Mother

Naomi and I are best friends. School runs, dog walks, a shoulder to cry on over a glass of wine - we’re inseparable. But now my husband has walked out, I need her more than ever. I know she will help me pick up the pieces. Because she knows about the lie I told to protect her. She knows how much I’ve sacrificed for this friendship. And she’d never let anyone hurt me. Would she?

Everyone lies...but some lies are deadly. For Claire Daniels, life is good. She has everything she’s ever wanted - a career she loves, friends she can rely on and a husband who dotes on her. All she needs is to start a family of her own and things will be even better than good. They’ll be perfect.

Jules and Holly have been best friends since university. They tell each other everything, trading revelations and confessions and sharing both the big moments and the small details of their lives: Holly is the only person who knows about Jules’ affair; Jules was there for Holly when her husband died. And their two children - just three years apart - have grown up together. So when Jules’ daughter, Saffie, makes a rape allegation against Holly’s son, Saul, neither woman is prepared for the devastating impact this will have on their friendship or their families.

From the best-selling author of Her Last Lie comes a chilling new thriller you won’t want to miss! 

When a mysterious note arrives for six months pregnant Dr Eliana Hughes, she begins to doubt every aspect of her life - from her mixed feelings about motherhood to her marriage to Martin, who has become distant in recent months. As the person behind the note escalates their campaign to out Eli’s husband as a cheat, she finds herself unable to trust even her own instincts, and as pressure builds, she makes a mistake that jeopardises her entire future. Elsewhere, someone is watching. Someone who desperately wants a baby to call their own and will go to any lengths to become a mother - and stay a mother....

Seven-year-old Hanna has never spoken a word. She is a sweet but silent angel in the eyes of her adoring father, but with Mummy, things are different. Suzette loves her daughter, but difficulties with babysitters and teachers over the years have put a strain on their relationship and her sanity. Then Hanna speaks for the first time, to Suzette alone, and what she says is chilling.

We all know someone like Becca. She has the job everyone wants, a designer wardrobe, a hot-shot lawyer boyfriend, holidays to exotic locations. And she flaunts her perfect life all over social media. It drove her colleague Lizzie mad, but she couldn't stop looking. They were never really friends - and yet Lizzie knew everything about her. Or did she? When chance and a terrible mistake pull Lizzie back into Becca's orbit years after they lost touch, she'll realise that you can't always believe what you see online...and that finding out the truth might be the worst thing you can do.   

Her name is Beth. She came into my life when I needed her the most. We lead very different lives, but she’s the only person who understands me. She was the only other witness to the terrible accident on the street between our homes - the only person who saw the cracks in my perfect life before I had the chance to cover them up.

When Abby's doctor tells her she's two months pregnant, she doesn't believe him. She can't be - she hasn't had sex for over a year. But to her astonishment and dismay, multiple tests confirm it's true. Desperately searching for an explanation, Abby recalls New Year's Day - the terrible hangover, the hole in her memory where the night before should have been and the inexplicable sense of unease - and realises that this baby must have been conceived at her best friend Danny's NYE party.

"Your daughter is dead." When Kat Cavanaugh hears the words every mother dreads, her perfect world shatters. She takes in the beautiful long blonde hair, torn yellow dress, and chipped blue nail-varnish. It can’t be real. And then the police add the word "suicide". But Kat refuses to believe them. Even when they show her the familiar looping handwriting and smudged ink on the note her little girl left behind. She knows her bubbly, vivacious daughter would never take her own life.

How far would you go to protect your children? Catherine is a good mother and a good wife. The family home is immaculate, her husband's supper is cooked on time, but when she starts writing to Michael, a prisoner convicted of murder, she finds herself obsessing about his crime and whether he can ever truly be forgiven....

Annie is the dream wife. Supportive, respectful, admiring - everything her husband wants her to be. And nothing at all like who she really is.... Annie is a prisoner in her own life. Her finances, her routine and her contact with the outside world are all controlled. Annie's only reason for holding it together is her little boy. Her time with him keeps her sane, and at night she escapes into a dreamworld where the two of them are free. But Annie is about to do a very bad thing. And you won't believe how she is going to do it....

Charlotte is a people pleaser - she can't help but go the extra mile. So when she stumbles upon an unconscious man one night, it's only natural that she wants to help. Brought into the arms of the victim's loving family, she sees at once how much they need her. But while his parents happily welcome her into the fold, his sister is another story. It's not just that Rebecca doesn't like Charlotte, she clearly doesn't trust her either. But the more time Charlotte spends in Rebecca's company, the more she suspects she's the one with something to hide. 

She’ll never forget...I’ll never forgive. People always notice my daughter, Isobel. How could they not? Incredibly beautiful...until she speaks. An unsettling little-girl voice, exactly like a child’s, but from the mouth of a full-grown woman. Izzie might look grown up, but inside she’s trapped. Caught in the day it happened...the day that broke her from within. Our family fell apart that day, and we never could pick up the pieces....

Eve and Neil live in the beautiful Cumbrian town of Tarnside. After years of trying for a baby, they are in the final stages of adopting four-year-old Milly. They just have to pass the 'settling in' period - three months of living together as a family under watchful eyes - and then they can make it official. For Eve, her heartbreak is nearly at an end. She now has this perfect little girl in her life, a little girl who calls her mummy. But Eve's dream of a happy family is fragile.