Book picks similar to
A Text Before Dying by McGarvey Black
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The Liar's Daughter
Rona Halsall - 2021
But you don’t have a sister… do you?You’ve never doubted your parents. You’ve loved them without question your whole life. But your stepmother is uncharacteristically speechless, and your father isn’t well enough to understand.So you get in your car.Turn the key in the ignition.Knowing everything behind you is a lie.Not knowing what lies ahead: the truth… or something far darker?A deliciously dark and twisty tale of deception, secrets and family ties, The Liar’s Daughter is perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train, The Woman in the Window and The Family Upstairs.
The Temporary Detective
Joanne Sydney Lessner - 2010
Think breaking into show business is hard? Try landing a temp job without office skills. That’s the challenge facing aspiring actress Isobel Spice when she arrives in New York City, fresh out of college and deficient in PowerPoint. After being rejected by seven temp agencies for her lack of experience, Isobel sweet-talks recruiter James Cooke into letting her cover a last-minute vacancy at a bank. New to his own job, and recently sober, James takes a chance on Isobel, despite his suspicion that she’s a trouble-magnet. His misgivings are borne out by lunchtime, when she stumbles across a dead secretary in a bathroom stall. With her fingerprints on the murder weapon, Isobel sets out to prove her innocence by investigating the crime herself. While learning to juggle phone lines and auditions, she discovers an untapped talent for detective work—a qualification few other office temps, let alone actresses, can claim.Please note: this is a contemporary cozy with an edge; contains some adult language.
Sincerely, Yours
Charlotte Barnes - 2021
As the weeks and months passed, Sarah gradually moved on from the horror of that night and managed to settle into her changed family life. After the police confirm that her mother was one of three similar victims the case goes cold. Until Sarah receives a letter: “I didn’t know you were there, or I would never have done that. Sincerely, Yours.”And, so begins a terrifying game of cat and mouse as the killer collects more victims and continues to elude police, all the while, sending Sarah letters. As the killer gets closer, Sarah wonders if she comes face to face with him, will she opt for mercy or murder?
The New Family
Victoria Jenkins - 2021
Finally, someone to bring happiness to the rundown house across the street. They seem like the perfect tenants, but Brooke is a little unnerved when they move in with just a single bag between them. Where are their belongings?When Brooke asks Oliver about his past, he quickly changes the subject. Her best friend tells her to leave it, after all, Brooke has been through enough trauma in her life. But Brooke can’t shake off the feeling that something isn’t right. Why aren’t her new tenants’ names listed anywhere online?Then Brooke arrives home to find orange flames dancing in the upstairs windows. As her whole life goes up in smoke, she is convinced it wasn’t an accident. And when she finds Finley drawing a picture of an angry burning house with terror in his eyes, her blood runs cold. What is Finley so frightened of? And why does Oliver snatch the drawing away the moment he sees it?Brooke is convinced Finley is in serious danger, but given her past, she’s not sure anyone will believe her. Is Brooke ready to face up to her own demons to save the little boy? And when the truth is finally revealed, who is really the one in danger?
The Liar's Promise
Mark Tilbury - 2017
But her mother, Mel, doesn’t realise that this is just the beginning of the nightmare. In the coming weeks, Chloe talks of The Tall Man - Of death. At her wits end, Mel confides in Charles Honeywell, the headmaster at the school where she works. But what Kim doesn’t know is that Charles is linked to what is happening to her daughter. Will Mel learn the terrible truth? And can she overcome her own tragic past and save her daughter before it’s too late?The Liar’s Promise is a story of past lives and future torment.
Playing Jenna
Kiersten Modglin - 2017
This mysterious woman, Jenna, causes Monroe to question everything she thought she knew about her life, her family, and her marriage. Forced to face a life, and a love, full of lies and deceit— Monroe vows to exact revenge on the woman who caused her entire world to crumble around her. As she begins digging into the affair, she finds herself uncovering clues that point to a much more sinister truth than she could have ever imagined. Every belief Monroe had about her marriage, and her seemingly perfect husband, is called into question as she realizes she may not have known the man she married as well as she thought. With all of the odds against her, Monroe sets out on a journey of self-discovery and self-preservation to uncover the truth about her past and the woman who ripped it all away from her.
The Trapped Girls Super Boxset: A Collection Of Riveting Kidnapping Mysteries
Alexandria Clarke - 2017
Contents:Little Girl Lost - by Alexandria Clarke.Deadly Webs - by James Hunt.Kidnapped - by J.S. Donovan.Stolen - by James Hunt.
The Good Teacher
Rachel Sargeant - 2010
This riveting story about a murdered teacher is perfect for fans of THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR.Even the good have to die.A beloved teacher is murdered and left in a ditch beside a country lane. His wife is found beaten and gagged in their suburban home.Even the best schools have secrets.New detective Pippa Adams learns that the teacher ran a homework club for vulnerable pupils. But what did he really teach them?Even the perfect family has something to hide.When Pippa scratches the surface of the school community, she meets families who’ve learned a shattering lesson. And finally uncovers the good teacher’s darkest secrets…Previously published as LONG TIME WAITING, now fully updated.
Stench
A.B. Morgan - 2018
He thought he had succeeded, until the body of a missing woman is discovered under the floor of his cottage. Only then do the guilt and shame of his wife’s mysterious, untimely death and the accusations about his connection to the missing woman combine to break him. The question is not how the missing woman died but why, and who is responsible? Sometimes the truth stinks.
