Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Domestic Thrillers

Henry North is a down-on-his-luck cybersecurity expert from New Orleans. Adam Zhang is the cofounder of one of Austin's most successful venture capitalist firms. These two men didn't know each other. They had never met. Yet they died together, violently, in a place neither had any business being. When Henry doesn't return from a business trip, his wife, Kirsten, panics – and then gets an anonymous phone call: 'Your husband is dead in Austin.'

I've always known Jack was different. Ever since he was eight years old and he killed his father. He was protecting me, just like I've always protected him. But now he's eighteen and this time he's gone too far. Steve is dead. He was a good man, and god, we could have been really great together—but now he's bleeding out on our kitchen table. I must keep my boy safe. No one can ever know what he's done. What he's capable of. And I won't let him get caught. I'll do whatever it takes to keep him safe, keep him with me. Even if it means becoming a monster myself.

Summer, 1993. In the aftermath of her mother's suicide attempt, 16-year-old Prue must spend the summer holidays on a remote island in the Shetlands with her favourite Aunt Ruth and Uncle Archie, a man she's barely met since her aunt married him. Prue hopes to re-establish the relationship, and that her aunt might help her understand some of the parts of the past she has been forbidden to discuss by her mother—including the identity of her father. Prue soon finds out that her uncle was the only suspect in the disappearance of a local girl some twenty years ago. 

Alice Lange’s neighbours are proud to know her - she’s a perfect emblem of their sunny neighbourhood. The night before she’s expected to be crowned homecoming queen, though, she commits an act of vandalism, then disappears, following a magnetic stranger named Wesley to a bungalow in another part of the state. There, he promises, Alice can be her true self, shedding the shackles of conformity. At the bungalow, however, she learns that four other young women seeking enlightenment and adventure have already followed him there. 

At a beautiful villa in the south of France, Hannah Carreras works as a maid. Under strict instructions never to speak to the guests, she blends into the background – but she sees everything. Including the mistress Summer, lounging by the pool awaiting the arrival of her married lover, Steve. When Steve finally shows at the villa – with his family unexpectedly in tow – Summer has vanished. Steve claims he never saw her. But Steve's wife is no fool: she knows there's something going on. Whose tiny bikini lies by the pool? Whose perfume is in the bathroom?

Margo is a solitary live-in nanny for an upper-class Kensingon family. Cora is a promiscuous dancer on the cusp of a big break, living hand-to-mouth in a run-down London flat. Different though they are, an unspeakable incident from childhood haunts them both. When the terrible secret comes to light, their fragile existences shatter, pitting them against each other in a race for survival. But can there be a winner when a secret is so dark?

Kit is an 'out', she doesn't want children. Infertility is universal, and she has witnessed the agonies of her friends and sister going through the painful and dangerous fertility treatment, Induction and then struggling to keep their babies, and cannot face going through it herself. But then she meets Thomas, and gradually the idea of a baby becomes more and more important. She and Thomas go through Induction and have a baby girl, Mimi. 

When Bea Hanlon follows her preacher husband, Max, to a remote island in the Pacific, she soon sees that their mission will bring anything but salvation.... Advent Island is a place beyond the reaches of Bea's most fitful imaginings. It's not just the rats and the hordes of mosquitoes and the weevils in the powdered milk. Past the confines of their stuffy little house, amidst the damp and the dust and the sweltering heat, rumours are spreading of devil chasers who roam the island on the hunt for evil spirits. And then there are the noises from the church at night. 

When Jill Lassiter's young daughter disappears from a playground, only to return after 40 frantic minutes, her relief is short-lived, as there's a tiny puncture mark on Sophia's arm. Jill accepts she'll never know what happened, but at least her child is safe. Except Sophia isn't. Someone is watching the Lassiter home. Three months after the incident at the park, Sophia disappears again, and Jill discovers that someone doesn't just want Sophia - they want to destroy the entire family.

