Thriller / suspense fiction

The six stories in this book, the second collecton of John Wyndham's short tales, continue his exploration of the science fiction staple - what if?

Your neighbour told you that she didn't want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn't stand her crying. Your husband said it would be fine, after all, you only live next door. You'll have the baby monitor and you'll take it in turns to go back every hal...

When solicitor Finn Fitzpatrick is approached by a man to investigate the death of his daughter, her first instinct is to refuse. The father is grieving, and unable to accept that his daughter committed suicide. And yet something about the man's story chimes with Finn. Why did a bright, confident...

Sixty seconds after she wakes from a coma, Maggie's world is torn apart. The police tell her that her daughter Elspeth is dead. That she drowned when the car Maggie had been driving plunged into the river. Maggie remembers nothing. When Maggie begs to see her husband Sean, the police tell her tha...

A murder at a crime writers' conference. The method is entirely literary, the motive seems obvious - but can the detective who was first on scene puzzle out what's between the lines? An intelligence analyst has the chance to get out from behind the desk and do some real spy work. But as he enters...

Vicki's husband Daniel once promised to love her in sickness and in health. But after a brutal attack left her suffering with epilepsy, he ran away with his mistress. So when Vicki gets a call one day to say that he's missing, her first thought is 'good riddance'. But then the police find evidenc...

When a wife leaves her husband under suspicious circumstances, he sets off in search for her, unprepared for the guilty secrets he's about to drag back into the light. A man is tempted by a luxury apartment with a top-of-the-range kitchen. But there is a heavy price to pay for this glamorous new ...

When a wife leaves her husband under suspicious circumstances, he sets off in search for her, unprepared for the guilty secrets he's about to drag back into the light. A man is tempted by a luxury apartment with a top-of-the-range kitchen. But there is a heavy price to pay for this glamorous new ...

'Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark' was the first gathering of Celia Fremlin's short fiction, a form in which she had published prolifically while building her reputation as a novelist of psychological suspense. Female characters predominate in these tales, as does the doom-filled atmosphere that was...

A teenage boy is found mutilated and murdered in a Glasgow flat. Forensic scientist Rhona Macleod is called to the scene, but her grim task is made even more unsettling than normal by the boy's remarkable resemblance to her - and by the fact that she gave up a baby boy for adoption 17 years ago.