Gripping Thriller

Charlie takes my breath away from the moment we meet, when he is dropping his adorable little girls off at the school gates at the same time as I’m waving goodbye to my son. Being a single mother has been hard. So when his gorgeous green-blue eyes hold mine and his lips curve into a smile I wonder if this is my chance to find happiness and escape the secrets in my past.

A young woman is brutally attacked on her way home. It looks like she was the victim of a jilted—and twisted—ex-lover. But then two more women, also engaged to be married, are found dead. The press call the killer the "Surrey Stalker". And there’s a stack of similar cold case files. The pressure is on for young, ambitious DI Rob Miller. But with all the time he’s spending at the office, Rob’s also running a fine line trying to keep his fiancée, Yvette, onside as they try to plan their wedding.

As I sit my beautiful blue-eyed boy Sam down on the bench outside the changing room, I’m certain today is going to be a better day. He can splash about with his pool toys without worrying about making too much noise, and I can take a break from tiptoeing around my husband Pete, who is becoming more distant every day.

On a winding mountain road into the town of Denton, Pennsylvania, Detective Josie Quinn finds the body of a local teenage girl, Dina Hale. The sight of plum-colored bruises gathering around the girl’s neck pierces Josie’s heart, but the discovery of a second girl’s empty purse in the dirt nearby gives her a flicker of hope that one person, at least, made a lucky escape. Dina’s parents are grief-stricken as the town rallies together in a desperate search for the second girl, who waitressed with Dina. The two best friends were on their way to a shift when they were attacked.

It’s winter in Black Rock Falls, and as tourists flock to the small town to take in the snowy mountain peaks, one visitor makes a sickening discovery. The frozen body of a young woman hangs from a tree on the outskirts of town. Detective Jenna Alton is called in to investigate. Jenna’s stomach turns as she surveys the ice-cold remains, and she’s soon alerted to similar burial sites nearby. With no missing persons reported, Jenna and her deputy, David Kane, fear Black Rock Falls is being used as a dumping ground for bodies.

It's June 2008 and 21-year-old Adam Lattimer vanishes, presumed dead. The strain of his disappearance breaks his already fragile family. Ten years later, with his mother deceased and siblings scattered across the globe, Adam turns up unannounced at the family home. His siblings return reluctantly to Spanish Cove, but Adam's reappearance poses more questions than answers. The past is a tangled web of deceit. And, as tension builds, it's apparent somebody has planned murderous revenge for the events of 10 years ago.

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.

Nico Storm and his father, Willem, drive a truck filled with essential supplies through a desolate land. They are among the few in the world, as far as they know, to have survived a devastating virus that has swept over the planet. Their lives turned upside down, Nico realizes that his superb marksmanship and cool head mean he is destined to be his father's protector, even though he is still only a boy.

My husband cheated on me. It still hurts, but I’m trying to forgive him for the sake of our kids. I need this break, away from it all, with my girlfriends from my wild swimming group. They’ve been my lifeline these past months. But on the way up to Scotland, my husband calls me with a shocking confession. His mistress is on the trip. He won’t tell me which of my friends she is. And as the candlelight flickers on the walls of our remote hideaway, I watch my friends closely as they sip their wine and laugh. Someone is hiding something. I need to know who.

It seems straightforward enough: Get a foot in the door by posing as a potential investor in a lucrative underground business—then bring the place down from the inside. There’s more here than meets the eye. What it triggers in Nameless is uncontrollable rage and brutal retribution. What it reveals is a clue to his forgotten past. Is it a breach on his handler’s part? Or a test? Either way, something’s not right.

Noel never should have been released from prison. My job helping ex-prisoners turn over a new leaf usually warms my heart, but as soon as I lock eyes with Noel the skin along the nape of my neck prickles. He wasn’t locked up for a petty crime; it was manslaughter. And now he’s dating my sister. Brooke says she’s never met a man who makes her feel so cherished and protected. That a single brush of his hand makes her heart flutter. A knight in shining armor who will finally lay to rest the twisted secrets in her past.

"The man you love has been murdered. You'd do anything to find out the truth. Wouldn't you?" A man lies dead in a hotel room, and the police attend his home address to inform the widow. Nothing unusual, until DC Freya West realises that the victim is the man she has been having an affair with. The future she imagined has been snatched away. Meanwhile, her new boss, DS Robin Butler, is preoccupied with his own problems. Mistakes he thought were buried deep in his past now threaten to be exposed.

Traumatised by the events of her past, exhausted by insomnia, Becky Braithwaite believes that a new start will help her to recover. She leaves home to fulfil her brother’s dreams, and honour the life he never had…but she soon finds that escaping from the pat is not as easy as she imagined.

It's Christmas, and a serial killer is leaving displayed body parts all over Cumbria. A strange message is left at each scene: #BSC6. Called in to investigate, the National Crime Agency's Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are faced with a case that makes no sense. Why were some victims anaesthetised, while others died in appalling agony? Why is their only suspect denying what they can irrefutably prove but admitting to things they weren't even aware of? And why did the victims all take the same two weeks off work three years earlier?

When firefighters discover the body of a teenage girl at an abandoned house, Detective Amanda Steele hurries to the scene. Dumfries, Virginia, is a small town, yet no one seems to have any idea who the dead girl is, until Amanda finds a dragonfly pin with the name Crystal engraved on it. Working tirelessly, Amanda traces the pin to Crystal Foster, a 13-year-old who disappeared three years ago from her wealthy parents’ home. Breaking the news to the distraught parents won’t be easy, but the loss of her own daughter still haunts Amanda, and she knows this will bring them closure.

Elizabeth is Joe’s foster mother, but she loves him like her own. The five-year-old, who adores superheroes and watching the birds outside, is the child she has dreamed of. As she looks into the garden, where he was playing just moments ago, her heart feels like it has been ripped from her chest. She was meant to save Joe from his birth mother who almost harmed his chances at life. The woman who has been trying to desperately get him back. She was meant to protect Joe from her husband. The man who, right now, lies to the police, saying he was making breakfast when Joe disappeared.

Kelsey Bloom has been living a lie, hiding in plain sight from the past that broke her, and everything is going according to plan. She has made herself at home in the small town of Sanlow, Montana, and her life seems perfect from the outside...until she’s attacked by someone who claims to know her secrets. The wounds are deep and the consequences will last a lifetime, but she can’t tell anyone what happened to her, not even her husband. One word and her cover will be blown.

"Schoolgirl missing", the ticker reads, and the camera cuts to a girl’s face. Blonde hair waterfalling over her shoulders, serious eyes, lips a little parted like she’s about to speak. That’s when I realize I’ve been holding my breath, because the gasp when I inhale almost chokes me. Sadie Kelly has lost her job. Until last month, she was a teacher at Horton College - the same high school she went to 10 years ago along with her best friend, Fiona.

For young mother Fosca Sentino, accepting refuge from ex-British soldier Richard - in Tuscany to escape his tragic past - is the only way to keep her little family safe. She once risked everything to spy on Nazi commanders and pass secret information to the resistenza. But after a heartbreaking betrayal, Fosca’s best friend, Simonetta, disappeared without trace. The whole community was torn apart, and now Fosca and her son are outcasts.

Gary and I have always been happy. Our fridge is covered in the love notes I leave him every morning, we always start the day on the doorstep with a goodbye kiss, and I make sure we never, ever fight. But since Gary’s sister Lisa moved in, things have been different… The day Lisa arrived at the school where I work, asking for help, I knew we had to welcome her into our home. Gary hasn’t spoken to his parents in years, and his childhood was far from perfect. But now every time Lisa enters a room, I watch him sneak out the door.