Margins
Spilling CID book cover 1
Spilling CID book cover 2
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Spilling CID
Series · 15
books · 2006-2022

Books in series

Little Face book cover
#1

Little Face

2006

When Alice Fancourt leaves her infant daughter at home with her husband David for the first time since becoming a new mother, she returns to a horrifying sight: her daughter, Florence, has been swapped with another baby. In hysterics, Alice rushes to call the police, but soon discovers that no one - not even David - believes her. When the police are called in, Detective Simon Waterhouse is drawn to the lovely Alice but doubts her story, while his boss, Charlotte "Charlie" Zailer thinks the whole case is a waste of time. But one week later, both Alice and the baby have disappeared... An insightful exploration of the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her child, "Little Face" is a riveting read.
Hurting Distance book cover
#2

Hurting Distance

2007

Three years ago, something terrible happened to Naomi Jenkins - she told nobody. Now she has another secret - the man she has fallen in love with, unhappily married Robert Haworth. When he vanishes, Naomi knows he must have come to harm. But the police are less convinced, particularly when Robert's wife insists he's not missing.
The Wrong Mother book cover
#3

The Wrong Mother

2008

A chilling exploration of a mother's unspeakable betrayal from the author of Little Face Sally Thorning is watching the news with her husband when she hears an unexpected name—Mark Bretherick. It's a name she shouldn't know, but last year Sally treated herself to a secret vacation—away from her hectic family life—and met a man. After their brief affair, the two planned to never meet again. But now, Mark's wife and daughter are dead—and the safety of Sally's own family is in doubt. Sophie Hannah established herself as a new master of psychological suspense with her previous novel, Little Face. Now with accomplished prose and a plot guaranteed to keep readers guessing, The Wrong Mother is Hannah's most captivating work yet. Published as The Point of Rescue in the United Kingdom
The Other Half Lives book cover
#4

The Other Half Lives

2009

Ruth Bussey knows what it means to be in the wrong and to be wronged. She once did something she regrets, and her punishment nearly destroyed her. Now Ruth is rebuilding her life, and has found a love she doesn't believe she deserves. Aidan Seed. Aidan is also troubled by a past he hates to talk about, until one day he decides he must confide in Ruth. He tells her that years ago he killed someone: a woman called Mary Trelease. Ruth is confused. She's certain she's heard the name before, and when she realises why it sounds familiar, her fear and confusion deepen - because the Mary Trelease that Ruth knows is very much alive... (In the USA, the title of this book is "The Dead Lie Down")
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#5

A Room Swept White

2010

TV producer Fliss Benson receives an anonymous card at work. The card has sixteen numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four - numbers that mean nothing to her. On the same day, Fliss finds out she's going to be working on a documentary about miscarriages of justice involving cot-death mothers wrongly accused of murder. The documentary will focus on three Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard and Rachel Hines. All three women are now free, and the doctor who did her best to send them to prison for life, child protection zealot Dr Judith Duffy, is under investigation for misconduct. For reasons she has shared with nobody, this is the last project Fliss wants to be working on. And then Helen Yardley is found dead at her home, and in her pocket is a card with sixteen numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four ...
Lasting Damage book cover
#6

Lasting Damage

2011

It's 1.15 a.m. and Connie Bowskill should be asleep. Instead, she's logging on to a property website in search of a particular house: 11 Bentley Grove, Cambridge. She knows it's for sale - there's an estate agent's board in the front garden. Soon Connie is clicking on the 'Virtual Tour' button, keen to see the inside of the house and put her mind at rest once and for all. She finds herself looking at a scene from a nightmare: in the living room, in the middle of the carpet, lies a woman face down in a pool of blood. In shock, Connie wakes her husband Kit. But when Kit sits down at the computer, he sees no dead body, only a pristine beige carpet in a perfectly ordinary room... (In the USA, the title of this book is "The Other Woman's House")
Kind of Cruel book cover
#7

Kind of Cruel

2012

When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a last resort, she doesn't expect that anything much will change. She doesn't expect it to help with her chronic insomnia ... or to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: "Kind, cruel, kind of cruel". Words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where ... She also doesn't expect to be arrested two hours later in connection with the brutal murder of Katharine Allen, a woman she's never heard of ...
The Carrier book cover
#8

The Carrier

2013

An overnight plane delay is bad. Having to share your hotel room with a stranger is worse. But that is only the beginning of Gaby Struthers' problems. Gaby has never met Lauren Cookson. So how does Lauren know so much about her? How does she know that the love of Gaby's life has been accused of murder? Why is she telling her that he is innocent? And why is she so terrified of Gaby?
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#8.5

