Jake and I planned our romantic trip to the south of France to unwind from all the stress of organising our wedding and enjoy some blissful, sun-soaked days, just the two of us. But when we return to the villa after a day exploring the stunning countryside, our dream holiday is turned upside down. Because there, on the beautiful antique rug, is the body of the man everyone saw Jake arguing with in the town square just this morning … I stop breathing as I take in the scene. The footprints in the same tread as Jake's trainers.

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…

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.

Nine months into motherhood, Elle is struggling. She’s battling being sidelined at work, fighting to feel at home in her post-baby body and feeling pressure to be intimate with her adoring husband, Dom. Why does everything seem so hard, especially when Dom is such a helpful, hands-on dad as well as an ever-attentive husband? Elle turns to her charismatic new colleague, Gabriel, to get through the day and red wine to soothe her at night. For a while, the distractions work until one night she wakes up bleary-eyed in a hotel room next to a man who’s not her husband. A dead man.

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.

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.

‘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?

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.

Claire is excited to drop off a surprise workday lunch for her fiancé, Noah. It’s their anniversary, after all. But when the receptionist tells her that no one with Noah’s name works there, Claire thinks there must be a mistake. Noah isn’t picking up her calls. Her texts go unanswered. It turns out Noah has a different life . . . one with a beautiful girlfriend, a beautiful house. Claire was never really in the picture.

Sloane Caraway is a liar. Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting. So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can't help herself—she tells the girl’s (very attractive) dad she’s a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl’s foot. With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island.

Eighteen-year-old Janie White has the world and a bright future ahead of her. She’s about to leave behind her small seaside town, the only home she’s ever known, to embark on a book publishing career in London and couldn’t be more excited. Even though she’ll miss her dad and friends, she can’t wait to start her life. She’s cycling home after her last early-dawn swim in the bay when the peaceful stillness of that Tuesday morning is suddenly shattered. A white van careens around the corner and barrels straight for Janie on her bike.

When seventeen-year-old Isla Richardson is killed in a hit-and-run incident, a community’s lives are thrown into disarray. For Isla’s mum, Abby, it is her second devastating bereavement, having lost her husband five years ago. As Abby begins to uncover secrets about Isla’s life, she’s forced to rethink everything she thought she knew about her family.

After the year Aidan and I have had, we needed some respite. My husband is overworked, whilst I'm anxious about the past, so renting a night at this converted barn house in the countryside seems like the perfect place for the pair of us to relax and unwind. It might be situated at the bottom of a large garden, but it's private enough that we don't have to mingle with the homeowners who live nearby. Or at least that's what I thought . . .

Wife: I couldn’t be prouder of my charming husband and quiet and kind son. I’ve poured everything into my little family, so I choose to ignore my husband’s late-night phone calls and wandering eye. I won’t let anything ruin my perfect life…

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.

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…

Against her better judgment, Annie Grey decides to give her ex-boyfriend one more chance. But when their ill-fated reunion spirals into a nightmare, Annie is ensnared in a terrifying web of crime and deceit. All she can do now is run and hope the danger doesn’t catch up to her—but she doesn’t make it far before her mad dash throws her directly into the path of a mysterious stranger.

Emily: It’s been a long time since my best friend Ava stopped speaking to me. But I knew I’d find a way back in. When I hear that her daughter won’t sleep at home because of a burglary on the street, I offer to swap houses for a while. Ava is so grateful. And now I’m staying in her family home, I finally understand why she’s been avoiding me… Ava isn’t as perfect as she makes out. She’s been hiding a big secret that could ruin her idyllic life. Only now, I know all about it…

When Salem Ripley moves into her apartment in New York City, she’s disheartened to find it isn’t exactly like the pictures. Still, with her past, she’s lucky to find a place at all. Her neighbor across the hall is tall, dark and handsome. After seeing his beautiful girlfriend, Salem can’t help but obsess over the couple and their perfect life. Then Salem sees her neighbor with another girl. And another. And another. The strangest part? She never sees the women leave.

