The Lies We Hide: An absolutely gripping and darkly compelling novel
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In order to save Rosie, Toni may have to break her lifelong promise to her sister… and open doors to her past she hoped would remain closed forever.
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The Pact is a chilling psychological thriller about the lies we will tell to save our children. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl, Apple Tree Yard and The Sister.
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Valentina
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When city girl Shona moves with her partner Mikey and their baby to an idyllic cottage in rural Scotland, she believes that all that lies ahead for her family is happiness.
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But with Mikey working long hours away from home, the frightening isolation of the Scottish countryside begins to get to Shona. She feels lonely and trapped.
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That is, until she is rescued by a new friendship with the enchanting Valentina. Valentina enters Shona’s life like a whirlwind, bringing excitement and spontaneity to replace boredom and fear.
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Now Shona has the perfect home, the perfect man, and the perfect new best friend – or does she?
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As Shona’s fairytale life begins to unravel, the deep dark wood outside becomes the least of her fears…
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From Amazon chart bestseller S.E. Lynes, Valentina is an unputdownable thriller with a twist that will take your breath away. Fans of Gone Girl, The Woman at the Window and The Wife Between Us will be gripped.
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The Women
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And later, much later, the feeling she had the night she moved in with Peter will come back to her. She will remember how ninety-nine per cent of her felt so happy, so exhilarated, so in love. She will remember a much smaller feeling, a tiny one per cent in her gut. And she will remember pushing that feeling aside…
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When Samantha first meets Peter, he takes her breath away. He is older, charming, sophisticated and represents everything she hoped she would find when she left her rural life in Yorkshire behind to come to London.
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But when their whirlwind affair turns into normal domestic life, Samantha begins to fear that all is not well. Following the birth of their baby, she feels trapped and isolated, with Peter’s behaviour seeming increasingly selfish and controlling.
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When Samantha starts to receive sinister notes – threats and suggestions that her life with Peter could be placing her in danger – she realises she needs to look back into Peter’s past to find the answers to her questions – and that she may not be the first woman to become his victim…
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You can tell the truth about your life, but someone needs to be listening. Someone needs to trust you. And someone needs to save you in time.
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The Women is an unputdownable psychological thriller for our time, a story of lies, trust and the risks women take in telling the truth.
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The Proposal
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You invited him into your life. And now you can never go back…
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Pippa wants a second chance. Recently divorced and unhappy at work, she has uprooted her life to move to a beautiful cottage in the countryside in search of a fresh start. But her new life is not working out quite as she planned.
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One night, when Pippa is at home alone, a man arrives at her front door. And Pippa invites him in, and makes him an offer she believes could change everything…
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How much of a risk would you take for a stranger?
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Does everyone deserve a second chance?
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By the time Philippa finds out the answers to these questions, it may be too late to save herself.
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From Amazon chart bestseller S.E. Lynes, The Proposal is a page-turning and utterly gripping thriller about the lengths we will go to for someone we love. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl, The Woman at the Window and The Wife Between Us.
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Acknowledgements
Firstly, I’d like to thank my publisher, Jenny Geras, for believing in this book and wanting to publish it even though it isn’t strictly speaking a psychological thriller. Really, this is much appreciated because this book has been a labour of love. Huge thanks to Emily Gowers for some great editorial advice that really helped improve the story whilst keeping it completely true to the original. Thanks to Jane Selley for her eagle-eye fine-edit expertise; to everyone who works so hard at Bookouture to turn these books around as quickly as they do; and to the amazing publicity team, Kim Nash and Noelle Holten, whose frantic social-media skills make my head ache just thinking about them.
I’d like to thank my agent, Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates, for loving Carol’s story and being so moved by it that she made me believe it in all over again.
I’d also like to thank my first agent, Teresa Chris. Teresa was the first person from the publishing industry ever to read my work, when I was a shaking hopeful at the Winchester Writers’ Festival many years ago. She read Carol and Ted’s opening scene back when the book was called Full Sentences, and asked for the manuscript. She believed in this book and in me right at the start of my writer’s journey, and without people who believe in us, where would we be? In this spirit, I would also like to thank Stephane Zia at Blackbird Digital Books, my first ever publisher, who believed in me too, who allowed me to fly (like Jonathan Livingston Seagull) and who effectively bought me some much-needed time to finish what I felt was an important story.
A huge thank you to Christine Townson, who gave me the inside track on prison chaplaincy over many conversations and who made it possible for me to spend the day inside Lancaster Castle back in the nineties when it was a prison. Thank you to all the staff at the prison at that time, to the lads who talked to me so frankly about their routines, their fears and their hopes, and to the guard who let me out again at the end of the day. Thank you to Sumaira Wilson for answering my queries, to Heather Geddes, and for checking for psychological plausibility, to Patsy Bolton, who talked me through how Graham’s struggles would conceivably manifest themselves. Thank you to those brave women all those years ago in a refuge somewhere in the UK who spoke to me so honestly about their experience of domestic violence and how they escaped. It was a humbling moment in my life that I still remember vividly almost thirty years later, and that I wanted so much to give voice to here. I hope they all went on to live in safety and peace.
Thank you to my first ever writing teacher, Sara Bailey; to my first ever writing group: Zoe Antoniades, John Rogers, Callie Langridge, Sam Hanson; to my MA writing group: Hope Caton, Robin Bell, Andrew Baird, Catherine Morris and Sam Hanson (again), who have known Carol and helped me develop her story over many years. Thanks to the MA tutors at Kingston University who advised on those very early drafts – fragments, really: David Rogers, Rachel Cusk, David Bailey and Maree Giles.
Thank you to all my wonderful readers, too numerous to mention, to those who have written to me and spoken to me at bookish events and who have reviewed my books and been so active in waving the S.E. Lynes author flag – without you lot, these stories simply don’t exist. To all the bloggers, a mahooossive shout – you know who you are and I know who you are, so thank you so much for your incredible support.
Love and thanks to my beta-reader daughter, Maddie Lynes, who gave me some super-insightful comments; to my dad, Steven Ball, for not being at all like Ted apart from the jokes; and to my mum, Cath Ball, for information on Blackpool Pleasure Beach as it was in the late sixties and, as always, for reading and rereading and telling me when something rings true and when it doesn’t. Lastly, as always, to the kind, funny Mr Susie himself, Paul, who even though I sometimes drive him bats is always gentle and always on my side, as we
ll as sorting out all the technical stuff, taking the bins out and dealing with big spiders.
Cheers all, and big love. XXX
Published by Bookouture in 2019
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An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
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www.bookouture.com
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Copyright © S.E. Lynes, 2019
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S.E. Lynes has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
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eBook ISBN: 978-1-83888-186-3
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.