiful Connecticut home, and treasured friends. Celia has everything she’s ever wanted. But among the cards and well-wishes, she discovers a disturbing note: You don’t deserve any of this. Who could be so cruel, so resentful, so…knowing? Then, in the early morning hours, Celia vanishes without a trace.

Tatum hasn’t seen her daughter, Adrienne, in years, not since Tatum’s husband—the pastor in their small California town—all but disowned her. When she finally gathers the courage to secretly reconnect with Adrienne, Tatum’s thrilled she’s even willing to talk to her. But then—Adrienne disappears. When Adrienne doesn’t show up for her shift at the bar where Tatum’s been visiting her, she knows something is wrong. Adrienne may have been a bit of a wild child, but she hasn’t missed a day of work without calling in for years.

Blame the booze, her shaky marriage, her troubled son, or a thousand other things, but Jewelann Jordan has one thing on her mind when she attends her class reunion: making sure her old crush Christian Campbell sees exactly what he lost all those years ago. A late night, a hotel room, a rekindled flame that burns even hotter than it did back then—what could go wrong? Everything. The night with Christian isn't the first secret Jewelann has kept from her husband Ken, so one more shouldn't be much harder—except that Christian shows up without warning.

This book is for anyone who has experienced emotional abuse or wants to understand and support a loved one who has. Inside you will learn about the causes and effects of emotional abuse, as well as healing strategies. You will learn all about the feelings of worthlessness, isolation, and powerlessness that victims often feel. Plus you will discover practical solutions for dealing with them and becoming a stronger person.

Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it's been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.

A few years ago, Laura lost her daughter in tragic circumstances. Now, she is running from her past, but a chance encounter with a frightened teenager, Miriana, drags her back into a web of secrets and danger. As Miriana’s cryptic story unravels, Laura realises the threat is closer than she ever imagined. Someone is hunting Laura, determined to bury the truth about what really happened to her daughter. A predator is watching. Waiting. Ready to strike again. Trapped between fear and fury, Laura must confront her darkest suspicions and uncover the terrifying truth before the hunter closes in.

After John disappeared while hunting—presumed dead from a bear attack—Cameron found the crime photos. His role in the recent Seattle serial murders was discovered. The media destroyed her reputation. She lost her dental practice, is on the brink of losing her home. Everyone has a secret. But if her husband could hide the unimaginable from her, who’s to say he’s truly dead?

At her surprise 40th-birthday party, Kate Granger feels like the luckiest woman in the world but just hours later her fifteen-year-old daughter, Caily, is found unconscious underneath a bridge when she should have been at school. Now, Caily lies comatose in her hospital bed, and the police don’t believe it was an accident. As the investigation progresses, it soon becomes clear that not everyone in the family was where they claimed to be at the time of her fall. Caily should be safe in hospital but not everyone wants her to wake up.

Molly Chatwell has a beautiful house, a handsome husband, two children, and a job she likes. It all seems so perfect, but when her two children leave for university, she realizes her life has become dull and empty. When her husband refuses to go away on a trip with her, Molly decides to go alone. But what should have been a relaxing break turns into a nightmare. Back at home in London, Molly tries to put it all behind her, but when the police arrive at her door and tell her a body has been found with connections to her, she realizes her perfect life is under threat.

At 26, Dahlia Lighthouse is haunted by her upbringing. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she is unable to move beyond the disappearance of her twin brother, Andy, when they were 16. After several years away and following her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house, where the family makes a gruesome discovery: buried in their father’s plot is another body—Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax.

This is my first job as a housekeeper, but Evan Warner doesn’t need to know that. It’s the first of many lies I’ll tell him. He just lost his wife, Lola, and now he and his young daughter Jessica are adrift. But no amount of cleaning will rid this house of the secrets that have seeped into the cracks. I never forgave Lola for what she did to me. But I can’t let Evan get away with her murder.

A family under constant scrutiny from both the police and the press as a fifteen-year-old goes missing after a sleepover with a friend; a marriage at breaking point; a father who has seemingly lied about his alibi; and a detective feeling the pressure to deliver an arrest, are thrust together to make for yet another incredibly intricate and dark thriller from Lynda La Plante.