Psychological Thrillers
Psychological Thrillers 2023-06-28T15:16:44+01:00

THE NEW WIFE

“Brilliant… This’ll be in a lot of holiday luggage come the summer”  – Mick Herron

“A summer read that exudes menace” – Sarah Vaughan

When Finn Hensen gets a call from his sister, Jess, to say their father has died, neither is heartbroken. Their parents divorced many years ago, after which their father, Jimmy, continued to live a hedonistic lifestyle in sun-soaked Mallorca while his family returned to the UK. Ownership of his dilapidated farmhouse in the mountains now passes to Finn and his sister. The only problem is that Jimmy recently remarried, and his new wife, Ruensa, is still living there. The pair agree Finn should go to Mallorca and tactfully take possession of their inheritance. When he arrives, however, Finn is surprised to find Finca Siquia completely transformed into a chic Mediterranean home by Ruensa and her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Roze. The Spanish police, meanwhile, are asking awkward questions about Jimmy’s death . . . Are Ruensa and Roze the helpless victims of circumstance? Or will they stop at nothing to get Finca Siquia for themselves?

MY DARLING DAUGHTER

My Darling Daughter

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

“Thrilling from beginning to end – I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough”  – Claire Douglas

Absorbing and fast-paced” – Karin Slaughter

“Excellent – domestic noir in all its darkest shades” – Cara Hunter

Out of the blue, Susie Jukes is contacted on social media by Anna, the girl she gave up for adoption fifteen years ago. But when they meet, Anna’s home life sounds distinctly strange to Susie and her husband Gabe. And when Anna’s adoptive parents seem to overreact to the fact she contacted them at all, Susie becomes convinced that Anna needs her help. But is Anna’s own behaviour simply what you’d expect from someone recovering from a traumatic childhood? Or are there other secrets at play here – secrets Susie has also been hiding for the last fifteen years?

PLAYING NICE

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THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER – A RICHARD & JUDY SUMMER 2021 SELECTION

“Delaney never disappoints and Playing Nice is an enthralling masterclass in character development and suspense… Emotional power bleeds from the pages.”  – Press Association

Unexpected and utterly convincing.” – Daily Mail

“Terrifying and heartfelt, you can’t help but be drawn into the plight of a family negotiating a nightmare.” – Woman’s Weekly

Pete Riley answers the door one morning to a parent’s worst nightmare. On his doorstep is Miles Lambert, who breaks the devastating news that Pete’s two-year-old, Theo, isn’t Pete’s real son after all – he’s Miles’s, their babies having been mixed up at birth in intensive care.

The two families – Pete, his partner Maddie, and Miles and his wife Lucy – agree that, rather than swap the boys back, they’ll try to find a more flexible way to share their children’s lives. But a plan to sue the hospital triggers an investigation that unearths disturbing questions about just what happened the day the babies were switched.

And when Theo is thrown out of nursery for hitting other children, Maddie and Pete have to ask themselves: how far do they want this arrangement to go? What secrets lie hidden behind the Lamberts’ smart front door? How much can they trust the real parents of their child – or even each other?

THE PERFECT WIFE

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The Perfect Wife

“The kind of book words like ‘unputdownable’ were invented for.” – Independent Abbie wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. The man by her side explains that he’s her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative startups. He tells Abbie she’s a gifted artist, a doting mother, and the love of his life.

Five years ago, she suffered a terrible accident. Her return from the abyss is a miracle of science, a breakthrough that has taken him half a decade to achieve.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives – and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together for ever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?

The Perfect Wife blew my mind!What a wonderful and unique thriller. I haven’t been able to put it down since it arrived, and now that I’ve finished I can’t stop thinking about it! Those last lines . . . wow! The Perfect Wife is a cutting-edge suspense novel unlike any you’ve read before. . . . A must-read!” – Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl

 “A totally ingenious thriller with a killer premise that explores how far we will go for love—and the dangerous power of obsession.” – TM  Logan, bestselling author of Lies

Seriously, amazingly, awesomely brilliant!’ – CJ Tudor, author of The Chalk Man More about this book…

BELIEVE ME

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“Superb” – Daily Mail

“A compelling read, Believe Me is likely to follow its predecessor’s path straight to the international bestseller lists… This rich, nuanced, highly literary take on the Gone Girl theme adds dimension and complexity to a trend that was in danger of wearing out its welcome.” – Booklist

The Sunday Times bestseller

Claire Wright, a struggling British acting student in New York, pays for her classes the only way she can: working as a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers, posing in hotel bars as a casual pick-up to provide evidence against straying husbands.

