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

In a small farming town in rural Wisconsin - where generations of families have lived in peace for decades - no one expects trouble to come calling. But then a farmer’s beautiful young wife is found brutally murdered, with a chilling calling card that suggests she’s just the first victim of a serial killer. And the FBI elects not to send one of their own. Instead they send a stranger to town - former Royal Marine turned mercenary Grant Fletcher.

It kills me that the only way I can spend proper time with my son Toby is by helping out at his school camp. I sit under the emerald green pine trees and Toby’s little face lights up as he runs past me, joining the other chattering, happy children around us. Then I see my ex, David, glaring at me and my heart sinks. He may have full custody, but he’d love nothing more than for me to disappear. Forever.

When the body of a teenage runaway is found hidden inside someone else’s grave in a small-town cemetery in the Lake District, an urgent call is made to forensic pathologist Beth Adams. Still traumatised by a recent attempt on her own life, one look at the beautiful girl’s broken body is enough to bring Beth out of hiding for the first time since her attack. She’s the only one who can help her trusted friend, Detective Josh Walker, crack the most shocking case of his career.

Haunted by the serial killer she never caught, Detective Kimberley King leaves her job in New York and relocates to the sleepy town of Dead Woman Crossing, Oklahoma. Kimberley hopes to bring her daughter Jessica up close to her family, far from the bad memories the city holds. But her quiet new home is not the peaceful place she dreamed of. Within days of her arrival, Kimberley is called to the scene of a terrible crime: her friend Hannah, a single mother, has been brutally murdered while her one-year-old daughter was sleeping nearby.

As day breaks over the fairground, Detective Katie Scott forces herself to take in another disturbing scene in front of her. A woman, the same age as her, found slumped in the carriage of the Ferris wheel, red lipstick dragged across her lips, her throat cut. Katie doesn’t want to believe that the serial killer picking off women across the state has found their way to the small town of Pine Valley, California, but when her team finds a gold engagement ring hanging nearby, it’s a terrifying, but undeniable fact.

I am cooking spaghetti, his favourite, while he plays in the garden. But when I look up, he’s gone. I call the police, my hands shaking so much that I hit the wrong digits twice. "My son is missing." When the police turn up, I’m trapped in the web of my lies. I have hidden the truth from eight-year-old Riley, my little boy who loves climbing trees and always has scraped knees. I have hidden my secret from everyone.

To celebrate my special birthday, my husband and I have returned to the beautiful Greek island village where we spent our honeymoon. As the boat pulls in to the harbor, I feel hope rise in my heart. The white houses, the blue doors, the brilliant turquoise of the sea, are just as I remember. If two weeks in this paradise won’t fix our marriage, nothing will. But then the next day a boat arrives, full of my friends and family. My grown-up children jump on to the shore, grinning and holding balloons. My husband beams at me and says, “Surprise!” I can’t believe it.

I nearly threw the letter about the inheritance away with the recycling. Late for work, worrying about how I would afford new school shoes for Kate, I just assumed it was a mistake. But perhaps moving to a new home in a quiet seaside town would be the fresh start we both need. Away from the school bullies making Kate’s life a misery, and out of the clutches of my dangerous ex.

I can’t believe it when I learn my donor’s identity. The attack on Flora was all over the news. From my hospital bed I read every article, obsess over every word and soon I feel like I know her: the beautiful girl with flame-colored hair, adored by everyone around her. Why would anyone hurt someone so perfect? When Flora’s family reach out to me, I’m unsure. My hands are shaking as I arrive at their grand mansion with its golden stone and sprawling gardens, but they’re warm and welcoming, tears shining in her mother’s eyes as she smiles at me.

When Detective Katie Scott is called to the discovery of a young girl buried on the grounds of a former children’s home in Pine Valley, California, she’s hopeful it’s the end to a devastating cold case she’s been working on. No one has seen Candace Harlan since she ran away from Elm Hill Manor five years ago. Her death will be a tragedy, but it will also bring peace to those who miss her most. But the girl in the ground is not Candace.

Then: Twenty years ago, Alys’ husband, Sam, was in a terrible car accident that left him fighting for his life. His recovery was slow and painful, and just at the point when Alys began to hope, he sent her away, refusing to see her ever again for reasons she could never understand. Now: Married again and living in a new town with a new family, Alys feels like she’s sleepwalking through life. She’s just lost her job, her grown-up daughter is flying the nest, and her new husband doesn’t see - or even seem to care about - the downward spiral she is in.

She didn’t notice the corn stalks shiver a few feet to her right. By the time she looked up, the man towered above her. In a single movement he wrapped one thick hand around her waist, the other he clamped over her mouth, muffling her screams. Detective Clara Jefferies has spent years running from her childhood in Alber, Utah. But when she hears that her baby sister Delilah has disappeared, she knows that the peaceful community will be shattered, her family vulnerable, and that that she must face up to her past and go home.

When Special Agent Nikki Hunt receives a call on Christmas Day, she knows it can’t be good news. Seventeen-year-old missing teenager Kesha Williams has at last been found...her body floating in an icy forest lake, miles from her hometown. As Nikki rushes to the scene, she’s chilled to see the past repeating itself. Kesha disappeared from the mall where Nikki’s own little girl was targeted the year before. With Kesha’s grieving parents desperate for answers and the media out for blood, Nikki promises she’ll find Kesha’s killer no matter what it takes.

A delightful afternoon stroll turns to disaster when the guests of an artists’ retreat in the French mountains spot the body of a man at the bottom of a cliff. Amongst them is Melissa Craig, who, binoculars at the ready, suddenly finds herself at the center of a very puzzling mystery. Was it an accident, or was he pushed? Her suspicions are confirmed when another body is found days later in almost the exact same spot. It can’t be a coincidence; someone in this idyllic French village is up to no good, and it’s up to her to find out who.

I made a new friend at playgroup today. She’s different from the other mothers. She feels like someone I can trust. Someone I can confide in. But there are some things I can’t tell her. Things I can’t tell anyone. Because I have a secret that no one else knows. One that still haunts my dreams, wakes me up in cold sweat at night. Even another mother would never understand. Unless, of course, she’s hiding something, too.

My sister died. Her friends lied. And now that I’ve brought them all together, I’m going to learn the truth....

When Detective Kay Sharp first left Mount Chester - population 3,823 - in her rear-view mirror, she promised never to look back. The town only contained bad memories and dark secrets. But when a brutal crime surfaces, she finds herself home once more, and this time, she’s not going anywhere. Kay is called to Blackwater River, where the body of a 17-year-old girl has been found. Surrounded by snowy peaks and a forest alive with the colors of fall, the victim floats in the water, a hand-carved locket around her neck.

Emily and Jake are the perfect couple. Or so everyone says. But Emily just read a letter that has shattered her perfect world. Now she only has one thing on her mind. Which one of her friends is sleeping with her husband?

I open the creaking oak front door of my beautiful country house to see a stranger on my doorstep. The woman is stunning with glossy red hair and flawless make up. "Can I help you?" I ask. That was my first mistake. Alexis tells me she is a distant relative and shows me a DNA match on her phone. She has no family and would love to get to know us. My husband Hugh invites her in to join our dinner party. As we drink wine, she opens up about her sad childhood. Her amber eyes are mesmerizing, and I can see my husband is being drawn in by her story. Then she asks for our help.

Paige, Richard and me. We thought we’d be friends forever. But everything changed the day we took the shortcut home from school along the old railway line. I wish we’d gone the long way. I wish we hadn’t seen our classmate, pale and still in the undergrowth. And I wish we hadn’t promised to keep one, awful detail a secret just between us....