KATHRYN CROFT
Bestselling Author of Psychological Thrillers
The Books
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The Wedding Guest
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I’m lying to the man I’m about to marry. I’m not the woman he thinks I am. But my secret’s safe. Isn’t it?
​I feel like the perfect bride as I drift across the beach towards my handsome new husband, the sand warm between my toes, my ivory slip wedding dress showing off my suntan. Today is the beginning of my new life. My dark past can no longer touch me.
When I reach my husband, we kiss against the perfect backdrop of the shimmering turquoise sea. The congregation clap and I turn to smile at them.
Then my smile freezes. I see him. Sitting there amongst my loved ones. An uninvited guest who knows the truth about me and the terrible thing that happened ten years ago. The man who won’t ever let me be happy.
And as he steps forward, asking for everyone’s attention, my legs buckle. I know he wants to destroy my perfect new life.
But how can I stop someone who will never let me go? And how far will I go to keep my secrets?
The Lie
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My son said he walked his girlfriend home. But now she is missing…
Our new home was meant to be a chance for us to start again, to make new friends and forget the past. And as I look around the barbeque we’ve thrown for our neighbours, I dare to dream that things will be all right. I watch my husband joking as he flips burgers and my daughter turning cartwheels on our sun-bleached lawn. And then my gaze falls on my son Jacob, and his new girlfriend Rose, in her light blue jeans and her green crop top. There is a worried expression clouding her beautiful eyes…
The next day I get a call from Rose’s mother that chills me to the bone. Rose never returned after our party.
I wake my still-sleeping son, who walked Rose home the night before, and beg him for answers. Jacob promises he saw Rose to her front door, and I know he would never lie.
But when the police find Rose’s house keys hidden in our garden and a witness claims to have seen them arguing in the street, everyone insists I can’t believe what Jacob is telling me.
I will do anything to protect my boy. But I need to find a way to make the questions stop. Because there’s something about our family that nobody can ever know. And as the search for Rose closes in, how can I keep him safe and keep our secrets hidden?
The Suspect
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My family said he killed my mother. They lied…
I was just a little girl, fast asleep in my stroller, the day my mother was killed. I don’t remember anything about the sunny day that turned so dark.
But now, twenty years later, when the man walks towards me in the shadows of an empty street, his eyes on me for just a fraction too long, a shiver goes down my spine. I recognise his face from the picture in the papers. He killed my mother.
I try to run but he wants me to listen. He says that he is innocent, that the police got it wrong, and that my family have been lying to me for years.
My father and sister tell me to stay away from him. They remind me that because of him my mother never got to tuck me in at night or ease me through my first heartbreak. My boyfriend begs me to ignore him and says he could be dangerous. But when he is found dead, I am shaken to my core. Who needed to keep him quiet?
I won’t feel safe until I find out what he wanted to tell me. And when I go to his flat and find a photo that proves he was telling the truth, I suspect that the person who killed my mother is far closer to home than I could have imagined. What dark secrets are the people I love hiding? And if I search for the truth, am I placing my own life in danger?
The Mother's Secret
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A dream come true, a nightmare that is just beginning.
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Eve wanted nothing more than to be a mother. She and her husband, Aiden, planned to have a family, but with each devastating miscarriage her hopes dwindled. When she eventually gave birth to her daughter, Kayla, it should have been the happiest time of her life. Instead, it was a waking nightmare for Eve, and one she was desperate to escape.
Now, Eve has left all that behind. She pretends that she never had a child, and keeps her secrets close. But someone knows the truth. They know that Eve told a lie, and the clock is ticking before her shocking decision is revealed. Once the story comes out, there’ll be no way out for Eve. If people learn about the crime she covered up, they’ll never look at her the same way again. She must get her little girl back, before it’s too late. If she can’t, running away won’t be an option. This time, Eve will face the consequences, and pay the price she should have paid years ago…
The Other Husband
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One dinner party will destroy everything.
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It’s a perfect evening on the night that throws a wrecking ball into Abby’s life. There’s still a hint of summer sun in the purple-streaked sky. Abby and her best friend, Sienna, look on fondly as their two husbands laugh under the garden gazebo. None of them know it’s the last time the four of them will be together again.
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Bored of their daily routine and loosened up by wine, Abby finds herself going along with Sienna’s plan for their husbands to swap homes for the night. ‘How funny would it be – just for fun. Just to live a different life for a few hours. That’s all!’
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But what starts out as just a little fun, has devastating consequences for all four of them. Alone with Sienna’s husband, Greg, Abby finds him unexpectedly charming. Inviting, even. And something happens that night that neither she nor Greg can take back.
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Abby is desperate to tell her husband and Sienna the truth, but with Greg holding another huge secret over her head, she finds herself silenced. And then the unthinkable happens. Greg suddenly disappears. Is he simply running from his secrets? Or has Abby done something terrible, in order to protect her own?
The Warning
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​You thought you knew what happened to your son. You were wrong.
Three years ago, Zoe's fourteen-year-old son Ethan was found drowned in a river by their home, along with his best friend Josh. With no witnesses, the police rule their deaths a tragic accident.
