Book picks similar to
The Lake House by Kate Watterson


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Crooked Little Lies


Barbara Taylor Sissel - 2015
    A young man well known in their small town of Hardys Walk, Texas, Bo seems fine, even if Lauren’s intuition says otherwise. Since the accident two years ago that left her brain in a fragile state, she can’t trust her own instincts—and neither can her family. Then Bo vanishes, and as the search for him ensues, the police question whether she’s responsible. Lauren is terrified, not of what she remembers but of what she doesn’t.Unable to trust herself and unwilling to trust anyone else, Lauren begins her own investigation into the mystery of Bo’s disappearance. But the truth can prove to be as shocking as any lie, and as Lauren exposes each one, from her family, from her friends, she isn’t the only one who will face heart-stopping repercussions.

Countdown to Death


Iain McChesney - 2015
    But who is the killer? Will any of them live to find out?***A modern retelling of the Agatha Christie classic--with a surprising twist.***

Girls of Brackenhill


Kate Moretti - 2020
    It’s been seventeen years, and though desperate to start a new life with her fiancé, Hannah is compelled to question the events of her last summer at Brackenhill.When a human bone is found near the estate, Hannah is convinced it belongs to her long-lost sister. She launches her own investigation into that magical summer that ended in a nightmare. As strange happenings plague the castle, Hannah uncovers disturbing details about the past and startling realizations about her own repressed childhood memories.Fueled by guilt over her sister’s vanishing, Hannah becomes obsessed with discovering what happened all those years ago, but by the time Hannah realizes some mysteries are best left buried, it’s too late to stop digging. Overwhelmed by what she has exposed, Hannah isn’t sure her new life can survive her old ghosts.

Dark Truths


A.J. Cross - 2019
    Cross, herself a forensic psychologist, plays fair with the reader right up to the surprising conclusion Publishers Weekly Starred Review of Cold, Cold Heart Introducing criminologist Will Traynor in the first of a gripping new forensic mystery series from an expert in the field. When a headless body is discovered on a popular jogging trail, Detective Inspector Bernard Watts and his team are plunged headlong into a baffling murder investigation. Why would someone stab to death a young woman on her daily run - and take her head?When a close examination of the crime scene results in a shocking discovery linking the present murder to a past crime, criminologist Will Traynor is brought in to assist the police. Aware of Traynor's troubled past and already having to deal with inexperienced rookie PC Chloe Judd on his team, Watts is sceptical that Traynor will bring anything useful to the investigation.He's about to be proved very wrong ...

Long Shadows


Derek Thompson - 2020
    A KILLER WHO CAN’T FORGET.Detective Craig Wild couldn’t cut it in London. Now he must swap the Met for Mayberry, a sleepy Wiltshire backwater where ambition goes to die.It was supposed to be a second chance. Then Wild is faced with the most baffling case of his career.Eccentric farmer Alexander Porter is found shot dead in his own field. Everyone assumes it was suicide. But Wild knows there’s more to it than that.Determined to uncover the truth, he teams up with plucky PC Marnie Olsen. They set off on a twisting trail.The first suspect is Nathan Porter, Alexander’s tearaway son. Wherever Nathan goes, trouble follows.Then someone else dies.Wild and Marnie must delve into the darkest corners of the family’s history if they are to uncover the truth.Can they unmask the killer before Wild’s own chequered past catches up to him?

The Silent Daughter


Claire Amarti - 2020
    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 ten years ago along with her best friend, Fiona. But Fiona died in an accident on their graduation night, in circumstances Sadie's spent the last ten years trying to forget, and since then nothing's been the same.Now Sadie's back in the small Connecticut town where she grew up, jobless and living temporarily with Fiona's mother. But when she hears that a Horton schoolgirl has gone missing, everything changes. Because the missing girl is Devon Hundley - daughter of Philip Hundley, a man Sadie knows all too well…

I Choose You


Gayle Curtis - 2020
    Now, grown up and married with a young family, they feel their worst nightmares are behind them. Until the day their daughter is abducted and murdered.Both Elise and Nathaniel lost their mothers to a notorious killer who manipulated innocent victims into taking their own lives. Could it be that ‘the Watcher’ has returned for another round of the same sadistic game? Why now? And why are Elise and Nathaniel being targeted again?When Elise’s family falls under suspicion, her world crashes down around her. Is there anyone she can trust, or is her whole life built on lies?Only one thing is clear: someone left their cruel game unfinished all those years ago. This time the Watcher intends to win – once and for all.

Somebody's Home


Kaira Rouda - 2022
    A lovely home. A promising new beginning. In a heartbeat everything can change in this propulsive novel of suspense by USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda.Julie Jones has left her suffocating marriage. With her teenage daughter, Jess, she’s starting over. Their new house in Oceanside is the first step toward a new life. Even if it does come with the unexpected. The previous owners, a pastor and his wife, have left something—or rather someone—behind…Tom Dean has a bitter hatred for the father who considers him a lost cause, and for the woman who’s moved into their family’s house. The only home he’s ever known. He’s never going to leave. She thinks he’ll be gone in three days, but Tom has the perfect plan.For a newly single mother and her daughter, a fresh start is the beginning of a nightmare. Before the weekend is over, somebody is going to get exactly what they deserve.

