The hole they dug was not deep. A white flour bag encased the little body. Three small faces watched from the window, eyes black with terror. The child in the middle spoke without turning his head. I wonder which one of us will be next? When a woman’s body is discovered in a cathedral and hours later a young man is found hanging from a tree outside his home, Detective Lottie Parker is called in to lead the investigation. Both bodies have the same distinctive tattoo clumsily inscribed on their legs. It’s clear the pair are connected, but how? The trail leads Lottie to St. Angela’s, a former children’s home, with a dark connection to her own family history. Suddenly the case just got personal. As Lottie begins to link the current victims to unsolved murders decades old, two teenage boys go missing. She must close in on the killer before they strike again, but in doing so is she putting her own children in terrifying danger? Lottie is about to come face to face with a twisted soul who has a very warped idea of justice.

The young woman standing on Lottie’s step was a stranger. She was clutching the hand of a young boy. ‘Help me,’ she said to Lottie. ‘Please help me.’ One Monday morning, the body of a young pregnant woman is found. The same day, a mother and her son visit the house of Detective Lottie Parker, begging for help to find a lost friend. Could this be the same girl? When a second victim is discovered by the same man, with the murder bearing all the same hallmarks as the first, Lottie needs to work fast to discover how else the two were linked. Then two more girls go missing. Detective Lottie Parker is a woman on the edge, haunted by her tragic past and struggling to keep her family together through difficult times. Can she fight her own demons and catch the killer before he claims another victim?

They placed me in here and threw away the key. I look down at the gown they’ve put on me. I want my own clothes. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. An elderly woman is found murdered in her own home, and Detective Lottie Parker and her partner Detective Boyd are called in to investigate. When they discover that the victim’s daughter is missing as well, they start to fear for the safety of the whole family… Two days later as a nearby house is set on fire and with the body count rising, Lottie and her team begin to unpick a web of secrets and lies, as the murders seem to link back to a case investigated by Lottie’s father before he took his own life. With little knowledge of what really happened to her father, Lottie knows this is a case that could give her some answers. But how much does she want to know? And how far is Lottie prepared to dig to uncover the truth?

There's nothing more dangerous than a familiar face... As funeral mourners stand in silence at Ragmullin cemetery, a deafening cry cuts through the air. Lying crumpled at the bottom of an open grave is the bloodied body of a young woman, and Detective Lottie Parker is called in to investigate. Knowing the body can’t have been there long, Lottie wonders if it could be Elizabeth Bryne, a young woman who vanished without trace just days earlier. And with a new boss who seems to have it in for her, Lottie is under pressure to solve both cases quickly. As two more women go missing from Ragmullin, Lottie and her team fear there is a serial killer on the loose. And the disappearances are strikingly similar to a cold case from ten years earlier. Could history be repeating itself? As journalists begin to interfere with Lottie’s investigation, she fears the killer is about to strike again. Lottie is in a race against time to find the missing women, but the killer is closer than she thinks. Could Lottie be his next target?

The boy’s body was so white it was almost transparent. But that’s not what caused the nausea to rise up her throat. He was so young. His body was unmarked, surrounded by a halo of plucked wildflowers. One hot summer evening, eleven-year-old Mikey Driscoll is on the way home from playing with friends. Two days later, his body is discovered on a bed of wildflowers by some local teenagers. The case is assigned to Detective Lottie Parker and this time it’s personal. The victim was a close friend of her son, Sean, from the run-down Munbally estate on the other side of town. Sean tells his mother Mikey was behaving normally before he died, but Lottie can’t help but feel that her son is keeping something from her… Then days later, another boy is found dead, surrounded by wild flowers next to beautiful Ladystown Lake. On the hunt for a twisted individual with a terrifying calling card, Lottie must uncover the web of secrets within Mikey’s circle of friends. Someone is hiding something but who are they protecting and can Lottie find out before it’s too late? Lottie is desperate to catch the killer before he strikes again because this time her own child could be in terrible danger…

‘She lifted the flap of the envelope and pulled out the single white page. As she opened it up she stared, open mouthed. Four words were typed on the page. I am watching you.’ When Amy Whyte and Penny Brogan leave a local nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning and don’t arrive home, their families are beside themselves with worry. Conor Dowling has just been released from prison, a man full of hatred for Amy, the girl who put him behind bars in the first place. The case is given to Detective Lottie Parker, when the girls’ blood-soaked bodies are found, days later, in a derelict squat. Chillingly, both girls are clutching silver coins in their hands – what message is this killer leaving behind? All the signs point to Conor but his alibi is water tight. As Lottie examines Penny and Amy’s final days alive in a desperate search for clues, two more girls are found stabbed to death in a luxury apartment complex. Caught up in what is fast becoming her toughest case yet, Lottie is unaware that somebody is watching her every move. Then Lottie’s two daughters, Katie and Chloe suddenly disappear from the town centre. Terrified that the killer has her girls, the stakes have never been higher for Lottie. But as Lottie puts everything on the line to find her daughters and solve the case, she’s about to find herself in terrible danger – someone has a personal axe to grind with her and they know the best way to get to her is to hurt the ones she loves the most.

