Claire Ladds

Crime and suspense author

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Free on Kobo for one week only!

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Do you read your e-books on a Kobo device? Have you got the Kobo app on your mobile or tablet? And do you love historical psychological crime and suspense books? If so, you’re in luck!

I’m delighted to say that The Secrets That Haunt Us is included in a Kobo deal for crime, mystery and suspense books. For one week only, The Secrets That Haunt Us is available to download from Kobo, worldwide, for FREE from Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd August.

If you’ve not encountered the book before, let me enlighten you:

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Dark and haunting secrets, lies, betrayal and vengeance.

A diary that holds an unbearable secret. Misplaced jealousy with devastating consequences. Threatening letters which unearth traumatic memories and have the power to destroy lives. One man, back from the dead, who has only one thing on his mind – vengeance.

Set in 1970s England on the day of the Women’s Liberation March, this is a novel of four people’s haunting memories, shadows of the past and truths that threaten to destroy them.

When the lines between memory and reality are blurred, and honesty is more devastating than the secrets that haunt us, what do you do? Do you ignore it? Do you try to protect those you love? Or do you seek revenge?

Some secrets can’t be forgiven.

PLEASE NOTE: This book was previously published as Baby up the Chimney.

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You can find The Secrets That Haunt Us on Kobo here. If you’re searching for your free copy on Monday 16th, please allow time for Kobo to filter the price through to your country – time zones may skew this a bit!

Please do take this chance to download your freebie copy, and don’t be shy – tell your friends! I’d love the book to be read by as many readers as possible who enjoy historical psychological crime and suspense books. 😊

If you read on any other device and buy your e-books from a different store, you can still buy your copy (with grateful thanks from this author!). You can buy it on your preferred store here.

The Secrets That Haunt Us by Claire Ladds ebook

Join my Readers’ Club to get updates, news of works-in-progress and upcoming releases, sneak peeks and special offers that I have from time to time, as well as other crime, mystery and suspense-related snippets. When you join you’ll also receive a FREE gift to read!

Yes, I’d love to join the Claire Ladds Readers’ Club

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The Secrets That Haunt Us: a lovely 5-star review

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I was absolutely thrilled to see this 5-star review pop up on Amazon from a reader who clearly loved The Secrets That Haunt Us. I have no idea which lovely reader wrote the review, but it’s extremely kind and means a great deal.

I find it very humbling when I know someone has read and enjoyed my books. In my heart of hearts, all I really want to do is write stories that people find fascinating, thought-provoking, terrifying at times, occasionally heart-wrenching, and satisfying. And crime-filled, of course!

The Secrets That Haunt Us will probably always be the book I have the softest spot for. It means many things to me.

If you would like to take a look at the book (including that first 5-star review since I re-released the novel with its new title), then you can find it on Amazon here:

Buy The Secrets That Haunt Us on Amazon

If you read on another device and buy your books from Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble and others, you can find the novel here:

Buy The Secrets That Haunt Us on your favourite ebook store

If you do read, or have, read it, or any of my work, I’d love to know what you think. Hearing from readers is always lovely. 😊 Please do consider leaving a review – or my books or on any author’s books that you enjoy. It really helps other people who might also enjoy them to find them more easily.

Happy reading!

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Sneak peek at new book cover for my short story collection

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The Reason for Everything by Claire Ladds

I’m very excited today because I have been waiting for ages to give you a sneak peek at the new cover for my short story collection, The Reason for Everything. Finally, I’m able to do it!

This new version, dominated by black and red (two colours which I happen to love, especially together), is much more in keeping with the dark, emotional noir and suspenseful feeling that I’ve incorporated into all of the stories, be they actual physical crimes, emotional deviance and difficulties or murky memories and experiences.

The Reason for Everything will be getting its new look very soon. I’ll also be offering the collection for a VERY limited time, at a special price, to celebrate the new cover. Watch this space! 😊

If you’d like to read an extract from the book while you wait for its makeover, you can find that here.

And if you’d like to be among the first to know of the new and revamped book, its special price for a really short time, and news of my upcoming books and other good stuff, you can sign up to my Readers Club. If you do choose to sign up, you’ll also receive a welcome gift of a Darker Minds novella which is completely exclusive to my Readers Club.

One step closer to my next book release…

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My next book is finished

Yay! I am very excited to tell you that my next book is done. Well, at least the current draft of it is, so I’m taking that as a win!

This has been a bit of a shock book to me, in that I wrote it in about six weeks – or maybe I should call it a pleasant surprise as it’s a little bit different from my previous two books which both took a decade to write and let loose on the world.

I absolutely loved writing the first draft of this novel. It’s everything I’ve been wanting to write for ages: a dark and suspense-filled crime novel, complete with some seriously evil twists and turns. Crime fiction is the thing I love writing best, so I’m floating on cloud nine at the dastardly deeds I’ve created.

I’m also not a fast writer at all, so I’m actually a bit astounded that this book landed on the screen (or was dragged there, kicking and screaming) in such a short space of time. I put this down solely – or at least, mostly – to a little strategy of planning each ‘beat’ of the book on bits of paper and sticking them to my fridge. Every time I went in there for the milk, I moved things around or added another strip until the ideas were pretty much in the right order. There are advantaged to being a serial tea drinker! I use Scrivener and love the way I can move chapters and scenes around so easily. But I’m a visual planner still a pen and paper girl at heart, so bits of recycled paper stuck on the fridge that I could keep shifting as I had new ideas definitely indulged that part of me. If it works, who am I to knock it?!

As I look down at my desk now, there’s a neat stack of paper, pages mounting up into the hundreds, all covered in perfectly printed words. It won’t be like that long, though. Soon it’ll be covered in aqua ink as I put the book through its paces. There was a time that I swore by editing in pink, but I must be getting old because I find it too difficult to see what I’ve written anymore.

More news to come on this book. For now, though, I’m truly looking forward to the next couple of months because I really love editing. Luckily!

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