Showing results by publisher "Hachette UK - Bookouture" in Domestic Thrillers

‘My name is Darcy, I’m your nurse and I’m here to help you.’ I repeat the words I’ve said so many times. Except this time, I don’t mean it… If you saw me walking down the street, you’d think I was pretty ordinary–I wear the typical crisp, white nursing uniform, my hands are scrubbed clean and you’d have no reason to believe I was anything other than a good citizen. A good nurse. But looks can be deceiving. You shouldn’t trust me–because I don’t even know if I can trust myself.

I’ve lived on this quiet street for years, in the same house I once shared with my husband and our beloved daughter, Chloe. Now they’re both gone and my home, that used to be filled with laughter, is too quiet, too still. When a little boy I don’t recognize knocks at my door, without a parent in sight, I’m shocked. He trembles with nerves, and I tell him I can help find his mother. But I’m not prepared for what he says next. I’m left frozen, heart pounding in my chest.

I know Benjamin’s new business is in trouble, that he desperately needs your money. I saw the way Gwyn looked at him at your wedding reception, finding any excuse to be close, to laugh too loudly at his jokes. After all, she always wanted your perfect life. But don’t worry, Madeline. I won’t let it end like this. I can see everything from my place in the shadows between the trees. With their house lit up, they are on display. I’ll bide my time and worm my way into their home, their lives. They will never know the truth about who I am.

My hand trembles as I stare at the anonymous text. On this sunny Saturday morning, our twin ten-year-old boys were playing in the park just down our tree-lined street. But only one of them has come home… and it’s all my husband’s fault. I race to Leo’s study and demand answers. As his face turns white, I know: one of his affairs has turned deadly. I always smell the unfamiliar perfume on his shirt. I try to pretend we are a happy family, for the sake of the children… but now, my child is in terrible danger.

Stay-at-home mother Marta lives in her successful husband’s shadow, overlooked by him ever since her darling son Owen went to medical school. She’s not about to let the beautiful Gina take Owen away from her. Marta will play nice, get Gina to trust her. And then she has a plan of her own.

Then: Morning light shines into the nursery, casting shadows across the pale pink walls and wooden cot in the middle of the room. She opens the door expecting to hear the soft coo of her daughter, Sofia, stretching herself awake. But the room is silent. The cot is empty. Her little girl has vanished. Now: Twelve years have passed, but Emily will never forget the night her life changed forever, and she’s happy to have her daughter back beside her. A teenager now, Sofia started asking questions about when she was a baby.

Last night, we celebrated our anniversary. Over candlelight, we talked about the children, our work, and I was so happy, and felt so loved. But the next morning, when I check my phone, there is a message. From a friend. And a string of photos appear of my husband, Will, with another woman: walking along the street holding hands. Going into fancy hotels. Standing at a window, his arms around her, her head on his shoulder…

It’s the phone call every mother dreads. I’m climbing into the car after a trip to the grocery store. As the engine starts, my phone rings. It’s my stepdaughter, Shelby, who is babysitting my three-year-old Millie. "I only went upstairs for a second," she says through her sobs. "She’s gone." When the police turn up, Shelby’s story starts to unravel. What is she hiding? Then I get a message saying, "Your husband is not who you think he is." Suddenly, my family feel like strangers. Everyone has a secret - even me.

My mother is obsessed with every detail of my wedding–controlling my dress, my ring, my happiness. But when the day finally comes, will she really let me go?

My daughter is getting married to the man of her dreams. But will she pay for it with her life? My beautiful daughter Ellie walks down the aisle in her full-length lace dress, beaming with happiness. As she exchanges her vows with Kyle, who looks devastatingly handsome in his smart black suit, I hope this time will be different.

This is my first job as a housekeeper, but Evan Warner doesn’t need to know that. It’s the first of many lies I’ll tell him. He just lost his wife, Lola, and now he and his young daughter Jessica are adrift. But no amount of cleaning will rid this house of the secrets that have seeped into the cracks. I never forgave Lola for what she did to me. But I can’t let Evan get away with her murder.

My husband, Marcus, and I used to be so in love. But now, after ten years together, we barely talk. I've seen so many of our friends marriages end in divorce, and I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to stop that from happening to us. And then I meet Erin. She tells me all about her perfect marriage to Kieran, and I'm shocked when she reveals the secret to their marital bliss they have an open marriage. My heart starts to race as I consider it for me and Marcus. Could we really do this?

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.

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.

When I step into the elevator that sweltering morning, I barely notice the woman standing next to me. She seems out of place, with her floaty linen clothes in a building full of suits. But that’s none of my business. A minute later, there’s a sudden jerk. The elevator stops. The lights go out.

My best friend disappeared twenty years ago. I thought she was dead. But today I’ve received a message that makes my heart stop. It says it’s from Izzy. And she’s blaming my new husband for her disappearance… I stare at the email in horror. I’ve only just managed to put what happened to Izzy behind me. My life is so different now. I have two perfect children, and the perfect husband at last.

I place my tiny, newborn baby in the box. A ‘safe haven’, they call it, for unwanted babies. She’ll be warm, someone will find her soon. She’ll be cared for. But not by me. I will always want her, but I can never be her mother. And she can never know why.

Looking out at our beautiful estate, the home I thought we’d raise our future children in, I watch helplessly as my husband Paul takes his mistress’s arm and leads her inside. My heart twists as they laugh together, without a care in the world. If he and Marianne think they can start over without me, they’re gravely mistaken. I worked myself to the bone for him, keeping our home pristine, supporting his art, using funds from my business to keep us afloat. Tears fill my eyes as I remember all the lonely nights I spent waiting for him to come home.

The old camping bus pulls up outside my house in the middle of the night. Rain is pounding against the windows, thunder rattling, but I’d recognize the sound of the engine anywhere. Confusion races through me. My daughter Willow and her best friend must be back early from their trip. I jump up and rush to meet them. But when I pull open the door, it’s not Willow on the doorstep. It’s a man, holding her keys. Blood roars in my ears as he explains he was hired anonymously to drive it back. My heart is pounding. I don’t understand. Where is my daughter?

As he packs my things, the nurses tell me Freddie hasn’t left my bedside since the accident I was in days ago. They tell me I’m lucky. We seem like the perfect couple, and together we’ll figure out what happened. So I go home to a beautiful house with a fancy marble kitchen and manicured garden that is supposedly ours. But deep down I know something isn’t right. Even though my memories are gone, this doesn’t feel like my life.