Showing results by publisher "Hachette UK - Bookouture" in Psychological

When I wake up with the sun in my eyes the morning after my daughter’s birthday party, I know something is very wrong. I go straight to her room but feel a surge of panic when I see an empty bed. Downstairs everything is totally quiet, and the front door is locked. Why didn’t I hear her scream? Who took our little girl?

I didn’t turn up uninvited. He asked me to come. He didn’t need to ask twice. He knew I’d agree. Kind Laura. Obedient Laura. Laura the soft-spoken schoolteacher with the faded cardigans and flat shoes. Nobody ever suspected someone like me would appeal to handsome, charismatic, happily married Ralph. I think even he was surprised by his choice. But I’m used to people underestimating me. But then maybe I underestimated Ralph, too. Because I never thought he’d be capable of doing what he did. It wasn’t only dangerous, it was very, very wrong.

He was there for her first steps. He helped with her homework. And then, two days before her ninth birthday, Martha’s father walked out. She never knew what went wrong, but she and her mother, Fran, never saw or heard from him again. Fifteen years later, Martha and Fran live in a remote, pretty cottage in Cornwall. Fran paints illustrations for children’s books, while Martha trains as an animal nurse at the local vet’s surgery. But then Martha sees a strange message on her mother’s phone - from her father. Desperate for answers, she tracks him down.

In the pretty, leafy suburb of Ridgeview Pines everyone uses an online message board called The Neighbor List to find out everything that’s happening locally. It makes people feel safe and protected, part of a small and caring community. Jessica Millstone recently moved to the area with her husband and young daughter, and signs up immediately. She loves her warm, inclusive new neighborhood. So when Barbara Draper - who lived two doors down from Jessica and posted on the message board regularly - is found dead, eve

They warned me the first few days of motherhood would be exhausting, but I’m so deliriously happy, I don’t mind one bit. Smiling, I glance at the baby blue blanket I crocheted. I’ve never knitted a thing in my life, but I was determined to make my newborn his very first blanket—a one-of-a-kind welcome-home gift. I tug the rocker closer to me, unable to resist peeking at my beautiful baby boy. I pull back the blanket. It feels like my heart flatlines. He’s not here. Sweat beads on my forehead, and my limbs turn to ice. “Where is he?” I cry, my whole body trembling, the wind knocked out of me.

Slamming the door shut behind her, Stephanie takes one last look at the party where her best friends are busy celebrating. As the drinks are poured and music blasts, she disappears into the darkness alone. Some say she was crying. Others think they heard an argument that night. But we never saw her alive again…

Two weeks at a stunning villa, in the South of France, was supposed to heal the rifts in this fractured family. Flaky croissants and rich, black coffee every morning before long days by the sparkling pool. Balmy candlelit dinners, once the kids have gone to bed. But Nora is shaking, as she gathers her family around the large, oak table on the terrace, at the front of the villa. Her two daughters eye her suspiciously as she tops up her wine and clears her throat to speak. But when she opens her mouth, the secret Nora came here to tell won’t come out....

Six friends gather. It has been 10 years since the tragedy that tore them apart. A lot can change in a decade.... Childhood bonds are now lifelong secrets. Dear friendships have twisted into deep jealousies. A happy reunion is shattered by a dead body.

Elizabeth is Joe’s foster mother, but she loves him like her own. The five-year-old, who adores superheroes and watching the birds outside, is the child she has dreamed of. As she looks into the garden, where he was playing just moments ago, her heart feels like it has been ripped from her chest. She was meant to save Joe from his birth mother who almost harmed his chances at life. The woman who has been trying to desperately get him back. She was meant to protect Joe from her husband. The man who, right now, lies to the police, saying he was making breakfast when Joe disappeared.

My world shattered when Declan disappeared five years ago. My grown-up children fell apart without their father, and it was up to me to pick up the pieces of our broken lives. I never thought I’d get married again, but then I met George. Some people might think we’re moving too fast. But as I look around on our wedding day at our little family, the sounds of laughter and clinking glasses ringing out, I know that I’ve made the right decision. Until Declan steps out the shadows. He says he still loves me, and now he’s back for good. But where has he been all this time?

Long blonde hair. Sparkling dark eyes. Perfect pearly white teeth. I’ve never met her before, but I know exactly who she is as I spot her through the crowds of the terminal. Because our new guest is the spitting image of the daughter we lost. And that’s exactly why I chose her.

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.

I know you. I know you in a way you can’t even imagine. I have been searching for you in the years since you wrote that letter - the letter that told me you were looking for me too. But now that I’ve found you, I don’t know if I can say the terrible truth of what I am. It would ruin your perfect life. It would hurt your beautiful daughter. So, I hesitate - bide my time, for now.

I always tried to pretend my life was perfect. A beautiful house, a loving family. But the truth was nobody knew my secret. About the terrible thing that happened when I was a teenager, and the tiny, fragile baby girl who I couldn’t look after. It broke my heart to leave her, as I did, with just a scrawled note tucked into her soft, yellow blanket, saying her name was Hope.

There are two little girls in the photo. I instantly recognize myself as the small, dark-haired child in the purple dress. But who is the girl with the long, blonde hair laughing at the camera? And why is the photograph here, in a stranger’s house? When I find the tattered picture hidden away at the back of a dusty cupboard in Amy’s house, my mouth goes dry with shock. Though I haven’t known Amy for very long, I love looking after her young children, in her picture-perfect hilltop house with its sprawling wildflower garden and bright, airy kitchen.

I am at home with the television on when I hear the news. A woman has been found by the docks. In heavy tones, the reporter says it appears the notorious local serial killer has returned. My breath comes short in my chest. My legs tremble. I know that can’t be true, because I know who the killer was. My father. My sisters and I learned the shocking truth after his funeral. We made a pledge to say nothing: Revealing the truth would only bring more pain. We set fire to his confession, turning his secrets into ash. But now, someone is sending us a message. Someone knows we lied.

My partner José and I have poured everything into opening this rustic farmhouse retreat nestled high in the Spanish mountains. Finally we’re ready to welcome our first guests. But a cold chill comes over me when I recognize Saskia. She’s part of my old life, the one I made sure to leave behind, and that José knows nothing about. Saskia knows everything about me—even the terrible secret I’ve carried for so long. She’s exposed me once before. Is she here to do it again?

All marriages have their challenges, right? But as I watch my husband being put into the back of a cop car, I find myself wondering if I ever knew him at all. Could handsome, easygoing Theo really have killed a girl on our block? Could I have got the sweet, loving father, who makes up lullabies to sing my baby to sleep, so wrong?

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 six 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.

The moment Vivien meets Ashton, she knows she will be his wife and absolutely nothing will stop her. Powerful, rich, and from a good family, Ashton is everything Vivien is not. So, she molds herself into Ashton’s perfect soul mate. Pouring his favorite vintage wine, whispering "I love you" over dinner in front of friends, and biting her tongue when she disagrees with him are simple sacrifices for the perfect marriage she has always craved.