KATHRYN CROFT
Bestselling author of psychological thrillers
The Last One to See Him
A married man is dead. I was the last one to see him. Just as his wife planned…
After meeting Jamie’s smiling blue eyes across a crowded bar, I tell myself, that after my recent divorce, this is the bit of fun that I need. It is the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.
Because when I return to his flat the next day, excited to see him again, I am horrified to discover he has been murdered.
I know I should tell the police, but I can’t be the person to call them. With my past they will just assume the worst…
I need to act normal and just focus on my little boy. A playdate at his new friend’s house is the perfect distraction.
But as our sons run riot upstairs, and I admire his mother’s elegant living room, I see it. The wedding photo on the wall. The man in the photo is Jamie.
A shiver slides down my spine. I had no idea that Jamie was married. And now I’m drinking tea with his wife.
This can’t be a coincidence. And when I find an old newspaper cutting about me on her kitchen table, the shocking thought comes. Did she plan for me to meet her husband the night he was murdered?
How much does she know about me? Why would she want me to get close to her husband? And with her watching my every move, if I discover the truth, will she destroy me?
The Christmas Party
(An exclusive audiobook novella)
Tis the season for secrets and suspicion.
When Sasha receives a call from her old university friend Gabby inviting her to spend Christmas at Gabby’s remote Scottish lake house, Sasha knows she shouldn’t go.
Twelve years ago, on Christmas Eve, when Sasha and her five closest friends were celebrating the festive season, something truly horrific happened that would change the course of their friendship forever. Something that meant Sasha hasn’t spoken to any of them since that night.
But Gabby is insistent that they all get together this Christmas, to finally help her move on from the events of that night, so Sasha agrees to go.
Arriving at the sprawling house overlooking a stunning loch, Sasha quickly realises that Gabby has other reasons for getting the six friends together this Christmas. And now Sasha is forced to relive a past she’s tried hard to forget.
People had always told them their friendship wasn’t healthy. That the six of them spent far too much time together. No good would come of it, they said. How could relationships with others work when the six of them were so tightly interwoven?
When a snowstorm isolates them from the outside world, old flames are rekindled and tensions run high, and it soon becomes obvious: nothing that big can stay secret forever.
Two Mothers
Her daughter died. Did she take mine?
A year ago, my best friend Rachel’s daughter died. Ever since then I have held my own beautiful little girl tighter. I watch Luna shriek with laughter as she tips her toys all over the floor and I look anxiously at Rachel, sipping her tea. But Rachel reassures me that being near Luna helps fill the gaping hole of her grief, just a little.
So when Luna is snatched from her bed in the middle of the night, it is Rachel who holds me tightly. She looks at the blue and white police tape crisscrossing my little girl’s bedroom and promises me they will find Luna. What happened to her daughter was different.
And Rachel is right. Two days later I’m holding my precious girl in my arms after she is found in a nearby park. But my joy is short-lived. Rachel’s husband reports her missing. And when the police find Luna’s cuddly lamb in Rachel’s house, I am forced to face the shocking truth. Did my best friend take my daughter?
Or did someone want Rachel out of the way, to frame a vulnerable, grieving woman? When I receive an anonymous note telling me to stop asking questions, I am certain I don’t know everything.
Who is in the most danger – my best friend, my child, or me? And will finding the truth save us, or destroy us all?
The Girl in Room 12
My husband was the last person to see the girl in room 12. But did he kill her?
Our gorgeous house on our quiet tree-lined street is completely safe, the perfect place to raise our little girl. Or so I thought. Because my heart beats out of my chest when I hear the news tonight. A beautiful young woman has been killed in the River Walk Hotel, barely five minutes away. How can something so awful happen here?
I try to block the shocking story out as I kiss my sweet daughter goodnight, her blonde curls fanning out onto the pillow. I just want my husband Max to come home – I don’t feel safe.
I start to tidy up the house, the only way to distract myself from my swirling thoughts. And that’s when I find it. It’s unmistakable. A key card for room 12 at the River Walk Hotel. Where that poor girl has just been found dead. It must be a coincidence. Right?
My hand starts to shake as I think back over the last few days. I know Max has been a bit distracted, arriving home late at night. I’ve started to become paranoid that he could be having an affair. But never something like this.
I tell myself that Max couldn’t kill anyone. He’s a family man now, different to who he was before. Even so, I should go to the police right away. But I can’t.
Because if I do, I’m scared they’ll start to suspect me. How much do I really know about the girl in room 12? And if the truth comes out, how far will I go to protect my precious family?
The Wedding Guest
I’m trying hard to be the perfect bride as I drift across the beach towards my handsome new husband, Jeremy. I can see him standing tall at the altar with his adorable little daughter Lexi. And I’m certain that today is the beginning of my new life. With Jeremy by my side, my dark past can no longer touch me.
