Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Crime Thrillers

During a remote meeting, an official watches from Lisbon as his colleague, Inácio Machado, a Portuguese diplomat based in London's Portuguese embassy, dies of what looks to be a heart attack. When no one comes into the room to Inácio's aid, he tries frantically to contact the embassy to get immediate help. He tries and tries again, but no one picks up the phone and he's forced to call the British emergency services. When local police arrive, they walk into a disturbing scene. Everyone inside the building is dead, all seemingly from the same cause.

Jeppe Kørner, on leave from the police force and nursing a broken heart, has taken refuge on the island of Bornholm for the winter. Also on the island is Esther de Laurenti, a writer working on a biography on a female anthropologist with a mysterious past and coming to terms with her own crushing sense of loneliness in the wake of a dear friend's death. When Jeppe lends a helping hand at the island's local sawmill, he begins to realize that the island may not be the peaceful refuge it appears to be.

My name is Justine Stone. I left home twelve years ago, never to return. Now my ex-boyfriend, Jake, has been accused of a double murder in the town where we grew up. It's my job as a barrister to make the case against him. But to face the courts, I need to know the truth. The real truth about what happened when we were young - not just the story I'll spin the jury. To reach the heart of it, I must face up to the part my own family played.

Sweden, 1855. 'Worst thing I ever saw...' The Minister of Justice receives a disturbing message. A massacre on one of Lapland's mountains - a priest, a law enforcement officer and a local settler have been slaughtered by one of the indigenous Sami people. The murderer is in custody; he refuses to talk. The Minister dispatches his son-in-law, a geologist, to investigate, for there is more than one reason to visit Blackåsen: it is a mountain with many secrets, a mountain that has never been mapped.

Popular kids Rachel, Penny, Tom and Jake love it when the fun fair comes to their seaside town every year. This year is extra special: it's the last fun fair before the high-flying group leaves for university and they plan to make it a fun fair to remember. Rachel still lives in town, caring for her mother, avoiding everyone. There are rumours about her: how she was supposed to go places, how she never accepted her prestigious scholarship. Before long, the memories from that last carnival come back to haunt them... and Rachel is right back in the House of Horrors once again.

Nuala knows nothing of her husband James' past. He made her swear that she would never contact his family and never, ever visit the place he was from. But now James is dead, and Nuala is alone. Grieving and desperate, she decides to ignore his warning. Nuala is about to find out that some secrets are better left buried - and that uncovering the truth about the man she married will have terrible consequences....

Sam is catapulted back to those teenage years spent with her best friends, teasing out each other's secrets by announcing things they had never, ever done. Pushing each other's boundaries, growing closer and growing up. If only they had stopped there. But they added their own rules. They went from sharing secrets to sharing firsts. First kisses, first drinks, first fake IDs. And that was before it all went spiralling out of control. Before that day in the woods ended it all.

Josie is at rock bottom. Burned out, heartbroken and recovering from an abusive relationship, she lives a haunted existence after returning to her isolated hometown on the edge of the Forest of Dean. Josie's hopes of a fresh start are horribly derailed when she stumbles across a dead woman's decaying, ant-infested body in the woods. The grim discovery sends her into a downward spiral, forcing her to face uncomfortable truths about the victim and her own past - all whilst battling the swarming black ants that seem to have burrowed into her mind . . . and her flesh.

Private Investigator Mark Novak's relentlessness as an investigator has been his professional calling card and curse, but the one case he couldn't bring himself to pursue is the one closest to his heart: that of his wife's death. Returning to the scene of her murder, a country road outside Cassadaga, Florida, he uncovers disturbing leads that show how her murder might be connected to Novak's own troubled youth in Montana. The investigation leads him back to the mining towns of Montana, which he thought he'd left behind forever.

Where to hide when there's nowhere left to run? Sandrine is asked to empty her late grandmother's house on a small island near the Normandy coast. She soon discovers that its elderly inhabitants haven't left the island since their arrival as children during World War II. Sandrine can tell they are terrified of someone, or something. Yet, they refuse to leave the island. What happened to the children from the holiday camp that was suddenly shut down in 1949? And who was Sandrine's grandmother really?

