9 Books That Reveal The Dark Side Of Love
At Crime Files, we’re bucking the trend this Valentine’s Day and picking some of our favourite books that will make you glad you’re single. Whether you’re celebrating being alone or in a relationship, why not ditch the romance this weekend and instead take a walk on the darker side of love – the obsessive, scary and toxic kind!
Sandra Brown’s suspenseful and gripping new thriller Outfox will make sure you steer clear of falling in love, especially when they could turn out to be a heartless killer.
One man with multiple identities.
Eight women who vanished without a trace.
The next likely victim . . . his wife.
FBI agent Drex Easton is driven by a single goal: to outmaneuver the conman once known as Weston Graham. Over the years, Weston has assumed countless names and disguises, luring eight wealthy women out of their fortunes before they disappeared without a trace. The only common trait among the victims: a new man in their life who also vanished.
Drex is convinced that these women have been murdered, and that the man he knows as Weston Graham is responsible. But each time Drex gets close to catching him, Weston trades one persona for another. Now, for the first time in their long game of cat and mouse, Drex has a suspect in sight.
Attractive and charming, Jasper Ford is recently married to a successful businesswoman, Talia Shafer. Posing as a new neighbor, Drex attempts to get close to the couple.
This is Drex’s one chance to outfox his cunning nemesis before he murders again. But first he must determine if the desirable Talia is a heartless accomplice . . . or the next victim.
Jenna thought she had the perfect life: a loving fiancé, a great job, a beautiful home. Then she finds her stepdaughter murdered; her partner missing.
And the police think she did it . . .
Jenna knows she didn’t do it. But she is running out of time to prove it. Locked up to await trial, surrounded by prisoners who’d hurt her if they knew what she’s accused of, certain someone close to her has framed her, Jenna knows what she needs to do:
Clear her name
Save her baby
Find the killer
But can she do it in time?
Angela Clarke’s On My Life is a heartbreaking, compulsive thriller with a killer twist!
The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton
“I want a happily-ever-after…and you’re going to give it me.”
Readers have found Juliette – the protagonist of Karen Hamilton’s The Perfect Girlfriend – ‘obsessed and delusional’, ‘truly the most psychotic girlfriend’ and ‘completely unhinged…but you just can’t help rooting for her’. Meet her for yourself.
Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise – she’s just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems…
Alison drinks too much. She’s neglecting her family. And she’s having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle.
‘Glittering and fierce . . . a glorious bonfire of a marriage thriller’ Irish Times
“There’s something I have to explain, my love,” he says, taking your hand in his. “That wasn’t a dream. It was an upload.”
Abbie wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. The man by her side explains that he’s her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative startups. He tells Abbie she’s a gifted artist, a doting mother to their young son, and the perfect wife.
Five years ago, she suffered a terrible accident. Her return from the abyss is a miracle of science, a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that has taken him half a decade to achieve.
But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives – and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together for ever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?
A perfect love story leads to the perfect crime. . .
It seemed like such a beautiful marriage…
Maddie and Ian’s love story began with a chance encounter at a party, while she was a travel writer visiting her best friend, Jo. Now, almost two decades later, they are married with a beautiful son, Charlie, and living the perfect suburban life in middle America.
But when a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending writing therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian, her concerns for the safety of their young son and the couple’s tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.
Following their story across the globe, sixteen years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in a frantic 911 call summoning the police to the scene of a shocking crime…
