A Zailer & Waterhouse Mystery Series

“Another example of Hannah’s mastery.” —Booklist (starred review)

A thrilling locked room mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie

He swore he was a killer. The truth was worse.

An overnight plane delay is bad.

Having to share your hotel room with a stranger is worse.

But that is only the beginning of Gaby Struthers’ problems.

Gaby has never met Lauren Cookson before. So how does Lauren know so much about her? How does she know that the love of Gaby’s life has been accused of murder? Why is she telling her that he is innocent? And why is she so terrified of Gaby?

“Brilliantly executed psychological suspense” (Booklist, starred review) from the bestselling author of The Wrong Mother

When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a desperate last resort, she doesn’t expect that anything much will change.
 
She doesn’t expect it to help with her chronic insomnia.

She doesn’t expect to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: ‘Kind, cruel, kind of cruel’ – words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where.

She doesn’t expect to be arrested two hours later, as a result of having spoken those words out loud, in connection with the brutal murder of Katharine Allen, a woman she’s never heard of . . .
 
Kind of Cruel is the 7th book in Hannah’s acclaimed Zailer & Waterhouse series. Charlie and Simon have just gotten married, but domestic bliss is proving rather illusive, not least because Charlie ends up in Simon’s investigation as a witness. Charlie’s sister Liv is still sleeping with Gibbs, making Simon’s work life complicated and irritating Charlie to no end. And Simon’s boss and adversary, The Snowman, is still being generally horrible. Featuring all the Spilling PD characters fans know and love, Sophie Hannah’s trademark dark, twisty plot will keep readers guessing until the very end.

The latest psychological thriller from the internationally bestselling author of The Wrong Mother and The Cradle in the Grave
It’s past midnight, but Connie Bowskill can’t sleep. To pass the time, she logs on to a real estate website in search of a particular house, one she is obsessed with for reasons she’s too scared to even admit to herself. As she clicks through the virtual tour, she comes across a scene from a nightmare: a woman lying facedown on the living room floor in a pool of blood. But when she returns to show her husband, there is no body, no blood—just a perfectly ordinary room, with a perfectly clean beige carpet.
The sixth book in Sophie Hannah’s beloved Zailer and Waterhouse series, The Other Woman’s House offers unforgettable suspense and a heart-stopping conclusion that Ruth Rendell and Tana French fans will love.

“A perfectly executed psychological thriller” (The Guardian) from the internationally bestselling author of The Wrong Mother and The Other Woman’s House Television producer Fliss Benson is surprised to discover that her superstar boss, Laurie Nattrass, is stepping down from his post. She’s even more surprised that he asks her to take over his documentary about crib-death mothers wrongly accused of murder. Thanks to Laurie’s advocacy, three women are now free, while the doctor who testified against them is under investigation for misconduct. Then one of the mothers is found dead. In her pocket is a card with sixteen numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four- exactly like the anonymous card Fliss has just received in the mail.The fifth book in Sophie Hannah’s beloved Zailer and Waterhouse series, The Cradle in the Grave combines the puzzle of a Golden Age mystery with a masterful tale of psychological suspense that Tana French and Laura Lippman fans will love.

A heart-stopping novel of psychological suspense from the internationally bestselling author of The Wrong Mother and The Other Woman’s House

Ruth Bussey once did something wrong – horribly wrong – and was nearly destroyed by her punishment. Now, she has tentatively rebuilt her life and unexpectedly found love with a man named Aidan Seed. But Aidan also has a secret, and one day he confides in Ruth: years ago, he killed a woman named Mary Trelease. Ruth’s initial horror turns to confusion when she realizes that she knows Mary Trelease, and Mary is very much alive. So why does Aidan insist that she’s dead?  The fourth book in Sophie Hannah’s beloved Zailer and Waterhouse series, The Dead Lie Down is a sophisticated, addictive page-turner that will appeal to fans of Laura Lippman and Tana French.

A chilling, compulsively readable novel of psychological suspense from the author of Little Face and The CarrierSally Thorning is watching the news with her husband when she hears a name she never thought she’d hear again: Mark Bretherick.

