Book picks similar to
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden


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Only Daughter


Sarah A. Denzil - 2019
    The flash of her daughter’s yellow dress, the blonde hair hanging across her precious face. Her own heart-broken sob… Kat experiences every mother’s worst nightmare when her only child’s body is found lifeless in an overgrown, abandoned quarry. Desperate to find out what happened, Kat questions those closest to her as she tries to piece together the last days of Grace’s life. But as a darker side to her little girl begins to unravel, Kat wonders if she ever really knew Grace. As Kat is drawn into a twisted game of lies, is she also in terrible danger? And will she be able to unlock her daughter’s final shocking secret? Even if the truth is unthinkable… This addictive and emotional psychological thriller from the million-copy-bestselling author of Silent Child will keep you gripped late into the night.

I Know What I Saw


S.K. Sharp - 2020
    She understands nothing.Only a handful of people in the world have a truly perfect memory. Nicola is one of them.With her condition proving to be more of a curse than a blessing, she has spent years trying to live a quiet life.But a body has been found, a discovery that threatens to tear the community apart.Nicola remembers the night with perfect clarity, but she never discovered the truth of what happened.Now she must use her ability to solve the murder from decades agoAnd save the man she loved from being wrongly convicted of the crime.

The Nurse


Claire Allan - 2022
    She just doesn’t know it yet.The unputdownable new book from the bestselling author of Her Name Was Rose.Everyone has a secret. But some are worse than you could ever imagine. Nell Sweeney has led an ordinary life. Every day she walks to and from the hospital where she works as a nurse, believing that no harm can befall her. Until one day she is taken. Because someone out there has a secret. Someone out there has been watching Nell – and they’ve been watching others like her too. Nell is the unlucky one – she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if she isn’t found soon, someone will make sure that she isn’t the last woman to be taken… A chilling, gripping read, perfect for fans of Clare Mackintosh and Gillian McAllister.

The Couple in The Photograph


Valerie Keogh - 2021
    . .He does. And he doesn’t take it well. When he says she’ll regret it, Keri grows concerned. A funeral wreath is delivered to their home—and then an employee at Keri and Nathan’s company is murdered.Now Keri is faced with some pressing questions: Is her ex-lover responsible or is someone else behind the threats? Can her marriage survive? And is it always right to tell the truth?

The Perfect Daughter


D.J. PalmerD.J. Palmer - 2021
    Palmer, the author of The New Husband.Grace never dreamt she’d visit her teenaged daughter Penny in the locked ward of a decaying state psychiatric hospital, charged with the murder of a stranger. There was not much question of her daughter’s guilt. Police had her fingerprints on the murder weapon and the victim’s blood on her body and clothes. But they didn’t have a motive.Grace blames herself, because that’s what mothers do—they look at their choices and wonder, what if? But hindsight offers little more than the chance for regret.None of this was conceivable the day Penny came into her life. Then, it seemed like a miracle. Penny was found abandoned, with a mysterious past, and it felt like fate brought Penny to her, and her husband Arthur. But as she grew, Penny's actions grew more disturbing, and different "personalities" emerged.Arthur and Grace took Penny to different psychiatrists, many of whom believed she was putting on a show to help manage her trauma. But Grace didn’t buy it. The personas were too real, too consistent. It had to be a severe multiple personality disorder. One determined psychiatrist, Dr. Mitch McHugh, helped discover someone new inside Penny—a young girl named Abigail. Is this the nameless girl who was abandoned in the park years ago? Mitch thinks Abigail is the key to Penny’s past and to the murder. But as Grace and Mitch dig deeper, they uncover dark and shocking secrets that put all their lives in grave danger.

The Other Wife


Claire McGowan - 2019
    But she knows who you are…Suzi did a bad thing. She’s paying for it now, pregnant, scared, and living in an isolated cottage with her jealous husband, Nick.When Nora moves into the only house nearby, Suzi is delighted to have a friend. So much so that she’s almost tempted to tell Nora her terrible secret. But there’s more to Nora than meets the eye. It’s impossible—does she already know what Suzi did?Meanwhile, Elle spends her days in her perfect home, fixated on keeping up appearances. But when her husband betrays her, it unravels a secret going all the way back to her childhood. She’ll do whatever it takes to hold on to him, even if that means murder. After all, she’s done it before…Caught up in their own secrets and lies, these strangers will soon realise they have more in common than they could ever have imagined. When a shocking event brings them together, their lives will never be the same again.

Friends Like These


Sarah Alderson - 2018
    And she flaunts her perfect life all over social media.It drove her colleague Lizzie mad, but she couldn't stop looking. They were never really friends - and yet Lizzie knew everything about her.Or did she?When chance, and a terrible mistake, pulls Lizzie back into Becca's orbit years after they lost touch, she'll realise that you can't always believe what you see online... and that finding out the truth might be the worst thing you can do.There's no such thing as a perfect life. Only a perfect lie.

