Baby Thrillers

A spate of seemingly unconnected murders in southern England prompt a high-profile task force to be formed and led by DCI Jack Hawksworth, one of the Force's new rising stars who combines modern methods with old-school instincts. The victims appear as disparate as their style of death; the only link that Hawk and his team can pull together is that the murdered are all men of an identical age. The task force has nothing but cold cases of decades past to comb through in the hope that they might find a clue to who is behind the savagery.

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home. Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger.

The day I was told I’d never be able to have a child, my world came crashing down. My husband says he still loves me, but I lie awake at night, wishing we could have a family. One morning, my husband’s side of the bed is cold and empty. I hear a noise and head downstairs. In the middle of the rug in my living room is a wooden drawer. Swaddled inside, with perfect rosy cheeks and beautiful round blue eyes, a baby gazes up at me.

She bursts into my life like a storm, and nothing is the same again. One by one, I watch as my friends fall under her spell. Only I see that her smiles don’t reach her cold, furious eyes. And when I’m accused of things I didn’t do, when my home is vandalized, I know she’s behind it. But she only lets her mask slip when no one is looking, so if I say anything, I’ll look crazy. So when the baby shower comes around, I’m sitting on a velvet sofa in a posh hotel room, surrounded by balloons. But that afternoon, I finally learn the unbelievable truth. There is no baby....

Mark and Melissa Cain are thrilled to have found Jade, a babysitter who is brilliant with their young children. Having seen her own house burn to the ground, Jade needs them as much as they need her. Moving Jade into the family home can only be a good thing, can’t it? As Mark works long hours as a police officer and Melissa struggles with running a business, the family become ever more reliant on their babysitter, who is only too happy to help. And as Melissa begins to slip into depression, it’s Jade who is left picking up the pieces. But Mark soon notices things aren’t quite as they seem. Things at home feel wrong, and as Mark begins to investigate their seemingly perfect sitter, what he discovers shocks him to his core. He’s met Jade before. And now he suspects he might know what she wants.

It's 1996. Detective Sergeant Tom Thorne is a haunted man. Haunted by the moment he ignored his instinct about a suspect, by the horrific crime that followed and by the memories that come day and night, in sunshine and shadow. So when seven-year-old Kieron Coyne goes missing while playing in the woods with his best friend, Thorne vows he will not make the same mistake again. Cannot. The solitary witness. The strange neighbour. The friendly teacher. All are in Thorne's sights. This case will be the making of him...or the breaking.

One particularly stormy night, Roe wakes to hear her daughter crying and Virginia is nowhere to be found. Roe's brother Philip helps her search the house and they happen upon a body outside...but it isn't Virginia's. Now, not only does she have a newborn to care for, Roe also has to contend with a new puzzle - who is this mystery woman dead in their backyard, and what happened to Virginia?

Twenty-two-year-old Annie Schrijver works in the picturesque Albert Cuyp flower market. But then she goes missing, only to be found barely alive, tied to a stone angel in a graveyard. But Annie seems to have been the lucky one, as a body is found nearby. Detective Pieter Vos knows that if he is to outwit the murderer, he will need to employ everything he has to avert a greater tragedy.

When his girlfriend throws him out during the pandemic, Bambi has to go to his uncle's house in lockdown Lagos. He arrives during a blackout, and is surprised to find Aunty Bidemi sitting in a candlelit room with another woman. They both claim to be the mother of the baby boy, fast asleep in his crib. At night Bambi is kept awake by the baby's cries, and during the days, he is disturbed by a cockerel that stalks the garden. There is sand in the rice. A blood stain appears on the wall. Someone scores tribal markings into the baby's cheeks. Who is lying, and who is telling the truth?

Six-week-old baby Jessica is abducted from a local nursery. And Detective Tom Mariner realizes he's not going to get the time-off he was hoping for. The police get a good description of the woman who took Jessica, but the appeal to the public doesn't generate a single lead. Then the kidnapper calls demanding money for Jessica's safe return . . . and a terrible discovery is made in the woods. Can Mariner get to bottom of a complex case which involves much more than child abduction?