‘She shivered, though the kitchen was warm. Icicles of foreboding trickled down her spine. With trembling hands she whipped back her hair at the nape of her neck. As she turned away from the window, she missed the shadow passing by.’ One dark winter’s morning, bride-to-be Cara Dunne is found hanging in her home, dressed in her wedding dress, with a lock of hair removed. Detective Lottie Parker is first on the scene. Looking at Cara’s bruised and battered body, she wonders who could have hated her enough to kill her at the happiest time of her life. The case takes a darker turn that afternoon with another shocking discovery – the broken body of a second young woman, pushed from the roof of the hospital where she worked. Fiona Heffernan was also due to be married, and her body is clad in a wedding dress, a lock of her hair cut off. The killings seem so personal that Lottie is convinced the girls have been killed by someone they knew. When she goes to break the news to Fiona’s family, she’s on the alert for anything suspicious. But then she makes a discovery that causes her blood to run cold – Fiona’s eight-year-old daughter Lily didn’t return home from her dance recital that afternoon. Terrified that Lily will be the next victim of a twisted and dangerous individual, Lottie takes the case into her own hands, risking her life when she comes face-to-face with the killer…

Bubbles of cold sweat trickled down Faye’s spine. The hole wasn’t empty. Before she could turn and run, she caught the two sightless eyes staring up at her. Only then did she scream. When Faye Baker discovers a fragile child’s skull behind the walls of her new home, Detective Lottie Parker is called to investigate. The house has been owned for years by the family of Faye’s boyfriend Jeff, so when Jeff starts acting suspiciously, Lottie wonders what he might be hiding… Lottie doesn’t have long to dig deeper before a child’s bones are found by eleven-year-old Gavin on nearby railway tracks. The bones don’t match the small skull behind the walls, but Lottie can’t ignore the coincidence. Someone out there must be missing their loved ones and it’s up to her to put right a terrible wrong. Unable to shake a feeling of foreboding, Lottie goes to speak to Faye, and discovers that she hasn’t turned up for work. When Faye’s body is found stuffed in the back of her car, Lottie needs to find out who wanted her to keep quiet. As Lottie hunts for Faye’s killer, the case takes a darker turn when Gavin goes missing. Faye and Gavin are connected only by the grisly body parts they discovered. But who are these little victims and why has their killer come back? Can Lottie find the answers before another precious life is taken?

She lay so still, blue eyes shining, blonde hair fanned out, her mouth stuck forever open in a soundless scream… When Rachel Mullen is found dead by her only sister Beth, her body twisted in an arc of pain, Detective Lottie Parker knows that she has been murdered the minute she enters the bedroom. Lottie’s heart aches for Beth, all alone in the world, whose last memory of her sister will forever be the brutal way she was taken. And when Lottie finds a shard of glass placed in the young girl’s throat, she fears that Rachel may be just the first victim. The night before, Rachel had attended a party at a luxurious new restaurant in Ragmullin, and Lottie wastes no time in tracking down the other guests. But there are several things troubling her: Rachel’s handbag and keys are nowhere to be found, and no one at the party seems to have seen her leave. Just as Lottie thinks she’s onto something, her worst fears are confirmed: another woman is found murdered… with glass in her throat. The brilliant, young doctor wasn’t a guest at the party and Lottie is forced to question everything. Desperate to find proof of what really happened that night, Lottie gets close to the hostess of the party, whose two daughters were friends with Rachel. But Lottie’s hunt for the truth must be getting under the killer’s skin, because then her beloved fiancé, Boyd, goes missing. Can Lottie get in the mind of this twisted killer before it’s too late? Or will the man she loves be silenced forever?

She lifted up her granddaughter from the cot, clutched her to her chest and, without looking at her beautiful daughter lying dead on the floor of her bedroom, ran from the house. Only when she was outside did she let a wail escape her lips, frightening the baby who joined in her screams. When Isabel Gallagher is found murdered on the floor of her baby’s nursery by her mother, it’s a gruelling case for Detective Lottie Parker. Isabel’s pyjamas have been ripped, her throat cut and an old-fashioned razor blade placed in her hand. As Lottie looks at the round blue eyes and perfect chubby cheeks of Isabel’s baby daughter, she can’t understand who would want to hurt this innocent family. That very same day she receives a call with devastating news. Another young mother, Joyce Breslin, has gone missing, and her four-year-old son Evan has been abducted from daycare. Lottie is sure that the missing mother and son are linked to Isabel’s death, and when she finds a bloody razor blade in their house, her worst fears are confirmed. Desperate to find little Evan, Lottie leaves no stone unturned as she delves into Isabel and Joyce’s pasts and when she realises the two women have been meeting in secret, she knows she must find out why. But when Joyce’s body is found in a murky pond and some little bones are found on a windy hillside, it feels as if this merciless killer will stop at nothing. The bones aren’t Evan’s but can they give Lottie the final clue to find the innocent child before more lives are taken?

