Book picks similar to
Playing Jenna by Kiersten Modglin
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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?
The Six
Anni Taylor - 2017
She's stunned when she's offered a lifeline: A program that includes a six-day stay in a Greek monastery, six challenges and a chance at sixty thousand dollars. There is just one condition - she must keep it secret. Evie's husband Gray is gutted to find the note that Evie left behind. Why did she leave and where did she go? And is she ever coming back? But his anger turns to alarm as he begins to piece together the circumstances of his wife's disappearance. When Evie's car is found burned in woodland, the police suspect him of murdering Evie. Gray has got one chance to get out of the country and find Evie - before he's arrested for something he didn't do.Too late, Evie discovers the chilling truth about the program and the island itself. And the closer she gets to finding an escape, the closer the deadly danger lurking in the depths of the monastery gets to her.
The Mark
Heather Burnside - 2019
A TRIP TO THE DARK SIDE. When respected journalist, Maddy, goes to interview prostitutes in a rundown Manchester pub, she doesn't reckon on attracting the attention of their ruthless pimp, Gilly. He quickly decides to use Maddy for his own gains; he just needs to work out how. A TOXIC AFFAIR. In the weeks that follow, Maddy is oblivious to Gilly's growing obsession with her, particularly when she begins a romance with successful businessman, Aaron. Their passionate love affair starts to dominate her life, and she finds herself losing control and alienating the people around her. A TARGET ON HER BACK. As Maddy's safe and successful life starts to crumble around her, she must quickly work out who has it in for her, before it's too late...
Heather Burnside is back with this breath-taking, heart-racing new series, perfect for all fans of Kimberley Chambers and Martina Cole.
The Space Between
Dete Meserve - 2018
Her husband, Ben, a Los Angeles restaurateur, has disappeared, leaving behind an unexplained bank deposit of a million dollars, a loaded Glock in the nightstand, and a video security system that’s been wiped clean. The only answers their son, Zack, can offer are the last words his father said to him: keep the doors locked and set the alarm.Sarah’s marriage was more troubled than anyone suspected, but now she is afraid that her husband’s recent past could be darker than she dares to admit. Suspecting that nothing about Ben’s vanishing is what it seems, Sarah must delve into the space between old memories, newfound fears, and misleading clues to piece together the mystery of her husband’s disappearance—and find what she hopes in her heart is the truth.
Paper Girls
Alex Smith - 2019
Haunted by his inability to track down and save his missing wife, DCI Robert Kett leaves the Metropolitan Police behind and moves to Norwich with his three young children, hoping to heal their broken family. But his newfound peace doesn’t last. Two newspaper delivery girls have gone missing in the city, and the clues point to a serial kidnapper. Kett is dragged into the centre of one of the darkest cases of his career — a case that pits him head to head against a horrifying evil. And a case that might uncover the terrible truth of what happened to his wife.
Six Months to Kill
Enzo Bartoli - 2017
. .
When Régis is told he has six months left to live, the news leaves him numb. A gifted astrophysicist but a loner, he is resigned to dying alone and unfulfilled. But then he receives a macabre offer from a beautiful stranger that changes everything. . .Chloé represents an underground organisation that tracks down murderers who have escaped justice—and then kills them. And she wants Régis to do their dirty work.With nothing to lose, Régis soon discovers that he has a talent for killing. He devotes his remaining time to ridding Paris of the unrepentant guilty, taking more pleasure from ending lives than he ever did from living his.Although the clock is ticking, Régis has never felt so alive and in control. But what if he’s not as in control as he thinks? Who is really behind the mysterious organisation Chloé works for—and why have they chosen him?
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.
Dead Shot
Annie Solomon - 2007
Now someone wants to grant it.Critics call them provocative. Protesters call them obscene. But photographer Gillian Gray aims her macabre self-portraits at an audience of one—the faceless brute who murdered her supermodel mother. Their meaning is clear: “Come and get me.”And someone’s getting the message. Dead bodies start turning up in Nashville, posed to mimic Gillian’s photos. Against her will, Gillian is guarded by tough ex-cop Ray Pearce, a man whose commitment to the job is as strong as his belief that Gillian is in real danger. Yet his protection may not be enough to stop a vicious madman from creating his next masterpiece: a portrait of the artist as a young corpse.
