Domestic Fiction Thriller

Sam Wakefield's ancestral home, a decaying mansion built on the edge of a swamp, isn't a place for children. Its labyrinthine halls, built by her mad ancestors, are filled with echoes of the past: ghosts and memories knotted together as one. In the presence of phantoms, it's all Sam can do to disentangle past from present in her daily life. But when her pregnant sister Elizabeth moves in after a fight with her husband, something in the house shifts. Already navigating her tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth, Sam's even more unsettled by the appearance of a new ghost: a faceless boy.

The Abbotts’ new lodger Luke hasn’t told them much about himself, but they can’t expect to know everything about a stranger who’s just moved in. Only Luke keeps asking about their family photos, and snooping through their things. Why does he want to know everything about them? Then, suddenly, Mum Mel texts the family to say she needs a break. But Mel has never gone away on her own before. And now it’s been days and no one can get hold of her. While daughters Jen and Amy frantically try to find their mum they're alone with Luke. They're scared, and they should be.

The three Williams girls are as close as sisters can be, and they also share one special trait in common: each of them have a man in their lives that they could do without.

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home. Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger.

Pregnant and living an Insta-perfect lifestyle, Sarah seems to have it all. But one evening halfway through making dinner, she vanishes into thin air leaving behind her keys, her handbag and James, her bewildered husband. The pans are boiling over and the smoke alarm is screaming, but he is alone in the house. Keen to get their picture-perfect life back on track before their followers start wondering where his wife is, James desperately tries to find her.

Colette “Coco” Weber has relocated to her Catalina Island home, where, twenty years before, she was the sole survivor of a deadly home invasion. All Coco wants is to see her aunt Gwen, get as far away from her ex as possible, and get back to her craft—writing obituaries. Thankfully, her college best friend, Maddy, owns the local paper and has a job sure to keep Coco busy, considering the number of elderly folks who are dying on the island. But as Coco learns more about these deaths, she quickly realizes that the circumstances surrounding them are remarkably similar....

Seventeen-year-old Ellie was last seen at a party with her boyfriend, star quarterback Josh, before she went missing… Twenty years later, Ellie has rebuilt her life. The man who ruined it is behind bars. He can't hurt her now. But as Ellie leaves her therapy group, a face she hasn't seen in decades appears before her. Josh, her high school boyfriend, is back in town. As they reconnect after years apart, trying to make sense of their shared trauma, a few streets away, Ellie's seventeen-year-old daughter Jess vanishes.

Sadie Wilson’s heart stops the moment the phone rings. Deep in her soul, she knows what’s coming, and the voice on the other end only confirms her fears: Emma never made it to school. Her sweet, scared five-year-old climbed onto the bus for her very first day of kindergarten…and then vanished.

Lana Stone has never considered herself a stalker - until the night she impulsively follows a familiar face through the streets of New York's Upper West Side. Her target? The "anonymous" egg donor she'd selected through an agency, the one who's making motherhood possible for her. Hungry to learn more about her, Lana plans only to watch her from a distance. But when circumstances bring them face-to-face, an unexpected friendship is born.

Kara will do anything for her best friend and neighbor, Mindy. Especially when she learns that Mindy’s husband might be having an affair. Kara promises to remain vigilant. Maybe she’ll even catch the rat in the act. Then one night when Kara observes someone sneaking into Mindy’s house, she decides to take a closer look. But what’s happening across the street isn’t what Kara expects. And what she sees could get her killed.

Tom Violet always thought that by the time he turned 35, he’d have everything going for him. Fame. Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet him at the end of the day. The reality, though, is far different. He’s got a wife, but their problems are bigger than he can even imagine. And he’s written a novel, but the manuscript he’s slaved over for years is currently hidden in his desk drawer while his father, an actual famous writer, just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His career, such that it is, involves mind-numbing corporate buzzwords....

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.

At Bristol High they were an elite clique known as the Five Firsts: Amanda, Bailey, Carmen, Delta and Zora...ABCD & Z. They could have accepted their classmate, Emmy, as "E", but with her bookish disposition and her embarrassing status of scholarship student to boot, they rejected her and chose wealthy Zora instead. At a pre-graduation party just before the end of senior year, Lance Ventura, the hottest guy in school, falls down an embankment toward the river and is barely rescued in time to save his life. One of the Five Firsts, Carman, rushes to save him, but isn't so lucky.

Anna has always believed that her mother, Debbie, died 30 years ago on the night she disappeared. But when her father gets a strange note, she realises that she’s never been told the full story of what happened that night on the cliff. Confused and upset, Anna turns to her husband, Jack - but when she finds a love letter from another woman in his wallet, she realises there’s no-one left to help her, least of all her family. And then a body is found....

Jessica Fletcher must tread lightly when investigating a homegrown homicide...

After narrowly escaping a life sentence under the guise of a new persona, Shae Halston thinks she's turned over a new leaf. But all is not as it seems. When she begins to impersonate a couples therapist and starts taking on new patients, Shae thinks she's stumbled into just the kind of role she was born to play. Until a surprise in the form of a new client lands on her doorstep.

Emily Hunt went missing from her affluent liberal arts school on graduation weekend. Her body was found floating in a river, and a quiet loner who most people on campus really didn’t know died by suicide. A tenuous link—one text—bound the two dead students together and was enough for law enforcement to close the case. But they got it wrong and now someone is determined to set it right.

When a body is found buried near the desolate forest road of Kellers Way, Detective Melanie Carter must identify the victim if she is to have any chance of finding the killer. That's no easy task with fragmentary evidence from a crime committed years earlier and a conspiracy of silence from anyone who might have information. The one person who may be able to help is Julie West.

Elisa Wright is a mom and wife, living a nice, quiet life in a nice, quiet town. She’s also convinced her brother-in-law is a murderer. Josh has one dead wife and one missing fiancée, and though he grieved for them he starts dating someone new. Elisa fears for that woman’s safety, and she desperately wants to know what happened to her friend, Josh’s missing fiancée.

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.