Something whistling through the door behind her caused her to turn. A shadow spread across the opening. She clasped a hand to her mouth, stilling the fear that was rising. The menacing shadow was followed by a face that sent a cold shiver down her spine… When the call comes in about Lucy, a seventeen-year-old girl murdered after the secret party she held in her parents’ home, Detective Lottie Parker is first on the scene. As she picks her way through the smashed glasses and the blood spatter on the perfect cream carpet, she is horrified to see Lucy’s angelic face, silvery-blue eyes forever closed. As Lottie breaks the news to Lucy’s heartbroken parents and the devastated partygoers, she discovers that hours before her death Lucy had revealed a terrible secret about her friend Hannah. And when Lottie finds Lucy’s bloodstained clothing hidden in Hannah’s bedroom, she has no option but to bring the shy, frightened girl into custody. But Hannah claims to have no memory of the night Lucy died and Lottie begins to question her guilt. Then a fifteen-year-old boy who also attended the party is pulled from the canal. And as Lottie investigates, she discovers something shocking. Her own son Sean was at the party. Why did he lie to her? Is her beloved child a witness or a suspect… or is he now in the killer’s sights?

She kissed her daughter, turned out the light and entered her own room. Too late to run, she stood frozen as a figure stepped out from behind the door and a hand covered her mouth. Fear was a bomb in her chest ready to explode. Her children. They’d already lost their daddy; they couldn’t lose her too. When young widow Éilis Lawlor disappears in the middle of the night, with her two little children asleep in their beds, it is a chilling case for Detective Lottie Parker. Since her husband’s tragic death, Éilis is all her children have, and when Lottie sees Éilis’s house keys and phone still lying on the kitchen counter, she is terrified for the vulnerable mother’s safety. Then Éilis’s broken body is found by a nearby lake, wrapped in an unfamiliar yellow dress, her mouth sealed with duct tape – and Lottie’s worst fears are confirmed. Someone wanted this beautiful widow dead. Desperate to find the person behind this brutal crime, Lottie discovers that Éilis was a member of a support group for widows. And when Jennifer, a close friend of Éilis’s from the group, is found on a rubbish heap, wrapped in a yellow dress, Lottie vows to get justice. Lottie dives into Jennifer’s past, and learns that she had lived a reclusive life since her husband died. She hadn’t been seen at work for months and had sheltered inside her immaculate home, only emerging for meetings with the group. But when Lottie questions the other women about Jennifer’s isolation, they claim to know nothing. Lottie is certain that the remaining widows are hiding something. Can she uncover the truth before another innocent life is lost?

