Her Pretty Face


Robyn Harding - 2018
    A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world, but after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before--until she meets Kate Randolph. Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. And for some reason, she’s not interested in being friends with any of the other Forrester moms—only Frances. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart.

The Retreat


Mark Edwards - 2018
    A desperate mother. And a house full of secrets. Two years ago, Julia lost her family in a tragic accident. Her husband drowned trying to save their daughter, Lily, in the river near their rural home. But the little girl’s body was never found—and Julia believes Lily is somehow still alive.Alone and broke, Julia opens her house as a writers’ retreat. One of the first guests is Lucas, a horror novelist, who becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Lily. But within days of his arrival, the peace of the retreat is shattered by a series of eerie events.When Lucas’s investigation leads him and Julia into the woods, they discover a dark secret—a secret that someone will do anything to protect…What really happened that day by the river? Why was Lily never found? And who, or what, is haunting the retreat?

Good as Gone


Amy Gentry - 2016
    Her family was shattered, but managed to stick together, hoping against hope that Julie is still alive. And then one night: the doorbell rings. A young woman who appears to be Julie is finally, miraculously, home safe. The family is ecstatic—but Anna, Julie’s mother, has whispers of doubts.  She hates to face them. She cannot avoid them. When she is contacted by a former detective turned private eye, she begins a torturous search for the truth about the woman she desperately hopes is her daughter.

The Stranger Diaries


Elly Griffiths - 2018
    A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare’s colleagues and closest friends is found dead, with a line from R. M. Holland’s most famous story, “The Stranger,” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with the storylines of her favourite literature. To make matters worse, the police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her closest confidant, her diary, the only outlet she has for her darkest suspicions and fears about the case. Then one day she notices something odd. Writing that isn't hers, left on the page of an old diary: "Hallo, Clare. You don’t know me." Clare becomes more certain than ever: “The Stranger” has come to terrifying life. But can the ending be rewritten in time?

The Secrets She Keeps


Michael Robotham - 2017
    As the hours of her shifts creep by in increasing discomfort, the one thing she looks forward to at work is catching a glimpse of Meghan, the effortlessly chic customer whose elegant lifestyle dazzles her. Meghan has it all: two perfect children, a handsome husband, a happy marriage, a stylish group of friends, and she writes perfectly droll confessional posts on her popular parenting blog—posts that Agatha reads with devotion each night as she waits for her absent boyfriend, the father of her baby, to maybe return her calls. When Agatha learns that Meghan is pregnant again, and that their due dates fall within the same month, she finally musters up the courage to speak to her, thrilled that they now have the ordeal of childbearing in common. Little does Meghan know that the mundane exchange she has with a grocery store employee during a hurried afternoon shopping trip is about to change the course of her not-so-perfect life forever… With its brilliant rendering of the secrets some women hold close and a shocking act that cannot be undone, The Secrets She Keeps delivers a dark and twisted page-turner that is absolutely impossible to put down.

The Ex Girlfriend


Nicola Moriarty - 2019
    After everything she's been through, Georgia knows she deserves someone like him, to make her feel loved. Safe.The only problem is his ex-girlfriend. Luke says Cadence is having trouble accepting their break-up, but Georgia thinks there's more to the story. She also has the feeling someone is watching her.When everything starts to go wrong at work, at home, in her old friendships and her happy new relationship with Luke, Georgia starts to feel truly afraid.Cadence wants what she has. What would she do to get it?And can Georgia trust anyone at all? Praise for Nicola Moriarty 'I devoured it' Marian Keyes 'Accelerates in intensity and sheer originality with every page' Australian Women's Weekly 'Dramatic, mysterious and compelling' Vogue

The Girl Before You


Nicola Rayner - 2019
    As a politician and now a TV personality, George Bell’s reputation as a ladies’ man precedes him. But when Alice falls pregnant, her unease becomes an obsession.And there’s one ex in particular she can’t get out of her head, a beautiful student who went missing before they finished university: Ruth.When Alice thinks she see Ruth on a train, she can’t shake the feeling there’s more to the disappearance than George has told her. But does she really want to know what her husband has been up to behind her back all these years?

A Tapping At My Door


David Jackson - 2016
    She's disturbed to discover the culprit is a raven, and tries to shoo it away. Which is when the killer strikes.DS Nathan Cody, still bearing the scars of an undercover mission that went horrifyingly wrong, is put on the case. But the police have no leads, except the body of the bird - and the victim's missing eyes.As flashbacks from his past begin to intrude, Cody realises he is battling not just a murderer, but his own inner demons too.And then the killer strikes again, and Cody realises the threat isn't to the people of Liverpool after all - it's to the police.Following the success and acclaim of the Callum Doyle novels, A Tapping at My Door is the first instalment of David Jackson's new Nathan Cody series.From the bestselling author of Cry Baby, the beginning of a brilliant and gripping police procedural series set in Liverpool, perfect for fans of Peter James and Mark Billingham"Recalls Harlan Coben - though for my money Jackson is the better writer." Guardian

The Girl Who Came Back


Kerry Wilkinson - 2017
    Now she’s back… or is she?When six-year-old Olivia Adams disappeared from her back garden, the small community of Stoneridge was thrown into turmoil. How could a child vanish in the middle of a cosy English village?Thirteen years on and Olivia is back. Her mother is convinced it’s her but not everyone is sure. If this is the missing girl, then where has she been - and what happened to her on that sunny afternoon?If she's an imposter, then who would be bold enough to try to fool a child’s own mother – and why?Then there are those who would rather Olivia stayed missing. The past is the past and some secrets must remain buried.