Pictures Or It Didn't Happen

2015

Would you trust a complete stranger? After Chloe and her daughter Freya are rescued from disaster by a man who seems too good to be true, Chloe decides she must find him again to thank him. But instead of meeting her knight in shining armour, she comes across a woman called Nadine Caspian who warns her to stay well away from him. The man is dangerous, Nadine claims, and a compulsive liar. Alarmed, Chloe asks her what she means, but Nadine will say no more. Chloe knows that the sensible choice would be to walk away - after all, she doesn't know anything about this man. But she is too curious. What could Nadine have meant? And can Chloe find out the truth without putting herself and her daughter in danger?
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#9

Woman with a Secret

2014

Traffic on Elmhirst Road has come to a halt. The police are stopping cars, searching for something. Nicki Clements waits patiently, until she glimpses a face she hoped she’d never see again. It’s him—and he’s the cop checking each car. Desperate to avoid him, she makes a panicky U-turn and escapes. But Nicki’s peculiar behavior did not go unnoticed, and now the police have summoned her for questioning. A resident of Elmhirst Road has been murdered—a controversial newspaper columnist named Damon Blundy. The detectives begin peppering her with questions. One simple answer could clear her. But she can’t explain why she fled Elmhirst Road that day without revealing the secret that could ruin her.
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#9.5

The Tennis Church

2015

The Tennis Church – an original short story for Christmas by Sophie Hannah, originally published in The Guardian. Also available online at author's own website: https://sophiehannah.com/the-tennis-c... For Charlie, Christmas with the parents-in-law was something to grin and bear. But an encounter with a long‑lost friend would show her selflessness in a different light.
The Next to Die book cover
#10

The Next to Die

2016

The New York Times bestselling author of The Monogram Murders and Woman with a Secret returns with a disturbing tale of psychological suspense and obsession that hits at the heart of some of our most precious relationships. What if having a best friend could put you in the crosshairs of a killer? A psychopath the police have dubbed “Billy Dead Mates” is targeting pairs of best friends, and killing them one by one. Before they die, each victim is given a small white book. For months, detectives have failed to catch Billy, or figure out what the white books symbolize and why the killer leaves them behind. The police are on edge; the public in a panic. Then a woman, scared by what she’s seen on the news, comes forward. What she reveals shocks the investigators and adds another troubling layer to an already complex case. Stand-up comedian Kim Tribbeck has one of Billy’s peculiar little books. A stranger gave it to her at a gig she did last year. Was the stranger Billy, and is he targeting her—or is it something more nefarious? Kim has no friends and trusts no one, so how—and why—could Billy Dead Mates want to target her? If it’s not her, then who will be the next to die? Sophie Hannah raises the stakes with each successive page in this haunting and twisting thriller that reaffirms her place as one of today’s most talented suspense writers.
The Dwelling book cover
#10.4

The Dwelling

2016

The Dwelling: A Charlie Zailer Christmas Story, first appeared in The Spectator. Also available at author's own website: https://sophiehannah.com/the-dwelling...
A Dark Time book cover
#10.5

A Dark Time

2018

Ellen Lewis walks into her kitchen and there, on her newly tiled kitchen floor, is the dead body of her best friend Lorna Bowers. She should be breathing. This shouldn't have happened. It's Sergeant Charlie Zailer's job to try and solve the mystery, and to work out how a burglary that turns out to be something far stranger than that might play a part in Lorna's Death - while her brilliant yet troubled husband, Detective Constable Simon Waterhouse struggles with his own demons.
The Couple at the Table book cover
#11

The Couple at the Table

2022

Honeymooners at a posh resort receive an ominous warning with deadly consequences in the latest gripping, twisty psychological thriller from New York Times bestselling author Sophie Hannah. Jane and William are enjoying their honeymoon at an exclusive couples-only resort... ...until Jane receives a chilling note warning her to "Beware of the couple at the table nearest to yours." At dinner that night, five other couples are present, and none of their tables is any nearer or farther away than any of the others. It's almost as if someone has set the scene in order to make the warning note meaningless—but why would anyone do that? Jane has no idea. But someone in this dining room will be dead before breakfast, and all the evidence will suggest that no one there that night could have possibly committed the crime.

Author

Sophie Hannah
Sophie Hannah
Author · 45 books

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction, published in 27 countries. In 2013, her latest novel, The Carrier, won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Two of Sophie’s crime novels, The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives, have been adapted for television and appeared on ITV1 under the series title Case Sensitive in 2011 and 2012. In 2004, Sophie won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story The Octopus Nest, which is now published in her first collection of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets. Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A-level and degree level across the UK. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She is forty-one and lives with her husband and children in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. She is currently working on a new challenge for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective.

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