Showing results by publisher "Bookouture" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

The boy studied the bruise turning yellow at the base of his neck. With quick fingers his mother tightened his tie and pulled his collar high above it. Her eyes alone said, We will not speak of this.... Years later a man is found shot dead in a local park. On his phone is a draft text: I can’t keep this secret any longer. The recipient is unnamed. Detective Robyn Carter knows this secret is the key to the case, but his friends and family don’t offer any clues, and all her team have to go on is a size-ten footprint.

When a young mother is found drowned in the bath, clutching a receipt saying 'all debts paid', Detective Robyn Carter knows it's just the beginning of a harrowing case. She recognizes the signs of a serial killer, and when a second victim with a receipt is found, her worst fears are confirmed. With the local press whipping the public into a frenzy, Robyn is under pressure to solve the crime yesterday. But her team can't find a link between the two bodies, and the cracks are starting to show.

On a hot summer’s morning, a young father is found murdered in a cornfield outside the quiet town of Colton, tied to a post, arms spread wide. Detective Robyn Carter is reminded of the crucifixion, and she knows she’s looking for a killer with a twisted sense of right and wrong. Robyn vows she will find the killer - no matter what. But then a local doctor - a popular woman with a young family of her own - is found dead outside her surgery. There are similarities between the first body and hers, and Robyn must take another look at the picture-postcard town, where no one has any enemies.

Twenty-five years ago: teenage Leah had a sleepover with her three best friends. By morning, the other girls were missing. This small town has been searching for answers ever since. Now it’s happened again. Three boys decide to camp in a field next to one of their homes. When dawn comes, dew glistens on their empty tents. Overgrown farmland is searched. Three distraught families are desperate for news. A mother herself now, Leah’s heart breaks as terrible memories flood back.

Her Saturday night started normally. Recently separated from her husband, Ali has been persuaded by her friends to go on a date with a new man. She is ready, she is nervous, and she is excited. She is about to take a step into her new future. By Sunday morning, Ali’s life is unrecognizable. She wakes, and she knows that something is wrong. She is home, she is alone, she is hurt, and she has no memory of what happened to her.

On a damp October day, a body is found in an abandoned hospital, too burnt to be identified, but detective Alex King knows that every victim is someone’s daughter or son. Pushing aside her own troubles, Alex puts everything into finding the killer, but when someone else is found dead, she begins to suspect that the body in the hospital was just the first of many. Just as Alex uncovers a heart-breaking link between the victims, she finds her own safety under threat. Is this a figure from her past hell-bent on revenge, or could the murderer be even closer than she thinks?

She races home, her young son clasped tightly to her chest, glancing over her shoulder at every face she passes. She reaches the safety of her home, closing the door behind her. Little does she know the danger that awaits her inside… When local vicar, Sally, packs away the brightly coloured toys and dog-eared books left over from a morning parent and toddler group, her heart pounds as she discovers a note left behind.

The perfect daughter. The perfect girlfriend. The perfect murder? Jenna is seriously ill. She's lost all hope of getting the heart transplant she needs to live. But just as her life is ebbing away, she receives a donor heart from a girl called Callie. Who was Callie and how did she die? Jenna is determined to find out.

Robert kisses his wife on the head before heading out to the shop for more wine; he walks up the hill, takes a left across the footbridge, and jumps to his death on the busy motorway below. Two years later, Francesca and her young daughter are leaving London for a fresh start. Money is tight, and Robert’s mother has found them a little cottage in her village. Francesca is grateful for the help, but why does Robert’s mother want to keep them so close? Does she know about what Francesca did in the hour before Robert’s death?

The last thing to go through Dominique Thomas's head was the image of her teenage daughter's face and her heart lifted. Then the shot rang out. They were the perfect family. Successful businessman Ben Thomas and his wife Dominique live an enviable life, along with their beautiful children: teenager Ruby and quirky younger daughter Mouse. But on Christmas Day the police are called to their London home, only to discover a horrific scene: the entire family lying lifeless, victims of an unknown assailant.