When one of the firm’s clients is murdered in macabre circumstances, and the main suspect is the dead woman’s husband, Claire is asked to take on a different role: trying to elicit a confession from the man in question, under the direction of a wily police psychologist.

But right from the start, Claire has doubts about the part she’s being asked to play. Is Patrick Fogler really a murderer? And is her growing certainty that he’s innocent a sign she’s getting too deep into her part – or that the police are making a terrible mistake?

Or could there be more to this situation than meets the eye? As Claire begins to falls in love with her target, she starts to wonder: who is the decoy here – and who the prey?

More about this book…

THE GIRL BEFORE

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NOW A MAJOR BBC ONE/HBO MAX FOUR-PART DRAMA

“An outstanding debut that is more than a match for Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train… A remarkably poised psychological thriller.” – Sunday Times

“The Girl Before is deservedly anointed the ‘top girl’ of this season’s suspense novels.” – The Washington Post

“One of the best thrillers you’ll read in 2017”– New York Journal of Books

After a break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But she can’t afford anywhere that feels safe – until she finds One Folgate Street. The house is a minimalist masterpiece of pale stone, plate glass and soaring ceilings. But the enigmatic architect who designed it retains full control: no books, no cushions, no photos or clutter of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant, and it does.

After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street, she’s instantly drawn to the space – and to its aloof but seductive creator. Moving in, Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the previous tenant, a woman similar to her in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, and experiences the same terror, as the girl before…

Take the questionnaire to apply to live at One Folgate Street.

More about this book…

Writing as Jonathan Holt: The Carnivia Trilogy

Set in the area around Venice, the Carnivia trilogy follows the fortunes of two women: Detective Kat Tapo of the Italian Carabinieri, and Second Lieutenant Holly Boland, an intelligence officer stationed on a nearby US air base. Together they untangle a web of corruption and secrecy surrounding the activities of a powerful right-wing cabal formed after the Second World War.

Book One: The Boatman

‘A genuinely thrilling thriller… terrific by any standard… outstanding.’  – Booklist

‘A cracking, upmarket thriller… a rare entertainment for the thinking deckchair reader.’ – Saga Magazine

A body has been pulled from the icy waters of Venice. The victim is a woman, dressed as a Catholic priest—a desecration that becomes known as The Abomination.

It’s Captain Kat Tapo’s first murder case, one that takes her on a trail as elusive and complicated as the city’s labyrinthine canals. What Kat discovers will test her loyalties and remind her of a simple truth: unless old crimes are punished, old sins will be repeated… READ MORE

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Also published in the US under the title The Abomination

Book Two: The Abduction

Longlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award

The girl in the feathered mask was just another reveller, anonymous in the Carnival crowds. When she was bundled into a van, nobody heard her scream.

But it turns out she’s the daughter of an American army officer, kidnapped by a group opposed to US airbases in Italy. Suddenly, the case is making headlines all around the world.

Captain Kat Tapo is considered too headstrong to lead a high-profile kidnap case. But Kat has reasons of her own to head the investigation. What she discovers will rewrite the past… and send shockwaves into the present. READ MORE

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Book Three: The Traitor

‘British author Holt’s masterly sequel to 2014’s The Abduction concludes his Carnivia trilogy with a bang.’  – Publisher’s Weekly 

On Venice’s Lido, a Catholic banker is found on the beach, his tongue torn out, his face covered by an antique mask. When Captain Kat Tapo learns the mask is a Masonic “hoodwink”, she suspects her appointment may be no accident. As a woman, she can’t penetrate the closed world of Italian freemasonry.

Meanwhile, American intelligence analyst Holly Boland finds a document among her father’s possessions that offers evidence of a shocking Cold War cover-up.

As the two cases come together, so a conspiracy comes to light – a conspiracy that threatens to engulf Venice itself… READ MORE

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Also published in the US under the title The Absolution