Psychological Thriller Suspense

Summer, 2000. In the tranquil town of Queen's Point in southern Australia, the Whitlam family marks the end of every season with a lavish party in their clifftop mansion. Here, clutching her first glass of real champagne, the summer breeze intoxicating on her skin, sixteen-year-old Lucy Ross is kissed for the very first time. And then, in the shadows of the rose garden, she sees something she shouldn't.

New York Times best-selling author Lisa Jackson gives her fans what they crave—taut suspense melded with blistering romance. Running Scared follows a young single mother desperate to preserve the life she’s built with her son. Fifteen years ago Kate Summers adopted a little boy in secret and fled to a small town in Oregon. Today, she has a wonderful life and believes she has outrun her past. But a mysterious figure is searching for her and threatens to destroy her happiness.

On the eve of the global lockdown, Don Barlow opens the door of his old beachside cottage to find a pretty girl with pink-tipped hair, claiming to have nowhere to go. He allows her entry, and so begins a mystery set in unprecedented times: with the virus raging outside their home, the girl cannot be asked to leave, but what does he risk by having her stay?

Photographer Isla Wilson is thrilled she's landed her dream job, but the clients who hired her are getting stranger by the day. It sounded so perfect—a month's assignment at the lush Scottish Highlands property of architect Alban McGregor, and his wife, Jessica. But in the woods, there's a playhouse with a chilling history. Two years ago, the McGregors' daughter Elodie was abducted and then died in that playhouse. The townspeople insist her abductor had to be a stranger in their town. Alban refuses to knock the playhouse down, even keeping a picture of it on his wall.

Erika Cass has a perfect family and a perfect life. Until the evening when two detectives show up at her front door. A high school girl has vanished from Erika's quiet suburban neighborhood. The police suspect the worst - murder. And Erika's teenage son, Liam, was the last person to see the girl alive. Erika has always sensed something dark and disturbed in her seemingly perfect older child. She wants to believe he's innocent, but as the evidence mounts, she can't deny the truth - Liam may have done the unthinkable.

Visiting her family's South Carolina estate, socialite Gray Godfrey wakes from a night out to an empty bed. Her husband, Paul, is gone, and a thrashing hangover has wiped her memory clean. At first, she's relieved for the break from her tumultuous marriage; perhaps Paul just needed some space. But when his car is found abandoned on the highway, Gray must face the truth: Paul is gone. And Gray may not want him found. Her life is unraveling. When a stranger named Annie calls claiming to know Paul's whereabouts, Gray reluctantly accepts her help.

Laurel Snow wouldn't call hunting a serial killer a vacation, but with a pile of dead bodies unearthed near her Genesis Valley, Washington, hometown, she'll take what she can get. Yet something about this case stirs her in unexpected ways. Like the startling connection she feels to Dr. Abigail Caine, a fiercely intelligent witness with a disturbing knack for making Laurel feel like she has something on her. Then there's Laurel's attraction to Huck Rivers, the fish and wildlife officer guiding her to the crime scene - and into the wilderness....

Zoe didn't meet her daughter the way most mothers do. She finds five-year-old Maddie alone and dirty on a countryside road. Frightened for Maddie's safety, she picks her up and takes her back to her father, not knowing what she's about to step into. Because Maddie wasn't just lost; she was there to lure her serial killer dad's new victim. After escaping from the clutches of Maddie's dangerous father, she bonds with the little girl. Only Maddie knows what it was like to be at that house. And when no family members come forward to claim Maddie, Zoe decides to adopt her.

When DC crime scene analyst Dr. Ellie Carr is called to investigate the heartrending case of a missing baby, she's shocked to discover that the child's mother is her own cousin. Close during their impoverished childhoods, Ellie and Rebecca eventually drifted apart. Rebecca is now half of a Washington power couple, and she and her wealthy lobbyist husband, Hunter, have been living a charmed life in an opulent mansion—until their infant son is taken. At first antagonists, then allies, Ellie and Rachael race to find the baby alive and bring the kidnappers to justice.

Then: Linda has it all: a gorgeous home, a devoted husband, two loving daughters. But she throws it all away to chase an impossible dream. Now: Linda is alone and penniless, living in a shabby rented flat. With nothing to lose, she signs up to a dating app for the over 50s. But the one man who responds to her profile, a man calling himself Tony Fortin, is not who he says he is. Linda recognises him immediately. He’s Marcus, her second husband. But that’s impossible. Marcus died eight months ago. He drowned off the coast of Corfu.

