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Seven deliciously dark, funny and twisted short stories from one of America’s top crime writers.EXCLUSIVE EBOOK EDITION ALSO INCLUDES A FREE EXTRACT FROM LAURA’S FORTHCOMING NOVEL THE INNOCENTS.If you haven’t discovered Laura Lippman yet, delve into these seven ingenious tales and read an exclusive extract from Laura’s latest novel The Innocents.In this short story collection we are taken back to richly drawn 1975 where we meet Sofia and her degenerate gambling father in ‘Hardly Knew Her’; and in ‘Femme Fatale’ we are introduced to sixty-eight year old Mona who suddenly finds herself in a rather surprising situation.Sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous and always filled with shocking twists and turns, expect the unexpected…If you enjoy this collection, why not try ‘The Accidental Detective and other stories’. Also available now as an exclusive ebook short story collection.

‘Addictive, suspenseful and full of dark secrets!’ Michele Campbell, Sunday Times bestselling author of It’s Always the Husband‘A chilling glimpse behind the facade of the perfect family’ Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs ParrishOne of them lied. One of them died.Jane’s life has become a haze of antidepressants since the tragic death of her daughter, Mary. The accident, which happened over a year ago now, destroyed their perfect family life forever.The trouble is, the more Jane thinks about that night, the more she realises that something doesn’t seem right. Does her youngest daughter know more than she’s letting on? What secrets is her husband still hiding from her? And why does no one trust her to be on her own?Even if it’s the last thing she does, she’ll find out the truth…Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Shari Lapena.

A witty, charming romantic comedy from the author of Clouds Among the Stars.Roberta is appalled to have to abandon her perfect life in London to return to the family home and look after her mother, who has taken breaking her hip as a sign to stay in bed all day reading romance novels. Her involvement with a married polititian may have been a direct consequence of this.When the inevitable scandal breaks, Roberta flees – and accepts a job as housekeeper to an eccentric family, and is summoned to their family home – an enormous castle in the Irish countryside.Arriving in Ireland, Roberta takes a hair-raising pony and trap ride in the driving rain to reach her destination: Curraghcourt. It is a grand and imposing castle, although it has fallen into a state of bad disrepair. And when she meets the family, Roberta begins to understand why.The owner’s wife, Violet, is lying in her room in a coma. His charming but vague sister is addicted to poetry; and his mistress Sissy has a private line to the fairies. Completing the family unit are three dysfunctional children.The novel follows Roberta's efforts to restore Curraghcourt and reform the wayward family. She quickly finds redeeming qualities in even the most infuriating characters and falls in love with the melancholy madness of the household. The wonderful cast of characters includes eccentric friends, the fiery yet sentimental neighbours, assorted hangers-on and admirers.Victoria Clayton has written an enchanting novel, a wonderful social comedy.

‘Nell Zink is a writer of extraordinary talent and range. Her work insistently raises the possibility that the world is larger and stranger than the world you think you know.’ Jonathan FranzenVirginia, 1966. The motionless deeps of the lake outside Stillwater College are being ruffled. Lee, a blue-blooded poet and professor, is determinedly fondling Peggy, an ingénue freshman with literary pretensions, in his canoe. So begins a long affair but the two are mismatched from the start.The story that follows rocks the boat in every sense. Nell Zink’s hugely entertaining, totally unique Mislaid explodes the nuclear family and topples every foundation of identity – black and white, gay and straight, “normal” and very very strange…

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and an astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.Middlesex won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Pleasure is her business. Sex is her currency… Another sexy story from Mischief Books.Climb under the covers and learn the sizzling secrets of life as a successful madam …Fresh out of college, Peach has the world at her feet. But after a series of dead-end jobs she's feeling the pressure. Until a stint as a brothel's receptionist changes her life for ever.Soon, Peach's own agency is the most successful in the city, and life is a whirl of exclusive parties and drug-fuelled orgies.Threesomes, S&M, role playing … no matter how depraved, Peach and her girls can fulfil all desires. But though business is booming, it's at a cost. Peach must protect these damaged, often desperate girls from violent clients as well as the cops.Then Peach meets the love of her life and falls pregnant. She craves a normal life, a family – but can she reconcile a life in suburbia with the demands of her trade …?And does she really want to?

What if you could sleep with anyone in the world, just by thinking about it?Michael Blasco, a young scientist, is waiting for the train when he spies a friend he fancies. Idly, he imagines Tony naked and an extraordinary thing happens – Tony strips there and then on the platform and offers himself in front of all onlookers. Horrified, Michael flees. But back home, Tony magically reappears. Then disappears, when Michael wishes him away.Michael sets out to test the parameters of his new-found gift, rapidly calling up Billie Holiday, Johnny Weismuller, Lawrence of Arabia, Alexander the Great, Picassao, and even his younger self. The world is there for the taking and Michael runs the gamut of his fantasies. But what does he really want?

“All families got secrets, but Joy’s had more than their fair share. So while I’m able to tell you what she did, ain’t no use me pretending that I know why … they was just born under bad moons.”This is the story of Joy Bang and her sisters, three singers who dream of a glittering future that briefly, too briefly is theirs. When Joy dies unexpectedly, the floodgates of Baby Palatine’s memory are opened. Foster mother to the sisters from their childhood, she remembers the hopes and dreams which fuelled their meteoric rise. But as the family gathers for the funeral, Baby is forced to acknowledge that as well as the Joy she loved and worshipped, there was another Joy she had never known …A compelling story of jealousy and love, tragedy and deception, and of growing up black in a white world, this is Marsha Hunt’s powerful first novel.

Olivia Goldsmith – bestselling author of The First Wives Club – delivers her best revenge novel to date.The best way to beat the system is from the inside…Meet Jennifer – a smart, sexy woman who has broken through the glass ceiling to become a big-time trader in the world of high finance. When her boss is caught playing fast and loose with the regulations, Jennifer agrees to take the rap. After all, her fiancé is a lawyer with the connections to get her off.Instead, she ends up in a women's prison; a world a whole lot meaner than Wall Street and where her designer clothes and fancy education count for nothing. She has to learn fast if she wants to survive and she does, once she is accepted by the prison's top 'crew'; a group of smart, strong, scary women led by tough lifer Movita and crazy Cher. These are women that Jennifer would never, ever, have befriended on the outside, but on the inside she soon discovers that working together is the only way out…

Sunday Times bestselling author, Kathleen Tessaro returns with a stunning new novel that will be a big hit with fans of her debut success EleganceIt's 1987 and Evie is leaving home for the first time, headed for London to study acting. Along with her fellow students and roommates, Imogene (a born again Laura Ashley poster child and frustrated virgin) and Robbie (native New Yorker, budding bohemian, and very much not a virgin), Evie's determined to make her mark both on stage and off.But then life and love, in the shape of struggling rock musician Jake Albery, intervene. And everything changes.Fourteen years later and Evie's stuck. She's now a single mother teaching drama classes, her dreams long since abandoned. Robbie's dead, killed in car accident and Imo's lost touch.Then a friendship from the past comes to haunt Evie. Literally. And suddenly everything is about to change again.

SHORT-LENGTH NOVELLA exclusive on EBOOK only. Drama, heartbreak, redemption – condensed into an unputdownable novella from the master storyteller.On the surface, Claire Saunders has it all. She has a rewarding career in fashion and a talented concert pianist daughter. Her loving husband is one of the country’s most trusted diplomats..She thinks she’s hidden her secret from her best friends, but they know her too well.Can her friends get her out of harm’s way and protect her from a man who is as ruthless as he is charming and powerful? And along the way, can Claire learn to stop protecting the wrong people?