by Carla Kovach
Anything can happen behind closed doors…
The gripping new novel from the author of bestseller THE NEXT GIRL. Her Final Hour will have you hooked!
Melissa Sanderson is the perfect wife and mother. She dotes on her daughter, and lives in her dream home in a quiet cul-de-sac in the suburbs.
But looks can be deceiving.
Something is amiss in that house – all the neighbours think so. Some say Melissa is having an affair. Others say she’s been drinking too much.
Then one night, sirens wake up the whole neighbourhood.
Melissa Sanderson is dead.
AN ABSORBING THRILLER WITH AN ENDING YOU WON’T SEE COMING – if you like Lisa Gardner, Robert Bryndza or Clare Mackintosh, you’ll love this absolutely heart-stopping thriller from Carla Kovach.
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Her Pretty Bones
Detective Gina Harte Book 3
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THE UNPUTDOWNABLE NEW THRILLER FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE NEXT GIRL
She’s just the girl he’s looking for…
A young woman falls from a vehicle speeding down a quiet road. Battered and bruised, she turns her head to the person who comes to her aid. ‘Help her’, she whispers before her eyes close.
Days later, the body of another young girl is found in a shallow grave just a few miles away. The similarities between the two girls are startling – same age, same frail body, same shocking red hair.
As the town fears there’s a serial killer living amongst them, Detective Gina Harte must put aside her own struggles at home, and catch the killer before he finds another perfect girl.
AN ABSOLUTELY HEART-STOPPING CRIME THRILLER FROM CARLA KOVACH – if you like Lisa Gardner, Robert Bryndza or Clare Mackintosh, Her Pretty Bones will have you hooked.
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The Liar’s House
Detective Gina Harte Book 4
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Samantha stumbled out of the party and on to a busy street only ten minutes away from her home. But she never made it home…
Seven years after Samantha’s disappearance, on what would have been her thirty-fifth birthday, her best friend Diane is shocked to find a letter addressed to Samantha on her doorstep.
Opening the envelope, Diane pulls out a birthday card and a finger nail painted in dusky pink nail polish. The same shade Samantha always wore. The same shade she was wearing the night she went missing.
When police analyse the nail, they don’t get the result they expected. Instead of linking them to Samantha, the nail belongs to another woman, Jade Ashmore. And Jade was murdered the night before the envelope was delivered…
THE COMPLETELY ADDICTIVE NEW CRIME THRILLER FROM BEST SELLING AUTHOR CARLA KOVACH – if you love Lisa Gardner, Robert Bryndza or Clare Mackintosh, you’ll love The Liar’s House. Gripping from the first page – you won’t be able to put it down.
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Her Dark Heart
Detective Gina Harte Book 5
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Rory is waiting at the door of the pre-school – a painted picture of his mother Susan in his small hand. But Susan isn’t going to see the picture, because she has vanished.
Susan Wheeler is a devoted mother. She would do anything for her three children. She drops them off and picks them up every single day. Until one day when Susan kisses them goodbye and then never comes to pick them up.
Susan’s mother Mary is worried. Susan is recently divorced and has been finding things hard recently, but she loves her kids – she’d never leave them.
Susan’s sister Clare is furious. It’s just like her to go missing. It’s not the first time, either. Susan has always been a troublemaker. Always seeking attention. She knows Susan has been lying to the family for years. And she knows that Susan has been sneaking out of her family home for weeks…
As the hours turn into days, even Clare becomes fearful for Susan. And, when Mary discovers Susan’s diary, she begins to uncover a dark secret from her childhood. Something no one in the family knew. When the final diary entry leads the police to a man who is discovered dead in a local park, they’re left wondering whether Susan has vanished because she is a victim. Or because she is a suspect…
An explosively compelling crime thriller from bestselling author Carla Kovach – if you love Lisa Gardner, Robert Bryndza or Clare Mackintosh, you’ll love Her Dark Heart.
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Her Last Mistake
Detective Gina Harte Book 6
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Dressed in a sage green bridesmaid dress, and smiling for pictures, Holly is the happiest she’s ever been. Hours later, Holly is dead.
People love to hate Holly Long. Smart, beautiful and a woman who men find it hard to say no to, she’s the town’s most gossiped about resident.
Now Holly’s body lies in her hotel room, strangled at her best friend’s wedding party. And the gossip has stopped, because nobody wants to look like they did it.
When police search Holly’s immaculate apartment, amongst her stylish furnishings and expensive jewellery, they discover a different side to Holly. Orderly and precise, she wasn’t the chaotic party girl everyone thought her to be. In fact, Holly was a planner, and her next plan was to come out and tell her biggest secret – something she had been hiding for months, something that had the potential to ruin the lives of more than one wedding guest.
There are plenty of people who might have wanted to kill Holly, but only one who has finally made good on their promise.
An unputdownable crime thriller with an ending you will never see coming, this is the latest gripping novel from bestselling author Carla Kovach. If you like Angela Marsons, Cara Hunter and Clare Mackintosh, you’ll love Her Last Mistake.
