Tangled Webs

How far will two women go to protect the life they’ve built?

Jane Best and Agnes Williams are known for taking in lodgers at Riverdale House, the business they started together after losing their husbands in the War. For forty years, they’ve acted as a refuge for young women in need—including unfortunate cases like young Iris Seoin, who wants to escape from her abuser.

When a man shows up at the lodging house looking for Iris, Jane and Agnes find themselves in peril. He knows them. He knows their past. And he knows what they’re hiding.

For Jane and Agnes, everything is at stake. But if they succeed in burying this blackmailer, will their secret stay buried with him?

The Keeper of Secrets

In a family bound by secrets, the past is never truly behind you.

Born just ten months apart, Lizzie and Maggie McCarthy grew up inseparable on the Knockrath estate in Cork, Ireland, under the shadow of the British aristocracy. But when twelve-year-old Maggie is accused of attacking the young Master, her life spirals into tragedy.

Sent to prison and later an asylum, the family learn of Maggie’s death, leaving behind unanswered questions and long-lasting wounds.

As Lizzie moves to America, starting a new life with her husband Ed, the scars of her family’s past follow her. Across continents and through world wars, Lizzie builds a new life in Pensacola, but secrets refuse to stay buried.

When Lizzie returns to Ireland, those long-buried secrets begin to surface. From hidden adoptions to war-time betrayals, she must navigate a web of deception spun over decades.

Faced with the painful decision of whether to reveal the truth, Lizzie must confront the past and decide if some secrets are best left buried…

In this saga, one lie changes a family’s path for generations—and finally brings them back to Ireland, by the author of The Devil’s Own and Tangled Webs.

The Devil’s Own

A set of century-old diaries found in an attic draws an Irish couple into a tale of murder and madness, in this absorbing new suspense.

After forty years in the Irish army, Brian is looking forward to retiring and spending time with his wife—though he worries about adjusting to civilian life. While clearing the attic before they move house, he makes a discovery: three journals dating back to the early twentieth century.

One was written by Arthur, an ex-Connaught Ranger; another by Arthur’s wife, Edith, a colonel’s daughter; and the third by Henry, a British soldier and Arthur’s best friend.

Brian and his wife are soon engrossed in reading the diaries and following the intertwined stories of these three people from the past. But it soon becomes chillingly clear that these diaries contain more than the daily adventures of ordinary lives. Because one of the three is a killer . . .

THE WINDS OF CHANGE: A story of love, loyalty and betrayal on the eve of the Spanish Civil War

A story of love, loyalty and betrayal on the eve of the Spanish Civil War. Spain is in political turmoil with strikes and demonstrations, unemployment is high and the people are starving.

THE HOUSE ON THE BEACH

The Spanish Civil War is over but the heavy hand of the winners is still felt across the country, especially for women.

Inma and Rocio meet as children at a time when Spain is ruled by the military dictator Francisco Franco. Inma is rich and Rocio comes from a poor family but nevertheless become close friends. They share happiness, fears, disappointments and broken hearts, until one day when Inma’s actions threaten to tear them apart.

When Rocio is seduced by a handsome foreigner and becomes pregnant, it is Inma who saves her from disgrace. Some years later, when Inma too becomes pregnant, things take a more sinister turn. Her subsequent actions have a devastating affect on Rocio.

This social drama tells the story of two young women, struggling against the restrictions imposed on women by the State and the Church in Franco’s Spain.

“What a desperately sad story! I’ve just finished reading ‘The House on the Beach,’ and I’ve been in tears! Fascinating background about Franco’s Spain – we tend to forget (or did we in UK ever really know?) just how repressive it was. You’ve certainly used your research (‘Daughters of Spain’) to good account here.” Ann Victoria Roberts (author of Louisa Elliot)

LOVING HARRY

Fashion designer Carla Kane has been too busy climbing the career ladder to sustain a long-term relationship – until she meets the charming, charismatic Harry Wilkinson, and falls deeply in love for the first time.