Following the death of her mother, Becky begins the sad task of sorting through her empty flat. Starting with the letters piling up on the doormat, she finds an envelope post-marked from Cornwall. In it is a letter that will change her life forever. A desperate plea from her mother's elderly cousin, Olivia, to help save her beloved home. Becky arrives at Chynalls to find the beautiful old house crumbling into the ground and Olivia stuck in hospital with no hope of being discharged until her home is made habitable.

When the body of pregnant 15-year-old Hope Lacey is discovered in a churchyard on Christmas morning, the community is shocked, but unsurprised. For Hope lived in The Home, the residence of three young girls, whose violent and disturbing pasts have seen them cloistered away. As a police investigation gets underway, the lives of Hope, Lara and Annie are examined, and the staff who work at the home are interviewed, leading to shocking and distressing revelations...and clear evidence that someone is seeking revenge.

Beth lives by Camden Lock with her partner Sol and their daughter Fern. Life is peaceful, but Beth is troubled by increasing unease. It could be to do with her mother's disappearance years ago. It could be her sense that Fern is keeping secrets from her. So she goes to therapy. Dr Tamara Bywater is there to help her patients and soon their sessions become the highlight of Beth's week. But Beth is in over her head before she realises that Tamara might not be all she seems.

Dave Kellock is a pillar of the community in Portobello, Edinburgh. A tireless volunteer who never misses a chance to help others, he's just been recognised on the King's Honours List. Dave Kellock is also a fraud. A moment of panic, violence and blood twenty years ago plagues his dreams. He's been hiding himself in Portobello, terrified that his past will catch up with him. Now that his photo has been in the paper, collecting his award, the truth won't stay buried for long.

When Rob decides the family needs to get away for the summer Jess is not convinced—won't all the things they're escaping be waiting for them on their return? But the kids are thrilled, and before long their idyllic little cottage, the sea air, and the feel of skin sticky from sun-cream, lollies and sand, begins to work its magic. Jess allows herself to sink into the holiday vibes—the family even make holiday friends. As the summer heat intensifies Jess—ever vigilant—unearths a secret—a problem she's sure she can help solve. 

Julie's mother Kate is a force of nature–a glamorous woman of seventy, a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn't easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother, and she and her husband Eric are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie.

Jo has always kept her head down and surrounded herself with strangers who know nothing about her tragic past. But when her mother's murderer is released from prison, her past creeps into her present, and Jo is forced to question the events that led to the killing. Then a note is slipped under the door of her flat. 'Watch Your Back', it says. Is it a threat or friendly advice? And when when her ex is attacked in the street and given the same warning, Jo knows the answer: she's in danger.

When Everly’s husband and young daughter die in a car crash, a lawyer appears on her doorstep and tells her her husband was not who he said he was and she is a very rich widow. She retreats to a lonely house in the countryside to recover. But there’s a well in the cellar, a spectacularly cold room, and one night, Everly wakes up with a foot hanging over the emptiness of the well and the echo of her daughter’s voice in her ears…

Recently qualified psychiatrist Dr Geddes is building her career at a prestigious practice when an unexpected encounter with a young male patient threatens to expose her darkest secret. Lorna Chilcott is delighted to befriend the glamorous Elise, wife of the ex-boyband star she had a crush on as a teenager. But when her daughter goes missing after leaving Elise's house, friendship turns to discord and accusations fly.

In a small, isolated town on the North Norfolk coast, Fran's life is unravelling. As she fills her days cleaning the caravan park she owns, she is preoccupied by worry — about the behavior of her son, the growing absence of her husband and the strained relationship with her sister. Her one source of solace is slipping out to the beach early in the morning, to watch the birds.

On the surface, Alice is exactly where she should be in life: she's just given birth to a beautiful baby girl; her ever-charming husband - an academic whose area of study is conveniently her own Mohawk culture - is nothing but supportive; and they've moved into a home in a wealthy neighborhood. But strange things have started happening. Alice finds herself hearing voices she can't explain and speaking with things that should not be talking back to her, all while her neighbours' passive aggression begins to morph into something far more threatening...