Gripping Thriller

At the center of the novel is a private investigator named Archie Lightman. Archie and his partner Delia Sanchez stumble upon a pattern of killings in which the victims are all criminals who---in an age of rampant plea bargaining---are often too lightly punished for their crimes. The investigation leads them to a support group modeled along the lines of a traditional 12-step program called COSOVO, Circle of Survivors of Violent Offenses. Its members the surviving kin of murdered loved ones.

Tensions explode across Los Angeles as violence ravages the city–an unarmed Black man shot dead by the cops, a little girl caught in gang crossfire, an LAPD officer killed by pre-dawn gunfire in the Hollywood Hills–the first in a string of cop killings that have the force on edge. Under the sweltering California sun, LAPD cop Tony Calvanese pulls his sweat-stained uniform collar from his neck, surveying the aftermath of these senseless killings rippling through a city primed to erupt.

Jerome Prentice is a good guy. Loyal to a fault, he always stays on the right side of the law. But everything changes the night he is awoken by the sound of masked kidnappers entering his home. Holding him at gunpoint, they drag his beloved wife, Alicia, out of the house with a promise to kill her if he goes to the police. Their demand: betray the company he’s worked for his entire adult life.

"Only in Bologna" reads the headline in the Carlino after a professor of music is apparently murdered leaving the opera. But what looks like an open-and-shut case begins to fall apart when English detective Daniel Leicester is tasked with getting the accused man off, and a trail that begins among Bologna's close-knit classical music community leads him to suspect there may be a serial killer at large in the oldest university in the world. And as Bologna trembles with aftershocks following a recent earthquake, the city begins to give up her secrets.

Kyle Roche is a man who people hire to fix problems. But this time, he’s been hired to protect a woman who doesn’t officially exist anymore. And he’s the only man who can find her and keep her safe in less than 24 hours. The daughter’s name is Savannah Nicholls. She had to go into Witness Protection because of a tragic mistake. She moved to the small town of Pagosa Springs nine days ago, but even hidden as she is, she’s in mortal danger. Savannah’s mother says her daughter is just a nice girl, from a good family, that she’s never gotten in trouble in her life.

One hot summer night, 15-year-old Olivia comes home late from a party she was strictly forbidden from going to, and she and her mother, Hannah, start arguing. Soon Olivia speaks the words that every parent has heard from their teenage child.

Author Alexa Wainwright is losing her mojo. Her latest works aren't selling like her internationally best-selling debut. She vows to do whatever it takes to get back to being number one. But is she really? As she makes this vow, suddenly a lightning bolt cracks across the cloudless sky transporting the clueless Alexa to an alternate universe. Here, the characters in her books are given the breath of life and she meets media mogul, publisher, and possibly the devil himself, King Blakemore, who offers her a lucrative but ironclad book contract that will guarantee her comeback.

Headlights cut through a hot summer night along a backroad in Central Florida. The driver flicks his eyes constantly from the road ahead to the rearview mirror, his heart pounding as he expects to see the heatless glow of another pair of lights closing in on him. The driver is George Wilman, a chemical engineer from a covert facility. Well, he was. Now George is on the run. After discovering that a breakthrough water treatment project that he was developing was only one part of a sinister plan, George blew the whistle and fled. His salvation is dependent upon his wits and guile.

The last time Katy saw Jude was on a school trip: Jude was attacked by a stranger, and Katy ran away. Twenty years later, Jude is back, and her reappearance coincides with a series of unsettling incidents: a stranger appears in the downstairs flat, Katy's house is vandalized, her mother is mugged, and her home ransacked. Jude also seems to know an uncomfortable amount about Katy's current life.

When Athene walks into Mary’s cafe and asks for directions to a holiday cottage she has rented, Mary tells her it burned down 20 years earlier. Since Athene has nowhere to stay, Mary suggests that she checks into a local pub for the night. What Athene doesn’t know is that the burnt-out house was where Mary’s friend, Bella, lived - the only person she ever loved, who died in terrible circumstances. Brought on by Athene’s arrival, Mary feels her past leaking into the present. There’s a secret to Bella’s death, something she’s kept buried for years.