Lies We Tell Ourselves
Steena Holmes - 2020
They twist and taunt and tear apart every aspect of your life.Are you ready?Paige Fischer is not. She hates lies and how destructive they can be and yet, she's living the biggest lie of them all. In fact, she's barely hanging on...One missing sister...Twelve years ago, her identical twin, Jessica was kidnapped and Paige is to blame.One devoted fiancé...She has the perfect partner who is beyond patient but how long will he wait and how will he react when she tells him she can't move forward in their life together?One fateful lie...Someone close to Paige is playing a dangerous game and all it takes is one lie, one phone call, one twisted truth and her life is in danger.Lies and secrets collide in this page-turning suspense you won’t be able to put down, written by the NYT bestselling author who brought you Finding Emma and The Perfect Secret.
Daughters of Bad Men
Laura Oles - 2017
Well deserving of earning a place as a Killer Nashville Claymore Award finalist, Daughters of Bad Men is a solid tale, well told, and a promise of more to come from Jamie Rush." Killer Nashville "Compelling and deeply moving, Daughters of Bad Men is a study of the tangled family ties that bind. An absolute page-turner." Gretchen Archer, Bestselling author of the Davis Way Crime Capers. Jamie Rush understands what it takes to disappear because her parents taught her that long ago. Leveraging her knowledge of why and how people run from their own lives, Jamie has built a business based on bringing those in hiding back to answer for their actions. She takes pride in using her somewhat shady skills to work both inside and outside the law. When her estranged brother, Brian, calls and says his daughter is missing, Jamie initially turns down the case. Kristen has always been a bit wild, frequently dropping off the grid then showing up a few days later. But Brian swears this time is different, and even though Jamie vowed years ago to keep her conniving sibling at arm’s length, she can’t walk away if Kristen could be in real trouble. As Jamie begins digging into Kristen’s life, she uncovers her niece’s most guarded secrets. Uncovering the truth will put a target on Jamie’s back and endanger the lives of those she loves.
The Family Man
Anna Willett - 2021
Her books are set in South Western Australia.
The Boy and What Might Have Been
Russell Newell - 2015
Was he kidnapped? Is he still alive? Is his ex-wife involved? When the police begin to suspect Gus, he loses everything and descends from the pinnacles of success, where the world adores him, to a private hell on Earth, abandoned and alone.Meanwhile, Jack Delaney is brought into a bewildering world by strange people who tell him he has been chosen and must forget about his old life. Isolated from the outside world, Jack learns to forget about a father he believes stopped looking for him long ago, until unfamiliar, forbidden feelings and the revelation of a dark secret cause him to question everything he once believed.
The Dentist
Tim Sullivan - 2020
Violently strangled. No leads. Except for his past.An outsider himself, DS George Cross is drawn to this case. The discovery of the dead man's connection to an old cold case then pulls Cross in further. Convinced this is where the answer to the murder lies, he sets about solving another that someone has spent the past fifteen years thinking they’ve got away with.Cross’ relentless obsession with logic, detail and patterns is what makes him so irritatingly brilliant. It doesn’t exactly make him popular with colleagues or his superiors, though. He has numerous enemies in the force wanting to see him fail.Red flags are soon raised as suspicious inconsistencies and errors in the original detective’s investigation come to light. Now retired, this ex-cop has powerful friends in the force and a long-standing dislike of Cross.Set in picturesque Bristol in the Southwest of England, it’s not long before the city reveals its dark underbelly, in a case of intriguing twists and turns whose result astonishes even those involved.Difficult and awkward, maybe. But Cross has the best conviction rate in Avon & Somerset Police. By far. Will this case put an end to that?
The Boy Vanishes
Jennifer Haigh - 2012
Taut and powerful, it is a keen reimagining of a whodunit in which everyone is implicated and no one is safe. It’s the summer of 1976 on the South Shore of Massachusetts. The Bicentennial is a season-long celebration, and flags are everywhere, snapping in the seaside winds, ironed onto T-shirts, tattooed into biceps. Tim O’Connor works the Cigarette Game booth at Funland—toss a quarter placed on an eight-sided ball into the right slot and you win two packs of smokes or maybe, if you’re lucky, a carton. If asked his age, he’d say he’s seventeen, but in truth he’s fourteen. Yet the kids in blue-collar Grantham—a town first imagined by Haigh in her devastating bestseller "Faith"—grow up fast, are known for being wild, and more often than not drop out of school to punch the clock at the nearby Raytheon plant. When Tim disappears after the park’s closing one night, no one makes much of it till late morning. It’s not the first time his mother, Kay, has forgotten to pick him up. It’s not the first time he has stayed out all night. By the time local cops begin their investigation, there is little trace of the boy, only witnesses to a complicated set of relationships in a place where surviving isn’t always thriving and where disappointment mixes with the salt in the air. In this superbly crafted story, the search for a missing boy becomes a search for the American dream, laying bare how destructive its promises often are. Recalling Dennis Lehane in setting and subject and masters like Graham Greene and Richard Ford in tone and style, Haigh’s latest work is a testament to all that short fiction can be. It’s a searing portrait of how much a community loses when one of its own is lost.