A gripping, compelling psychological thriller about a cult, a fire, and the dark secrets that four young girls have carried with them but can no longer keep buried... Blue grew up in the Black House. In remotest Wales, Joseph Carillo recruited young, lonely women to join his community and adopt his erratic views. Blue's mother was one of them. But when the Black House goes up in flames, Blue escapes to freedom and never stops running. Twenty years later, when Blue's old dormmate commits suicide, Blue receives a strange call. She has been awarded sole custody of Natasha's daughter. But things don't add up. The girls haven't spoken since the night of the fire. As Blue begins to dig into Natasha's life, her suspicions take her all the way back to that fateful night...But will the truth help Blue to face her past, or will it put everyone she holds close in danger? The addictive, dark and redemptive psychological thriller you've been waiting for in 2021 - for fans of Lisa Jewell, Louise Jensen, Phoebe Morgan, CL Taylor, Cara Hunter and KL Slater. Praise for NJ MACKAY: 'Dark, gripping, unexpected. Insanely good - like, Dark Places good' ELLE CROFT 'Brilliantly plotted, tense and atmospheric' RACHAEL BLOK 'Grips you from the first line through to the nail-biting conclusion. Psychological suspense at its best' VICTORIA SELMAN 'Clever, unexpected, brilliantly plotted; I literally could not put it down' CLARE EMPSON

The autobiographical essays in The Girls in My Town create an unforgettable portrait of a family in Los Angeles. Reaching back to her grandmother’s childhood and navigating through her own girlhood and on to the present, Angela Morales contemplates moments of loss and longing, truth and beauty, motherhood and daughterhood. She writes about her parents’ appliance store and how she escaped from it, the bowling alley that provided refuge, and the strange and beautiful things she sees while riding her bike in the early mornings. She remembers fighting for equal rights for girls as a sixth grader, calling the cops when her parents fought, and listening with her mother to Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman,” the soundtrack of her parents’ divorce. Poignant, serious, and funny, Morales’s book is both a coming-of-age story and an exploration of how a writer discovers her voice.

THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER! "Remarkable debut.... [a] nearly flawless tale of loss, perseverance and redemption."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review Perfect for readers of Where The Crawdads Sing! Set in 1920s Mississippi, this debut Southern novel weaves a beautiful and harrowing story of two teenage girls cast in an unlikely partnership through murder. Ada promised herself she would never go back to the Trace, to her hard life on the swamp and her harsh father. But now, after running away to Baton Rouge and briefly knowing a different kind of life, she finds herself with nowhere to go but back home. And she knows there will be a price to pay with her father. Matilda, daughter of a sharecropper, is from the other side of the Trace. Doing what she can to protect her family from the whims and demands of some particularly callous locals is an ongoing struggle. She forms a plan to go north, to pack up the secrets she's holding about her life in the South and hang them on the line for all to see in Ohio. As the two girls are drawn deeper into a dangerous world of bootleggers and moral corruption, they must come to terms with the complexities of their tenuous bond and a hidden past that links them in ways that could cost them their lives.

Dark secrets, a devastating mystery and the games people play: the gripping new novel from the bestselling author of The House We Grew Up In and The Third Wife. You live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people's houses. You've known your neighbours for years and you trust them. Implicitly. You think your children are safe. But are they really? Midsummer night: a thirteen-year-old girl is found unconscious in a dark corner of the garden square. What really happened to her? And who is responsible? Utterly believable characters, a gripping story and a dark secret buried at its core: this is Lisa Jewell at her heart-stopping best.

