Gripping Thriller

I stare at the newspaper article about a baby snatched from the back of a car 30 years ago and wonder why someone would post it through my door. Looking closer, my blood freezes. The little girl in the photo has an unusual scar - just like mine. I’ve never met anyone with one like it. Is this stolen child...me? Trembling with shock, I know I have to confront my mother. My parents got me through a horrific accident, helped me find a job I love teaching art, and even with buying my own house. But was it all built on lies?

One honeymoon resort. Two couples. Everyone has something to hide. On the surface their lives seem perfect. Beauty, money, love. They have it all. Tansy and Daniel. Nikki and Arne. Two newlywed couples enjoying their enviable honeymoons at the same luxurious resort. But behind the filtered photos and fake smiles is the truth.

My twin brother is the person I’m closest to. But now he frightens me. We both have the same white-blond hair and clear blue eyes. All our lives people have stared at us. So we had to be there for each other. Bryce tried to protect me from our dad. But when he died, I thought I was finally safe. After the funeral, Bryce takes me aside: “Since Dad’s passing . . . well, it’s been going on for a few years now. I’ve been keeping a huge secret from you.”

It’s dark as the young woman leaves work. Crossing the empty car park alone, she thinks about the warmth of her little house. But she doesn’t make it home that night. Or ever again… Thirty years ago, Ruth Pritchard’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Elissa, went missing. Police were called, neighbours were interviewed, and even Ruth’s own husband was investigated, but the case went unsolved. Elissa disappeared forever. Now, Ruth watches the local news and hears about another girl gone from the same streets where her beloved daughter was last seen, and her heart races.

I’m Lucy, and I have a secret I have a beautiful home that I’m desperate to escape. But that’s not my secret. I tell my friends I’ve never wanted children when I always have. But that’s not my secret. My husband is a celebrated surgeon who tries to control me. But that’s not my secret. Adele knows. Once upon a time, I knew everything about her and she knew everything about me. Best friends forever. But now our secret is beginning to surface. I can trust her more than anyone. We made a pact. And she’s never do anything to hurt me. Would she?

Alice and Seth are a perfect love story: the handsome doctor and his beautiful fiancée. They’re wealthy, well liked and made for each other—the envy of all their friends. Alice can’t wait for the day of their dream wedding. But when she arrives at the altar, she doesn’t recognise the man waiting to marry her. When this stranger insists he’s Seth, her husband-to-be, the entire congregation seems to agree. Even her parents try to persuade Alice to go through with the wedding.

Ten years ago, Marshall profiled a serial killer the press had dubbed the Shadow Man, who killed six young athletes at remote sites in cold blood, and he worked with Northumbria Police to catch the perpetrator. But the Shadow Man kept the burial locations of the final three bodies to himself. Tired of the passivity, Marshall quit profiling and joined the police. Now a detective inspector in Police Scotland’s Borders Major Investigation Team, Marshall is summoned to HMP Frankland in County Durham, a.k.a. the Monster Mansion.

Detective Kay Sharp vowed she’d never return to her childhood home. But now Kay’s back, and only she can solve the crime that has rocked the tight-knit community of Mount Chester to its core. A dead woman has been found by Silent Lake under the dew-covered fall leaves. Kay knows the missing-person investigation could turn into a murder case at any second. But as she hunts for the culprit, her own past closes in on her. Can she find the killer before it’s too late? And will the secret she thought she’d buried stay that way?

I thought my sister was happy. I thought what we all thought: that Annie and Dom led perfect lives in a lovely cottage in a quiet village by the sea, with flowers at the front gate and an apple tree in the garden. Everyone knew them: generous, loving Dom, creative, joyful Annie. But I never saw Annie as she sat waiting for Dom well into the night. I didn’t see her smiling through her tears. I didn’t know what the perfect couple was hiding.

