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A terrible accident. A secret discovered. An inescapable nightmare. Who needs enemies with friends like these? The unnerving new novel from the acclaimed author of LULLABYEn route from ending a destructive love affair, TV producer Maggie Warren is involved in a freak accident. Lucky to escape with her life, Maggie's further disturbed to discover she's now front-page news. When invited to discuss her trauma on a chat-show, Maggie comes face to face with fellow survivor, the beautiful but damaged Fay Carter – fame-hungry, needy and now apparently infatuated.One by one the tentacles of Maggie's past mistakes seem to be reaching inexorably into her future. Her compromised career is catching up with her, ex-boyfriend Alex just won't take no for an answer – but worse, the secret Maggie has tried so hard to bury is coming back to haunt her.When Maggie's flat is ransacked, she refuses to believe it's a coincidence. Now Maggie's clutching onto sanity for dear life, but she's horribly aware that one final push might send her over the edge…or is that exactly what someone wants?

A woman of desire, a legacy of deceit, a fortune worth killing for. An opulent intricate, sizzling novel, Elements of Chance fulfils ever woman’s fantasy.Hauntingly beautiful, talented pianist Valerie Penn is one of the world’s wealthiest women, the pampered wife of banker Victor Penn, and the mother of their two children. Her life is a whirl of private jets; charity balls; mansions in London, New York, Paris and Beverly Hills; priceless antiques; endless passionate love; and gifts beyond imagining … a stunning diamond necklace “just because it’s Tuesday and I love you.”But the mystery of her past continues to haunt Valerie. who is she and who are her real parents? A shy, silver-haired child, she was lovingly raised by a couple in Hollywood. But her real mother, the beautiful starlet, remains a mystery. Why did she leave Valerie, and is she still alive?Anything Valerie wants is hers for the asking until Victor disappears in a mysterious plane crash. Suddenly torn from her privileged world, Valerie faces the hostility of the Penn family and finds herself caught in a web of rivalries, betrayal and murder. Alone for the first time, she brilliantly creates her own business and, once again, is part of the glittering world of the influential and famous, this time on her own terms … through her own effort. Finally believing Victor to be dead, Valerie is about to remarry when her fiancé is murdered and her son is kidnapped, driving her to find the answers to the mysteries still clouding her life.As she unravels the intrigues of the powerful Penn family, Valerie’s search brings her to the steaming jungles of South America, where she faces her past and opens the door to a new future.

HE COULDN'T SAY NO She had a face like an angel and a body designed for sin, and she wanted him to help her disappear?Sam Zachary was a private investigator, not a magician. So he showed Laura McNeal the door to his house. Nestled in the country, he figured it would be the ideal hideout. But between the bullets flying through his kitchen window and the alluring damsel in distress seeking shelter in his arms, his embrace – his bed – his home was anything but safe. Laura had turned his ordered, lonely life upside down, and while he could live without the gunfire, he was damn sure he couldn't live without the lady.

The third powerful and evocative novel in Robert Wilson’s acclaimed West African-set Bruce Medway series.Bruce Medway, fixer and debt collector for anyone in a deeper hole than himself, has heard a few stories in his time. The one that Napier Briggs tells him is patchy, but it doesn’t exclude the vital fact that two million of his dollars have gone missing. Bruce is used to imperfect information – people get embarrassed at their own stupidity and criminality. But for the first time it leads to the gruesome and brutal death of a client.It would all have ended there but for Napier’s daughter, the sexy, sassy and sussed Selina Aguia, a canny commodities broker. She brings money to the game and launches Bruce into a savage world where a power-hungry Nigerian presidential candidate, a rich blow-loving American and a mafia capo are fighting a silent war in which pawns are badly needed. Worse for Bruce, Selina wants revenge, and with the scam she invents she looks as if she’ll get it. This is a world where blood is dirt – nobody really cares. Not even if they love you.

He could be her fantasy man – if he could just lighten up… Tall, dark and intense, Detective Jason de Sanges excites all kinds of fantasies in Poppy Calloway. But when she suggests the three teens caught spray-painting a Seattle neighbourhood be given art-related community service and he just wants to see them pay – all bets are off.With the men in his family always in and out of the slammer, Jase was raised in foster care. He knows what it takes to walk the line. And his number one self-imposed rule? Avoid his hunger for sexy, irresistible Poppy, who challenges him on everything. But it’s a vow that’s getting harder and harder to keep…

In Donald Harstand’s most compelling novel yet, Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman returns for the latest installment in this fast-paced crime series.In a rural part of Nation County the body of a dead male is discovered in a ditch, one gunshot wound to the head. A routine investigation for Carl Houseman and his team, perhaps. Except strangely there is no way of identifying him: no fingerprint records, no dental records, nothing. Enter an FBI investigator, a new face from the bureau, who suspects it is the body of a Columbian terrorist.Meanwhile, a local meat-packing plant has been accused of passing off contaminated produce. In a town straining under the pressure of mass immigration, the Jewish plant owners suspect foul play. Can there be a connection with the Columbian corpse? Houseman and FBI agent Hester Gorse chase the leads once again in another nail-biting race to discover the truth.