“One sensational read! Wow, this one just completely blew me away. If you are looking for a brand new series to sink your teeth into, then look no further. A must read!” Once Upon A Time Book Blog, 5 stars Madison walked through the fallen snow, looking left and right. It had been Kaylee’s idea to use the trail through the forest; she said no one would follow them. But Madison lost sight of Kaylee for a moment and when she found her again she wasn’t alone… In the remote forests of Stillwater, Minnesota, you can scream for days and no one will hear you. So when the bodies of two fifteen-year-old girls are discovered frozen in the snow, Special Agent Nikki Hunt is sure the killer is local: someone knew where to hide the girls and thought they would never be found. Though Nikki hasn’t been home in twenty years, she knows she must take over the case. The Sheriff’s department in Stillwater has already made a mistake by connecting the girls’ murders to those of a famous serial killer, refusing to consider the idea that the killer could be someone from town. Then another girl’s body is found, a red silk ribbon tied in her hair, and Nikki realizes that the killer has a connection to her own dark past, and the reason she left Stillwater. Nikki is not the only person in town who wants those secrets to stay hidden. Will she be able to face her demons before another child is taken? Gripping and spine-chilling, The Girls in the Snow will make you gasp, unable to put it down until the final heart-pounding twist. Perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter, Lisa Gardner and Robert Dugoni. What readers are saying about The Girls in the Snow: “Bloody fantastic! I loved this book… I was hanging on to every word and couldn’t put the book down… full of tension and action and kept me guessing. Highly recommend this book.” Bonnie’s Book Talk, 5 stars “This is the thriller that I didn’t know I was waiting for and needed in my life until I picked it up. SO GOOD. I’m still reeling and trying to catch my breath from this highly suspenseful and emotionally charged story… I need more ASAP.” Reading in Autumn, 5 stars “Addictive. I read this in one sitting. It's unputdownable… Filled with intrigue and deceit, The Girls in The Snow is guaranteed to keep you up all night.” Lisa Regan “First time reading this author and I couldn’t put it down. Suspense that will keep you hooked until the very last page. Even when I wasn’t reading it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it… I had to see what happened.” Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars “A dagger sharp crime thriller. Highly recommended… I loved Nikki Hunt… Engaging. I never figured out what was going to happen next until I read it myself.” NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars “This is the first book in a long time that I’ve given up all household responsibilities, all TV time for and all my study time for. [I] knew nothing was going to get done outside of my day job until I finished this book, which I did in 24 hours… Fast-paced and jam-packed from start to finish.” Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars “Kept me guessing throughout… This one gets 5 stars, great series starter… a compelling mystery that had me wondering whodunit right up until the killer was revealed.” Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars “This book was fantastic! Everything about it worked… I was hooked from page one and didn’t put it down until I was done… I had no idea who the killer was until it was revealed. This is going to be a must read series!” Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars “Wow!! Stacy Green's The Girls in the Snow opens with such force… and it keeps going until the very end… this is a top 10 for me!” NetGalley reviewer, 5 star

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue and The Aviator’s Wife, a “rich exploration of two Hollywood friends who shaped the movies” (USA Today)—screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford “Full of Old Hollywood glamour and true details about the pair’s historic careers . . . a captivating ode to a legendary bond.”—Real Simple NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE It is 1914, and twenty-five-year-old Frances Marion has left her (second) husband and her Northern California home for the lure of Los Angeles, where she is determined to live independently as an artist. But the word on everyone’s lips these days is “flickers”—the silent moving pictures enthralling theatergoers. Turn any corner in this burgeoning town and you’ll find made-up actors running around, as a movie camera captures it all. In this fledgling industry, Frances finds her true calling: writing stories for this wondrous new medium. She also makes the acquaintance of actress Mary Pickford, whose signature golden curls and lively spirit have earned her the title “America’s Sweetheart.” The two ambitious young women hit it off instantly, their kinship fomented by their mutual fever to create, to move audiences to a frenzy, to start a revolution. But their ambitions are challenged by both the men around them and the limitations imposed on their gender—and their astronomical success could come at a price. As Mary, the world’s highest paid and most beloved actress, struggles to live her life under the spotlight, she also wonders if it is possible to find love, even with the dashing actor Douglas Fairbanks. Frances, too, longs to share her life with someone. As in any good Hollywood story, dramas will play out, personalities will clash, and even the deepest friendships might be shattered. With cameos from such notables as Charlie Chaplin, Louis B. Mayer, Rudolph Valentino, and Lillian Gish, The Girls in the Picture is, at its heart, a story of friendship and forgiveness. Melanie Benjamin brilliantly captures the dawn of a glittering new era—its myths and icons, its possibilities and potential, and its seduction and heartbreak. “A boffo production . . . Inspiration is a rare and unexpected gift in a book filled with the fluff of Hollywood, but Benjamin provides it with The Girls in the Picture.”—NPR “Profoundly resonant, The Girls in the Picture is at its core, an empowering and fascinating tale of sisterhood.”—Bryce Dallas Howard