Recommendations based on "The Magpies"

'Truly frightening . . . a British Silence Of The Lambs' DAILY MAIL 'A thrilling new talent' PETER JAMES OUT OF THE DARKNESS, A KILLER RISES AGAIN . . . Holly Wakefield was just nine years old when her parents were murdered by notorious serial killer The Animal. The devastating event influenced her career as a criminal psychologist and now she helps the Met Police catch the most dangerous psychopaths. But Holly's world is turned upside down when she starts discovering messages at gruesome crime scenes from the person she fears above all else. The world believe The Animal is dead, yet Holly knows he is alive and killing again - and he wants her to know. DI Bishop is the only person who trusts Holly's instinct above reason and the pair embark on a covert investigation as further murders are detected across the country. However The Animal has a more twisted game in store for Holly than they could ever have imagined. And it's one he intends to finish properly this time . . . The heart-racing new serial killer thriller in the Holly Wakefield series, perfect for fans of Robert Bryndza, Angela Marsons and Stuart MacBride. Praise for Mark Griffin . . . 'Creepy, twisted and gripping' SUN 'Mightily impressive . . . deviously plotted' DAILY MAIL 'Dark, compelling and expertly paced' M. W. CRAVEN 'Meticulously plotted . . . utterly compelling' LESLEY KARA

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL • NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR“Defiantly populated with living women . . . beautifully drawn, dense with detail and specificity . . . Notes on an Execution is nuanced, ambitious and compelling.” —Katie Kitamura, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (Editors' Choice)"A searing portrait of the complicated women caught in the orbit of a serial killer. . . . Compassionate and thought-provoking." –BRIT BENNETT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing HalfRecommended by New York Times Book Review • Los Angeles Times • Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • Esquire • Good Housekeeping • USA Today • Buzzfeed • Goodreads • Real Simple • Marie Claire • Rolling Stone • Business Insider • Bustle • PopSugar • The Millions • The Guardian • and many more!In the tradition of Long Bright River and The Mars Room, a gripping and atmospheric work of literary suspense that deconstructs the story of a serial killer on death row, told primarily through the eyes of the women in his life—from the bestselling author of Girl in Snow.Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood.Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men."Poetic and mesmerizing . . . Powerful, important, intensely human, and filled with a unique examination of tragedy, one where the reader is left with a curious emotion: hope." —USA TODAY“A profound and staggering experience of empathy that challenges us to confront what it means to be human in our darkest moments. . . . I relished every page of this brilliant and gripping masterpiece."—ASHLEY AUDRAIN, New York Times bestselling author of The Push

ON AN ORDINARY WORKING DAY…Leila Syed receives a call that cleaves her life in two. Her brother-in-law’s voice is filled with panic. He’s at his son’s nursery to pick up Max. But he isn’t there.YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE…Leila was supposed to drop Max off that morning. But she forgot.Racing to the carpark, she grasps the horror of what she has done. Max has been locked in her car for six hours on the hottest day of the year.IS ABOUT TO COME TRUE…But she’s too late.What follows is an explosive, high-profile trial, that will tear the family apart. But as the case progresses it becomes clear there’s more to this incident than meets the eye…A gripping, brave and tense courtroom drama, Next of Kin will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final, heart-stopping page.

The instant No.1 Sunday Times bestseller! The gripping and exciting first book in a brand new crime thriller series from the international sensation Karin Slaughter. *Special Collector's Edition available to the first UK print run only! Featuring a beautiful foil on board design beneath the dust jacket, make sure to pre-order your copy. Available while stocks last.* 'A thriller of breadth and depth--a powerful and gripping read' Shari Lapena 'Explosive from the very start' Cara Hunter 'This is a huge novel with an even bigger heart' Jane Casey 'Karin Slaughter is always a must read' Harlan Coben 'A dark, shocking and visceral story ... Absolutely brilliant' Janice Hallett 'Powerful, beautiful, brimming with heart and grit - an astonishing novel. I adored it' Andrea Mara *** Welcome to North Falls. A small town where everyone knows everyone. But nobody knows the truth. Emmy Clifton has lived here all her life. She thinks she knows her neighbours. She's wrong. She thinks it's just another hot summer night: a night like any other. She's wrong. When her best friend's daughter asks for help, she thinks it's just some teenage drama. She thinks it can wait. She's never been more wrong in her life. As the town ignites in the wake of the girl's disappearance, Emmy throws herself into the search. But then she realises: You never really know a town until you know its secrets. Is Emmy ready for the truth? *** 'Karin absolutely nails small town America with complex family lives filled with secrets and paranoia' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review 'Brilliant, heart-breaking, tense, disturbing and another impossible to put down' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review 'A compelling and intricately woven thriller that will keep readers hooked from start to finish' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review