It’s a name she shouldn’t recognize. Last year, a work trip Sally had planned was canceled at the last minute. Desperate for a break from juggling her job and a young family, Sally didn’t tell her husband that the trip had fallen through. Instead, she treated herself to a secret vacation in a remote hotel. While she was there, Sally met a man—Mark Bretherick. All the details are the same: where he lives, his job, his wife Geraldine and daughter Lucy. Except that the photograph on the news is of a man Sally has never seen before. And Geraldine and Lucy Bretherick are both dead…

With the international bestseller Little Face, Sophie Hannah established herself as a striking new voice in psychological suspense. The Wrong Mother, a riveting exploration of a mother’s unspeakable betrayal, confirms her reputation as a master of the form. 

Praise for Sophie Hannah:

“What does motherhood mean? What should a mother do if her child is in danger? . . . It’s those choices and their consequences that make Little Face compelling.”—The Washington Post

“As . . . Agatha Christie gleefully trampled on that sacrosanct rule of the mystery novel to ‘play fair with the reader,’ the power this novel packs derives from narrators who play fast and loose with what they know. . . . The solution is a stunner.”—The Boston Globe

“Spine-tingling.”—Romantic Times (top pick)

“A tautly claustrophobic spiral of a story.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Clever and original. . . . She has a brilliant new career ahead of her.”—BookPage

“A splendid crime-psychological thriller. . . . A book so well-plotted and so well-written deserves to have its surprises kept intact.”—St. Louis-Post Dispatch

“Riveting reading.”—Mystery Scene

A serial rapist relies on successful career women’s shame to insulate him from punishment. Then one of them sets out to find her missing lover, a married man, and in so doing exposes a sinister plot.

Sophie Hannah is an award-winning, best-selling poet in England. Her previous psychological thriller, Little Face, was an acclaimed bestseller in the United Kingdom, as was Hurting Distance.

"A superbly creepy, twisty thriller” (The Times (London)) by the internationally best-selling author of The Other Woman’s House and The Wrong Mother

Naomi Jenkins knows all about secrets: three years ago something so terrible happened to her that she’s never told anyone about it. Now, Naomi has another secret: her relationship with the unhappily married Robert Haworth. When Robert vanishes without explanation, Naomi knows he must have come to harm. But the police are less convinced, particularly when Robert’s wife insists he is not missing. In desperation, Naomi decides that if she can’t persuade the detectives that Robert is in danger, she’ll convince them that he is a danger to others. Naomi knows how to describe the actions of a psychopath; all she needs to do is dig up her own traumatic past.The second book in Sophie Hannah’s beloved Zailer and Waterhouse series, The Truth-Teller’s Lie is a chillingly smart suspense novel sure to appeal to fans of Tess Gerritsen and Gillian Flynn.

A new mother in rural England comes home a baby she swears is not her own in this first chilling installment in the Zailer & Waterhouse detective mysteries.

“Superb . . . good, old-fashioned spine-tingling stuff, but also a fine modern thriller.” —The Times (London)

The first time she goes out after their daughter is born, Alice leaves the two-week-old infant at home with her husband, David. When she returns two hours later, she insists that the baby in the crib is not her child. Despite her apparent distress, David is adamant that she is wrong.

The police are called to the scene. Detective Constable Simon Waterhouse is sympathetic, but he doubts Alice’s story. His superior, Sergeant Charlie Zailer, thinks Alice must be suffering from some sort of delusion brought on by postpartum depression. With an increasingly hostile and menacing David swearing she must either be mad or lying, how can Alice make the police believe her before it’s too late?

A creepy, fast-paced psychological thriller from the author of The Wrong Mother and The Other Woman’s House

It’s every mother’s worst nightmare. When Alice Fancourt leaves her newborn daughter at home with her husband for the first time, she comes home to a horrifying discovery: her child has been swapped with another baby. In near hysterics, Alice rushes to call the police, but soon discovers that no one, not even her husband David, believes her. When the police arrive, Detective Simon Waterhouse is drawn to the lovely Alice but doubts her story and suspects that she is suffering from postpartum depression. Meanwhile, David is growing increasingly hostile and Alice begins to fear that her baby’s disappearance may be linked to his first wife’s untimely death. Can Alice convince the police before it’s too late?

The first book in Sophie Hannah’s acclaimed Zailer and Waterhouse series established her as a new master of psychological suspense. For fans of Tana French and Tess Gerritsen, Little Face is a chilling look at the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her child.