Maggie is a husband watcher. A snooper, a marriage doctor, a destroyer of dreams, a killer of happy ever afters. She runs her own private detective agency specialising in catching those who cheat. Helene is a husband catcher. A beautiful wife, a doting stepmother, a perfect homemaker and a dazzling presence at parties. She has landed herself with one of the most eligible bachelors in town - handsome property developer Gabe Moreau. Alice is just a teenager. A perfect daughter to Gabe, a kind stepchild to Helene, a tragic girl to a dead mother.

On a beautiful October evening, New York City's iconic Guggenheim Museum is closed for a tech company's private gala. Until an explosion rocks the night, instantly killing 702 people, including every single attendee, yet the damage to the building itself was minimal. An explosion of that precision was no accident, and in response, the FBI mobilises its entire team - but the sheer number of victims strains their resources, and so the FBI turn once again to Dr Lucas Page.

When Elspeth arrives at her ex-husband's LA mansion for his 50th birthday party, she's expecting a crowd for the British film director. Instead, there are just seven other guests and Richard's pet octopus, Persephone, watching over them from her tank. Come morning, Richard is dead.

It's a brutal winter in Des Moines, Iowa, and the city is gripped by fear. A serial attacker known as the Sin Eater is stalking women and has just struck again. It's a tough time and a tough place for Riley Fisher, a former small-town sergeant, to be reporting for duty as an FBI agent on her first assignment. Teamed with a man she's not sure she can trust and struggling to prove herself - while fighting the pull of her old life and family dramas - Riley is tasked with investigating a vicious death threat against the newly elected female state governor.

New Year's Eve, Loloma Island, Fiji. At one of the most exclusive island resorts in the Pacific ocean, the champagne is poured, the fireworks are ready, and the countdown to new year is just beginning. It's set to be a night that no one will forget. Especially when a body washes up on the shore... But it's impossible to find answers when everyone here has a motive.

Late November, 1980. Student Nick Hartley returns from a lecture to find his house full of police officers. As he discovers that his ex-girlfriend has been found murdered in a nearby park, and her new boyfriend is missing, he realises two things in quick succession: he is undoubtedly a suspect as he has no convincing alibi, and he has own suspicions as to what might have happened. Late November 2019. An dig near Scotch Corner unearths a skeleton that turns out to be far more recent than the Roman remains the archaeologist is looking for.

The explosive follow-up to Eye Contact finds DI Harland face-to-face with a killer.... He didn't intend to let her get so close. But now that Kim's become important to him, Robert Naysmith decides to tell his girlfriend his deadly secret. He wants her to recognise the power he holds. He hopes he won't have to kill her. Detective Inspector Harland hasn't forgotten the serial killer who got away from him. But with nothing to go on, he fears he will never bring him to justice.

A chilling police procedural for fans of Peter James and Peter Robinson. Nigel never meant for it to happen. At first he just wanted to be Matt's friend. But when he discovers he can hear what is going on in the flat below him, his fascination with his new neighbour drifts into obsession. Rearranging his furniture to recreate the layout of the rooms downstairs. Buying the same clothes. Going through Matt's post, his things. Becoming Matt without him ever knowing.

When Afrah arrives at Ravenswood Lodge Care Home for the first time, she feels far from home. Her daughter, Amira, didn't want to send her away from the comfort and familiarity of her surroundings but she's struggling to cope. Ravenswood Lodge was meant to be a safe space for Afrah. But when her belongings start vanishing, her family photographs, her jewellery, her pill boxes, Amira and the staff say it's just Afrah's imagination, it's just her failing memory. But Afrah is adamant someone is playing games with her. She knows Ravenswood Lodge isn't safe for her. Someone wants her gone.

Thrust into a world where the rich, famous, and powerful hire him to solve their problems and wash their dirty laundry, Ravi finds himself in over his head with increasingly bizarre and complex cases - and the visions that he's been having of Hindu gods aren't helping. As Ravi struggles to stay ahead of danger, he wonders if the things he's seeing are a delusion - or if he might, in fact, be an unrecognised shaman of the modern world.