Heartbroken by the loss of her child, Zoe and her husband Jake, along with their older son Harley, move away to try and rebuild their lives. They are just beginning to get back to some kind of normality, when, out of the blue, Zoe receives an anonymous email.
The message tells Zoe the police are wrong about how her son died, and what kind of mother would she be if she let things lie?
Shaken by the message, Zoe’s world is turned upside down as she starts an obsessive hunt for the truth behind what really happened to her son and his friend. But why is Josh’s mother Roberta so determined not to believe her? And will the truth she uncovers bring her peace – or tear her life apart?
Silent Lies
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‘Your husband didn’t kill himself.’
Five years rebuilding your life. Five words will destroy it again.
Mia Hamilton lived the perfect life with her husband, university teacher Zach, and their two-year-old daughter. But everything changed when Zach committed suicide on the same night one of his students vanished.
Five years later, just when Mia is beginning to heal, stranger Alison walks into her life, saying her husband didn’t kill himself.
Fragile Alison leads Mia on a path into Zach’s past, and Mia begins to think she never really knew her own husband. As the secrets revealed get darker, Alison becomes harder to read, and Mia starts to wonder – why is Alison so keen to help?
And then a piece of the puzzle appears in an impossible place, and Mia has to ask, is she losing her mind, or should she be afraid for her life?
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While You Were Sleeping
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Yesterday your life was perfect. Today you’ll find out that was all a lie.
Tara Logan adores her perfect little family: husband, Noah, and two children, teenager Rosie and eleven-year-old Spencer.
But her happiness is shattered when she wakes up one morning in her neighbour’s bed, with no memory of how she got there or what happened between them. And worse – he has been stabbed to death.
Convinced she didn’t kill Lee and scared of losing everything she cares about, Tara flees home and stays silent, holding her breath as the investigation grips the neighbourhood.
But as her daughter spirals out of control, and her husband becomes increasingly distant, Tara starts to wonder if someone in her life knows what really happened that night. When the police turn their questions towards her, Tara realises she has to find out.
But what will it take to uncover the real story, and can she survive the truth?
The Girl You Lost
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Eighteen years ago your baby daughter was snatched. Today, she came back.
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Eighteen years ago, Simone Porter’s six-month-old daughter, Helena, was abducted. Simone and husband, Matt, have slowly rebuilt their shattered lives, but the pain at losing their child has never left them.
Then a young woman, Grace, appears out of the blue and tells Simone she has information about her stolen baby. But just who is Grace – and can Simone trust her?
When Grace herself disappears, Simone becomes embroiled in a desperate search for her daughter and the woman who has vital clues about her whereabouts.
Simone is inching closer to the truth but it’ll take her into dangerous and disturbing territory.
Simone lost her baby. Will she lose her life trying to find her?
The Girl With No Past
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Fourteen years running from your past. Today it catches up.
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Leah Mills lives a life of a fugitive – kept on the run by one terrible day from her past. It is a lonely life, without a social life or friends until – longing for a connection – she meets Julian. For the first time she dares to believe she can live a normal life.
Then, on the fourteenth anniversary of that day, she receives a card. Someone knows the truth about what happened. Someone who won’t stop until they’ve destroyed the life Leah has created.
But is Leah all she seems? Or does she deserve everything she gets?
Everyone has secrets. But some are deadly.
The Lying Wife
(previously The Stranger Within)
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Be careful what you wish for.
Callie has known sadness, and sometimes doubted she would ever have the life she wanted. When she meets James, also no stranger to grief, it seems as though her luck has changed. She becomes his wife, and in the process a stepmother to his two sons. Callie has finally got what she always imagined for herself.
But things don’t go to plan for Callie. She tries to get things right, but at every turn she makes mistakes. If she can only show her new family just how much she cares, perhaps everything will be okay. Yet the harder she tries, the more she fails. A split-second decision leads to her spiralling out of control, and there is no way back for Callie.
When the police arrest her for murder, the dark tale of Callie’s shocking fall from grace slowly unfolds. But how much is Callie willing to reveal about the choices she made? If those she cares for the most learn the truth, they will hate her. Will her secrets be her undoing? Or will she tell the truth, no matter the cost?
The Neighbour Upstairs
(previously Behind Closed Doors)
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Every decision has a consequence…
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The break-up of Olivia’s marriage is hard on all involved, but especially her nine-year-old daughter, Ellie. They attempt to build a new life, and focus on the future. But Olivia is crushingly lonely, so when her new neighbour, Michael, extends the hand of friendship, it’s all she can do to stop herself clutching at it and never letting go.
Olivia has no idea how the course of her life will be altered by that choice.
Before long, Michael and Oliva are a couple. There are some difficulties making it work – after all, both parties have emotional baggage. Doesn’t everyone keep some secrets? If only Ellie could adjust, and Michael’s erratic sister, Chloe, didn’t keep bringing drama to their door.
But Olivia doesn’t listen to the warning signs before it’s far, far too late. By the time she realises something is badly wrong with the man she’s involved with, she cannot escape. The only way out is for the truth to explode like a bomb, shattering their lives, and ensuring no one caught in the middle will ever be the same again…