In the enchanting new Baby Ganesh Agency novel, Inspector Chopra and his elephant sidekick go undercover to investigate a murder at Mumbai's grandest hotel. For a century the iconic Grand Raj Palace Hotel has welcomed the world's elite. From film stars to foreign dignitaries, anyone who is anyone stays at the Grand Raj. The last thing the venerable old hotel needs is a murder....

Cynthia is 21, bored and desperately waiting for something big to happen. Unemployed and living with her father, her existence is self-absorbed yet meaningless; her days absorbed by reality TV, social media and an obsession with her striking fitness instructor Anahera. When Cynthia suggests they run away together, it’s not long before Anahera arrives at her door, ready to throw in the towel on her job and her marriage.

Her life was perfect. Until the video. Scarlett’s golden life suddenly unravels when someone sends a shocking video of her to everyone she knows. The only people who claim they haven’t seen it are the friends in her new mothers’ group: Cora, Emma and Asha. Scarlett is forced to delve into her past to discover who is out to get her. But as her circle of trust gathers around her, she has to ask - are her friends as innocent as they seem?

Robert Rodi’s follow-up to The Sugarman Bootlegs once again finds him mixing lethal social satire and nail-biting suspense, in the classic Alfred Hitchcock tradition. When financial collapse hits Marcus Hyde - a fussy, high-end art dealer - he’s forced to give up his spacious apartment and move in with his sister Pamela, who's large, slovenly, and titanically pregnant. But there’s worse in store for Marcus when Baby is born.

Eloise has been waiting for her dream wedding for months. When the Cove Chronicles calls it "the wedding of the year" and literally the whole town is invited, she wants everything to be perfect. Burst pipes don't make for perfect wedding dresses, though. Laurel Baker has just been promoted to detective in the narcotics unit, and her first case is one that's gone unsolved for a year now. She's desperate to find out who's bringing drugs into the cove, but each clue she uncovers leads to one of the women she's grown to love.

Ali and Christopher Tolfrey's one-year-old daughter, Eden, is abducted whilst in the care of Ali’s best-friend. Snatched in broad daylight from Bushy Park on a trip to the swings, Eden disappears without a trace. Brooke Simmons regains consciousness, dazed from a blow to the head, to find Eden, her best friend's child, missing. Someone has taken Eden, and Brooke knows who. But it's a secret she can't share with Ali or the police without revealing the web of deceit she's spun.

In a symbolic journey of reconciliation, the Monsoon Express is travelling between hostile neighbours India and Pakistan. The passenger list includes politicians, celebrities, former Mumbai policeman Inspector Chopra and his baby elephant ward, Ganesha. Then a senior diplomat is found murdered in his cabin. Accusations fly, tensions rise and an international incident seems certain. But is the murder political - or personal?

"Babydoll" steht auf ihrem Bein. "Petticoat" auf ihrer linken Hüfte. "Böse" findet sich ganz in der Nähe. "Girl" prangt über ihrem Herzen, "schädlich" ist in ihr Handgelenk geritzt. Camille Preakers Körper ist übersät mit Wörtern. Wörtern, die sie sich in die Haut geritzt hat. Das letzte Wort, das sie sich einritzte, hieß "verschwinden". Danach stellte sie sich. Den Therapeuten, aber auch ihrer Vergangenheit. In ihrer alten Heimatstadt Wind Gap wurden zwei Teenager entführt und ermordet...

Never question a mother’s intuition. My water isn’t supposed to break while there’s a storm raging, when my husband isn’t on the island, and as the power flickers out. Darkness covers the cabin as I cling to my belly. I never imagined it happening like this. Trained as a midwife, I know I can deliver my daughter.

The only people who’ve been inside our house are the ones I thought I could trust. Someone close is watching me, speaking to Olivia and trying to make me look like a bad parent. I don’t care what my husband says. I’m more scared than I’ve ever been in my life, but my precious child means everything to me. They have no idea how far I’ll go to protect my daughter…