Every picture hides a story. Behind the story lies secrets . . . In the photograph Martha Benn has kept for two decades, three girls lounge on the grass during a school field trip. Beside Martha, there's Liv, petite and wickedly funny, and Juliet, their unofficial leader, brave, kind, and effortlessly beautiful. Back then, they meant the world to each other. But when Juliet disappeared, the bond between Martha and Liv unraveled too. Martha was the last known person to see Juliet alive, and she still has no idea what happened after the two said goodnight on a towpath beside London's Regent's Canal. The next day, Juliet's abandoned bicycle was discovered, but no sign of Juliet. Without witnesses or clues, the investigation fell apart. Martha, now a TV celebrity preparing to host a show investigating cold cases, finally has a chance to get answers. As Martha tries to piece together what happened to Juliet, she realizes that her memories of those...

When sisters Celine and Pip get a call telling them their reclusive mother has died, the women are reunited at her riverside home in Arundel to pick up the pieces. But someone is missing - their middle sister, Vanessa, brutally murdered years ago and the victim of an unsolved case. As the sisters confront ghosts from the past, the discovery of another body in similar circumstances throws new light on Vanessa's death. Could there be more to her case than the police first thought? And what do the mysterious residents of Two Cross Farm, the neighbouring women's commune, have to do with it? What secrets are lurking behind their locked gates? And what is the significance of the number 33?

Eighteen years ago Martha said goodbye to best friend Juliet on a moonlit London towpath. The next morning Juliet’s bike was found abandoned at the waterside. She was never seen again. Nearly two decades later Martha is a TV celebrity, preparing to host a new crime show… and the first case will be that of missing student Juliet Sherman. After all these years Martha must reach out to old friends and try to piece together the final moments of Juliet’s life. But what happens when your perfect friends turn out to be perfect strangers…?

Portsmouth, 1984. Thirteen-year-old Jake's world is unravelling as his father and older brother leave home, and his mother plunges into alcoholic freefall. Despite his turbulent home life, Jake is an irrepressible teenager and his troubled mother is not the only thing on his mind: there's the hi-fi he's saving up for, his growing passion for Greek mythology (and his pretty classics teacher), and the anticipation of brief visits to see his dad. When his parents reconcile, life finally seems to be looking up. Their first family holiday, announced over scampi and chips in the Royal Oak, promises to be the icing on the cake – until long-unspoken family secrets begin to surface.Isabel Ashdown's début novel tells a captivating story of family life, at once troubling, funny and joyous. Vividly bringing to life the gentility of a 1950s childhood, the free-spirited hedonism of the Sixties, and the urban domesticity of 1980s Portsmouth, this is an intimate, lyrical and deeply...

No one knows you better than a sister—your dreams, your fears, your mistakes, and all your secrets. It was just that way when Jess and her older sister, Emily, were children. Born barely a year apart, they were deeply entwined, complementing each other in their differences. When Jess felt awkward and shy, Emily, the consummate big sister, was happy to take the lead. After a long estrangement, they've become close again. Jess moves into the comfortable Isle of Wight home Emily shares with her husband, step-daughter, and toddler. Any misgivings about the past are swept away and forgotten. And then, on New Year's Eve, little Daisy disappears while in Jess's care. Jess is in shock, unable to remember what happened. Emily, traumatized, watches helplessly as her life unravels. But as the search intensifies and the police detective's questions grow more pointed, a different picture emerges. Behind the image of a seemingly happy...

In her eagerly anticipated second novel Mail on Sunday Novel Competition winner Isabel Ashdown explores the treacherous territory of adolescent friendships, and traces across the decades the repercussions of a dangerous relationship.It's more than twenty years since Sarah Ribbons last set foot inside her old high school, a crumbling Victorian-built comprehensive on the south coast of England. Now, as she prepares for her school reunion, 39-year-old Sarah has to face up to the truth of what really happened back in the summer of 1986.August 1985: Sarah celebrates her fifteenth birthday in the back garden of the suburban seaside house she shares with her ageing father. As she embarks on her fifth and final year at Selton High School for Girls Sarah's main focus is on her erratic friendships with Tina and Kate; her closest allies one moment, her fiercest opponents the next as they compete for the attention of the new boy, Dante. When her father is unexpectedly taken ill, Sarah is...