Lesley Kara

(published in the U.K. as The Rumour)

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When single mum Joanna hears a rumor at the school gates, she never intends to pass it on. But one casual comment leads to another and now there’s no going back...

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Rumor has it that a notorious child killer is living under a new identity in their sleepy little town of Flinstead-on-Sea.

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Sally McGowan was just ten years old when she stabbed little Robbie Harris to death 48 years ago—no photos of her exist since her release as a young woman.

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So who is the supposedly reformed killer who now lives among them? How dangerous can one rumor become? And how far will Joanna go to protect her loved ones from harm, when she realizes what it is she’s unleashed?

Someone knows Astrid’s darkest secret. And they’re going to have fun with it...

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It’s been 192 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes since her last drink. Now Astrid is trying to turn her life around.

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Having reluctantly moved back in with her mother, in a quiet seaside town away from the temptations and painful memories of her life before, Astrid is focusing on her recovery. She’s going to meetings. Confessing her misdeeds. Making amends to those she’s wronged.

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​But someone knows exactly what Astrid is running from. And they won’t stop until she learns that some mistakes can’t be corrected.

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Some mistakes, you have to pay for...

Come on. You’ll be fine. It’s only a game.

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Lizzie has no memory of the accident in which her best friend Alice died as a teenager. And it was an accident. Wasn’t it?

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Alice’s friends and relatives suspect Lizzie was to blame, but Lizzie knows that can’t be true. She would never have hurt Alice.

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Twelve years on, unpacking boxes in the new home she shares with her fiancé, Lizzie is finally beginning to feel like she can move on with her life.

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But someone has other ideas...

Scarlett’s aunt lived—and was brutally murdered—in the apartment upstairs. But Scarlett is determined that life should return to some kind of normal, even if that means living with just a ceiling between her and the scene of such a devastating crime. After all, this is her home. She’s safe here. Isn’t she?

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Dee is busy balancing her job as a funeral director with organizing an event to mark the disappearance of her best friend, ten years ago. So she’s got enough on her plate without worrying about the threatening messages that are appearing on her company’s Facebook page.

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When Scarlett approaches Dee about planning her aunt’s funeral, an unexpected link between them emerges. Together, the two women could uncover secrets that have long been buried. Even while someone wants to stop them digging...

Marlow has always lived in unusual places. But when she accepts a position as a live-in property guardian, she finds herself moving somewhere she swore she’d never return to. Right from the start, she knows it’s a terrible mistake. The elegant Victorian school is due to be turned into luxury apartments, but its eerie, empty corridors are full of Marlow’s worst memories. And now something sinister is happening on the site. One of the other tenants has disappeared without warning, and Marlow suspects that the nine other guardians know far more than they’re letting on. She’s determined to find out what happened to the missing woman—but which of these strangers can she trust?