There’s only one problem: Harry is already married to Barbara, a stay-at-home wife who’s been content to devote all her energies to looking after her husband and children. The close-knit Wilkinson family is blown apart when Harry leaves Barbara, deserting the family home to start a new life in Spain with Carla.

One day Carla returns home to find her dead husband floating in the swimming pool. The Spanish police dismiss it as an accident but Carla knows there is more to it than that. What can she tell his family? And how can she protect herself?

His children want to evict her from the family home and the only weapons she has against them are the secrets she has discovered about their parents.

She has to decide whether to use this information to save her home, knowing the devastation it would cause the children, or whether to let the past lie and start a new life for herself.

This page-turning love story is criss-crossed with lies, deceit and intrigue, where everyone has a secret and no-one knows the whole truth.

THE THREAD THAT BINDS US

Meet Susan Masters—knick-named the Ice Maiden by her work colleagues—and her elderly, complacent husband, her unambitious son, her misogynist boss and her quarrelling parents.

Long set in her ways, Susan’s life seems unlikely to change until she discovers that she has a half-brother called Michael. At first she is shocked and angry. But when she gets used to this revelation things in her past start to make sense.

Susan’s childhood had been full of secrets—‘Don’t tell anyone,’ was her mother’s favourite phrase. Now the secret her parents had been keeping from her all her life is about to change everything.

Her first instinct is not to tell anyone about Michael. But nevertheless she needs to find him. The desire to know more about her half-brother becomes an obsession and she soon finds herself enmeshed in a web of lies and deceit as she tries to track him down without her family knowing.

When she and Michael finally meet, Susan is faced with a dilemma—she can walk away and forget about him or she can tell her family and face the consequences.

LOVE IS ALL

Teresa’s husband, Mark, decides to confess that he is having an affair with her best friend. And sets off a chain of events that reverberates throughout his whole family. The lives of those he loves are changed forever.

When Teresa finally wakes up, she is in a hospital bed. The last thing she remembers is losing control of the car and heading for the central reservation. The rest is a muddle of flashing lights and torrential rain. She tries to sit up but nothing moves. It is as if her body is not her own.

The doctors diagnose Locked-In Syndrome. Teresa is effectively locked inside her own body and unable to communicate with anyone. It is a nightmare from which she cannot wake.

Teresa refuses to accept what has happened to her. She seeks refuge in an imaginary parallel world, a world where she is a desirable woman again. She refuses to acknowledge either the doctors or her family, but her son will not let her go. He is determined to give her back the will to live.

THE EYE OF THE FALCON The Al-Andalus Series Book Two

A story of intrigue, betrayal and murder set in the royal court of 10th century Andalusia.

When the caliph of al-Andalus, al-Hakim II, dies leaving an eleven-year-old boy as his heir, Queen Subh knows that her son is in danger.

Enemies in the Omayyad court have their eyes on the throne. A woman of great intelligence, beauty and ambition, she does not intend to let her enemies win.
She must use her wits and beauty to ensure that her son comes to no harm and that she remains Queen Mother. She sets up a Regency to rule in his place until the child comes of age.

But she has underestimated the ruthlessness and ambition of the Regent. Holding on to the seat of power is not as easy as she thought. In the end she has to chose between her own ambitions and her son’s safety.

‘Based around real events, this book magically and effectively brings to life a story rich in intrigue.’ Historical Novel Review Society’

THE SHINING CITY The Al-Andalus Series Book One

Exotic, romantic and rich with historical detail, The Shining City is a timeless story of love, family and the unexpected consequences of our actions. Set in 10th century Spain, in the time of the Moorish occupation, it is, above all, a story of love and honour.When he moved to Madinat al-Zahra, Qasim thought he had escaped his turbulent past but when his youngest son falls in love with the Caliph’s concubine, he sets off a train of unimaginable consequences and puts all his family, including Qasim, in danger. Qasim’s secret is about to be revealed and all he has worked for destroyed.