Psychological Suspense

On the day before his twenty-first wedding anniversary, David Sullinger buried an ax in his wife’s skull. Now, eight jurors must retire to the deliberation room and decide whether David committed premeditated murder—or whether he was a battered spouse who killed his wife in self-defense.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out...and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself: The Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of....

Izzy is thrilled when her shy, 12-year-old son is invited for his first sleepover. Nick has spent years being isolated and picked on; he deserves a night of fun and friendship. But Izzy is also nervous: it's a year to the day since bullies put Nick in the hospital. She drops him off at his new best friend's house with mixed feelings. Arriving to collect him the following morning, her worst fears come true.... Nick isn't there. Who has taken her son? And will she ever get him back?

Ten years ago, six-year-old Catalina Mateo hid under the porch of her family home while a knife butchered her mother and a bullet killed her father. Now a rough-sleeping orphan, Cat arrives at the house of Detective Jonathan Stride, pleading for protection. Drenched in the icy waters of Lake Superior, she claims to have narrowly escaped a cold-blooded killer. Stride's raw instinct is to protect Cat, whose late parents' case - and his personal guilt associated with it - still sends a shiver down his spine. As a result, he takes the troubled teenager under his wing.

Some call him friend or boss. Some call him husband or dad. Some call him son, even a favorite son. But the only title that matters to him is the one the media has given him: the Poet. A name he earned from the written words he leaves behind after he kills that are as dark and mysterious as the reason he chooses his victims. One word, two, three, a story in a poem, a secret that only Detective Samantha Jazz can solve. Because, he’s writing this story for her.

Harley Mason, you may love her or hate her, but never underestimate her. As the Masons settle down to a more normal life following the death of three family members, a shocking discovery of a schoolgirl found dead in nearby woods starts the finger pointing once again. Lewis Sanders, the detective on the case, struggles to believe that a teenage girl is capable of such a horrific crime. Yet the discovery of a second body could put Harley Mason in the frame.

Someone found him in a laundry basket at the Quick Wash, wrapped in a towel, a few hours old and close to death. They called him "Baby Moses" when they shared his story on the ten o'clock news.

Iris Thomas thought she’d never have to see Sasha Everett again after Sasha seduced her husband and broke up their marriage in a devastating betrayal. But as luck would have it, when Iris’ stepdaughter, Molly, and Sasha’s daughter, Bailey, wind up in the same second-grade class at an elite private school in Los Angeles, they form an instant bond and force the two women back into each other’s lives. Iris wants to put the past behind her and support Molly, but as time goes on, she suspects that Sasha may be guilty of something even worse than adultery....

When Alex arrives in Provincetown to patch things up with his new wife, Mina, he finds an empty wine glass in the sink, her wedding ring on the desk, and a string of questions in her wake. The police believe that Mina, a successful romance author, simply left, their marriage crumbling before it truly began. But what Alex finds in their empty cottage points him toward a different reality: Mina has always carried a secret. And now she's disappeared.

The forest is my happy place. A chance to get away from my stifling apartment, the sweat of the city, a job I hate. A Sunday morning spent hiking in the woods with my dog is a dream come true...until it becomes a waking nightmare. I don't see the hole until it's too late. Then I'm at the bottom of it, staring up at the ground 12 feet above me. A stupid accident. Or was it? Because soon, someone's bringing me food and water. Someone who doesn't want me to see his face. Someone who knows what I did.

In nine short stories, seven of which have never previously been available in print, and one brand-new, never-before-seen Sherlock Holmes mystery - available together for the first time - Laurie R. King blends her long-running brand of crime fiction with historical treats and narrative sleight of hand.

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.

As a 14-year-old girl in London, Alice survived a horrific stabbing attack by two classmates obsessed with Mister Tender, a graphic novel character created by Alice's own father. Now, a decade later and an ocean away, Alice is trying to focus on the present - but the past won't leave her alone. Someone knows far more than they should - not just about the night she's tried so hard to forget, but also deeply private details about Alice's life.

It's no coincidence when Grace Elland finds a vodka bottle next to the lifeless body of her boss, motivational speaker Sprague Witherspoon. The bottle is a terrifying - and deliberate - reminder of the horrors of her past. Grace retreats to her hometown to regroup and tries to put everything she’s learned about positive thinking into practice - a process that is seriously challenged on the world’s worst blind date. Awkward doesn’t begin to describe her evening with venture-capitalist Julius Arkwright.

Horror is what Dan Law enjoys. He loves to read horror novels as a way to escape from his teaching job, from his loneliness, from the everyday dullness of life in Silver Lake. That’s what Dan lives for. When a new bookstore opens in town, every visitor receives a free book of their own. A book that tells their own personal story...a story they have to follow to the brutal end. As Silver Lake’s population descends into violent savagery, Dan finds he is no longer living for horror novels - he’s living inside one.

As an overworked NHS psychiatrist, Dr Clancy Mclean is used to dealing with mental illness. But she is stressed - trying to balance her career and the needs of her only child, Rowan. And she has her work cut out trying to keep her patients well. She knows two of them are psychotic and becoming overwhelmed by their voices. If they act on them it could prove disastrous. Rowan is troubled. Her boyfriend is abusive but she doesn’t want to end the relationship - she’s too scared of being lonely. Can she find someone else to keep her company?

Thirty years ago, seven-year-old Mitch Walker was left for dead in the woods while his five-year-old sister Sarah was abducted. Now, circumstances pull him back to the place where Sarah vanished. He finds evidence linking his sister to a number of girls whose disappearances remain a mystery and has to face the fact that she may have been a victim of a serial killer known as the Blackden Edge Murderer. Elly Cooper, ex-journalist and best-selling author, has been tasked by her agent to investigate the disappearances for a new book. She needs to find out if the rumoured Blackden Edge Murderer is more than just a local legend.

DI Gravel and his daughter, Emily, are oblivious to the terrible danger she is in when she accepts a job working for the solicitor Charles Turner. Meanwhile, Gravel is on the hunt for a serial killer. And when Emily becomes the killer’s latest obsession, the murderer will stop at nothing to make his grotesque fantasies reality. But as further bodies are discovered, the killer seeks to befriend DI Gravel and misdirect his investigation. How can you catch a killer who is hiding in plain sight? Can DI Gravel and Emily come away from this case with both their lives intact?

After a tragic car accident, Samantha is left widowed and bereft. Her husband, Adam, was everything to her. At least the home they shared together in Cornwall provides her with some security. Or does it? Upon returning from a school reunion where Sam met her old friend, Penny, and an old flame, Dan, she discovers that Adam had invested money unwisely and she is now penniless. Dan comes up with a way in which she can keep the house, and he’s willing to invest. Dan gets his way...but at what price? And why is he so keen to help, despite his wife’s reservations?

When Glasgow journalist Shona McGilvery moves with her partner Mikey and their baby to an idyllic cottage in rural Scotland, they believe that all that lies ahead of them is happiness. But with Mikey working offshore, the frightening isolation of the Aberdeenshire countryside begins to drive her insane.... That is, until she is rescued by a new friendship with the enchanting Valentina. She has the perfect home, the perfect man, and a charismatic new best friend - or does she? As her fairytale life begins to unravel, the deep dark wood becomes the least of her fears....