Emma is so happy to have moved from the city to her husband’s small hometown. James was strangely reluctant at first – but she convinced him their little cottage is the perfect place to settle down. The perfect place to give their six-year-old son a new life. But then a woman at the school gates asks Emma if she is really married to ‘that man’. ‘Which man?’ Emma asks. The woman replies…

If you ask Jill Tingley, she'll tell you she and her husband Jack are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Newly empty nesting with their daughter Maggie away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect. Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He's only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past he wanted to keep buried. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He's filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what. But he doesn't realize what else Jill is hiding.

‘Just rest, Frankie. I’ll take care of you.’ I feel my baby kick as my nanny fluffs my pillows and lays me down. She gives me a soothing smile, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She knows I’m afraid of her… When I shake our nanny Jasmine’s hand for the first time and catch her perfect smile, I can’t ignore the feeling that we’ve met before. But I tell myself it’s nothing. I desperately need help around the house. Since I got pregnant, I burst into tears over the smallest things and my mind is a haze. I can barely look after my toddler Olivia. Jasmine is a godsend–isn’t she?

This is the day my life changes forever. It started so normally. The alarm went at 7am. My husband made bacon and pancakes for me and our seven-year-old daughter, the kitchen full of chatter and laughter. He gave me a quick kiss, told me he loved me, grabbed his wallet, and rushed off to work. Just an ordinary day. Until I get the call from the school. It was Tom’s turn to pick up our daughter. He must be held up for some reason. I find Tom’s phone under our bed. Now I know there’s something seriously wrong. I scroll through his messages. A text sent late last night: I KNOW EVERYTHING.

Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client yet: Melody Wells. Melody paints a picture of serenity and empowerment in the lavender haze of her visualization workshops—however, the one thing she can’t manifest are the pages her publisher is demanding for her new motivational book. Enter Anne.

For twenty-four-year-old Jane, finding love in New York City is even harder than making it as a playwright. So when Jane meets Colin, she can’t believe her luck: they’re perfect for each other. Even when Colin breaks off their relationship after six dates, Jane knows this is just a stumbling block. She’ll get him back. She knows she will. That is, until Colin starts dating Zoe—perfect, luminous Zoe. Even worse, she’s actually kind of nice. But Zoe doesn’t have what it takes to love Colin. All Jane has to do is prove it, and they’ll be so happy together.

Caroline twitches aside her curtains to see the new family moving in. A mother – beautifully dressed in expensive clothes – and two young children. Where is her husband, she wonders? And why are they moving in to the smallest house on the street? They really don’t seem the type. But Caroline believes it’s important to be welcoming. It’s important to know everything that’s happening on West Street.

The groom’s grip is icy cold as he shakes my hand. “I have so wanted to meet you.” I look up into his steely eyes and a chill runs down my spine. I know this man, but no one can ever know why…

Fiona Fisher lives a quiet and contented existence. A former nurse who married Jason, the doctor of her dreams, she is now a mother to his two daughters and living in the sort of cosy village home she’d always wished for.

Amanda Davis has it all: a beautiful home, a thriving career, and a charismatic husband who is the darling of television news. But when Paul kills someone in a disturbing accident, Amanda’s perfect world shatters. Pulled into a web of manipulation, deceit, and dark secrets, she becomes his unwilling accomplice, trapped in a twisted, dangerous existence that tests the limits of love and loyalty.

With trembling hands, Meg knocks on the door of the large manor house. Behind her, the view down to the river is spectacular. She’s here to be the nanny to two young children. It’s not the job Meg is anxious about, though. It’s the house itself that scares her, and the secrets lurking inside. Not only that, but will her new employer recognise her? The door opens. A beautiful, smiling woman greets her and ushers her inside.

Hickory Hills is the perfect place to raise a family. Everyone knows everyone. Sometimes, that’s a bad thing. The morning after the Halloween party, the word spreads from house to house, each resident gasping at the news, each mother holding their child tighter. Shelby has gone missing. My daughter should be distraught, but she’s claiming they weren’t even friends anymore. When I go to talk to her, I hear her giggling on the phone with Shelby’s boyfriend. And then I find her Halloween costume, stuffed into a bag in her closet, covered in blood.

I take a sip of coffee as I plan my day. My surgeon husband, Cole, slept at work last night, so I had to get the kids ready on my own, again. I can’t complain, though, I’ve loved him ever since we met, long before he became a famous surgeon and the papers started calling him the pride of the hospital. Our latest family photo hangs on the kitchen wall and I remember that day so clearly. Cole screamed at me over nothing, then apologised saying he was stressed at work. My heart pounded with fear, but I plastered a smile on my face for the sake of my children.

I thought my first husband died ten years ago. But now he’s back... Opening the front door, I’m stunned to see a familiar face. I never thought I’d see Freddie’s deep brown eyes and crooked smile again. But how is this possible when he died ten years ago…? It took years to move on, but finally my life is almost perfect.

A down-on-her-luck waitress at a posh New Jersey country club, Kim Valva couldn’t be living a more different life from the carefree socialites she serves. Her live-in boyfriend recently cheated on her, her social life is in shambles, and her dog needs a life-saving surgery that she can’t afford. Then her luck seems to change when a mysterious figure identifying themself only as The Stranger contacts her with an offer she can’t refuse: Put a pill in the new member’s drink and, when he dies, she’ll have enough money to fix her dog and her life.

