Showing results by author "Deborah O'Connor" in All Categories

Hannah knows the cage intimately. Small, the size of a shopping mall parking space. A bed, a basin, a table and chair. A hatch and metal drawer through which to exchange food and other items. Then there's him. Always there on the edges of her vision, no matter how hard she tries to block him out. Every day, the same thoughts run through Hannah's mind. What if he speaks to me? What if he hurts me? What if he gets out?

You would always recognise your own child...wouldn't you? Heidi and Jason aren't like other couples. Six years ago, Heidi's daughter was murdered. A year later, Jason's son Barney disappeared. Their shared loss brought them together. By chance, Heidi meets a boy she's certain is her husband's long-missing son - but Jason is equally convinced it's not him. Is Heidi mad? Or is Jason hiding something? And can their fragile marriage survive Heidi's search for the truth?

We all recognise them. Those who exist just on the fringes of society. Who send prickles up the back of our necks. The charmers. The liars. The manipulators. Those who have the potential to go that one step too far. And then take another step. Jessamine Gooch makes a living from these people. Each week she broadcasts a radio show looking into the past lives of convicted killers, asking if there was more that could have been done to prevent their terrible crimes.

Twenty years ago, a group of students each wrote themselves a letter, Dear Future Me. Confiding their deepest dreams and their very darkest secrets. Now the letters, thought long discarded, have begun to drop through letterboxes. For some they will make them re-evaluate the decisions they've made, the person they could have been. For others, the letters could be deadly . . .