Silent Lies


Kathryn Croft - 2017
    Five words will destroy it again. Mia Hamilton lived the perfect life with her husband, university teacher Zach, and their two-year-old daughter, Freya. But everything changed when Zach committed suicide on the same night one of his students, Josie Carpenter, vanished. Five years later, and Josie is still missing but Mia has finally found some happiness with new boyfriend Will. Until one day when stranger Alison walks into her life and tells Mia that her husband didn’t kill himself. Desperate to find out what really happened to Zach, Mia is forced to put her trust in Alison. But she soon discovers that Alison has her own agenda behind exposing the details of Zach’s death. Can Mia really believe anything Alison says? Mia must decide how far she is willing to go to uncover the truth – even if she risks losing everything she loves.

And Then You Were Gone


R.J. Jacobs - 2019
    Even better, her life is coming together: she’s got a great job, her own place, and a boyfriend, Paolo, who adores her. So when Paolo suggests a weekend sailing trip, Emily agrees—wine, water, and the man she loves? What could be better? But when Emily wakes the morning after they set sail, the boat is still adrift…and Paolo is gone.A strong swimmer, there’s no way Paolo drowned, but Emily is at a loss for any other explanation. Where else could he have gone? And why? As the hours and days pass by, each moment marking Paolo’s disappearance, Emily’s hard-won stability begins to slip.But when Emily uncovers evidence suggesting Paolo was murdered, the investigation throws her mania into overdrive, even as she becomes a person of interest in her own personal tragedy. To clear her name, Emily must find the truth—but can she hold onto her own sanity in the process?

Someone Else's Daughter


Jennifer Harvey - 2020
    That was all they would see when they looked at us—that we had failed them.I count down the days until we can leave the city behind and return to the beach house. Where James and Katie can roam free over the dunes, like they did as children, and Peter will swap his 6 a.m. starts for the stacks of fluffy pancakes he lovingly serves up for our family breakfasts. These sun-drenched, golden days, just the four of us, are what I hold on to all year long.But this summer Katie’s best friend will be coming with us. I tell myself the girls will have fun together, pushing aside the doubts I have about this uninvited guest. Isa. With her corn-silk hair and luminous skin, who manages to overshadow my daughter at every turn. Who has been dumped on us by her own parents, too caught up in their petty dramas to see what is right in front of them.Because I can see it. There is something dangerous about Isa. Something more than a carefree girl, testing boundaries as she approaches adulthood. She threatens to cast storm clouds across my beach house days. I feel as powerless to stop her as I would in the face of a hurricane.By the end of the summer, Isa will be dead. And I will have to face her mother. I don’t know if I will be able to find the words. How can I begin to explain that she never really knew her daughter at all?

The Safe Place


Anna Downes - 2020
    Until he meets Emily.Emily is perfect.Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly.Superbly tense and oozing with atmosphere, Anna Downs's debut is the perfect summer suspense, with the modern gothic feel of Ruth Ware and the morally complex family dynamics of Lisa Jewell.Welcome to paradise...will you ever be able to leave?

Tell Me the Truth


Kiersten Modglin - 2022
    What starts as a desperate search for answers quickly becomes a terrifying spiral of obsession and subterfuge.With each new secret uncovered about her life, her marriage, and the man she loves, Edith is left with even more questions. What exactly is Joe hiding?Who is the woman in his photos?Refusing to accept Joe's lies any longer, Edith soon finds herself living a double life, telling lies and keeping secrets of her own. When she uncovers a final piece of the puzzle, something darker and more gut-wrenching than even she could’ve anticipated, Edith is forced to make a choice about the future of her marriage. The truth always comes at a price.Sometimes, that price is your life.

Little Cruelties


Liz Nugent - 2020
    One lies in the coffin.Will, Brian and Luke grow up competing for their mother's unequal love. As men, the competition continues - for status, money, fame, women ...They each betray each other, over and over, until one of them is dead.But which brother killed him?______________

Rain Will Come


Thomas Holgate - 2020
    Ruthless and riddled with vices, Czarcik always gets his man. And fast. Until now…A double slaying isn’t the open-and-shut case of urban crime he’s used to. Connecting it to a high-profile Texas judge, Czarcik realizes something bigger is going on. It’s the work of a serial killer for whom Chicago is just the beginning. Now he’s inviting Czarcik to play catch-me-if-you-can on a cross-country murder spree.Going rogue, Czarcik accepts the challenge. But as the bodies pile up, he must come to grips with the fact that nothing—not the killer, the victims, or the rules—is what it seems in this bloody game of cat and mouse.

Destroy Me


Karen Cole - 2021
    It looks exactly like her, and to make matters worse, the victim is her childhood best friend, Charlie.The following day, the police arrive at her doorstep to question her. She hadn't seen or spoken to Charlie in years, but could the secrets of their past finally be coming back to haunt her?Desperate to find out who gave the police her description and to protect her five-year-old son, Cat investigates. She knows she is innocent and will stop at nothing to prove it. But some secrets are best left buried...