Domestic Suspense

Twenty years ago, gregarious Lorelei and mousy Holly became fast friends as students in the same college psychology seminar. Taught by an expert in control and human behavior, the two students also grew close to their charismatic professor. But in one twisted moment of gaslighting, their friendship flamed out and Lorelei’s once-promising future fell apart. Flash-forward, Holly has everything Lorelei ever wanted, while Lorelei is a lonely cat lady.

Kate Bennett vanished from a parking lot eleven years ago, leaving behind her husband and young daughter. When she shows up at a Montana gas station, clutching an infant and screaming for help, investigators believe she may have been abducted by a cult. Kate’s return flips her family’s world upside down—her husband is remarried, and her daughter barely remembers her. Kate herself doesn’t look or act like she did before.

Of the fifty-six bestsellers the “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark published in her lifetime, Where Are the Children? was her biggest, selling millions of copies and forever transforming the genre of suspense fiction. In that story, a young California mother named Nancy Harmon was convicted of murdering her two children. Though released on a technicality, she was abandoned by her husband and became such a pariah in the media that she was forced to move across the country to Cape Cod, change her identity and appearance, and start a new life.

When I first meet Sophie, she seems like any normal loving mother, trying desperately to help her teenage daughter. That’s where I come in. The perfect tutor to get Katie’s life back on track. I connect instantly with Katie, and Sophie’s thoughtful husband Scott. But Sophie’s dark eyes are full of jealousy when I talk to Scott or share a smile with Katie. I know I’m helping her daughter, whatever she thinks.

Sure, Mia left. And no, no one knows exactly where she is. But Mia is an adult. And she has good reason to be angry at Becca, so it's not a huge surprise. But Becca knows in her gut something is wrong. After all, Mia had been staying in that room—the one at the top of the stairs. And she wouldn't be the first person to change for the worse because of it…

It should be the perfect opportunity: a manor house available rent free in exchange for a bit of housesitting. But when Cass and James dig deeper, they find the place has been abandoned since a robbery left almost all the inhabitants dead almost thirty years ago. But they’ve got to save for a deposit somehow, so they move in, and things quickly take a strange turn. Objects disappear and turn up in odd places, the clock always stops at the same time, and the house is oppressive yet strangely familiar. Could it just be bad memories, or are the house’s secrets a little closer to home?

At thirty-six, Katie Cope's life hasn't turned out the way she planned. She had big dreams of becoming an investigative journalist, but then her best friend from college disappeared. Claire was driving home for Thanksgiving and never made it. Her abandoned car was found at a trailhead in the Rockies, but she was never seen again. Now Katie's husband Howard has sold his San Diego business for more money than they ever dreamed. She's found a beautiful new housing development in the breathtaking wilderness of the Colorado mountains. It's just the fresh start we need, she tells him.

Newlyweds Sam Statler and Annie Potter are head over heels, and excited to say good-bye to New York city and start a life together in Sam's sleepy hometown upstate. Or, it turns out, a life where Annie spends most of her time alone while Sam, her therapist husband, works long hours in his downstairs office, tending to the egos of his (mostly female) clientele. Little does Sam know that through a vent in his ceiling, every word of his sessions can be heard from the room upstairs.

Dixie Cash novels score critical accolades while slaying readers with witty mysteries starring the Domestic Equalizers, aka Debbie Sue Overstreet and her best friend, Edwina. In this down-home whodunit, the gals from Salt Lick, Texas, wrangle with a mystery involving a bull-riding "champeen" and an Internet stalker.

Fifteen years ago an anonymous tormentor known only as A terrorized Emily Fields, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, and Aria Montgomery—watching their every move, revealing their darkest secrets, and even nearly killing them. Now A is in jail and the Pretty Little Liars have grown up and moved on. Emily is happily married. Spencer is on partner track at her law firm. Hanna’s family is the envy of the neighborhood. And Aria is a finalist for a coveted art fellowship. Their lives are perfect. Or so they say.

Beth and Tom Hardcastle are the envy of their neighbourhood—they have the perfect marriage, the perfect house, the perfect family. When the police knock on their door one evening, Beth panics. Tom should be back from work by now—what if he’s crashed his car? She fears the worst. But the worst is beyond imagining. As the interrogation begins, Beth will find herself questioning everything she believed about her husband.

It seems like everything should be fine. So why isn't it? In the aftermath, Becca struggles to pick up the pieces, feeling like things should be easier. After all, they won. Didn't they? Then why are the nightmares back? And why can't she shake this nagging feeling that something is still out there, watching her, and biding its time to end this dance once and for all?

Amy is trapped in a nightmare with Jason, a controlling, violent husband. Then on a short cruise without him, Amy befriends Liz, a young woman traveling alone on her way to meet her birth mother for the first time. Liz looks so much like Amy that they could be sisters. When Amy regains consciousness after a terrible accident that takes the lives of many passengers, she finds that, because of a mix-up in personal effects, everyone believes she is Liz. Only she knows it is Liz who has gone missing, presumed dead.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista is a novel set in the not-too-distant future in the American Southwest, during a period of low-intensity civil war. The action takes place between Texas and California, but the story is mainly centered around New Mexico. Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista is a sequel to Enemies Foreign and Domestic, but it may be enjoyed on its own.

All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind. She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.

There’s a cottage on a cliff. Gabe and Pippa’s dream home in a sleepy coastal town. But their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Night after night Gabe comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge. Until he doesn’t. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral...Did the victim jump? Was she pushed?

When Catherine wakes up alone one morning, she thinks her husband has gone for a run before work. But Simon never makes it to the office. His running shoes are by the front door. Nothing is missing—except him. Catherine knows Simon must be in trouble. He wouldn’t just leave her. He wouldn’t leave the children. But Simon knows the truth—about why he left and what he’s done. He knows things about his marriage that it would kill Catherine to find out. The memories she holds on to are lies.

When Cam and Desiree Woodson find the luxurious rental home in a quiet, suburban Atlanta neighborhood, they believe they've discovered the perfect place for their growing young family—and for their tight budget, the price is too good to be true. But what starts as a bargain soon turns into a nightmare when the landlord's unusual lease terms become more suffocating than they ever imagined...

Emma hasn't told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn't spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she's pregnant—right as the bank account slips into the red. That's when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents' house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can't sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband.

The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other. On the night of the annual summer block party, there has been a murder. But, who did it, and why, takes listeners back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold. The real danger lies within their own block and nothing—and no one—is ever as it seems.