Desperate to escape Kingsport and its horrifying memories, Catherine Edison arranges a sabbatical in southern Ontario. Atawan seems to be a friendly village, and she and her daughter settle quite happily into a big old house there. But why was the rent so cheap? And why does everyone shun the pleasant auto mechanic who fixes her car?Anxious to keep a low profile, Catherine tries to ignore the disturbing undercurrents of Atawan, but gradually she and her daughter get dragged into the whirlpool of intrigue. For beneath its calm surface Atawan seethes with hatred and deceit, and has done so ever since the brutal murder of a local woman and the acquittal of the man the locals believe to be guilty.When Catherine and her daughter befriend the wrong people, she finds herself asking questions that somebody doesn’t want answered. Little by little her circle of inquiry tightens until Catherine finds herself at the very centre, and to find the truth, she must put her own life on the line …

‘What fun! Lisa Scottoline brings something new to the lawyer-mystery – a brilliant sense of humor. Grabs you with its intelligence, wit and energy and doesn’t let go.’ Susan IsaacsMary DiNunzio has been slaving away for the past eight years to make partner in her cut-throat Philadelphia law firm. She hasn’t got time to worry about crank phone calls and hate mail – until a sinister pattern begins to form: someone wants Mary out of the way enough to kill her. But who can she trust when everyone she knows is a lawyer?Taut, tense, fast-paced and funny, Everywhere That Mary Went was Lisa Scottoline’s first novel and earned her a nomination by the Mystery Writers of America for an Edgar Award, the equivalent of an Oscar in the suspense business.

A breathtaking novel of suspense from the co-author five No 1 James Patterson bestsellers including Judge and Jury and Lifeguard, and the hit thrillers The Blue Zone and The Dark TideA drive-by shootingA dead public attorneyA gangland vendettaFor Ty Hauck, the local detective who gets caught in the cross-fire, it seems as if inner-city violence has invaded his quiet Greenwich suburb. Or does someone just want it to appear that way?Hauck knows there is far more at stake than preliminary digging indicates – maybe stretching as far as Washington and the Senate. And everyone, from the FBI to his own family, wants him to stop looking.But Ty ignores the warnings… with devastating and explosive consequences.

A snowy mountainside. . . A starry night. . . The makings of a miracle. . .Christmas has never brought out the best in the MacDougal family. Still, year after year, they gather together in the Blue Ridge Mountains to try to make the season merry and bright. But this year is an especially strained one, with Shayne’s impending divorce, Morwenna’s slavish devotion to work and Bobby’s reluctance to face what life has to offer.They’ve never felt less like a family. Then, in the midst of a snowy sibling shouting match, a mysterious stranger appears. He could be a criminal, a madman—or something far more unexpected. Despite their fears and the growing danger in the dark woods around them, the MacDougals take a leap of faith.But when another stranger arrives on the mountainside, they don’t know which of them to believe. One of these men can’t be trusted. And one is about to bring Christmas into their hearts.

A suicide letter from a young woman with everything to live for plunges her sister into a sinister investigation – uncovering the shared past they tried so hard to conceal.In this complex mystery which will delight all fans of Robert Goddard, the horrors of the past disrupt the lives of two sisters – and of everyone who is close to them.Catriona is a well-respected academic, specialising in the Romantic Poets at a prestigious London college. Everything revolves around her work, leaving no space for personal relationships. She’s the exact opposite of her sister Flora, who enjoys a rural existence in the Cotswolds with her scientist husband and teenage daughter. Then Catriona receives Flora’s suicide letter.Catriona races to the picturesque village, but there is no body to be found. Has Flora really killed herself, or is this an excuse to vanish -and if so, why? The sisters have spent their adult lives trying to bury what happened in their childhood, but Catriona must now face a very different kind of oblivion before the truth comes out.

When the world has failed you, you need a place of safety…Hard-hitting crime from the author of Damaged Goods.The rape of a young asylum seeker plunges family care lawyer Lilly Valentine into the toughest case of her life.14-year-old Anna lives in Hounds Place, a hostel in Bedfordshire for youngsters seeking refuge from the atrocities being carried out in their homelands. A chance meeting with three public schoolboys ends in her being horrifically assaulted. When Artan, Anna's friend and a fellow asylum seeker, approaches Lilly about seeking justice through the courts she warns him that the law may not be on their side. Who will believe the words of an asylum seeker over the account of three privileged English boys? Despite this, Lilly is loath to get involved. After all, she is supposed to be putting her family and work commitments first.But Lilly quickly lives to regret that decision when Artan and Anna turn up at a school armed with guns, determined to take matters into their own hands. The day turns to tragedy and Anna is arrested. Wracked with guilt, Lilly is compelled to take on Anna's case despite the objections of her boyfriend Jack, boss, and most importantly, her own son Sam – a pupil at the school.Her decision to defend Anna attracts a huge backlash from the press and the community. And when local racist groups pick up on the story, Lilly's family and friends become a target. Can Lilly follow her conscience and defend Anna – or is this case just too close to home?