Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Suspense

Winning stories from The Bazaar of Bad Dreams Hodder- Guardian competition. The number one best-selling writer Stephen King presents six gripping and chilling stories in this captivating anthology: 'Wild Swimming' by Elodie Harper. 'Eau-de-Eric' by Manuela Saragosa. 'The Spots' by Paul Bassett Davies. 'The Unpicking' by Michael Button. 'La Mort de L'amant' by Stuart Johnstone. 'The Bear Trap' by Neil Hudson.

In the 1970s London has stopped swinging, but it's not staying still. Babs thought she had all the world ahead of her. Then she got pregnant, and the father did a runner. Salvation comes in the form of a man who'll look after her. Or so she thinks. But Stan Miller is the devil in disguise...and over the next 20 years, Babs will have reason to regret she ever met him. Can she protect her family - or will he get the better of her?

From the best-selling and prize-winning author of The Last Child and Iron House comes this long-awaited new thriller that will appeal to all fans of Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane. Elizabeth Black is a hero. She is a cop who single-handedly rescued a young girl from a locked cellar and shot two brutal kidnappers dead. But she's also a cop with a secret.

On the anniversary of her brother's death, Caroline hosts an intimate dinner party in her beautiful West London home. It's a chance for those who were closest to Daniel to come together over grilled oysters and champagne cocktails as they share fond memories of the man they all loved so dearly, who never came home from New Orleans.

Pushed to breaking point, Cara Burrows flees her home and family and heads for a five-star spa resort. All she wants is space and time to think, far from everyone she knows. Instead she gets a shock in the middle of the night when she is given the key to a room that's already occupied - apparently by a father and daughter, who are equally shocked to be woken by a stranger. Back at reception, Cara gets an apology and the key to a new room, and she imagines the drama is over....

For seven years, Sasza Zulaska has lived with her little girl in the north of England. Far from her previous job as an undercover cop, far from her dependence on alcohol and the traumatic case that made her flee from the police, her family and her native Poland. But now she is coming back. This time, Sasza is looking for a quieter life. She has studied to become a psychological profiler, and she soon picks up a freelance job to check out some threats made against the owner of a nightclub.

They say blood is thicker than water. That's not going to stop it being spilled. Life hasn't been easy for the Miller family. Finally mum Babs has had one bit of luck. She plans to share the profits with her daughters. She thought they'd be pleased.... But money always causes trouble, especially when it's desperately needed. Jen wants to make a better life for her kids. Tiff owes a lot of bad men a lot of money. And Dee is worried that her husband is getting back into the criminal life.

Julie is missing, and the missing don't often return. But Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and she feels in her bones that her best friend is out there. She's right. Two years to the day that Julie vanished, she reappears with no memory of what happened to her. But she is different. She's emaciated, with sallow skin, chipped teeth and odd appetites. In so many ways, Julie seems to be the friend they all loved and lost. But in others, she seems to be a stranger.

Marriage is a prison for Kelly. Her controlling and manipulative husband, Christos, videos her in the house, has her followed and tracks her every move. She may be desperate to leave, but she's not stupid. If she runs, he'll make sure she never sees her children again. Christos has a mistress, Sylvie, keen to pander to his every whim and even keener to step into Kelly's shoes, should she ever vacate them.

A housewife running from years of domestic abuse. A bodyguard hired to escort a smuggled rhinoceros. A group of Islamic terrorists based in a quiet residential street. A secret government agency threatened with amalgamation within a bigger department. A retired policeman trying to get used to his new career in the private sector.

A brilliantly written and gripping historical Nordic noir thriller with all the intrigue and atmosphere of Burial Rites, the pent-up passion of The Piano, and the suspense of The Tenderness of Wolves. There are six homesteads on Blackåsen Mountain. A day's journey away lies the empty town. It comes to life just once, in winter, when the church summons her people through the snows. Then even the oldest enemies will gather. But now it is summer, and new settlers are come.

When a young Vietnamese girl goes missing in Scotland, DI Birch knows there is more to the case than meets the eye. Her colleagues won't take it seriously - but Helen's instinct tells her that Linh is in mortal danger. Beatrice knows something terrible has happened to three young people in Edinburgh. She can see them in her mind's eye - frightened and alone, desperate for help. Ever since she was a child, she's had visions of the future - and she's ignored them before, with dangerous consequences. This time, she must help the police find Linh.

Kayleigh Towne is a beautiful and successful singer-songwriter, and Edwin Sharp is her biggest fan. When she replies to one of his fan letters with "XO", Edwin is convinced she loves him, and that her latest hit song, "Your Shadow", was written for him. Nothing Kayleigh or her lawyers can say persuades him otherwise. Then the singer gets an anonymous phone call; it's the first verse of "Your Shadow" playing. Soon after, one of the crew is murdered. Kathryn Dance knows stalking crimes are not one-off occurrences....

I had been so excited for our big New Year's Eve party. Hosting with my best friend Alice and our two beautiful boys - my Leo and her Robbie, who had grown up together like brothers. But then I heard the terrible crash. I remember the flashing lights of the ambulance and how everyone then turned on Leo. Saying that Robbie was dead because of my son. The boys had argued, but Leo still won't tell me why. I know he's keeping a secret from me. I need to find out the truth, need to clear the name of my darling boy before something terrible happens to him, too.

Four girls have disappeared in North London. Three are already dead. Britain's most prolific child killer, Louis Kinsella, has been locked up in Northwood high-security hospital for over a decade. Now more innocents are being slaughtered, and they all have a connection to his earlier crimes. Psychologist Alice Quentin is doing research at Northwood. She was hoping for a break from her hectic London life, but she'll do anything to help save a child - even if it means forming a relationship with a charismatic, ruthless murderer.

It's 1.15 a.m. Connie Bowskill should be asleep. Instead, she's logging on to a property website in search of a particular house: 11 Bentley Grove, Cambridge. She knows it's for sale; she saw the estate agent's board in the front garden less than six hours ago. Soon Connie is clicking on the 'Virtual Tour' button, keen to see the inside of 11 Bentley Grove and put her mind at rest once and for all. But she finds herself looking at a scene from a nightmare.

After an acclaimed career in ceramics making things and breaking things, it is now Jay herself who has cracked. Recovering from a breakdown, she and her husband, Simon, move to the desolate edges of the Yorkshire moors, where they find and fall in love with the Two Houses: a crumbling Victorian property whose central rooms were supposedly so haunted that a previous owner had them cut out from the building entirely.

In a small town beset by poverty in the Missouri Ozarks two 12-year-old girls are found dead in the park. Their throats have been cut. Eve Taggert's daughter was one of them. Desperate with grief, she takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened to her little girl. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life - having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose parenting lessons she tried hard not to mimic. But with her daughter gone, Eve has no reason to stay soft.

Jude Shelley, the daughter of a prominent cabinet minister, was assaulted and left for dead in the river Thames. Her attacker was never caught. A year later forensic psychologist Alice Quentin is asked to reexamine the case. Then another body is found: an elderly priest, washed up at Westminster Pier. An ancient glass bead is tied to his wrist. Alice is certain that the Shelleys are hiding something - and that there will be more victims unless she can persuade them to share what they know.

In The Whistler, Lacy Stoltz investigated a corrupt judge who was taking millions in bribes from a crime syndicate. She put the criminals away, but only after being attacked and nearly killed. Three years later, and approaching 40, she is tired of her work for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct and ready for a change. Then she meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby's father was murdered 20 years earlier in a case that remains unsolved and that has grown stone cold.