A nail-biting domestic thriller from Patricia MacDonald. Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, T.M. Logan, B.A. Paris, Liane Moriarty, Claire Dyer, Sam Carrington and Celeste Ng.
One phone call changes everything. Eden's mom is dead in what looks to be a murder-suicide. She wasn't perfect but Eden can't believe she could be a killer. But if her mom didn't do it, who did?
"Unsettling . . . filled with deep compassion." - PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY
Following a whirlwind romance with an old acquaintance she bumped into at a high-school reunion, pregnant Dena Russell has moved back to her small hometown to start a new life with horse breeder Brian Riley. But something isn't right. As Brian's behavior grows increasingly disturbing, Dena flees her new home, finding refuge with an old school friend. Then the bloodstained, battered body is found, and Dena is forced to think the unthinkable: Could the father of her unborn child be a coldblooded killer? And, if so, how can she and her baby escape his clutches?
'I have to tell you something. I did something bad.'
Fifteen years ago, Blair's best friend Molly was murdered.
Fifteen years ago, Adrian Jones went to prison for it.
Fifteen years ago, the real killer got away with it.
And now, Blair's terminally ill sister has made a devastating deathbed confession, which could prove that the wrong man has been imprisoned for years - and that Molly's killer is still out there. Blair's determined to find him, but the story behind Molly's death is more twisted than she could imagine. If she isn't careful enough, the killer will ensnare her and bury Blair with his secret.
Hannah, Adam and adorable young Sydney Wickes are living under assumed identities in West Philadelphia. Although she's found it hard to adjust to life in the city, at least Hannah and her family are safe and slowly beginning to build new lives for themselves. But all that changes when an unexpected tragedy throws the harsh spotlight of publicity onto the Wickes family, putting them in serious danger. Because Hannah and those she loves are hiding a dark secret in their past, a secret that has torn their lives apart. For what do you do when the person you should love the most poses the greatest threat? The Wickes' sinister family secret is destined to catch up with them - with terrifying consequences.
One morning Caitlin Eckhart receives a phone call that changes her life forever - her much-loved six-year-old stepson Geordie has disappeared from school. It soon becomes clear that someone must have deliberately taken him. Distraught, Caitlin and her husband, Noah, make an anguished public appeal for his return. But Caitlin has a secret from her past that is about to catch up with her, and as Geordie's continued absence brings her relationship with Noah to breaking point, she stands to lose everything that she loves.
"Vivid settings, realistic characters, and natural dialogue help make this one hard to put down." - Publishers Weekly
Having recently lost both her parents in a tragic car accident, Alex Woods is shocked to discover through the family lawyer that her beloved mother was keeping a secret: a baby she gave up for adoption when she had just left high school. Fresh out of graduate school and back in the suburbs of Boston where she grew up, Alex is already overwhelmed trying to figure out what to do with the family home and finding a job. But when, at last, she decides to search for her long-lost sister - and finds her - Alex is in for a terrible surprise...
Laura's life is almost too good to be true. The children's books she writes are successful, her husband's art gallery is flourishing, and her son is growing up happy in their upscale town by the sea. But this New Year's Eve all that will end. On that night, Laura Reed's husband is brutally murdered. The police don't have enough evidence to arrest her, yet they think she committed the crime. And so does almost everyone she knows - except for the one man who staunchly believes in Laura's innocence. A good-looking, wealthy, widower who meets Laura by chance, Ian Turner is someone Laura feels she can trust, possibly even love. Then more and more damning revelations surface, all pointing to her guilt. Laura realizes she is being framed. And that someone very close to her is silently, secretly, and steadily pushing her to her doom...
Sweethearts since high school, Karen and Greg Newhall have lived in Bayland, Massachusetts, all their lives. They trust each other. They know their neighbors. Bayland had been the perfect place to raise their adopted daughter, Jenny. Then a young girl is found dead in the nearby woods, and everything changes. Thirteen-year-old Jenny fails to appear for the family's traditional Mother's Day lunch; Karen is frantic. And when Jenny's birth mother suddenly appears on their doorstep, both Karen and Greg are outraged. Jenny rushed to embrace the stranger and the peaceful world of the Newhalls starts to shatter, revealing cruel secrets that make Greg a prime suspect in a brutal murder...bitter secrets that make Karen doubt she knows the people closest to her...and dangerous secrets that make every member of the Newhall family the hunted prey of a ruthless killer.