Time stops for Jen when her beloved daughter, Gracie, is involved in a terrible car crash. Pronounced dead at the scene, it's a miracle when paramedics manage to then resuscitate the little girl. The relief Jen feels at Gracie's recovery is matched only by her fury at the driver of the car - her ex-husband's new girlfriend, Ella. Jen has never trusted Ella, and now her worst fears have been confirmed.

Three minutes. That's all it takes for Meredith's entire world to fall apart when she watches the videotape of her four-year-old self with Becca, the mother she's never known. Can there be any truth in the strange and dangerous story her mother forced her to tell on camera? The search for answers leads Meredith to Darkwater Pool, the scene of the murder of a young woman, Cara, over 30 years ago. What could possibly be the link between her mother and the victim? The problem is, she's not the only one looking....

Florida, 1883. Cassie Gwynne is looking for a fresh start when she steps off the steamship in Fernandina harbor for the very first time. She’s trying very hard to become the proper society lady her father wished she was. She’s styled her unruly hair, shined her boots, and even purchased a whole new wardrobe. However, she’s certain finding a body is not very ladylike behavior. To make matters worse, her aunt Flora is arrested for the murder. Desperate to save the only family she has left, Cassie vows to untangle the mystery herself, no matter how much the locals disapprove.

They told us he had been missing for nearly two days, that he probably drowned. They told us a lie. Megan was 10 years old when her older brother, Zac, went missing among the cliffs, caves, and beaches that surround the small seaside town of Whitecliff. A decade later, a car crash has claimed the lives of her parents. Megan and her younger sister, Chloe, return to Whitecliff one summer for the first time since their brother's disappearance.

Her dark skin looks almost grey; the effect of the elements and death’s touch. Her limp body left pressed against a wire fence like trash. I make a silent promise that I will do everything I can to catch the person who did this to her. Exactly a year ago, Amy, a young detective on Detective Kate Matthews’ team, was killed when she was sent undercover to catch a serial killer targeting young girls. Kate never forgave herself for letting the killer slip through her fingers. As the case is reopened and the campaign to find the culprit begins again, Kate is told to stay well away, and for good reason: another girl’s body has been found.

As the snow falls and a bitter wind blows, Detective Ellie Reeves is devastated to discover the bodies of two little girls, alone and frozen on an icy lake, in the isolated town of Cold Mountain. The girls are holding hands, with matching bows in their blonde curls, and when Ellie realizes they are twin sisters, her heart breaks for their mother, who must be desperately wondering where her little darlings are. But, back at the police station, she is horrified to discover that nobody has reported the sisters missing. Are their parents in danger too?

“Can you start right away?” I can hear the desperation in Dr Roth’s voice. He’s longing for someone to look after his poor, sick wife Sabrina in their perfect Florida home. The job pays an awful lot. And I really need the money. As long as they don’t ask too many questions… Dr Roth has made it clear I have to make sure she takes her medication. Because if she doesn’t, there’s hell to pay. Three times a day, I count her sedative pills carefully. Sabrina rambles about the death of a child.

Two days ago, FBI Agent Val Costa came face to face with a serial killer known as the Bear. One of only two women ever to survive, she's forever branded with his signature: a curling “S” carved into her skin. Val knows it’s only a matter of time before he takes another victim. Forced home to recover, Val returns to Red Rose County, California, to be with her son. But the very next day she finds the close-knit community panic-stricken over the disappearance of blonde-haired, freckled-faced local teen, Scarlett Douglas.

You only let her go for a second… Now she’s gone. Erika Rice is in an elevator with her four-year-old daughter Alice when all the lights go out. It jerks to a stop on a deserted floor of apartments and the little girl runs out into the corridor. But before Erika can follow her the doors slam shut again. Now her daughter is nowhere to be seen. Erika was about to take Alice away for a fresh start, far from her troubled past, when the child vanished. How could a four-year-old disappear into thin air? And with no one to help her, will Erika ever find her daughter?

Keira North falls to her death at a party. What initially seems like it could be an accident is soon revealed to be something far more sinister as Detectives Alex King and Chloe Lane are called in to investigate the secrets and lies that link a group of four friends. The detectives soon find that all of Keira's three closest friends have secrets that someone would kill to keep. As Alex and Chloe are fighting their own demons and struggling to stay on top of the case, Keira's killer is circling the group of friends, who one by one find that their lives are in danger....