Kimera Davis finds comfort in dating married men. It's easier that way. Her needs are taken care of, and she doesn't have to give more of herself than she wants to. No messy feelings involved. But when the man she's seeing poses an unexpected question, Kimera quickly realizes she's not the only woman pulled in by his charm. Their new arrangement doesn't require much from Kimera, but she soon discovers someone else is pulling the strings. She's not looking for complications, yet she can't help feeling there's something devious at play.

In death, they are purified. Holding his victims under water, he washes away their sins as they struggle for their last breath. Then he stakes their bodies to the ground, exposing them for what they really are: witches. No one knows about defence attorney Charlotte Wellington's murdered sister, or about her childhood spent with the carnival that's just arrived in town. For Charlotte, what's past is past. But others don't agree. And as a madman's body count rises, she and Detective Daniel Rokov are drawn into a mission that's become terrifyingly personal.

Few writers have explored the human dark side with as much insight and power - and in Winter Prey, his shattering New York Times best-seller, Sandford tells his most ice-blooded tale of all. Minneapolis Lieutenant Lucas Davenport has tracked killers in cities across America. But even he may be unprepared to face the savage murderer hunting human prey in the Wisconsin woods this winter.

As if my mum breaking her hip and being rushed to hospital isn’t shocking enough for one day, now in her post-operative delirium, she’s just told me I’m not her daughter. That she has never been able to have children. The nurse reassures me that people are often confused after a trauma. But I know this woman so well and I can tell there’s a grain of truth in what she says. Which begs the questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? When I dig into the truth, I suddenly stir up a hornet’s nest of secrets, lies – and possibly a crime so unfathomable – that stretches back decades.

Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald are both high school seniors in the small town of Emerson Bay, North Carolina. When they disappear from a beach party one warm summer night, police launch a massive search. No clues are found, and hope is almost lost until Megan miraculously surfaces after escaping from a bunker deep in the woods. A year later the best-selling account of her ordeal has turned Megan from local hero to national celebrity.

Emily thought she knew what love was—until she found herself locked away in a secluded cabin by the one person she trusted the most. What began as a romantic weekend escape quickly turns into a twisted nightmare. Jason, her seemingly perfect boyfriend, takes control of everything—where she goes, what she eats, even when she sleeps. As the walls of their idyllic cabin close in, Emily starts to see the truth behind Jason’s charm: a dark obsession that runs deeper than she ever imagined. But Jason isn’t the only one hiding secrets. When Rachel, a mysterious woman with her own dark past...

What happened to Peter’s first family? His wife, his children—all of them are dead, and rumors swirl around Peter himself as the culprit. My name is Aubree Van Lullen, once whispered about for all the wrong reasons. But that was before Peter Woodley entered my life, a man accused of the unthinkable—murdering his family. The gravity of his past should have frightened me away, but instead, I found myself pulled closer. A kinship of two souls wronged by the misconception given by the world. He expounded his innocence. And now I’ve built my own family with him. We did our best to leave ...

Ivy and Georgie have secrets and pasts riddled with shame and betrayal. On a cold February day, both women leave home hoping to rebuild their lives, not knowing their worlds will soon collide. When fate eventually brings them to Tenley House, the home of a bitter, domineering matriarch who controls her fickle son and terrorises her adoptive granddaughter, the women find themselves in danger. Behind the facade of propriety, amidst secrets and lies, the truth will unfold when evil is awakened.

Zoe Nolan disappeared from Manchester University in 2011. Her story was sad, certainly, but hardly sensational, Joseph Knox thought. As a crime writer, he felt that dead girls were everywhere, and the missing ones just didn't cut it. He wouldn't have given her any more thought were it not for Evelyn Mitchell. Another writer struggling to come up with a new idea, Evelyn attended one of Joseph's publicity events, and she was wondering just what happened to all the girls who go missing.

When Glasgow journalist Shona McGilvery moves with her partner Mikey and their baby to an idyllic cottage in rural Scotland, they believe that all that lies ahead of them is happiness. But with Mikey working offshore, the frightening isolation of the Aberdeenshire countryside begins to drive her insane.... That is, until she is rescued by a new friendship with the enchanting Valentina. She has the perfect home, the perfect man, and a charismatic new best friend - or does she? As her fairytale life begins to unravel, the deep dark wood becomes the least of her fears....