Patricia MacDonald delivers the chilling story of a woman who discovers that her own eyewitness testimony about her sister’s abduction led to the conviction and execution of the wrong man–and that the real killer is still at large.
When Tess DeGraff was nine years old and on a camping trip in New Hampshire with her family, a stranger kidnapped and killed her sister Phoebe. Thanks to Tess’s eyewitness testimony, a man named Lazarus Abbott was arrested and convicted for the heinous crime. But twenty years later, a test reveals that Abbott’s DNA does not match that of Phoebe’s murderer. Driven by her fear that she may have sent an innocent man to his death, Tess and her adopted son, Erny, return to the New Hampshire town in which it all happened years ago.
Stone Hill, New Hampshire, is still an idyllic New England town. Tess’s courageous mother, Dawn, now runs the charming Stone Hill Inn. Tess’s older brother, Jake, lives nearby with his wife, a local girl he fell in love with during the trial of his sister’s killer. While Tess’s family stands by her account of the crime, nerves are frayed throughout Stone Hill, and others in town accuse her of lying and view her as a murderer. In a race against time to untangle the truth about her sister’s murder, Tess encounters an anti—death penalty lawyer, Ben Webster, a biased police chief related to the Abbotts, and an unknown killer who has Tess and Erny in his sights.
Patricia MacDonald delivers the chilling story of a woman who discovers that her own eyewitness testimony about her sister’s abduction led to the conviction and execution of the wrong man–and that the real killer is still at large.
When Tess DeGraff was nine years old and on a camping trip in New Hampshire with her family, a stranger kidnapped and killed her sister Phoebe. Thanks to Tess’s eyewitness testimony, a man named Lazarus Abbott was arrested and convicted for the heinous crime. But twenty years later, a test reveals that Abbott’s DNA does not match that of Phoebe’s murderer. Driven by her fear that she may have sent an innocent man to his death, Tess and her adopted son, Erny, return to the New Hampshire town in which it all happened years ago.
Stone Hill, New Hampshire, is still an idyllic New England town. Tess’s courageous mother, Dawn, now runs the charming Stone Hill Inn. Tess’s older brother, Jake, lives nearby with his wife, a local girl he fell in love with during the trial of his sister’s killer. While Tess’s family stands by her account of the crime, nerves are frayed throughout Stone Hill, and others in town accuse her of lying and view her as a murderer. In a race against time to untangle the truth about her sister’s murder, Tess encounters an anti—death penalty lawyer, Ben Webster, a biased police chief related to the Abbotts, and an unknown killer who has Tess and Erny in his sights.
The affluent town of Hoffman, New Jersey, reeled in disbelief when highly esteemed physician Duncan Avery stabbed his wife Marsha to death one spring evening. The two Avery sons turned their backs on their father, but his daughter Nina never stopped believing in his innocence.
Now, 15 years later, Nina, a struggling actress in New York City, returns to Hoffman when her father is paroled and insists on re-settling there. Not only does Dr. Avery want to repair his relationships with his sons and meet his grandchildren, he claims he wants to find out who killed his wife. But neither Nina's brother Patrick, a successful investment banker with a wife and twin sons, nor Jimmy, a recovering drug addict who has adopted a new family, can bear to acknowledge their father's return.
Then, as suddenly as before, another act of violence overturns the Averys' lives. No longer certain if she can trust her family, her neighbors, or her old friends, Nina finds she can rely only on herself and a surprising new ally in her life as she searches for the truth behind crimes past and present. If she digs deep down into the secrets of her family's and her neighbors' lives she stands a chance of catching a killer before she becomes his next victim.
With psychologically perceptive characterizations, emotional realism, and a gripping story line, The Girl Next Door exposes the dark impulses and fierce passions that can rule seemingly ordinary people and showcases Patricia MacDonald at the height of her celebrated powers.
When her estranged sister, Greta, is killed in a fire, Boston news producer Britt Andersen heads straight for her sister's Vermont town where, for the first time, she meets her handsome brother-in-law, Alec Lynch, and her 11-year-old niece, Zoe, who narrowly escaped the blaze.
Surprised by the bond that she forms with Zoe, Britt stays to help her recover from the tragedy. But when she clashes with her brother-in-law, Britt begins to suspect that her sister's life was far from perfect. Then, the deadly fire is declared arson.