I smile up at my wonderful new husband, but deep down I can’t help but feel sad that there’s nobody at the wedding for me. All my family are long gone. But wouldn’t they be proud if they could see me now?
Everyone claps as we kiss but as soon as I turn to face them, my heart starts beating out of my chest and my eyes go wide in panic. It’s him. Christian. The one person that could destroy everything I’ve worked so hard for.
All I know as I freeze a smile onto my lips is that no one in my new life can know who he is. They can’t discover what he knows about me. Because I’ve found myself the perfect new life – and I’ll do anything to keep it that way.
But as I throw my bouquet I can’t help but wonder how has he found me after all this time? And how far will I go to stop someone who will never let me go?
The Lie
My son said he walked his girlfriend home. But now she is missing…
Our new home was meant to be a chance for us to start again, to make new friends and forget the past. And as I look around the barbeque we’ve thrown for our neighbours, I dare to dream that things will be all right. I watch my husband joking as he flips burgers and my daughter turning cartwheels on our sun-bleached lawn. And then my gaze falls on my son Jacob, and his new girlfriend Rose, in her light blue jeans and her green crop top. There is a worried expression clouding her beautiful eyes…
The next day I get a call from Rose’s mother that chills me to the bone. Rose never returned after our party.
I wake my still-sleeping son, who walked Rose home the night before, and beg him for answers. Jacob promises he saw Rose to her front door, and I know he would never lie.
But when the police find Rose’s house keys hidden in our garden and a witness claims to have seen them arguing in the street, everyone insists I can’t believe what Jacob is telling me.
I will do anything to protect my boy. But I need to find a way to make the questions stop. Because there’s something about our family that nobody can ever know. And as the search for Rose closes in, how can I keep him safe and keep our secrets hidden?
The Suspect
My family said he killed my mother. They lied…
I was just a little girl, fast asleep in my stroller, the day my mother was killed. I don’t remember anything about the sunny day that turned so dark.
She’d be so happy for me now, twenty years later, with my dream job as a photographer, and I’m sure she’d love my new boyfriend, Gabriel. But all my happiness vanishes in a heartbeat when the man from our past walks towards me, his eyes on me for just a fraction too long.
I recognise his face from the picture in the papers. He killed my mother.
I try to run but he wants me to listen. He says that he is innocent, and that my family have been lying to me for years.
My father and sister tell me to stay away. They remind me that because of him my mother never got to tuck me in at night or ease me through my first heartbreak. Gabriel says he could be dangerous. But when he is found dead, I am shaken to my core. Who needed to keep him quiet?
I won’t feel safe until I find out what he wanted to tell me. But when I find that my father has lied about the past and Gabriel has hidden photos of my mother under his bed, I realise I can’t trust anyone. I want the truth. But if I find it, will my life be in danger?
The Mother's Secret
A dream come true, a nightmare that is just beginning.
Eve wanted nothing more than to be a mother. She and her husband, Aiden, planned to have a family, but with each devastating miscarriage her hopes dwindled.
When she eventually gave birth to her daughter, Kayla, it should have been the happiest time of her life. Instead, it was a waking nightmare for Eve, and one she was desperate to escape.
Now, Eve has left all that behind. She pretends that she never had a child, and keeps her secrets close. But someone knows the truth. They know that Eve told a lie, and the clock is ticking before her shocking decision is revealed.
Once the story comes out, there’ll be no way out for Eve. If people learn about the crime she covered up, they’ll never look at her the same way again. She must get her little girl back, before it’s too late. If she can’t, running away won’t be an option. This time, Eve will face the consequences, and pay the price she should have paid years ago…
The Other Husband
One dinner party will destroy everything.
The night that throws a wrecking ball into Abby’s life starts out perfectly at first. There’s still a hint of summer sun in the purple-streaked sky. Abby and her best friend, Sienna, look on fondly as their two husbands laugh under the garden gazebo. None of them know it’s the last time they will be together again.
What starts out as just a little fun, has devastating consequences for the couples. Alone with Sienna’s husband, Greg, Abby finds him unexpectedly charming. And something happens that night that neither she nor Greg can take back.
Abby is desperate to tell her husband and Sienna the truth, but can’t risk Greg sharing what he knows about her. She has no choice but to keep quiet. Then Greg suddenly disappears.
Is her best friend’s husband simply running from his secrets? Or has someone decided they can’t risk that he may share theirs?
The Warning
My little boy’s room was empty, his bed neatly made. Alarm bells should have rung immediately. Then the knock on the door came. All I remember is a thick fog wrapping itself tightly around me. This couldn’t be happening to us.
Three years ago, nurse Zoe's son Ethan was found drowned in a muddy river by their home, along with his best friend Josh. With no witnesses, their deaths were ruled a tragic accident.
