Showing results for "Chapter One" in Crime Thrillers

For years, Aidan Cullen has dreamed of becoming a successful crime writer. When his hard work finally pays off and his first book is published, what should have been a night of celebration unravels into an evening of horror. Left for dead after a brutal attack, trauma leaves him paranoid and reclusive, and he retreats to the remote countryside with only his dog Nanook for company. With the world kept at arm’s length, he begins to feel safe. That is, until a woman is murdered at the end of his road.

Dr Olivia Winter is a forensic psychologist whose job is to understand the minds of serial killers. There’s only one monster she can’t understand, her father.

Adeline Evans has recently moved into a home for the elderly. A safe space, where she can be cared for. When she begins to receive cryptic and threatening notes, she is certain that someone is out to get her. But the residents are warned against listening to a woman who is losing her memory. It would seem Adeline is tormented by the secrets in her past, and that the menace is all in her mind. Until danger comes down the corridor and starts knocking in the night.

DCI Matilda Darke receives an anonymous email from someone claiming to have committed the perfect murder. Experience tells her this isn’t possible, but as she investigates, she discovers a killer questioning everything she’s ever known. Now, Matilda is on the trail of a murderer who targets the most vulnerable people in society. Apart from ‘With Sympathy…’ cards, hand delivered to the family of his victims, he leaves no trace of his crimes.

When Ella Leonard arrives at work one Monday morning, she's stunned. The place isn't just shut – it's gone. Boarded up, closed down. Days later, she gets home to find she's been evicted from her flat, her belongings piled on the doorstep. It's as if, bit by bit, someone is taking her entire life away from her. Who, and why? And how much worse can it get? The answer? A lot worse.

DCI Matilda Darke has been kidnapped and her nemesis, Steve Harrison, appears to be behind it. He’s currently residing in the supermax of Wakefield Prison and spends twenty-three hours a day in his cell, so how could he possibly be responsible? As Matilda’s team race to find her, they’re alerted to a body found in an abandoned car on the outskirts of Sheffield. With forensics scouring the woodland for clues, the last thing they expect is for the body count to rise. Meanwhile the search intensifies for the DCI when a video of her kidnapping is leaked to the media.

PR guru Lola Lovett’s client has gone missing, but that’s not the problem. It’s the fact that he’s meant to be at home. Already dead. But Lola hasn’t come this far in life to let an inconvenience like an undead actor stop her from getting what she wants, so she immediately sets about getting close to the investigation into his disappearance…and DCI Sue Fisher.

Five years ago, Clare killed her family – her husband, her father, and one of her twin sons. She has no memory of the car accident, but there is no refuting the evidence of drugs in her system. She has accepted her guilt, and served her time. Now, released from prison, all she wants is to be reconciled with her remaining son, 13-year-old Tommy. To help him come to terms with her crime, and his own survivor guilt, Clare tries to find out the full truth of what happened on that fateful night.

Nobody in Barbara Marsden’s family knows about her past, least of all her daughter Helen. But someone wants the truth to come out. When Helen discovers a sinister note at Barbara’s house, she can’t understand who would want to threaten her mother. She’s determined to find out who sent it, but soon realises her search might hurt her own family and put Barbara at risk… What really happened all those years ago? And who is going to end up paying the price?

Jeanette is the manager of a probation hostel that houses high risk offenders released on license. At 3am one morning, she receives a call telling her a resident has been murdered. Her whole team, along with the eight convicted murderers, are now all suspects in a crime no one saw committed.

With street crime at an all-time low, Matilda and her team finally find the time to dig into their backlog of cold cases. DI Brady has been tracing victims of systemic abuse at a local children’s home after a high-profile accusation pitched it into the spotlight—a case that couldn’t be more personal. Nothing could have prepared them for what they uncover next. As they piece together the disturbing picture of the history of the home, it soon becomes clear that this is much bigger than either of them ever suspected.

When a missing teenage girl reappears unharmed but pregnant, the case falls to DI Edina Ogborne, the newest recruit of Canterbury Police. But Ed’s already got her hands full with a team who don’t want her, an ex who won’t quit and terrible guilt over a secret from her past. As Ed investigates the case, she discovers Canterbury has seen this crime not once, but several times before. And when Ed and her detectives encounter missing historic police files, falsified school records and Ed’s new lover as a prime suspect, it becomes clear that the system has been corrupted.

In a pristine suburb outside of London everything and everyone is perfect…on the surface. But then one of their own – an innocent teenage girl – goes missing, and DCI Sue Fisher and her team start to investigate the secrets and lies of an interconnected web of bored housewives, cheating husbands, and disaffected teens. Now, as the veneer of perfection starts to chip away, dark secrets rise to fell the mighty and a community is brought to its knees.

When Karin is taken on a romantic break by her loving partner Aaron, she can’t wait for him to propose. But her surprise weekend quickly becomes a nightmare from which she may never escape. They are staying by the beach at the Midland – a grand hotel where Karin used to work. And where Karin’s dangerous and obsessive ex, whom she has been trying to leave behind for years, is waiting patiently for her to return. Now all of Karin’s darkest secrets are being dragged into the light and her friends are turning against her.

DCI Matilda Darke and her team have been restricted under special measures after a series of calamitous scandals nearly brought down the South Yorkshire police force. Now Matilda is on the trail of another murderer, an expert in avoiding detection with no obvious motive but one obvious method. When his latest victim survives the attack despite her vocal cords being severed, Matilda is more convinced than ever of the guilt of her key suspect. If only she had a way to prove it.

Lizzie has been in love with her colleague Dean for three years but he’s never given her a second glance. When a job offer in London promises to launch her art career, she finally feels ready to upend her life in pursuit of her dream…until the night of the office Christmas party when Dean confesses his love for someone else—Rebecca, one of Lizzie’s closest friends. A few days later, the police show up on her doorstep. Rebecca is missing.

After a stint inside, notorious gangster Nathan Conlon is back. He says he’s a changed man, but old habits die hard on Liverpool’s gritty streets. He’ll stop at nothing to reclaim his formidable criminal empire—and his long-suffering ex-wife, Grace. Grace once kissed the ground that Nathan walked on, but not anymore. She’s head of the firm now, commanding respect from the best of them, and she’ll do anything to protect her family—even if it means beating Nathan at the dirtiest of games.

Alex Devlin’s life changed forever 15 years ago when her sister's two small children were snatched in broad daylight. Little Harry’s body was found a few days later, but Millie’s remains were never discovered. Now Jackie Wood, jailed as an accessory to the twins’ murder, has been released, her conviction quashed by the Appeal Court. Convinced Jackie can reveal where Millie is buried, Alex goes to meet her. But the unexpected information Wood reveals shocks Alex to the core and threatens to uncover the dark secret she has managed to keep under wraps for the past 15 years.

Two murders. Twenty years. Now the killer is back for more… A darkly compelling debut crime novel. The start of a brilliant series, perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid, and James Oswald. DCI Matilda Darke has returned to work after a nine month absence. A shadow of her former...

Serial killer Neva has been conditioned not to ask questions of the mysterious Network, to remain perfectly incurious and perennially cold-blooded. She must simply execute the targets they text her and live to bury the tale. But then she’s tasked with terminating a fellow assassin and glimpses her own future in her colleague’s fate. When she leaves flowers on the gravesite, someone notices.