Showing results by publisher "Hachette UK - Bookouture" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Her shoes pinched as she shivered in the cold night air. She just wanted to get home. A taxi slowed to a halt next to her, and as she buckled her seat belt, she noticed the child’s seat next to her and felt safe. But when she saw his eyes in the mirror, a shiver of terror shook her to her core... When a young woman’s body is found on a patch of wet grass in the early hours of the morning, Detective Lottie Parker mourns the young life so brutally snatched away.

Our new home was meant to be a chance for us to start again; to make new friends and forget the past. And as I look around the barbeque we’ve thrown for our neighbors, I dare to dream that things will be all right. I watch my husband joking as he flips burgers and my daughter turning cartwheels on our sun-bleached lawn. And then my gaze falls on my son, Jacob, and his new girlfriend, Rose, in her light blue jeans and her green crop top. There is a worried expression clouding her beautiful eyes.... The next day I get a call from Rose’s mother that chills me to the bone.

Everyone in Saxford St Peter flocks to Lovelace Sunday, the festival celebrating the romantic history of beautiful Lovelace Manor. This year will be even more exciting, as famous TV historian Cammie Harington is planning a spectacular stunt with a hot-air balloon for her new show. Eve Mallow jumps at the chance to volunteer–it’s a great people-watching opportunity. But she soon realizes there is no love lost between Cammie and the family that owns the manor...so why did Cammie agree to come? When Cammie’s hot-air balloon tumbles from the sky, Eve feels sure this is no accident.

Christmas, 1923. Lady Eleanor Swift has received a rather unexpected invitation to the village Christmas party in the tiny, rural hamlet of Derrydee in the west of Ireland. Eleanor is thrilled about exploring her ancestral roots at her late uncle’s estate and spending the festive season in a castle. Packing Gladstone the bulldog’s coziest Christmas jumper, they set off to the Emerald Isle with her butler Clifford in tow. Arriving late at night, Eleanor and Clifford are shocked when they find a body sprawled in the snow on the winding country lane outside the estate.

Jake and I were childhood sweethearts. Strong, dependable, and with a smile that melts my heart, he is the perfect husband and father to our beautiful little daughter. We have our money troubles–but getting a lodger, Kara, calms the panic I feel about our bills. Jake is reluctant but what choice do we have?

Sussex, 1956: When Flora and her partner in crime solving, Jack, arrive at the charming church of St Saviour’s the last thing they’re expecting to find is the curate, Lyle Beaumont, lifeless on the flagstone floor beneath the bell tower, with a mysterious note in his hand.

I used to have it all. My ex-boyfriend and I were madly in love and dreamed of starting a family. When I found out I couldn’t have children, it broke me. Now, at my job at the fertility clinic, I give other couples what I could never have. The day my ex and his new wife walk into my clinic, my heart shatters all over again. He’s back. Now, I stand here with a syringe trembling in my hand and an impossible decision to make: Do I help them conceive a child—even though I know he’s keeping a dangerous secret? Or do I protect his wife—my patient, now—and take what’s rightfully mine?

Having left the big city behind, Sarah Vane is fully embracing her calmer life in the quaint coastal town of Merstairs. With more time for hobbies, she joins a very popular life drawing class at the local tea shop. But when their usual model, the ever-punctual Mr Williams, doesn’t turn up, Sarah’s worried. He’d been complaining of a cough just last week so she decides to check up on him. Arriving at his crooked little cottage, it appears the front door isn’t quite shut. Stepping inside, Sarah is shocked to find Mr Williams slumped in his armchair.

Jay and I have only known each other a short while, but whenever I gaze into his gorgeous brown eyes I know he’s the one. His little house by the deep forest’s edge is perfect for the two of us—no internet, no phone signal, and no neighbors. I’m about as far from my past as I could be. Warm in Jay’s arms, I can persuade myself it’s ok that he disappears for hours when he thinks I’m asleep at night, returning the next morning, glittery eyed and tense. I won’t question him, I can’t challenge him. I need our relationship to work. Because I have secrets too.

