Book picks similar to
The Loch by Heather Atkinson
psychological-thriller
psychologix-suspense
scotland-highlands-islands
thrillers
The Lion, the Lamb, the Hunted
Andrew E. Kaufman - 2011
STEPPING INTO HER WORST NIGHTMARE... Because when she returned, she found an open bedroom window and her three-year-old son, Nathan, gone. The boy would never be seen again. A NIGHTMARE THAT ONLY BECAME WORSE.A tip leads detectives to the killer, a repeat sex offender, and inside his apartment, a gruesome discovery. A slam-dunk trial sends him off to death row, then several years later, to the electric chair. CASE CLOSED. JUSTICE SERVED...OR WAS IT?Now, more than thirty years later, Patrick Bannister unwittingly stumbles across evidence among his dead mother's belongings—it paints her as the killer and her brother, a wealthy and powerful senator, as the one pulling the strings. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO NATHAN KINGSLEY?There's a hole in the case a mile wide, and Patrick is determined to close it. But what he doesn't know is that the closer he moves toward the truth, the more he's putting his life on the line, that he’s become the hunted. Someone's hiding a dark secret and will stop at nothing to keep it that way.The clock is ticking, the walls are closing, and the stakes are getting higher as he races to find a killer—one who's hot on his trail. One who's out for his blood.
The Perfect Neighbors
Rachel Sargeant - 2017
When Helen moves into an exciting new neighbourhood, she finds herself in a web of evil with no escape
Behind the shutters lies a devastating secret…
When Helen moves abroad with her loving husband Gary, she can’t wait to meet her fellow expat teachers from the local International School. But her new start is about to become her worst nightmare…As soon as the charming family across the way welcome Helen into their home, she begins to suspect that all is not as it seems. Then Gary starts to behave strangely and a child goes missing, vanished without a trace.When violence and tragedy strike, cracks appear in the community, and Helen realises her perfect neighbours are capable of almost anything…
The Memory Closet
Ninie Hammon - 2009
She understands that something profoundly evil lurks in the swirling purple haze of her amnesia. For a quarter of a century, she was enslaved by what she called the "Boogie Man"-- images from her lost childhood that appeared in the shadows behind her reflection in mirrors and wine glasses, haunted her dreams and attacked her in screaming night terrors. Fear of facing that secret held her hostage. Like a schoolyard bully, it twisted her arm behind her back and forced her to accept that her life began at age 11 in the dirt beside the ditch where the family station wagon burned like hell had opened up a crack in the world right there in the back seat. Then the Boogie Man destroyed her career. And Anne saw him in her dying mother's eyes. With her last breath, Susan Mitchell begged for her daughter's forgiveness. She didn't mean for it to happen, she gasped, but she'll burn in hell for what she did all the same. What did her mother do? Anne has to know. So she has come home to a small Texas prairie town to live with her crazy grandmother in the rambling old house where she grew up, determined to take a stand there against the Boogie Man.But Anne isn't really prepared for how expensive remembering might be. The cost of her memories might be her sanity. Each new revelation loosens Anne's grip on reality. Surely her crazy grandmother didn't do THAT to Anne's beloved parakeet! Yes, the old woman DID! No ... actually, she didn't. The horror that attacks her in the garage--it can't possibly be real...can it? And most important: what happened to the little Indian girl with a face like a china doll whose name was Laughs in the Wind? The Boogie Man knows. He also knows Anne's here. He knows it's showtime. And he knows what she doesn't--that Anne might very well have to pay for her past with her future, that the cost of remembering could be her life.
The Guilty Wife
Elle Croft - 2017
MISTRESS. MURDERER.If you were being framed for murder, how far would you go to clear your name?The debut psychological thriller that reads as Apple Tree Yard meets Behind Closed Doors, by way of Double Jeopardy.I'm not guilty of murder.Bethany Reston is happily married. But she's also having an affair with a famous client.And no one can ever know.But that doesn't make me innocent.When Bethany's lover is brutally murdered, she has to hide her grief from everyone.But someone knows her secret. And then one day the threats begin.With an ever-growing pile of evidence pointing to her as the murderer, the only way she can protect her secrets is to prove her innocence. And that means tracking down a killer.An incredibly taut, tense game of cat and mouse - with a twist you'll never see coming.
The Best of Friends
Lucinda Berry - 2020
Reeling from the worst night of their lives, the three mothers plunge into a desperate investigation of the bizarre incident. How could something so horrible happen in their wealthy Southern California suburb? They soon discover that the accident was just the beginning, and troubling discoveries lead to chilling questions: Do they really know their children? Do they even know each other? As more secrets surface, a fog of doubt and suspicion threatens to poison their families, their friendships, and the whole community. With the illusion of happiness and safety long gone, these women must now confront the hazards of heartbreak, the consequences of jealousy, and the dangers of living double lives.
Everything Is Lies
Helen Callaghan - 2018
At least that is what she's always believed.Everyone has secretsUntil the day she arrives at her childhood home to find a house ringing with silence. Her mother is hanging from a tree. Her father is lying in a pool of his own blood, near to death.Especially those closest to you The police are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide. But Sophia is sure that the woman who brought her up isn't a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is up to Sophia to clear her mother's name. And to do this she needs to delve deep into her family's past - a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were there . . .What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born?
The Next Girl
Carla Kovach - 2018
She was wrong. Deborah Jenkins pulls her coat around her as she sets out on her short walk home in the pouring rain. But she never makes it home that night. And she is never seen again …Four years later, an abandoned baby girl is found wrapped in dirty rags on a doorstep. An anonymous phone call urges the police to run a DNA test on the baby. But nobody is prepared for the results. The newborn belongs to Deborah. She’s still alive.If you love Lisa Gardner, Patricia Gibney and Robert Bryndza, you’ll love this jaw-dropping new crime thriller from Carla Kovach. The Next Girl will keep you guessing until the very last page.