Flowers for the Dead
Barbara Copperthwaite - 2015
EVEN IF IT KILLS YOU.Adam Bourne is a serial killer who thinks he is a saviour. When he murders young women and cuts off their lips, he believes he has done it to make them happy. How did he become warped from the sensitive four-year-old who adored his gran and the fairy tales she read to him? What turned him into a monster who stalks his victims? And what is he trying to say with the bouquets he sends? When he meets Laura Weir, Adam weaves a fairy tale romance around them. A tale she has no idea she is part of. As he hatches his twisted plan for their fairy tale ending, can anyone stop him before he creates the ultimate sacrifice to love?
When You Disappeared
John Marrs - 2013
But Simon never makes it to the office. His running shoes are by the front door. Nothing is missing - except him.Catherine knows Simon must be in trouble. He wouldn't just leave her. He wouldn't leave the children.But Simon knows the truth - about why he left and what he's done. He knows things about his marriage that it would kill Catherine to find out. The memories she holds onto are lies.While Catherine faces a dark new reality at home, Simon's halfway around the world, alive and thriving. He's doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the truth.But he can't hide forever, and when he reappears twenty-five years later, Catherine will finally learn who he is.And wish she'd stayed in the dark.Revised edition: Previously published as The Wronged Sons, this edition of When You Disappeared includes editorial revisions.
The Search: A Walker Series Thriller
Alex Howell - 2019
Though burdened by his past, Mason has found contentment in the anonymity of his family life in Baltimore, Maryland. And then his daughter gets kidnapped. Upon returning home for lunch one day, Mason comes home to find his house destroyed, his daughter gone, and security footage of her in an anonymous bunker. A voice advises that she will only be safe if Mason does exactly as he’s told. Will Mason be able to reclaim his old skills to save his daughter? Can he use his ingenuity to save her before he’s too late? What will it cost him?
The Missing One
Lucy Atkins - 2014
But while clearing out Elena’s art studio, she finds a drawer packed with postcards, each bearing an identical one-line message a Canadian gallery owner called Susannah Gillespie: thinking of you. Who is this woman and what does she know about Elena’s hidden past?Desperate to find out, Kali travels with her toddler, Finn, to Susannah’s isolated home on a remote British Columbian island, a place of killer whales and storms. But as bad weather closes in, Kali quickly realises she has made a big mistake. The handsome and enigmatic Susannah refuses to talk about the past, and as Kali struggles to piece together what happened back in the 1970s, Susannah’s behaviour grows more and more erratic. Most worrying of all, Susannah is becoming increasingly preoccupied with little Finn . . .A tense, thrilling novel about a family divided by secrets, and the lengths a mother will go to protect her child.
Hello, My Name is May
Rosalind Stopps - 2019
Hello, it said, my name is May. Please talk to me.May has been moved to a care home after her stroke. She can’t communicate, all her words are kept inside. If she tries to point, her arms swing in wild directions, if she tries to talk, strange noises come out of her mouth.May is sharp, quick, and funny, but only her daughter Jenny sees this, and Jackie, a new friend at the home who cares enough to look and listen closely.When May discovers that someone very familiar, from long ago, is living in the room opposite hers she is haunted by scenes from her earlier life, when she was a prisoner of her husband’s unpredictable rages. Bill, the man in the opposite room seems so much like her husband, though almost a lifetime has passed, and May’s eyesight isn’t what it was.As Bill charms his way through the nursing home, he focuses his romantic attention on Jackie, while all May can do is watch. She is determined to protect Jackie and keep herself safe, but what can she do in her vulnerable, silent state?
Found Money
Charlie Carillo - 2012
Where did it come from? Whose is it? Those questions will be answered in an overnight drama that’s also a journey into the past - a saga of love, lust, greed, double-crossing, prison, betrayal and redemption on that long, crooked road to the truth. Found money looks like easy money, but looks can be deceiving.
The Woman Next Door
Cass Green - 2016
Two dark secrets. The almost perfect murder.Everybody needs good neighbours…Melissa and Hester have lived next door to each other for years. When Melissa’s daughter was younger, Hester was almost like a grandmother to her. But recently they haven’t been so close.Hester has plans to change all that. It’s obvious to her that despite Melissa’s outwardly glamorous and successful life, she needs Hester’s help. But taking help from Hester might not be such a good idea for a woman with as many secrets as Melissa…