When Cass walks into their lives, Lila and Owen are both bewitched by her charms. Cass is vibrant, confident, and everything Lila feels she no longer is. Soon, her influence begins to seep into every corner of their lives. Yet, as Cass grows closer to Lila, Owen, and her daughters, Lila’s life begins to unravel.

Into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an ax in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry".

After meeting Jamie’s smiling blue eyes across a crowded bar, I tell myself, that after my recent divorce, this is the bit of fun that I need. It is the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Because when I return to his flat the next day, excited to see him again, I am horrified to discover he has been murdered. I know I should tell the police, but I can’t be the person to call them. With my past they will just assume the worst…

Meet Emma. Emma is sick. She can’t work because of a neurological condition, so is stuck in her family’s tiny council house. Emma is sick of being told to ‘get over it’. Her stepfather, her doctors, strangers – everyone has an opinion. Emma is sick of being the other woman. Her boyfriend Adam is perfect: he’s got a great job and an amazing home. His wife Celeste is the problem. Emma is sick of being underestimated. All she needed was a target. And now she has Celeste… Emma is sick. Just not in the way you thought.

I first saw her on the platform on my way home from work a few weeks ago. She had an aura about her that made people stop and stare. Then I saw her again. And again. Our twice weekly commute into London Waterloo insync. She was always so poised, so pretty, so perfect. Everything I’m not.

California, 2011: Nicole Forbes lives a quiet life in the small seaside town of Coronado with her husband and daughter. She is not expecting a writer to knock on her door asking for her personal insight into the downfall of the biggest British band of the 1980s—unveiling the threads of a life she left behind years ago. The same day, her daughter goes missing and the school claims her aunt picked her up . . . but she doesn’t have an aunt. Convinced of a link between the two, Nicole is forced to revisit long-abandoned memories from her past to protect everything she now holds dear.

Ten strangers wake up inside an old locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who—or what—lurks in the cellar?

We had it all—a lake house, two kids, and twenty years of marriage. Except, our marriage was no longer exciting. We scheduled intimacy, ate meals in silence, and became strangers. Our kids went off to college, and we were now empty-nesters, trying to reconnect. But my husband, a psychology professor and thriller novelist, had other plans. Perhaps writing a fictional novel had him living in a false reality? Perhaps he was having a mid-life crisis? He didn't want to reconnect with me; he just wanted to replace me. Worst of all, the girl he was having an affair with was our son's girlfriend.

He seemed perfect, until I uncovered one of his lies. He’s already married. I know I should break it off, but it’s not that simple. He’s been hiding more than just his wife from me. He is not what he seems. When I discover who his wife is, everything takes a darker turn. They are not a normal couple.

Amanda Davis has it all: a beautiful home, a thriving career, and a charismatic husband who is the darling of television news. But when Paul kills someone in a disturbing accident, Amanda’s perfect world shatters. Pulled into a web of manipulation, deceit, and dark secrets, she becomes his unwilling accomplice, trapped in a twisted, dangerous existence that tests the limits of love and loyalty.

The Beidermeier might be several rungs lower on the ladder than the real-life Barbizon, but its residents manage to occupy one another nonetheless. There’s Katherine, the first-floor manager, lightly cynical and more than lightly suggestible. There’s Lucianne, a workshy party girl caught between the love of comfort and an instinctive bridling at convention, Kitty the sponger, Ruth the failed hairdresser, and Pauline the typesetter. And there’s Stephen, the daytime elevator operator and part-time Cooper Union student.

Two years after my beloved Jonah was killed in a car accident, I retrace my steps to the romantic hotel we were staying in when his life was cut tragically short. The last thing I remember is the warmth of his hand in mine as we drove off through the pine trees toward our candlelit dinner. Then the beeping of monitors when I woke up alone in a hospital bed days later. What really happened that night?

For her husband’s 40th birthday, Lily Leonard books a table at the exclusive restaurant of Hector Bolson-Woods renowned celebrity chef. It should be the perfect evening for Lily and Stig, but not even a perfect menu can heal the cracks in the marriage. So when Hector invites them to dine with him privately, Lily is thrilled. Surely this will please Stig? Hector is charming and attentive – everything Stig is not – and she finds herself drawn more and more drawn to the enigmatic Hector.

Fiona Fisher lives a quiet and contented existence. A former nurse who married Jason, the doctor of her dreams, she is now a mother to his two daughters and living in the sort of cosy village home she’d always wished for.

Liz Dawson weaves through a crowd with the ease of a tropical breeze; she’s clever, smooth, and confident—qualities that make her a brilliant serial con artist. Isabelle Beresford is strikingly beautiful, obscenely wealthy, and the new owner of Casa Esmerelda, a fabulous villa on the Mexican coast—attributes that make her the perfect mark. When she offers Liz a job handling the installation of a piece of art in her otherwise vacant home, Liz can’t resist the allure of a beach retreat. But when Liz is mistaken for Isabelle herself, Liz can’t help slipping into the socialite’s identity.