The New York Times bestselling author of Elevator Pitch and master of psychological suspense returns with a riveting thriller in which the possible heirs of a dying tech millionaire are mysteriously being eliminated, one by one. “Find You First starts with a bang and ends with an even bigger one. . . . It’s the best book of his career.”  — Stephen King Tech millionaire Miles Cookson has more money than he can ever spend, and everything he could dream of—except time. He has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and there is a fifty percent chance that it can be passed on to the next generation. For Miles, this means taking a long hard look at his past . . . Two decades ago, a young, struggling Miles was a sperm donor. Somewhere out there, he has kids—nine of them. And they might be about to inherit both the good and the bad from him—maybe his fortune, or maybe something much worse. As Miles begins to search for the children he’s never known, aspiring film documentarian Chloe Swanson embarks on a quest to find her biological father, armed with the knowledge that twenty-two years ago, her mother used a New York sperm bank to become pregnant. When Miles and Chloe eventually connect, their excitement at finding each other is overshadowed by a series of mysterious and terrifying events. One by one, Miles’s other potential heirs are vanishing—every trace of them wiped, like they never existed at all. Who is the vicious killer—another heir methodically erasing rivals? Or is something even more sinister going on? It’s a deadly race against time . . .

'J.D. Barker is a one-of-a-kind writer and that's a rare and special thing. Stephen King comes to mind and Lee Child, John Sanford. All one-of-a-kinds. Don't miss anything J.D. writes.' James Patterson Murder. It's a family affair. In the midst of one of the worst winters Chicago has seen in years, the body of missing teenager Ella Reynolds is discovered under the surface of a frozen lake. She's been missing for three weeks... the lake froze over three months ago. Detective Sam Porter and his team are brought in to investigate but it's not long before another girl goes missing. The press believes the serial killer, Anson Bishop, has struck again but Porter knows differently. The deaths are too different, there's a new killer on the loose. Porter however is distracted. He's still haunted by Bishop and his victims, even after the FBI have removed him from the case. His only leads: a picture of a female prisoner and a note from Bishop: 'Help me find my mother. I think it's time she and I talked.' As more girls go missing and Porter's team race to stop the body count rising, Porter disappears to track down Bishop's mother and discover that the only place scarier than the mind of a serial killer is the mind of the mother from which he came. Perfect for fans of Helen Fields, Val McDermid and Jo Nesbo this gripping and twisted thriller will have you wondering, how do you stop a killer when he's been trained from birth? Praise for The Fifth to Die: 'J.D. Barker is a one-of-a-kind writer and that's a rare and special thing. Stephen King comes to mind and Lee Child, John Sanford. All one-of-a-kinds. Don't miss anything J.D. writes.' James Patterson 'Superbly paced, beautifully constructed evocation of evil' Daily Mail 'A gritty thriller that gets right under your skin' HEAT 'Chillingly written' Woman 'Barker spins a serpentine and sometimes gruesome tale... Sparse and cinematic, the pages fly by.' Press Association