The Vanishing Child


Jennifer Harvey - 2021
    His blond hair neatly combed, smiling for the camera. I thought, you will disappear, Johnny. This will be the last photo taken of you.Forty years ago: Cece’s son went out on his bike on a hot summer’s day and never came home. Every evening she lingers on her front porch, hoping to see him coming up the driveway. But the street remains empty and, with her heart aching, Cece goes back inside and closes the door behind her…Forty years later: On a rare visit to her father, Carla stumbles across a box tucked away in one of the cupboards. Full of her father’s diaries and old newspaper clippings, it tells the story of the disappearance of three boys when her father was just a child.Her father refuses to discuss the missing children and his silence only makes Carla more curious. When she meets the mother of the last boy who went missing, and sees her pain first-hand, Carla becomes determined to help Cece finally lay her child to rest.But as Carla begins to read the diaries and discovers more about the dark days all those years before, she realises the truth might be more complicated than she thought. There are people in this town who will do anything to stop her digging up the past, and uncovering the truth could change her world in ways she never imagined possible…A totally gripping, emotionally charged suspense novel about small-town secrets and the price of facing up to the truth. Fans of Liane Moriarty, Diane Chamberlain and The Silent Daughter will be gripped from the very first page until the final, heart-stopping twist.

Don't Turn Around


Jessica Barry - 2020
    322 miles of road. 6 hours. 2 strangers. 1 killer. Too many secrets. Midnight. Cait Monaghan and Rebecca McRae are on a desolate road that slices through the New Mexican desert. They've never met before tonight. Both have secrets to protect. Both of their lives are in danger. When a truck pulls up fast behind them, they assume it's punk teenagers or run-of-the-mill road rage, but it soon becomes clear that whoever is driving the truck is hunting them for sport—and they are out to draw blood. As the miles unspool and the dangers mount, the pasts they've worked so hard to keep buried have come back to haunt them. Someone wants one of them dead. But which one? And given the lives the two women have been leading, that someone could be almost anyone.If Cait and Rebecca are going to survive, they'll have to learn to trust one another—and themselves. But trust is a costly business, and they’ve both paid the price before. . . .

The Less Dead


Denise Mina - 2020
    The only silver lining to her mother's death is that Margot, who was adopted, can finally go looking for her birth mother. What she finds is an imcomplete family--the only person left is Nikki, her mother's older sister. Aunt Nikki brings upetting news: Margot's mother is dead, murdered many years ago, one of a series of sex workers killed in Glasgow.The killer--or killers?--has never been found, Aunt Nikki claims. They're still at large... and sending her letters, gloating letters that include the details of the crime. Now Margot must choose: take the side of the world against her dead mother, or investigate her murder and see that justice is done at last. Darkly funny and sharply modern, Denise Mina's latest novel is an indelible, surprisingly moving story of daughters and mothers, blood family and chosen family, and how the search for truth helps one woman to find herself.

The Farm


Tom Rob Smith - 2014
    They had sold their home and business in London, and said "farewell to England" with a cheerful party where all their friends had gathered to wish them well on their great adventure: setting off to begin life anew on a remote, bucolic farm in rural Sweden.But with that phone call, everything changes. Your mother's not well, his father tells him. She's been imagining things--terrible, terrible things. She's had a psychotic breakdown, and has been committed to a mental hospital.Daniel prepares to rush to Sweden, on the first available flight the next day. Before he can board the plane, his father contacts him again with even more frightening news: his mother has been released from the hospital, and he doesn't know where she is.Then, he hears from his mother:I'm sure your father has spoken to you. Everything that man has told you is a lie. I'm not mad. I don't need a doctor. I need the police. I'm about to board a flight to London. Meet me at Heathrow.Caught between his parents, and unsure of who to believe or trust, Daniel becomes his mother's unwilling judge and jury as she tells him an urgent tale of secrets, of lies, of a horrible crime and a conspiracy that implicates his own father.

Found


Erin Kinsley - 2019
    But months later Evan is unexpectedly found, frightened and refusing to speak. His loving family realise life will never be the same again.DI Naylor knows that unless those who took Evan are caught, other children are in danger. And with Evan silent, she must race against time to find those responsible...A gripping, heart-wrenching thriller with the emotional power of series like BROADCHURCH and THE MISSING, this is the perfect read for fans of Cara Hunter, Heidi Perks, Claire Douglas, Fiona Barton, Susie Steiner and Nuala Ellwood.

The Dark


Emma Haughton - 2021
    So when she's offered the chance to be an emergency replacement at the UN research station in Antarctica, she jumps at the chance. The previous doctor, Jean-Luc, died in a tragic accident while out on the ice.The move seems an ideal solution for Kate: no one knows about her past; no one is checking up on her. But as total darkness descends for the winter, she begins to suspect that Jean-Luc's death wasn't accidental at all. And the more questions she asks, the more dangerous it becomes for them all . .