‘I don’t want to say.’
She lets me go and we sit for a while, listening to the sounds of summer. There’s still a game of football going on, but there’s also a low hum in the air from someone using a lawnmower a street or three over. What is there to say? Rob is eighteen years old and he made a terrible mistake. One moment of inattention and that’s it. None of us are perfect and who’s to say that flight instinct wouldn’t have beaten out fight in the moment.
‘Owen’s on his driving test,’ Jo says.
‘Now?’
‘Right. They said he could postpone, but he wanted to go for it. What with Ethan and everything, he seemed determined to get it done.’
She stops, waits, and then adds: ‘We’ve converted the living room, so Ethan can sleep in there. We’re going to put his posters on the wall and bring down the PlayStation. He’ll be happy about being able to play on the big telly, rather than using the little one in his room.’
‘Is there any chance…?’ I don’t know how to finish the sentence.
‘Nobody knows,’ Jo says after a pause. ‘He still doesn’t have any feeling in his legs. He might be in a wheelchair for life.’
She gulps and then takes a huge breath.
‘This has been a nice detour,’ she adds. ‘But I’ve got to get to the hospital. There’s a new specialist coming in this afternoon to see Ethan and then he might be able to go home by the end of the week.’
The fact she’s by herself probably says more than it needs to about whatever’s going on with Neil. I don’t ask.
She stands and then waits as I do the same. We hug and her skin’s clammy and warm. Mine is probably the same. We move apart, looking to each other as we are now. No longer those teenagers who thought we ran this town.
‘Are you still leaving?’ she asks.
‘Yes.’
‘For good?’
I nod and Jo reciprocates. She gets it. Sometimes it’s not just people that need to be cleansed from a person’s life; it’s places.
‘It’s been nice seeing you this week,’ Jo says. ‘I wish it was different. All of it. That we could’ve seen each other without this.’
‘I know.’
‘You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends, right?’
I nod in agreement, but she’s only telling half the story. Life isn’t only defined by a collection of family and friends. Sometimes, just sometimes, it’s the wretched patch of land on which you take your first breath.
Looking for another nail-biting psychological thriller that you’ll read in one sitting? The Girl Who Came Back
is totally unputdownable and available to read NOW!
Get it here!
The Girl Who Came Back
Thirteen years ago Olivia Adams went missing. Now she’s back… or is she?
When six-year-old Olivia Adams disappeared from her back garden, the small community of Stoneridge was thrown into turmoil. How could a child vanish in the middle of a cosy English village?
Thirteen years on and Olivia is back. Her mother is convinced it’s her but not everyone is sure. If this is the missing girl, then where has she been - and what happened to her on that sunny afternoon?
If she's an imposter, then who would be bold enough to try to fool a child’s own mother – and why?
Then there are those who would rather Olivia stayed missing. The past is the past and some secrets must remain buried.
An absorbing and gripping psychological thriller that will have you holding your breath until the final page.
Get it here!
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Books by Kerry Wilkinson
Standalone novels
The Child Across the Street
After the Accident
Close to You
A Face in the Crowd
The Wife’s Secret
The Death and Life of Eleanor Parker
Last Night
The Girl Who Came Back
Two Sisters
Ten Birthdays
The Jessica Daniel series
The Killer Inside (also published as Locked In)
Vigilante
The Woman in Black
Think of the Children
Playing with Fire
The Missing Dead (also published as Thicker than Water)
Behind Closed Doors
Crossing the Line
Scarred for Life
For Richer, For Poorer
Nothing But Trouble
Eye for an Eye
Silent Suspect
The Unlucky Ones
A Cry in the Night
Short Stories
January
February
March
April
The Andrew Hunter series
Something Wicked
Something Hidden
Something Buried
Silver Blackthorn
Reckoning
Renegade
Resurgence
Other
Down Among the Dead Men
No Place Like Home
Watched
Available in Audio
After the Accident (Available in the UK and the US)
Close to You (Available in the UK and the US)
A Face in the Crowd (Available in the UK and the US)
The Wife’s Secret (Available in the UK and the US)
The Death and Life of Eleanor Parker (Available in the UK and the US)
Last Night (Available in the UK and the US)
The Girl Who Came Back (Available in the UK and the US)
Two Sisters (Available in the UK and the US)
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In July 2017, I was riding my bike on a straight road under beautiful blue skies. I’d cycled for 101 miles and was so close to home that I could actually see the building. And then, for seemingly no reason, a taxi coming the other way drove straight into me. He was turning and, for whatever reason, didn’t wait; instead smashing into my bike.
