Behind Shadows

For Melissa May, happily married to Gavin for the best part of 30 years, life couldn’t get much better. Her world is ripped apart when she discovers Gavin is HIV positive. The shock of his duplicity and irresponsible behavior reawakens a psychiatric condition Melissa has battled since childhood. Fueled by rage and a heightened sense of right and wrong, Melissa takes matters into her own hands. 

Megan Miller is an ordinary woman with a young family - until a shocking discovery shatters her perfect world. When two young boys are brutally murdered in their tight-knit village community, Megan slowly begins to realize the signs all point to the lovable local primary school teacher - her husband. But when she begins to delve deeper into her husband's secret life, she makes discoveries that will make her question everything she knows - and make her fear for her young daughter's life.

Five figures gather 'round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult-sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken, but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood. Years later a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders that shock the Black Country.

Sixty seconds after she wakes from a coma, Maggie's world is torn apart. The police tell her that her daughter, Elspeth, is dead. That she drowned when the car Maggie had been driving plunged into the river. Maggie remembers nothing. When Maggie begs to see her husband, Sean, the police tell her that he has disappeared. He was last seen on the day of their daughter's funeral. What really happened that day at the river? Where is Maggie's husband? And why can't she shake the suspicion that somewhere, somehow, her daughter is still alive?

From tales of chilling horror, to heart-stopping stories of suspense, Warped is best-selling author Jeff Menapace's ultimate collection of short fiction. Warped contains currently published tales of the macabre like "Princess" and "The Straw Man and a Murder", the currently out of print and award-winning "Sugar Daddy" and its sequel, "Sugar Daddy 2", and the author's preferred version of his controversial "Torment".

There’s a moment, when you meet someone new, when the connection is so strong that making a friend can feel like falling in love. That’s how it was for Connie and Ness. They met in the park while their children played, and as they talked, they realised they were neighbours. Perhaps it was only natural that they and their families would become entirely inseparable. But when Ness’ marriage ends in a bitter divorce, she is suddenly at Connie’s house all the time. Connie doesn’t have a moment to herself, no time alone with her husband, not a second to chat to her kids.

A teenage girl disappears from a beach town at the height of summer. Two months later, a massive police search has failed to find her. And then 11-year-old Billy Wheatley steps in to solve the case. Billy's something of a child prodigy. He's also highly motivated, with his own reasons to want the police and coast guard off his beach. Using all of his particular ingenuity, Billy unravels the mystery. But what he discovers puts him in terrible danger. The person who took the girl is someone he knows, only too well. And when they learn Billy is onto them, they're going to need him dead.

Andrea Oliver knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she's always lived in the small town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s a pillar of the community; she knows she's never kept a secret in her life. Then, one day, a trip to the mall explodes into a shocking act of violence, and Andy suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Hours later, Laura is in hospital, her face splashed over the newspapers. But the danger has only just begun. Now, Andy must go on a desperate race to uncover the secrets of her mother's past. Unless she can, there may be no future for either of them....

Nothing has felt right since Elle rented out her house.... There's a new coldness. A shift in the atmosphere. The prickling feeling that someone is watching her every move from the shadows. Maybe it's all in Elle's mind? She's a writer – her imagination, after all, is her strength. And yet every threat seems personal. As if someone has discovered the secrets that keep her awake at night. As fear and paranoia close in, Elle's own home becomes a prison. Someone is unlocking her past – and she’s given them the key....

Moments before she dies, Nicola's grandmother Betty whispers to her that there are babies at the bottom of the garden. Nicola's mother claims she was talking nonsense. However, when Nicola's daughter finds a bone while playing in Betty's garden, it's clear that something sinister has taken place.