Psychological Suspense

Laura Cavendish can't wait to meet the woman who's won her son's affection. Despite a successful career in television and a long, prosperous marriage, Laura's world revolves around kind, talented Daniel. She pictures his new girlfriend, Cherry, becoming a close friend and confidante ...one day, even a daughter-in-law. But although Cherry is beautiful and amiable, Laura can't warm to her. There's something about the possessive way she touches Daniel, the little lies Laura detects. Cherry seems to resent Laura, driving a wedge between mother and son - until one day Daniel is injured.

Liza Cole has 30 days to write the thriller that could put her back on the best seller list. In the meantime, she's struggling to start a family with her husband, who is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. With stresses weighing her down in both her professional and her personal lives, Liza escapes into writing her latest heroine, Beth. Beth is a new mother who suspects her husband is cheating on her while she's home alone caring for their newborn. Then the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife, Allison, is killed. Haunted by her absence - and her ghost - Aaron goes through her belongings, where he finds a receipt for a motel room in another part of the country. Piloted by grief and an increasing sense of curiosity, Aaron embarks on a journey to discover what Allison had been doing in the weeks prior to her death.

Sisters, Strangers and Slaughter is a psychologically thrilling collection of short stories focusing on the remote and inchoate hollows of the human condition. Each of the three stories features a narrator battling inner separateness, an arcane secret that threatens an otherwise healthy existence. In their suffering, the subjects are unable to tell physical pain from its mental shape.

Here today. Dead tomorrow? Last night I almost died. A fire consumed the hotel room where my best friend, Emily, and I slept. Emily was killed. But I can't afford to cry, to grieve. It was meant to be me. And he'll be coming for my daughter next. The press thinks it was me that died. At best that gives me 24 hours. Twenty-four hours to find Polly and disappear. Twenty-four hours to stay alive.

When Anna Hartley’s husband, Henry, calls her with a terrible, guilty confession, she can’t believe what she hears. It has to be a bad joke—the mild, predictable artist she married would never hurt a fly, let alone commit murder. But her confusion turns to horror when police find his body washed up on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Alone after the tragic loss of her parents, Felicity finds herself in a relationship with volatile and troubled Jay. Reluctantly drawn in to a twisted revenge plan against Jay's former best friend, Felicity soon becomes trapped, and as Jay turns increasingly controlling and abusive she questions everything he has told her about his past and his former girlfriend Sammie. But when she wants to expose the truth she comes up against an even greater threat: Someone obsessed and dangerous. Someone who has always been in the background of Jay's life. Someone who will do anything for him.

What if a death sentence meant you could get away with murder? Claudia and Heather both decide to leave their husbands. Together, they get a flat - but their peace is short-lived when Claudia is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Heather takes on caring for Claudia, but a lethal meeting with James, Claudia’s ex-husband, causes complications. As life for Claudia and Heather begins to unravel, the answer to their problems becomes clear...it’s murder.

Every year, Úna prepares for her father to leave her. He will wave good-bye early one morning, then disappear with seven other men to traverse the Irish countryside. Together, these men form the Butchers, a group that roams from farm to farm, enacting ancient methods of cattle slaughter.

A night spent sleeping on dirt and leaves is not how Claire Matchett expected to spend her vacation. She thought this would be a break. A week of hiking and hot tubs with two other couple friends. Then Claire’s minivan breaks down on a lonely dirt road. With no cell reception, the group has no choice but to hike the rest of the way to their hotel. But it turns out the woods aren’t as easy to navigate as they thought. Hours later, they are lost. Hopelessly lost. And as they navigate deeper into the woods, the members of their party are struck down mysteriously one by one.

I thought moving to this quiet cul-de-sac was the fresh start my husband and I needed, escaping the noise of our cramped flat in Hounslow. I left India and all that was familiar for a new life with him in England. But my husband works all hours, leaving me alone in a house that doesn’t feel like a home. Our neighbours notice the bruises on my arms. They draw the obvious conclusions. They seem kind, but they’re hiding something. I just can’t shake the feeling that someone is always watching me . . . waiting. My husband’s working late. Again. That’s when I see it.

Arabella Lane is found dead in the Thames on a frosty winter’s morning after the office Christmas party. No one is sure whether she jumped or was pushed. The one person who may know the truth is the office temp, Eleanor. Having traveled to London to escape the repercussions of her traumatic childhood in Australia, tragedy seems to follow Eleanor wherever she goes. To her horror, she has no memory of the crucial hours leading up to Arabella’s death - memory that will either incriminate or absolve her.

When Freya falls for the manipulative Kane, her life changes beyond her wildest imagination. When the luxurious life she craves gradually becomes intolerable she realises escape is out of reach. Her life has changed, and so has she. She knows that when she least expects it, he will return and make good his promise to exact revenge and ensure she pays the price he felt he is owed. Can Freya ever be free? Whoever knew love could be so dangerous?

Emma and Ariella, neighbours in one of Sydney’s most exclusive suburbs, appear to have it all—perfect homes, perfect husbands, perfect lives. But they both know dark secrets lurk beneath the surface and shallow waters can’t hide Ariella’s. Now she has been found murdered. Her daughter filmed the killing. Not knowing what she’s filmed, Emma’s daughter Kiki innocently uploads footage of Ariella’s brutal death. Emma fears the worst—the killer will know what she and Kiki have seen. Their safe suburban lives no longer exist.

This novel by Carl Hiaasen, author of Tourist Season and Native Tongue, begins as most thrillers do, with a killing. But this is no everyday, hum-drum, garden variety killing. Our hero, Nick Stranahan, a 42-year-old private investigator who has killed five men and been married five times, skewers his attacker's aorta with the razor-sharp bill of a stuffed marlin.

When 22-year-old Gillian Thompson returns from university for the summer, it is apparent there is tension at home. An irritant to her father and a concern to her mother, Gillian’s home life is less than ideal. Geraldine, Gillian’s mother, has suffered abuse from Joe for years. However, it is not until Joe dies that the family dynamic shifts and Gillian starts out on her own dark journey.

How does a mother protect her child from the unknown? During a visit to a local theatre, four-year-old Chloe Hollis becomes hysterical. But her mother, Mel, doesn’t realise that this is just the beginning of the nightmare. In the coming weeks, Chloe talks of The Tall Man - of death. At her wit's end, Mel confides in Charles Honeywell, the headmaster at the school where she works. But what Mel doesn’t know is that Charles is linked to what is happening to her daughter.

Tessa and Charlie have been best friends since childhood. Now Tess is a famous travel writer who documents her adventures on social media while Charlie rarely leaves the safety of her home, living in fear after narrowly escaping a vicious attack years earlier. But despite their different lives, their bond of friendship remains unbreakable...even in death.

Simon and Vicky couldn’t seem more normal: a wealthy Chicago couple, he a respected law professor, she an advocate for domestic violence victims. A stable, if unexciting marriage. But one thing’s for sure: absolutely nothing is what it seems. The pair are far from normal, and one of them just may be a killer. When the body of a beautiful socialite is found hanging in a mansion in a nearby suburb, Simon and Vicky’s secrets begin to unravel. A secret whirlwind affair. A twenty-million-dollar trust fund about to come due.

Except for their gorgeous faces, identical twins Mercedes and Marcie Calder are nothing alike. Mercedes is a movie star in LA with a sexy husband, two beautiful children, and an exciting, glamorous lifestyle; Marcie is an art teacher in Minnesota with a shy disposition and a quiet life alone. But when Mercedes is found dead - mysteriously drowned in her swimming pool - Marcie is the only person who can step into her shoes and finish her latest movie.