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

New York, 1946: The last time Will Parker let a case get personal, she walked away with a broken face, a bruised ego and the solemn promise never again to let her heart get in the way of her job. But she called Hart and Halloway's Travelling Circus and Sideshow home for five years and Ruby Donner, the circus' tattooed ingenue, was her friend. To make matters worse, the prime suspect is Valentin Kalishenko, the man who taught Will everything she knows about putting a knife where it needs to go.

New York, 1946. Lillian Pentecost is the most successful private detective in the city, but her health is failing. She hires an assistant to help with the investigative legwork. Willowjean Parker is a circus runaway. Quick-witted and street-smart, she's a jack-of-all-trades with a unique skill-set. When wealthy young widow Abigail Collins is murdered and the police are making no progress, Pentecost and Parker are hired by the family to track down the culprit.

Sadie loves her daughter and will do anything to keep her safe. She can't tell her why they had to leave home so quickly - or why Robin's father won't be coming with them to London. She can't tell her why she hates being back in her dead mother's house, with its ivy-covered walls and its poisonous memories. And she can't tell her the truth about the school Robin's set to start at - a school that doesn't welcome newcomers. Sadie just wants to get their lives back on track.

When Jo Harding falls down the stairs at home, she wakes up in hospital with partial amnesia - she's lost a whole year of memories. A lot can happen in a year. Was Jo having an affair? Lying to her family? Starting a new life? She can't remember what she did - or what happened the night she fell. But she's beginning to realise she might not be as good a wife and mother as she thought.

1999. As London prepares for the Millennium, a serial rapist is stalking the River Thames. A junior female police officer in a world dominated by men, Detective Constable Louise Mangan is desperate for the chance to prove herself, and when she brings in the culprit almost single-handedly, she believes the people of Hampton Court can rest easy at last. But the worst is yet to come. Soon word reaches the police of a deadly criminal operation at the heart of this leafy suburb. Now Mangan finds herself undercover, getting closer to answers each day.

Gary Nelson has a routine for the commute to his rather dull job in the city. Each day, he watches as a woman on the train applies her make up in a ritual he now knows by heart. He's never dared to strike up a conversation...but maybe one day. Then one evening, on the late train to Gipsy Hill, the woman invites him to take the empty seat beside her. Fiddling with her mascara, she holds up her mirror and Gary reads the words 'HELP ME' scrawled in sticky black letters on the glass.

Someone is hunting Connor. Alone, freezing, in the wilderness of Bodmin Moor, on an elite Special Forces training exercise, he'd be a fool to scorn the kindness of a local stranger. Wouldn't he? At first, Eilidh seems to be an impeccable host. She offers Connor food and a warm bed—he finds it nearly impossible to leave her charming farmhouse. But the choice isn't his to make. There have been others before. None, though, as perfect as him.

On compassionate leave following the death of her mother, Detective Constable Constance Fairchild thought renting a cottage near Aberystwyth, Wales, would get her far enough from London to finally relax. But trouble always seems to find Con, and it's not long before she is cooling off in a police station cell after defending herself from two would-be rapists. In custody she meets a young Ukrainian woman, Lila, who confides in Con that she's been forced by her manipulative boyfriend into prostitution and running drugs.

It was never just a job. Becoming a hitman was the only way Mario could cover his young daughter's medical expenses. But before long, his family is left in pieces, and he's barely even put a dent in the stack of bills. Then he's presented with an offer: one last score that will either pull him out of poverty forever or put a bullet in the back of his skull. A man named Juanca needs help stealing $2 million dollars from a drug cartel. Together, they begin a journey to an underworld where unspeakable horrors happen every day.

In the 1970s, Linda Taylor became a fur-wearing, Cadillac-driving symbol of the undeserving poor. In the press she was ultimate template for this insidious stereotype; Ronald Reagan himself cited her criminal behaviour in his presidential campaign, turning public opinion firmly against state benefits and those who used them. But the original 'welfare queen' was demonized for the least of her crimes. Taylor was a con artist, a thief, a kidnapper, maybe even a murderer - and certainly one of the most gifted and deranged criminals of modern times.

Celia, Juliette and Nadia are complete strangers with one thing in common: they have all been wronged by Ellis Cobain. A wealthy philanthropist on course for a knighthood, Ellis' public persona is bulletproof - but lurking beneath this veneer is a sinister side that only the women closest to him have seen. When they meet at a boutique hotel on the Cornish coast, brought together by the blind arrogance of their tormentor, they realise what connects them and form a pact: to blackmail him and free themselves from his grasp.

Beatrice is the convent's librarian. For years, she has shunned the company of her sisters, finding solace only with her manuscripts. Then, one carnival night, two women, bleeding and stricken, are abandoned outside the convent's walls. Moments from death, one of them presses something into Beatrice's hands: a bewitching book whose pages have a dangerous life of their own.

In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of the nicest part of Long Island. He is brutalised, held for ransom and then returned to his family. Miraculously, Carl, his wife and his three kids are left to move on with their lives, and resume their prized places in the ongoing saga of the American dream.

Undercover ops are always dangerous, but DC Constance Fairchild never expected things to go this wrong. Returning to their base of operations, an anonymous office in a shabby neighbourhood, she finds the bloodied body of her boss and friend, DI Pete Copperthwaite. He's been executed - a single shot to the head. In the aftermath, it seems someone in the Met is determined to make sure that blame for the wrecked operation falls squarely on Con's shoulders. She is cut loose and cast out, angry and alone with her grief....

As a kid, Charlotte Illes' uncanny sleuthing abilities made her a minor celebrity. But eventually she hung up her detective's hat and stashed away the signature blue landline in her "office"- aka garage -convinced that finding her adult purpose would be as easy as tracking down missing dessert or locating stolen diamonds. Now 25, Charlotte has a nagging fear that she hit her peak in adolescence. And then, her old blue phone rings.

The last thing Anna needs is a baby. Abandoned, adopted and living hand to mouth, she never dreamt of having a real family. But when she meets her birth mother, everything changes—because the same day, she learns she's going to be a mother too. Marlene is eccentric, generous with her considerable fortune and overjoyed to become a grandmother. Anna's living the dream. But is it her dream, or someone else's? Now she will have to decide what she's willing to sacrifice for a real family—her future, her freedom, even her unborn child.

Every night, in the college's ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story. One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn't there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?

It's New Year's Eve and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh's best postcodes. It's a moment for old friends to set the past to rights—and move on. The night sky is alive with fireworks and the champagne is flowing. But the celebration fails to materialise. Because someone at this party is going to die tonight. Midnight approaches and the countdown begins—but it seems one of the guests doesn't want a resolution.

When Jess Tidy was Mark Winter's student, she made a shocking accusation. Mark maintained his innocence, but the damage was done. Karen Winter stood by her husband through everything, determined to protect her family. Now, 10 years later, Jess is back. And the truth about that night is finally going to come out....

Nina, in the final days of her illness, asks her best friend Marie to look after her family when she's gone. And Marie does everything she can to step into Nina's shoes after her friend's tragic death. She tries to do the best by Nina, tries to be there for Nina's young children, tries to support Nina's grieving husband, tries to keep their lives on track despite their terrible loss.