In Spindler’s thrilling new psychological drama, one woman’s journey to recovery becomes her worst nightmare… Before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, stained-glass restoration artist Mira Gallier had it all: a thriving business doing work she loved and an idyllic marriage to the perfect man. But the devastating storm stole her beloved husband – his body swept away by floodwaters, never to be found.Now, after years of pain and turmoil, it looks as if Mira is finally on the verge of peace and emotional stability. But her life, like the magnificent windows blown to bits by Hurricane Katrina, is about to be shattered once again. And this time, it’s not a killer storm she faces, but a psychopath who will stop at nothing until he possesses her, body and soul…First, church windows that she restored are vandalized, and the priest who looked over them brutally murdered. Spray-painted across the glass are the words: He Will Come to Judge the Living and the Dead. Then, New Orleans is rocked by a terrifying chain of murders that all seem to be linked to Mira. The police, led by homicide detective Spencer Malone, are following a string of clues left by the killer on each victim – and beginning to wonder if the murderer isn’t Mira Gallier herself.As Mira begins to unravel under pressure from all sides – and fear for her life – it’s unclear whom she can trust. And when a man from her past appears out of nowhere, sparking something long forgotten in her heart, he quickly becomes the police’s new prime suspect. One by one, the people in Mira's life are targeted, until it’s clear that the killer has been saving her for last . . . and that there’s nowhere left to run.  

Pre-order THE KILL LIST in paperback now! 'Dark, tense, action-packed, and so, so clever ... I couldn't stop until the very last page. Outstanding' Andrea Mara, number one Sunday Times bestselling author of No One Saw a Thing 'Another absolute cracker. Gruesome and gritty' Liz Nugent, Sunday Times bestselling author of Strange Sally Diamond 'This is a series that just keeps on giving with thrills, danger, shocks and eeriness with a great cast of characters ... Nadine is truly a Queen of thrillers' Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Another exciting, tense, character driven and unpredictable thriller. This is such a good series I simply devoured it' Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ * * * In this room, no one can hear you scream... The Serial Crimes Unit are called in to investigate when a local pastor is found stabbed to death. As DI Henley assesses the crime scene, she discovers a hidden door that conceals a room set up for torture - and bound to the bed in the middle of the room is the body of a man. When another body is found, also tied down, Henley realises there's someone out there torturing innocent people and leaving them for dead. But why? There's nothing that connects the victims. They didn't know each other. Their paths never crossed. But someone has targeted them, and it's up to Henley and the SCU to stop them before they find another binding room... * * * Praise for Nadine Matheson 'Nadine Matheson writes sentences like roses, lovely and bristling with thorns ... Matheson's voice is exciting, urgent... and, now more than ever, vital' A.J. Finn 'There is a freshness to Matheson's writing which promises a long career' Morning Star

'An edge-of-your-seat read . . . Dark and brooding' The Lady 'Enthralling and unnervingly absorbing . . . our top holiday recommendation' Heat __ She thought she'd left the past behind. Now it's coming to find her. Hannah Brown never thought she'd have a best friend like Ellen Brecht. Ellen is everything she isn't - beautiful, daring, glamorous and fierce. Growing up together in rural Cornwall, life seems perfect. But their idyllic childhood is shattered by obsession, betrayal and, ultimately, tragedy. Hannah has tried for twenty years to forget what happened during that terrible summer. Then, one ordinary morning at work, she glimpses a woman who is identical to Ellen. Can it really be her? And has Ellen returned to forgive her - or to punish her? The thrilling novel from the bestselling author of The Secret by the Lake and The House by the Sea, winner of The Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award. __ Readers are captivated by In Her Shadow- ***** 'Full of intrigue and twists. It kept me gripped to the end.' ***** 'I finished the story feeling a bit breathless and as though I'd lived a whole other life.' ***** 'Beautifully written . . . wonderfully descriptive, I could actually smell the sea and imagine myself on the beach.'

The stunning new standalone, with a chilling edge of psychological suspense, from the No.1 bestselling author of the Will Trent and Grant County series. Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind... Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's happy smalltown family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father - Pikeville's notorious defence attorney - devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night. Twenty-eight years later, and Charlie has followed in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer herself - the archetypal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again - and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatised - Charlie is plunged into a nightmare. Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it's a case which can't help triggering the terrible memories she's spent so long trying to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime which destroyed her family nearly thirty years ago won't stay buried for ever...