There’s lots of things I could write about the driver and what happened, but the one thing for which I will give him some credit is that he didn’t drive off. When I fell, I separated my shoulder and damaged my right knee. It was a long road back to anything approaching normality after that. I was supposed to be training for a marathon at the time.
The only positive to come from what happened is that, at some point in the days afterwards, when I was still in a sling, I wrote the words ‘What if he drove off?’ on my great big pad of ideas. It’s because of that note that The Child Across the Street exists – so I suppose I should thank that driver for one thing.
If you think that Stoneridge or The Cosmic Café sound familiar, then it might be because you’ve read one of my other books – Last Night. Both are in that. If you recognise Diane Young, then she’s in The Wife’s Secret. I like leaving these little Easter eggs throughout my work. Those are the obvious two in this, but if you spot anything else like that, email me. If you’re the first, I’ll send you something.
Thanks for reading. More from me soon.
- Kerry Wilkinson
The Killer Inside
Detective Jessica Daniel Book 1
You can lock your doors… but what if the killer is already inside?
When the body of a woman is found in a locked house, Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is called in to investigate a seemingly impossible murder. Without a key, how did the killer get in or out?
Jessica is under intense pressure to solve the case fast, but as she and her team chase down flimsy leads, she realizes this might just be the toughest case she has ever handled.
Then a second body is discovered bearing the same hallmarks as the first victim, and Jessica’s worst fears are confirmed: the hunt
is for a serial killer, and only one thing is certain: they will strike again.
Can she get to him before the body count rises? And is she prepared to put her own life in terrible danger to catch the murderer?
An intense and compelling edge-of-your-seat thriller full of twists and turns. For fans of Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott and Robert Bryndza. Discover Kerry Wilkinson’s crime series today.
Get it here.
After the Accident
The perfect holiday just became their worst nightmare…
After the accident which tore apart her family, Emma is shocked to be invited away to a beautiful Mediterranean island – but when her mother calls her out of the blue, wanting to make amends, she can’t say no.
Julius hasn’t seen his sister Emma in years. Although he can’t ever trust her again after what she did, he’s willing to put their differences aside for the sake of their elderly parents.
Despite what happened in the past, everything is going surprisingly well – days spent sipping sangria by the pool, evenings spent forcing smiles at the dinner table – until the night Julius and Emma’s father is attacked on the beach and left for dead on the sand.
She says: Nobody would benefit from our father’s death more than Julius.
He says: We all know what Emma’s capable of. And no-one knows where she was that night.
She says: He’s always been a liar.
He says: She looked me in the eye and told me she wanted our father dead.
Everyone is lying about what happened on the beach that hot summer night. And when the truth is revealed, it will be more shocking than either of them ever imagined.
A unique and totally gripping psychological thriller that will have fans of T.M. Logan and The Girl on the Train racing through the pages late into the night.
Get it here!
Close to You
I pinch the screen to zoom until I’m staring at the face of a ghost. A man with very short hair, staring directly at the camera with piercing brown eyes.
He is as he was when I last saw him: wrinkles around the corners of the eyes and a knowing smirk. That’s the expression I see when I can’t sleep.
My body tenses. It can’t be him. It’s not my ex-husband. It’s not David.
I know that better than anyone because he didn’t walk out on me.
He didn’t disappear two years ago and he’s not a missing person.
I know that for a fact because I’m the one who killed him.