I lied to get a job as a financial planner, and to keep it I have to befriend the two other girls in the office, Alice and Taylor. One's an uptight priss, and the other's a thirsty party girl. When we take a trip to stay at a cabin on a lake, I'll find out I'm not the only one keeping secrets. But it turns out the three of us aren't the only ones in this trendy tourist town. There's our silver fox host who keeps butting in, Taylor's two-faced hookup, and then I keep thinking I'm seeing someone out in the woods. It might be my imagination, until late at night I hear footsteps outside our cabin.

I blink awake to the sound of whispering, and look around. Automatically, I do a count. And then I am upright, my heart racing. I count again. “Girls,” I say, trying to sound calm. “Did you see Evie?” It was meant to be a celebration. A team sleepover in the school gymnasium: movies, pizza, hot chocolate. I walk among the girls, checking they’re ok. They collect in groups and giggle, play truth or dare.

Seventeen-year-old Lies wakes up to find that her mother’s bed hasn’t been slept in. Her car is parked outside. And her purse and cell phone are still by the front door. After twenty-four hours, when every possible explanation is exhausted, the reality is all too frightening for Lies. Her mother is missing.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

Eliza has everything I’ve ever wanted. Three perfect children. A doting husband. A dream home. But I know a secret that could destroy it all. When Eliza Watts hires me as her assistant, I can’t believe my luck. I steady my nerves as she glances approvingly at my glittering CV. I need this job more than anything. But she must never know why. It’s funny she doesn’t recognize me, because we’ve met before. And ever since we crossed paths, I’ve wanted nothing but to be close to her and her flawless family.

When city girl Shona moves with her partner Mikey and their baby to an idyllic cottage in rural Scotland, she believes that all that lies ahead for her family is happiness. But with Mikey working long hours away from home, the frightening isolation of the Scottish countryside begins to get to Shona. She feels lonely and trapped. That is, until she is rescued by a new friendship with the enchanting Valentina. Valentina enters Shona’s life like a whirlwind, bringing excitement and spontaneity to replace boredom and fear.

Katie lives a quiet life. She likes her small Derry neighbourhood. She likes her job as a barmaid at O'Reillys. And she loves her daughter, Hope. But everything changes when she is approached by two detectives. They want Katie to tell them the things she hears at work. To become their informant. In this city, Katie knows the dangers of talking to the police. Yet with Hope's safety at risk should she refuse, she is trapped between two impossible choices. Crossing the O'Reilly brothers could cost her everything. Her only chance of survival is if she can remain the one that they least suspect.

Alex Blake was terrified of water, and had been since she nearly drowned at age five. So when police find her body in the river and rule it a suicide, her mother, Jen knows they're wrong. But no one will listen to a grieving mother. The police dismiss her. Her husband thinks she's in denial. Even their neighbours, the Higgins family, urge her to accept the truth and move on. But something isn't right. Why was Alex messaging Lia Higgins, Jen's former best friend, the day she died? And why is Lia now so desperate to shut down Jen's questions?

When Skye married into the wealthy Turner family, she thought she was entering paradise. But now, several years later, she remains uneasy amid the opulence of her husband's world, struggling with her own secrets and working to maintain a normal life for their young daughter, Tilly. Skye's delicate balance is undone when the family patriarch, Sir Campbell Turner, dies suddenly and an illegitimate heir comes forward to stake his claim in the luxury goods empire the old man leaves behind.

Amy receives an exclusive invitation to the party of the year. Billionaire business magnate Lawrence is getting married, and it looks set to be a summer wedding to remember. He rarely appears in the public eye, so this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Amy. She has spent months building up to this moment; it’s her only chance to get revenge. Because she knows who Lawrence really is – that beneath the polished public persona he is a vicious killer, responsible for the deaths of not just Amy’s sister but several other innocent women.

Identical triplets Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C Binderup were welcomed into the world as their mother was ushered out of it, leaving them nameless and in the care of their Gram, Isadora. Nineteen years later, the triplets work at their Gram’s crumbling golf course in Longshadow, Texas, where the ever-watchful eyes of the town observe them serving up glasses of ice-cold lemonade to golfers, swimming in the murky waters of the neighboring bayou, or slipping t-shirts off their sunburnt shoulders in hopes of attracting the kind of attention they are only beginning to understand.