A Mumbai Murder Mystery


Meeti Shroff-Shah - 2021
    Her pregnant best friend Sanjana’s father has killed himself.And yet, just hours before, he was telling Sanjana that he couldn’t wait to hold his grandchild in his arms. What triggered this desperate act? And why is their young maid so terrified?Radhi is determined to uncover the truth. But the deeper she digs beneath the diamond-studded prayer meetings and the lavishly catered ‘pure-veg’ brunches, the faster she finds herself drawn into a web of festering grievances, hidden agendas and long-buried secrets.Fans of Richard Osman, Victoria Dowd, Ian Moore, Vaseem Khan, Louise Penny and Shamini Flint will devour this brilliant, atmospheric murder mystery.ABOUT MEETI SHROFF-SHAHMeeti is an award-winning copywriter, content writer and mother (though no awards for this yet). When she isn’t busy writing ads that make toothpaste sound like an aphrodisiac, Meeti can be found plotting the murder of perfectly innocent people. Meeti lives with her daughter and husband in Mumbai.

An Affair to Dismember


Elise Sax - 2013
    That’s why Gladie is more than a little skeptical when her Grandma Zelda — who is more than a little psychic — recruits her into the family’s matchmaking business in the quaint small town of Cannes, California. What’s more, Gladie is also highly unqualified, having a terrible track record with romance. Still, Zelda is convinced that her granddaughter has her clairvoyant “gift.” But when the going gets tough, Gladie wonders if this gift has a return policy. When Zelda’s neighbor drops dead in his kitchen, Gladie is swept into his bizarre family’s drama. Despite warnings from the (distractingly gorgeous) chief of police to steer clear of his investigation, Gladie is out to prove that her neighbor’s death was murder. It’s not too long before she’s in way over her head — with the hunky police chief, a dysfunctional family full of possible killers, and yet another mysterious and handsome man, whose attentions she’s unable to ignore. Gladie is clearly being pursued — either by true love or by a murderer. Who will catch her first?

Before You Leap


Keith Houghton - 2016
    But when Scarlett’s killer is released early from prison with a cast-iron alibi, Greg realizes that his past is about to explode into his present, with terrifying consequences.To expose the truth he must open up old wounds. As a talk therapist, Greg knows all about dark secrets, but when a childhood friendship comes to the fore and the police turn their spotlight on him, the thought of analyzing his own psyche is a disturbing prospect. How far can he trust his own memories?With his life coming apart at the seams, and his grip on reality beginning to unravel, Greg must face the ghosts of his past if he hopes to prove his innocence and live to see another day.

Nothing Left To Lose


A.J. Wills - 2022
    When you’ve lost everything – revenge is all that’s left…Abi should be at home celebrating after helping to put two murderers behind bars for a sickening attack on a pensioner in his own home.Instead, she’s gone missing, her phone's switched off and her husband, Henry is frantic with worry.But Abi’s disappearance is only the start of his troubles.Who's the mysterious hooded man loitering outside the house in the dark?Why has someone etched a cryptic message into the windscreen of Abi’s car?And what’s the meaning of the creepy, anonymous letter that's been pushed through their front door?All Henry knows for sure is someone’s trying to scare him.Someone hellbent on revenge.And they’re not going to stop until they’ve brought him to his knees and exacted a deadly retribution…

Orchids and Stone


Lisa Preston - 2016
    Help! Help me, please.Daphne Mayfield sought a moment of quiet in a park—a break from city life, a tense relationship, and chronic overwork—but then an elderly woman makes a desperate plea. Daphne is reluctant to get involved when she’s not sure what’s happening, but she wants to help the stranger. Is the rambling old lady the victim of a crime or a victim of dementia?As her unease grows, Daphne can’t let go of the encounter. No matter what her boyfriend or her friends say. No matter what the retired homicide detective warns. Though she knows she’s meddling in other people’s lives, her instincts scream that the danger is real.With each increasingly bold intervention, Daphne involves herself in someone else’s crisis until she’s in too deep to turn back. She’s not just fighting for a stranger’s life…she’s fighting for her own.

The Disappeared Girl


Martin J. Smith - 2014
     Two men stand out in a crowd overlooking the Ohio River. A plane is being taken from the water where it crashed decades before. Both men helped put it there. Jim Christensen’s daughter, Melissa, has been troubled of late. She has dreams that feel like memories, unsettling images percolate to the surface. She remembers a terrifying past, possibly her own, from a time before she was adopted by her father. Christensen’s work as an expert in memory makes him the ideal person to help unlock his daughter’s fragile grasp on her own history. But will he want to learn the truth of where Melissa came from? Who she was before? Who might still be looking for her? This dizzying novel of suspense takes the reader back into a dirty war and its human costs, into the fevered mind of one of its survivors, and through the crosshairs of a man desperate to keep his own history vanished.

Wolf


Kelly Oliver - 2017
    She blames her advisor, Professor Wolfgang “Wolf” Schumtzig, “Preeminent Philosopher and World Class Dick-Head.” When he’s found dead in his office, her real education begins. Trying to determine the connection between the murder and date-rape drugs popular on campus, Jessica ends up drugged at a frat party, but not before her fellow feminist avengers gives the frat boys a taste of their own medicine. Her best friend’s father, Dmitry Durchenko, is trying to live a normal life as a janitor at Northwestern’s Philosophy Department. Twenty years ago, he escaped Russia with his life and part of his mafia boss father’s fortune. When the fortune, including a famous Kandinsky, goes missing, he realizes everything changes, but nothing disappears. Obsessed with the painting and the clues it holds to his childhood, Dmitry will stop at nothing to get it back. Before it’s too late, and one of them becomes the next victim, Jessica and Dmitry have to wrangle mobsters, lasso frat boys, and rope in a murderer who’s read too much Existentialism. Together, the brooding Russian and the cowgirl philosopher learn that sometimes virtue is just the flip side of vice.