Heartbroken, Zoe and her family, move away from her home. They’re just beginning to get back to some kind of normality, when, out of the blue, Zoe receives an anonymous email:
You need to find out the truth about what happened to your son. Don’t let this rest. Don’t believe the lie.
Shaken, Zoe starts an obsessive hunt for the truth. But why is her husband so reluctant to help?
And why is Josh’s mother so determined not to believe her?
Silent Lies
‘Your husband didn’t kill himself.’
Five years rebuilding your life. Five words will destroy it again.
Mia Hamilton lived the perfect life with her husband, university teacher Zach, and their two-year-old daughter. But everything changed when Zach committed suicide on the same night one of his students vanished.
Five years later, just when Mia is beginning to heal, stranger Alison walks into her life, saying her husband didn’t kill himself.
Fragile, slight Alison leads Mia on a path into Zach’s past, and Mia begins to think she never really knew her own husband. As the secrets revealed get darker, Alison becomes harder to read, and Mia starts to wonder – why is Alison so keen to help?
And then a piece of the puzzle appears in an impossible place, and Mia has to ask, is she losing her mind, or should she be afraid for her life?
While You Were Sleeping
Yesterday your life was perfect. Today you’ll find out that was all a lie.
Tara Logan adores her perfect little family: husband, Noah, and two children, teenager Rosie and eleven-year-old Spencer.
But her happiness is shattered when she wakes up one morning in her neighbour’s bed, with no memory of how she got there or what happened between them. And worse – he has been stabbed to death.
Convinced she didn’t kill Lee and scared of losing everything she cares about, Tara flees home and stays silent, holding her breath as the investigation grips the neighbourhood.
But as her daughter spirals out of control, and her husband becomes increasingly distant, Tara starts to wonder if someone in her life knows what really happened that night. When the police turn their questions towards her, Tara realises she has to find out.
But what will it take to uncover the real story, and can she survive the truth?
The Girl You Lost
Eighteen years ago your baby daughter was snatched. Today, she came back.
Eighteen years ago, Simone Porter’s six-month-old daughter, Helena, was abducted. Simone and husband, Matt, have slowly rebuilt their shattered lives, but the pain at losing their child has never left them. Then a young woman, Grace, appears out of the blue and tells Simone she has information about her stolen baby. But just who is Grace – and can Simone trust her?
When Grace herself disappears, Simone becomes embroiled in a desperate search for her baby and the woman who has vital clues about her whereabouts. Simone is inching closer to the truth but it’ll take her into dangerous and disturbing territory. Simone lost her baby. Will she lose her life trying to find her?
The Girl With No Past
Years spent running from your past. Today it catches up.
Leah Mills lives a life of a fugitive – kept on the run by one terrible day from her past. It is a lonely life, without a social life or friends until – longing for a connection – she meets Julian. For the first time she dares to believe she can live a normal life.
Then, on the fourteenth anniversary of that day, she receives a card. Someone knows the truth about what happened.Someone who won’t stop until they’ve destroyed the life Leah has created.
But is Leah all she seems? Or does she deserve everything she gets?
Everyone has secrets. But some are deadly.
The Lying Wife
(previously The Stranger Within)
Be careful what you wish for…
Callie has known sadness, and sometimes doubted she would ever have the life she wanted. When she meets James, also no stranger to grief, it seems as though her luck has changed. She becomes his wife, and in the process a stepmother to his two sons. Callie has finally got what she always imagined for herself.
But things don’t go to plan for Callie. She tries to get things right, but at every turn she makes mistakes. If she can only show her new family just how much she cares, perhaps everything will be okay. Yet the harder she tries, the more she fails. A split-second decision leads to her spiralling out of control, and there is no way back for Callie.
When the police arrest her for murder, the dark tale of Callie’s shocking fall from grace slowly unfolds. But how much is Callie willing to reveal about the choices she made? If those she cares for the most learn the truth, they will hate her. Will her secrets be her undoing? Or will she tell the truth, no matter the cost?
The Neighbour Upstairs
(previously Behind Closed Doors)
Every decision has a consequence…
The break-up of Olivia’s marriage is hard on all involved, but especially her nine-year-old daughter, Ellie. They attempt to build a new life, and focus on the future. But Olivia is crushingly lonely, so when her new neighbour, Michael, extends the hand of friendship, it’s all she can do to stop herself clutching at it and never letting go.
Olivia has no idea how the course of her life will be altered by that choice.
Before long, Michael and Oliva are a couple. There are some difficulties making it work – after all, both parties have emotional baggage. Doesn’t everyone keep some secrets? If only Ellie could adjust, and Michael’s erratic sister, Chloe, didn’t keep bringing drama to their door.
But Olivia doesn’t listen to the warning signs before it’s far, far too late. By the time she realises something is badly wrong with the man she’s involved with, she cannot escape. The only way out is for the truth to explode like a bomb, shattering their lives, and ensuring no one caught in the middle will ever be the same again…