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Their Silent Graves
Detective Gina Harte Book 7
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Dressed in garish Halloween costumes, two teenage girls run through a patch of dense woodland towards the outskirts of town. But before they can reach the safety of the streets beyond, they make a shocking discovery.
Following a piece of old rope, the girls find a large mound of freshly laid earth, undisturbed in the darkness of the trees. Clawing at the ground beneath them, they make contact with something solid. When they realise what they’ve discovered, the silence is broken by their piercing screams as they stare down at the shallow grave.
Without looking back, they run as fast as they can, failing to spot the person nearby watching their every move…
And when another grave is found just days later, it’s clear a serial killer is praying on the small town. But who is the killer watching now? And when will another grave be filled?
If you like Angela Marsons, Cara Hunter and Clare Mackintosh, you’ll love this heart-racing thriller from bestselling author, Carla Kovach. With gripping suspense and a twist you won’t see coming, Their Silent Graves will have you hooked from page one.
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Acknowledgements
Behind every book there is a team of professionals that make it the success that it is. It begins as an idea, then it’s a synopsis, then a draft. After that, it’s polished and edited, and the cherry that is a book cover and description is added to the top. There’s so much going on behind the scenes and everyone involved is amazing at what they do. I’m hugely grateful to write for Bookouture and appreciative of everything that the Bookouture team do.
My editor, Helen Jenner, is amazing! I always feel so lucky to be working with her and the edits that she gives me elevate my writing to its full potential. I really think she’s superwoman as I don’t know how she does all this so quickly and is so brilliant in what she says. Helen, hugest thank you for everything. I couldn’t do it without you!
Kim Nash, Noelle Holten and Sarah Hardy – thank you! They are behind the brilliant Bookouture publicity team and they work tirelessly. I’m hugely grateful for everything they do and I don’t know where they get the never-ending stream of energy
from. They’re always there to chat, they’re there on publication day and always waving the flag for our books at all other times.
There is also something else that’s really special about being a Bookouture author and it’s the support we give each other. I love being a part of the Bookouture family. It’s absolutely awesome. Thank you so much for everything. Thanking authors doesn’t stop with the Bookouture family, though. I’m friends with so many and they’re an amazing group of fabulous people. I’m really grateful to be a part of this hugely supportive author club and some days, I feel like it’s a dream. Well, it’s a dream come true.
Bloggers and reviewers are amazing. Huge thanks to everyone who takes the time to read my work and then review it. I’m touched that so many people give my work a mention, write blog posts about my books or share news of my book releases. All this takes time and I’m grateful that some of their precious time is given to me. I’d like to say a huge thanks to The Fiction Café Book Club (group) on Facebook. The amount of support they’ve given to me and other authors is heart-warming. They’re a group that are in love with books, reading and book discussion. I feel at home when I’m chatting away with them both as an avid reader and an author.
I’m lucky to have DS Bruce Irving as a friend and I’d like to thank him for answering all my questions on policing matters. If you find any errors they are my own or down to artistic licence. Another professional I’m grateful to is my other good friend Samantha Warren who works with the New Road Parents Support Group, for her advice on one of my characters. Thank you massively to Bruce and Sam.
My beta readers, Vanessa Morgan, Brooke Venables, Derek Coleman, Su Biela and Anna Wallace are lovely people and most of them are writers too. I’m grateful to have you all in my support group. We’ve all been friends for a long time and to have that bond is special. Thank you.
Book covers are immensely important and I have Toby Clarke and Helen Jenner to thank for mine, from coming up with the concept to the final cover design. I love all my covers and feel they represent the content of my books in the best possible way. I’m bowled over by how striking they look and this one is no exception.
It’s always lovely to be contacted by Peta Nightingale in contracts and rights, huge thank you for everything you do.
Lastly, thank you to my husband, Nigel. He sees me when I’m nervously working through edits, when I’m flapping over a storyline niggle, when I’m panicking that no one will like my latest book and he often supplies me with coffee when I’m racing for a deadline. I’m hugely grateful for all his support and patience.
All in all, I feel really lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. Thank you!
We – both author and publisher – hope you enjoyed this book. We believe that you can become a reader at any time in your life, but we’d love your help to give the next generation a head start.
Did you know that 9% of children don’t have a book of their own in their home, rising to 13% in disadvantaged families*? We’d like to try to change that by asking you to consider the role you could play in helping to build readers of the future.
We’d love you to get involved by sharing, borrowing, reading, buying or talking about a book with a child in your life and spreading the love of reading. We want to make sure the next generation continues to have access to books, wherever they come from.
Click HERE for a list of brilliant books to share with a child – as voted by Goodreads readers.
Thank you.
*As reported by the National Literacy Trust
Published by Bookouture in 2021
An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Carla Kovach, 2021
Carla Kovach has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
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.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-83888-867-1
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.