The day I was told I’d never be able to have a child, my world came crashing down. My husband says he still loves me, but I lie awake at night, wishing we could have a family. One morning, my husband’s side of the bed is cold and empty. I hear a noise and head downstairs. In the middle of the rug in my living room is a wooden drawer. Swaddled inside, with perfect rosy cheeks and beautiful round blue eyes, a baby gazes up at me.

I loved my husband, Doctor Drew Devlin, but he betrayed me. And now he’s dead. As I put the key in the lock and open the door to the luxurious new home I’ve purchased with Drew’s life insurance money, I’m certain the worst days are behind me. My secret is safe, and I can’t wait to enjoy my new wealth and freedom.

Winter 1934. Kitty Underhay is enjoying a night off from wedding planning as she attends a charity ball at the home of Lady Eliza Foxley. She’s excited to see her father, roguish Edgar Underhay, who is also a guest in the house. But the evening of cocktails and waltzing turns into a dance macabre when Edgar finds their lively, fun-loving hostess dead, strangled by her own silk stocking.

In the wake of my darling husband’s death, I am so lucky to have my three beautiful, grown-up daughters by my side at our holiday home in Scotland. We need some time together to recover from the shock. But I also need to set some things straight about their beloved father....

I stare at the photo of my beautiful daughter. Her hair is shining and her face is lit up with a smile. The man with her looks so happy too. But my mother’s instinct is screaming. I know something is terribly, terribly wrong. And I know what I have to do… I wish I could hold her tight. See if she still wears the same perfume she always wore. But my daughter blames me for her father’s death. She won’t even talk to me… I just know she isn’t really safe with her boyfriend, Garth. I will keep my distance and I will just watch her. For now.

Kitty Underhay is accompanying her fiancé, Matthew Bryant, and Bertie, his new cocker spaniel, on an outing to Torbay Country Club. However, the delightful day soon turns to disaster. Walking Bertie in the shaded grotto after an exhilarating archery demonstration, Kitty makes an unsporting discovery: the body of their host, Sir William Winspear, with an arrow in his back.

I’ve never felt welcome in my husband Dominic’s family home. His parents make it clear I’m a poor comparison to his perfect first wife, Carla. But we’re here for Christmas, so it’s important to pretend everything is fine. Until Dominic’s mother bustles into our bedroom. Smiling thinly, she blindsides me: ‘You won’t mind, will you. Carla is coming for the holidays. She’s still one of the family to us, and she can’t get home because of the storm.’ My eyes widen—did she and Carla plan this on purpose? I know Dominic won’t say a thing. He never stands up to his parents.

When Detective Madison Harper arrives at a remote summer camp in Shadow Falls, Northern California, her heart breaks for Jenny, the sweet little girl last seen splashing in the lake with her friends before she vanished. Peering into the silent cabins filled with rows of neatly made beds, Madison knows this idyllic place is hiding a terrible secret.

My first mistake was falling in love with the handsome, married doctor. My second mistake was killing him… I never meant to hurt anyone. I’m a nurse, it’s my job to help people. But sometimes in life things happen that you don’t expect, and you’re pushed to extremes. I can’t let anyone find out what I’ve done... or why I did it. If the secrets of my past come out then it’s not just my life at risk, it’s my family’s too–darling little Campbell, just five years old and completely innocent. I have to protect him.

It’s the day I’ve been dreaming about my whole life. As I glide down the flower-strewn aisle overlooking the Greek orange groves, in my pearl-encrusted ivory gown, I finally see my fiancé Nik. We look like the perfect couple, but not all fairy tales have happy endings....

One hot summer evening, 11-year-old Mikey Driscoll is on the way home from playing with friends. Two days later, his body is discovered on a bed of wildflowers by some local teenagers. The case is assigned to Detective Lottie Parker, and this time it’s personal. The victim was a close friend of her son, Sean, from the run-down Munbally estate on the other side of town. Sean tells his mother Mikey was behaving normally before he died, but Lottie can’t help but feel that her son is keeping something from her.