'Whitehouse is a skilful, attentive writer' The Guardian BODY FOUND AT MOSELEY BOG IS KEY WITNESS IN SHOCKING CASE When 18-year-old Ben Renshaw is found dead in ancient city woodland, DCI Robin Lyons finds herself at the heart of one of the most contentious cases in Birmingham's recent history. The previous summer, at a house party spun out of control, Renshaw and his best friend Will Laurimore witnessed Alistair Heywood, son of a rich and influential local family, commit an act of shocking violence against a classmate. Their testimony resulted in Heywood's conviction - but only after a sustained and vicious intimidation campaign. Is Ben's murder now an act of vengeance from the powerful Heywood family or the beginning of a bloody new chapter that will claim lives on all sides? Or is the explanation - as the Heywoods claim - something entirely different? To find out, Robin will have to negotiate the city's networks of power and influence while walking dangerous lines of her own. For her daughter, Lennie, faces legal jeopardy, too, but protecting her may imperil the only other person Robin has ever really loved: DCS Samir Jafferi, once her boyfriend, now her boss at Force Homicide. It will also call into question values Robin has held all her life. From the bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club choice Before We Met, comes a compulsive, emotional and timely new thriller, perfect for fans of Jane Casey and Susie Steiner. 'Whitehouse is a superb storyteller, whose sleight of hand and sly misdirections have you leaping all the wrong conclusions from the outset' The Independent 'Whitehouse writes marvellously in an emotionally hypersensitive, lyrical, Maggie O'Farrell sort of way' Daily Mail

The gripping new crime thriller from the bestselling author of Before We Met and Critical Incidents Robin Lyons is back in her hometown of Birmingham and now a DCI with Force Homicide, working directly under Samir, the man who broke her heart almost twenty years ago. When a woman is found stabbed to death in a derelict factory and no one comes forward to identify the body, Robin and her team must not only hunt for the murderer, but also solve the mystery of who their victim might be. As Robin and Samir come under pressure from their superiors, from the media and from far-right nationalists with a dangerous agenda, tensions in Robin's own family threaten to reach breaking point. And when a cold case from decades ago begins to smoulder and another woman is found dead in similar circumstances, rumours of a serial killer begin to spread. In order to get to the truth Robin will need to discover where loyalty ends and duty begins. But before she can trust, she is going to have to forgive - and that means grappling with some painful home truths.

A missing girl. A murdered friend. No one left to trust. 'Seriously good suspense ... trust me, you'll need to know what happens' Lee Child 'Superb characterisation, humour and galloping plot' Susie Steiner 'This is that deeply satisfying thing, a strong, deft thriller with real depth' Tana French Detective Inspector Robin Lyons is going home. Dismissed for misconduct from the Met's Homicide Command after refusing to follow orders, unable to pay her bills (or hold down a relationship), she has no choice but to take her teenage daughter Lennie and move back in with her parents in the city she thought she'd escaped forever at 18. In Birmingham, sharing a bunkbed with Lennie and navigating the stormy relationship with her mother, Robin works as a benefit-fraud investigator - to the delight of those wanting to see her cut down to size. Only Corinna, her best friend of 20 years seems happy to have Robin back. But when Corinna's family is engulfed by violence and her missing husband becomes a murder suspect, Robin can't bear to stand idly by as the police investigate. Can she trust them to find the truth of what happened? And why does it bother her so much that the officer in charge is her ex-boyfriend - the love of her teenage life? As Robin launches her own unofficial investigation and realises there may be a link to the disappearance of a young woman, she starts to wonder how well we can really know the people we love - and how far any of us will go to protect our own.

A whirlwind romance followed by a picture-perfect marriage, Hannah Reilly seizes her chance at happiness. However, one day her husband fails to come home. The more questions she asks, the fewer answers she finds. But are the secrets that Mark has been keeping designed to protect him or protect her? And can you ever really know what happened before you met?

Those who love Girl on the Train, The Good Liar and The Widow will love this thrilling novel from acclaimed author Lucie Whitehouse 'It's very very tense, it's quite twisty and there are some really fantastic shockers in it ... I really really loved it ... It's an absolute must' Claire Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go 'Keep You Close kept me up all night long. I couldn't stop reading until I reached the final, shattering pages.' Amanda Eyre Ward They said it was a tragic accident. She knows better... The brilliant young painter Marianne Glass is found dead in her snow-covered garden, apparently from a fatal fall. Rowan Winter, once her closest friend, knows it wasn't an accident. Marianne had vertigo, paralysing vertigo. She never would have gone that close to the edge...

'Whitehouse is a skilful, attentive writer' The Guardian BODY FOUND AT MOSELEY BOG IS KEY WITNESS IN SHOCKING CASE When 18-year-old Ben Renshaw is found dead in ancient city woodland, DCI Robin Lyons finds herself at the heart of one of the most contentious cases in Birmingham's recent history. The previous summer, at a house party spun out of control, Renshaw and his best friend Will Laurimore witnessed Alistair Heywood, son of a rich and influential local family, commit an act of shocking violence against a classmate. Their testimony resulted in Heywood's conviction - but only after a sustained and vicious intimidation campaign. Is Ben's murder now an act of vengeance from the powerful Heywood family or the beginning of a bloody new chapter that will claim lives on all sides? Or is the explanation - as the Heywoods claim - something entirely different? To find out, Robin will have to negotiate the city's networks of power and influence while walking dangerous lines of her own. For her daughter, Lennie, faces legal jeopardy, too, but protecting her may imperil the only other person Robin has ever really loved: DCS Samir Jafferi, once her boyfriend, now her boss at Force Homicide. It will also call into question values Robin has held all her life. From the bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club choice Before We Met, comes a compulsive, emotional and timely new thriller, perfect for fans of Jane Casey and Susie Steiner. 'Whitehouse is a superb storyteller, whose sleight of hand and sly misdirections have you leaping all the wrong conclusions from the outset' The Independent 'Whitehouse writes marvellously in an emotionally hypersensitive, lyrical, Maggie O'Farrell sort of way' Daily Mail

A missing girl. A murdered friend. No one left to trust. 'Seriously good suspense ... trust me, you'll need to know what happens' Lee Child 'Superb characterisation, humour and galloping plot' Susie Steiner 'This is that deeply satisfying thing, a strong, deft thriller with real depth' Tana French A Birmingham house fire. A young mother dead. The main suspect? Her husband - but he's disappeared. A young woman has also disappeared but the police don't seem concerned. Desperate, her mother turns to a less official channel for help. That less official channel? Former DCI Robin Lyons. Once a high-flyer in Homicide Command at the met, she's been sacked for misconduct and forced home to Birmingham broke and disgraced. She thinks she's hit rock bottom, but she's about to learn there's much further to fall. Because the mother who died was Robin's best friend - and she will risk everything to get to the truth.