When I Was Ten
Fiona Cummins - 2020
Their Dad was the local GP and they lived in the beautiful house on the hill. Their best friend, Brinley Booth, lived next door. They would do anything for each other but everything shifted on that fateful day when Dr Richard Carter and his wife Pamela were stabbed fourteen times with a pair of scissors in what has become the most talked about double murder of the modern age.The girls were aged ten and twelve at the time. One, nicknamed the Angel of Death, spent eight years in a children’s secure unit accused of the brutal killings. The other lived in foster care out of the limelight and prying questions. Now, on the anniversary of the trial, a documentary team has tracked down one of the sisters, persuading her to speak about the events of that night for the first time.Her explosive interview sparks national headlines and Brinley Booth, now a journalist, is tasked with covering the news story which brings to light fresh evidence and triggers a chain of events which will have devastating consequences.
Mr Nice
John Nicholl - 2020
But was it someone else entirely? Someone out for revenge? Someone with a grudge? As DI Laura Kesey begins her investigation, she discovers that the case is infinitely more wicked than she could ever have imagined. The clock is ticking. The search is on. But will Kesey find Lottie before it’s too late?It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. The greater the evil, the deadlier the game.
No Exit
Taylor Adams - 2017
No help for miles. What would you do?On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.But who can she trust?
Good as Dead
Susan Walter - 2021
Holly saw it all. In one violent moment, a hit-and-run accident turns Holly’s life upside down. Then a fixer for the high-powered guilty party approaches Holly with an offer she is in no position to refuse. Holly and her daughter, Savannah, will want for nothing, beginning with a luxury dream house—all for the price of their silence. But when their sudden appearance in privileged Calabasas, California, piques the curiosity of neighbors, the price becomes greater than they imagined. Because Holly and Savannah aren’t the only ones in the neighborhood with something to hide.Told from alternating points of view, Good as Dead draws together an unlikely group of people bound to one another by a crime, a cover-up, and compounding deceptions. As carefully constructed lives begin to crumble, how far will everyone be willing to go to bury the truth and protect the people they love?
Creatures of Appetite
Todd Travis - 2013
Everyone else calls it a nightmare. Locked doors don't stop him. He leaves no trace behind. He only takes little girls. His nickname... The Iceman. A deranged serial killer roams wintry rural Nebraska with a demented purpose no one can fathom. Special Agent EMMA KANE, a former DC cop and damaged goods now with the FBI, is assigned to babysit burnt-out profiler JACOB THORNE, once the best in the business but now said to have lost his edge, as they both fly to Nebraska to catch this maniac. Thorne is erratic, abrasive and unpredictably brilliant, but what he and Kane find in the heartland is much more than anyone bargained for, especially when the Iceman challenges them personally. The clock is ticking and a little girl's life is on the line. And maybe even more with that, once they find out what he's really up to.NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book has frank and profane adult language within... this is often how many a law enforcement officer speaks, in my experience. Not all, but many, very many. The book also has violence and adult situations, but the profanity is the only thing that some folks have been noting, for some odd reason, so I'm warning you now that it has profanity. I totally understand that not everyone wants to read curse words. However, to write a book like this without a cop cursing would not, in my mind, be authentic. Therefore, if you can't handle HBO-style language, (a la THE WIRE, etc.) this book is not for you. If fictional bad language bothers you more than the fictional murder of young people, this book is definitely not for you, but I thank you for your time and consideration.
No Trespassing
Brinda S. Narayan - 2019
Eager to shrug off her middle-class upbringing, Vedika actively befriends her elite neighbours. Over time, though, she begins to sense that something is affecting her five-year-old son, Sajan. He seems foggy at times, unable to follow simple orders. A few other Fantasia children show similar behavioural oddities. Before his scheduled appointment with a doctor, Sajan dies in a freak accident. Vedika is jolted out of her numbing grief by a shocking revelation: her boy was murdered. Anxious to find out what exactly happened to her son, Vedika starts investigating his death. As she unravels her memories and neighbours’ pasts, she finds sinister links between Fantasia and her own past. Gripping, tense and disquieting No Trespassing is a stunning work of fiction.
The Third Nanny
Michele Pariza Wacek - 2021
Including the nanny.Janey hadn’t heard from her sister Kelly since she ran away from home eight years ago.Until the day the letter arrived.A disturbing letter.But before Janey could make contact, Kelly disappeared again. And the only clue they had to work with was in Redemption, Wisconsin, where Kelly had worked as a nanny.So, Janey decided to follow in her sister’s footsteps … by taking over her job.The family has secrets, and the more Janey digs, the more twisted the story becomes.And the more Janey realizes she might be the next to disappear.Welcome to Redemption, Wisconsin, a town with a troubling past, where nothing is as it seems.“The Third Nanny” is a standalone, psychological thriller, set in the world of the award-winning Secrets of Redemption series.
The Woman Before Me
Ruth Dugdall - 2010
Luke had been dead for just three days.Rose Wilks' life is shattered when her newborn baby Joel is admitted to intensive care. Emma Hatcher has all that Rose lacks. Beauty. A loving husband. A healthy son. Until tragedy strikes and Rose is the only suspect.Now, having spent nearly five years in prison in Ipswich, Rose is just weeks away from freedom. Her probation officer Cate must decide whether Rose is remorseful for her crime, or whether she remains a threat to society. As Cate is drawn in, she begins to doubt her own judgement.Where is the line between love and obsession, can justice be served and, if so... by what means?