Winter 1924. When Lady Eleanor Swift unexpectedly finds herself a guest of the reclusive Duke of Auldwyke, she’s determined to enjoy Christmas with all the trimmings at his sprawling manor house. And that includes kisses under the mistletoe and cozying up by the fire with her fiancé, dashing detective Hugh Seldon. Instead, the season of goodwill turns frosty as she finds the Duke’s studious secretary, Mr Porritt, dead in the storeroom. Clasped in his chilly hand is a golden pendant in the shape of a rose.

In a town full of liars, who can you trust? When Detective Finnegan Beck is demoted from his high-powered job in Dublin and relocated in disgrace to the small Irish town of Cross Beg, he predicts boredom will be his biggest threat. But then a beautiful local teenage girl is found strangled in the cold, dark woods a mile from town. The prime suspect is the seemingly gentle drifter who found Tanya’s body. Beck seems to be the only person who can’t escape the feeling that Tanya wasn’t killed at random.

Kate Youngblood is disappearing. Muddling through her late 30s as a creative writing professor at Blackwood college, she's dangerously close to never being noticed again. The follow-up novel to her successful debut tanked. Her husband left her for a woman 10 years younger. She's always been bright, beautiful, independent and a little wild, but now her glow is starting to vanish. She's heading into an age where her eyes are less blue, her charm worn out, and soon no one will ever truly look at her, want to know her, again. Except one.

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.

Detective Josie Quinn lifts the baby from the pram, holding her close and gently soothing her. Josie scours the scene for the sweet little girl’s mother, but the park is deserted. Glancing down, something catches her eye. Nestled amongst the child’s soft pink blankets is a polaroid photo, the corner smudged with blood. The search for Cleo Tate has Josie and her team in a chokehold; the abandoned newborn needs her mother, and every second counts now lab results show the blood belongs to her. The blurred photo of a body of water is Josie’s only lead. But what does it mean?

Since Katie’s dad left, it’s just been the two of us, but we’re a team – singing in the kitchen at cheesy pop songs, tackling her homework. My teenage daughter is everything to me. But one night, as we’re curled up in front of the TV, the messages start. I keep my phone away from Katie so she can’t see the terrifying words: I know what you did. Now you’re going to do something for me....

Carly had thought they’d always live there. The beautiful Cornish cliffside house they’d taken on as a wreck, that Mark had obsessively redesigned and renovated - a project that had made him famous. It was where they’d raised their children, where they’d sat cozily on the sofa, watching storms raging over the sea below. It was where they’d promised to keep each other’s secrets. Until now. Because Mark has fallen in love. With someone he definitely shouldn’t have. Someone who isn’t Carly. And suddenly their family home doesn’t feel like so much of a safe haven.

She told me she was the housekeeper, and who was I to question? Our stay in this perfectly renovated Victorian house on the rich side of Hastings was a favour from an old school friend while the fire damage to our own little place was being fixed. This is not my house, and they are not my rules. So I step aside, and I let her in. Am I paranoid to think that she’s watching my every move? What am I supposed to do when she rests her head on my husband’s broad shoulder, a glint in her eye that only I can see?

Julia Bird loves a walk in the countryside. There’s nothing quite like the fresh air and green rolling hills of the Cotswolds to clear your head. Unless you come across a dead body, that is… When the local Berrywick vet, Dr Eve Davies, is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, the police believe it’s nothing more than a tragic accident, but Julia isn’t so sure. Just a few days earlier when she took her dog, Jake, to the vets, Dr Eve said she believed something awful was about to happen. It turns out she was right…But who would want the beloved village vet dead?

Rebecca only wanted to help out - to be kind. Richard seemed so alone after his wife, Nicole, died, and Rebecca wanted to make sure he knew he had someone on whom to rely. But now, she’s in Nicole’s immaculate house. Drinking from her favourite crystal wine glass. Keeping shoes in her orderly closet. Comforting her sweet and grieving stepdaughter. It feels like Rebecca is living another woman’s life.

She’ll do anything for you.... My name is Alex, and my world has been shattered. My husband has left me. My children won’t speak to me. My friend Carrie is the only person I have. She’s the only one I can trust to keep all my secrets. She’d never do anything to let me down. Would she? This dark, gripping psychological thriller will have you holding your breath until the very last minute.