When Meagan was five years old, her mother was viciously attacked and murdered. Now an adult, she herself is the victim of an abusive relationship. She’s desperate to escape but doesn’t have the courage to leave. So when Meagan meets Oliver, a decent guy who is on the rebound after a failed relationship, the two strike up a connection. But when Meagan confesses that her husband is abusive, it leads Oliver down a dark and dangerous path. Just how far would you go to protect someone? Oliver is about to find out and be pushed to his very limits....

When I left my parents’ home in Kentucky, I never thought I’d see my sister again. For years, we kept a terrible secret, and eventually it tore us apart. But when I get the call to say that my sister has been killed and my teenage niece Hannah is coming to live with us, I leave the past behind. Hannah is family, and I need to keep her safe. I know what could happen to her if I don’t. When my niece arrives, she bonds with my daughter Cassie instantly. But then I hear a scream from the girls’ bedroom. And in the garden, someone has lit a fire. It’s a warning.

Rachel is determined to be the perfect mother. She has a birth plan, with a playlist and a bag ready by the door. She’s chosen a lovely light cream paint for the nursery, and in wide-eyed, innocent Abbie she’s found the perfect person to help her with her baby. Because every mother needs a bit of help, don’t they? But Rachel needs a little more than most. She still makes sure her bedroom door is locked before she goes to sleep. She still checks the cameras that are dotted throughout the house.

Day one. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I slowly start to recognise my surroundings: the small hole in the door and a narrow window allowing only a small chink of light. The jewellery given to me by my loving husband is gone and I am wearing someone else’s clothes. The room is exactly as the first woman described. And the second. And the third… It’s then I know, I am the fifth woman to be taken.

It’s been 15 years since five-year-old Maya Duncan disappeared. But when a young woman turns up at Kay Duncan’s door, clutching a yellow rainhat with Maya’s name stitched in the back, it seems she might have come home at last. Phoebe is convinced that she is Maya and that the woman behind the door is her real mother. When she sees Kay, the memories come flooding back, and it seems they are to be reunited at last. But when a shocking discovery leads to tragedy, Phoebe is left grief-stricken and riddled with guilt.

Emma thought she had the perfect life: a beautiful home, a loving husband, and a gorgeous son. She was wrong. When she wakes up to find herself in hospital, Emma has no memory of how she got there or why her husband and son won’t come to see her. What happened to Emma’s family? Emma is desperate to find out what happened - and that her loved ones are safe - but remembering the truth could be the most dangerous thing of all....

This is the predicament Polly Cooke faces when she returns to her new home. The first weeks in the house had been idyllic, but soon Jacob, a local man, is watching her. What does he want and why is he so obsessed with Polly? In a situation where nothing is what it seems, you might end up regretting letting some people in.

Her missing daughter was just the start of the nightmare. Twenty years ago, Christine Donovan took a call she should have ignored while shopping. In those few seconds while her back was turned, her toddler, Heidi, was kidnapped. She's never been seen again. Despite having two other children with husband Greg, Christine remains guilt-stricken that her neglect caused her child to be stolen, while haunted by a secret that consumes her.

After being gone for two decades, Maddy’s half sister, Emily, is back in town to settle their late father’s estate. Emily’s not the troubled girl Maddy remembers from their volatile childhood. Apparently, all is well. It can’t possibly matter anymore that Maddy married Emily’s first love, but the pictures Maddy finds on her husband’s phone tell a different story. Suspicions of an affair are hard to ignore.

Even among special agents, Andromeda Stone is special. Her unique ability to walk in the dreams of others has placed her in the services of a secret government research and defense facility known only as The Agency. She always assumed it was because of her gift that she felt out of place, even among her family; but as she faces an entirely new and dangerous mission, perhaps it's something deeper that sets her apart.