The little girl looked like an angel in her thin white robe, her long black hair spread around her head like a dark halo on the snow. Her hands rested on her chest, fingers interlaced as if she had fallen asleep while praying. But she would never wake up again… When Detective Lottie Parker receives news that a child’s body has been found in the frozen grounds of the cathedral, a shiver runs down her spine. She’s terrified it will be eight-year-old Willow Devine, reported missing that morning. But when she arrives at the cathedral, holding a photo of Willow with her blonde ponytail and gap-toothed smile, she gets a terrible shock. The body is a young girl, wrapped in a white shroud, a rosary clutched in her frozen fingers. But her hair is dark, not fair. This girl isn’t Willow but another eight-year-old, Naomi. Desperate to find a connection between the two girls and to find Willow before it is too late, Lottie speaks to the girls’ families and discovers that both girls were altar servers at the cathedral. The charismatic priest Father Maguire has a watertight alibi for the time the girls went missing, but Lottie suspects the confused old lady traumatised by the discovery of Naomi’s body is hiding something… A day later, Willow’s little body is found wrapped in a white robe in the snowy grounds of a church across town. Lottie is devastated, convinced now that she can’t trust anyone, least of all the girls’ parents. Why did Willow’s mother claim the girls didn’t know each other? And why are there no photos of Naomi in her mother’s shabby house? But when a little boy from the choir goes missing too, Lottie realises she must spread her net wider. Can she stop this twisted killer before another precious life is stolen? A completely compelling page-turner from bestselling author Patricia Gibney. If you like Rachel Caine, Kendra Elliott and Robert Dugoni, The Altar Girls will have you hooked. What everyone is saying about Patricia ‘ AMAZING, BRILLIANT, THE BEST BOOK I'VE READ IN A LONG LONG TIME!!! It’s not often I’ve been left speechless after reading a book but this time I was!!!… From the very start I was gripped and couldn't put it down!!!… If I could have given it ten stars I would have!!! ’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘ This was THE BEST book I have read in quite some time . If I could give it more than 5 stars, I would!… absolutely riveting. Once I started reading, I was unable to stop … this story was just pure genius!… took everything I THOUGHT I knew and threw it right out the window!’ Butterfly's Booknerdia Blog, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Another absolutely riveting, gut gripping and unputdownable book from Patricia Gibney!!… Had this read in record time!! From start to finish it was brilliant!! Literally can’t wait for the next one.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Amazing… Had me reading late into the night… Another page-turner which got my heart racing, holding my breath and tapping my kindle like a demented woodpecker … Packed with tension and suspense and so many suspects… Left me speechless .’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘OMG BEYOND BRILLIANT!!!!… grips you right from the first page . It is so fast paced… The action just kept on coming. I literally can't wait for the next one… A truly well-deserved five stars.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Simply brilliant. I devoured this book in a day and honestly couldn’t put it down … A gripping crime thriller.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Her shoes pinched as she shivered in the cold night air. She just wanted to get home. A taxi slowed to a halt next to her, and as she buckled her seat belt, she noticed the child’s seat next to her and felt safe. But when she saw his eyes in the mirror, a shiver of terror shook her to her core… When a young woman’s body is found on a patch of wet grass in the early hours of the morning, Detective Lottie Parker mourns the young life so brutally snatched away. Looking at the victim’s flimsy strappy top, damp from the dew and soaked with blood, it is clear that this young girl never came home from a night out. Lottie’s heart breaks as she thinks of the girl’s parents finding their daughter’s empty bed and she vows to catch the murderer. The young woman is soon identified as Laura Nolan, and Lottie watches the blood drain from her mother Diana’s face when she tells her the terrible news. Diana reveals that Laura was on a date the night she was killed, but she doesn’t know who with… and Laura’s empty bedroom with make-up scattered across her dressing table offers no clues. Lottie and her team rush to trace Laura’s last moments. But hope at a potential breakthrough turns to horror for Lottie when another young woman, Shannon Kenny is reported missing, last seen climbing into a taxi with a broken light, close to the same bar. But then, Lottie discovers a connection between Laura and Shannon that totally overturns everything she thought she knew. The killer didn’t stalk these two young women at random. He knew exactly who they were and where they would be. But can Lottie stop him before he strikes again? A completely compelling page-turner from bestselling author Patricia Gibney. If you like Rachel McLean, Kendra Elliott and Robert Dugoni, Her Last Walk Home will have you hooked. What everyone is saying about Her Last Walk Home: ‘I just love this series of books. This one is just as gripping and thrilling from the word go… Fabulous storyline and well written characters.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Right from the start, the author creates a sense of menace, this feeling doesn’t let up and I found myself turning the pages of my Kindle at a rapid rate – I needed to know what was going to happen next.’Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘What a thriller! This is a fast-paced novel that I could not put down. There are so many different threads between the victims that you will never guess whodunit… I love the Lottie novels, and I cannot wait to read the next one.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A fast-paced read that has you turning the pages as quickly as you can… This series just keeps getting better and better and Her Last Walk Home is my favourite to date… Another amazing read in the Lottie Parker series.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Love this book series… The author has done a great job making these characters believable and likeable. The storyline was fast and furious and I couldn’t turn my kindle pages fast enough.

A totally addictive and binge-worthy serial killer thriller She heard the knock, dread settling on her shoulders. A glance at the clock told her it was touching midnight. She glanced out of the window into the inky darkness and saw something that made her blood freeze solid with fear. Her time had come. She deserved to be punished. When a call comes in about a vulnerable woman found dead in a remote cottage, Detective Lottie Parker feels a deep sadness for this abandoned girl, who died alone with no family. Her perfect pale skin is blistered and burned, and all her jewellery has been taken, including the treasured silver cross she always wore around her neck. Determined to put a stop to this twisted killer, Lottie begins a desperate search for answers. But then she hears something that breaks her heart. Another lonely woman has been found, her burned body tangled in reeds at the edge of the river. Lottie delves into the dark pasts of the two victims and discovers they both had traumatic lives–as terrified young girls, they were sent to the Sisters of Forgiveness Convent. One was pregnant and the other cast out by her family. But what could have happened then that has caused their deaths so many years later? Lottie needs to track down the lost families of her two victims. But just as she’s getting close to uncovering the link between them, the blood-stained clothing of another young woman is found. Lottie is in a race against time to identify this deadly perpetrator and save the missing woman. But can she do it before another vulnerable soul is silenced forever? A totally addictive novel from bestselling author Patricia Gibney. If you like Rachel McLean, Kendra Elliott and Robert Dugoni, Hidden Daughters will have you hooked.