A brilliantly twisty thriller which will have fans of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl absolutely gripped.
Get it here.
A Face in the Crowd
Lucy gets the same bus every day.
She hopes to get a seat to herself, tries to avoid eye contact, and, if she’s really lucky, reads a chapter of her book.
But it’s a Friday – and the bus is always crammed at the end of the week. Personal space doesn’t exist. She keeps her elbows close and clings to a pole at every juddering stop.
When she gets off, something feels different.
An envelope stuffed with thousands of pounds is in her bag.
Is it the answer to her prayers, or the beginning of a nightmare?
Because, in the end, everything has a price.
A compulsive read that will have you absolutely hooked and reading late into the night.
Order it now.
The Wife’s Secret
Charley Willis was thirteen years old when her parents were killed in their family home and she was found hiding in a cupboard upstairs.
Fifteen years later, Charley is marrying Seth Chambers. It should be the happiest day of their lives, a chance for Charley to put her past behind her, but just hours after the ceremony, she is missing.
No one saw her leave. No one knows where she is.
One thing is for certain… Seth is about to discover he doesn’t really know the woman he just married. And his nightmare is only just beginning.
A totally gripping psychological thriller that will keep you reading until the very last jaw-dropping twist.
Get it here!
The Death and Life of Eleanor Parker
‘I will never forget the night I drowned…’
Seventeen-year-old Eleanor Parker wakes up cold and alone in the river that twists through her quiet village. She remembers a hand on her chest, another on her head, water in her throat, those final gasps for air…
Her brother’s girlfriend was drowned in the same river the summer before, held under the water by an unknown killer.
Determined to unlock the mystery of what really happened that night, Eleanor can't escape the feeling that something terrible links her to the previous summer's murder. But will she discover the shocking truth, before it’s too late?
A gripping and extraordinary coming of age novel that will keep you guessing until the very end.
Get it here.
Last Night
It’s the early hours of the morning and Rose Denton wakes up behind the steering wheel of her car. She’s off the road, through a hedge and in a field.
There’s blood on the windscreen and bonnet – but it’s not hers and there’s no sign of anything or anyone she might have hit. The last thing she remembers is being in a hotel on a business trip but now she’s miles away.
Back home and her daughter’s boyfriend is missing. The last thing he did was argue with Rose over money. He left no note, no text, no clue as to his whereabouts.
The police have questions – and so does Rose’s family. But those are little compared to the ones she has for herself.
What happened last night? And, perhaps more importantly, does she really want to know the answer?
A totally addictive psychological thriller which will keep you turning the pages until the final dramatic twist.
Get it here.
Two Sisters
They told us he had been missing for nearly two days, that he probably drowned. They told us a lie.
Megan was ten years old when her older brother, Zac, went missing among the cliffs, caves and beaches that surround the small seaside town of Whitecliff.
A decade later and a car crash has claimed the lives of her parents.
Megan and her younger sister Chloe return to Whitecliff one summer for the first time since their brother’s disappearance. Megan says it’s to get her parents’ affairs in order. There are boxes to pack, junk to clear, a rundown cottage to sell. But that’s not the real reason.
Megan has come to confront her family’s past after receiving a postcard on the day of her parents’ funeral. It had a photograph of Whitecliff on the front and a single letter on the back.
‘Z’ is all it read.
Z for Zac.
A totally gripping psychological thriller that will have fans of Louise Jensen, Sue Fortin and The Silent Child absolutely hooked.
Get it here.
Ten Birthdays
There are going to be so many things I wish I could’ve told you in person, Poppy. I won’t get the chance to do that, so perhaps this is my only way…
It’s Poppy Kinsey’s birthday.
She should be blowing out candles and opening presents – but hers falls on the type of heart-wrenching, agonising anniversary she would far rather forget.
The worst day of them all. The day her mother died.
But this year is special because the person she misses most in the world has left her a set of letters, one for each of her next ten birthdays.
The Child Across the Street: An unputdownable and absolutely gripping psychological thriller Page 26