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Claire Ladds

Crime and suspense author

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Thriller and Suspense Giveaway

11th February 2022 by claireladds Leave a Comment

This is the third giveaway that I have to offer you this month, and if you love thrillers and suspense, then this is the one for you! Feel free to head to the giveaway page where you’ll find loads of books by an array of crime, thriller and suspense authors. Grab whichever books take your fancy and fill up your e-reader. This giveaway runs all February, so you can pop in and grab some books that take your eye, then come back for more if you want to!

If you’d like to grab my free novella, Beneath the Flesh, while you’re there, too, please be my guest. This is part of my Darker Minds Crime and Suspense series, and is only available as an e-book through promotions like these, or directly by signing up to my Readers’ Club.

Happy downloading throughout February, and happy reading! 😊

TAKE ME TO THE THRILLER AND SUSPENSE GIVEAWAY

If you’d like to head straightaway to sign up to my Readers’ club and get a copy of Beneath the Flesh as your welcome gift, then you can do that here.

Filed Under: News, Read for Free Tagged With: crime fiction, free books, free read, mystery and thriller, psychological thriller, read for free, suspense fiction

Mystery and Thriller FREE books!

8th February 2022 by claireladds Leave a Comment

I have another book promotion for you today. If you enjoy mysteries and thrillers, then you’ll love this one! There are loads of ebooks full of intriguing mystery, thrills and spills from a variety of authors in this giveaway.

This Mystery and Thriller promotion runs for the entire month of February, so feel free to grab the FREE books that you fancy, then head back to see if there’s anything else that catches your eye. You’ve got until February 28th to help yourself!

Among the free books in this promotion is the novella in my Darker Minds Crime and Suspense series, Beneath the Flesh. It is exclusive to my Readers’ Club, and you can’t buy it anywhere. If you’d like it, especially if you’re starting to collect all the books in the series, do please grab your copy.

Happy downloading and happy reading! 😊

TAKE ME TO THE MYSTERY AND THRILLER GIVEAWAY

If you’d just like to head straight to my Readers’ Club and sign up (and get your copy of Beneath the Flesh as a welcome gift), you can find it here.

Filed Under: News, Read for Free Tagged With: crime and mystery fiction, crime fiction, free books, free read, mystery and thriller, mystery books, read for free

Revenge: Grab your FREE books (1-15 Feb)

5th February 2022 by claireladds Leave a Comment

This month I have three (yes, three!) opportunities for you to download some extra reading to your devices. And all for FREE!

The first promotion I’m sharing with you is the Revenge giveaway (1-15 Feb only). If you’re looking for a crime read with some kind of payback for dirty deeds done, then this one could be for you. There are loads of ebooks by a myriad of authors for you to choose from, including books containing gritty crime, assassins, and all sorts of revenge. Pick as many as you want – and come back for more, if you’d like!

You’ll also find Beneath the Flesh, a novella in my Darker Minds Crime and Suspense series, among the books here. You can’t get hold of this book except as a member of my Readers’ Club and/or through promotions like this, so if you’d like a copy please do help yourself!

Happy downloading and happy reading! 😊

TAKE ME TO THE REVENGE GIVEAWAY

If you’d like to head straight over to sign up to my Readers’ Club and get Beneath the Flesh as a welcome gift, you can do it here.

Filed Under: News, Read for Free Tagged With: crime and mystery fiction, crime fiction, free books, free read, read for free, suspense fiction

Fill Your Kindle with FREE Mystery and Suspense – Massive Holiday Giveaway!

13th December 2021 by claireladds Leave a Comment

Would you love to fill your e-reader with FREE mystery and suspense books? I do hope so!

I have joined together with a fantastic group of authors to bring you a massive giveaway for the holidays. Over 40 different mystery and suspense titles are available for you to download for FREE between 13th December and 1st January. You can download any of the books that take your fancy (all of them, if you want!) between those dates. My brand new Darker Minds novella, Beneath the Flesh, is among this great bundle of books. Do feel free to grab a copy if you’d like one.

So, if you’d love to keep yourself in suspense all holiday, and find clues until there’s more red herrings than leftover turkey, head on over to the giveaway page, where you can see – and choose to download – all the great books that we are giving to you this holiday season.

Happy reading! 😊

Take me to the giveaway page

Filed Under: News Tagged With: crime and mystery fiction, crime and suspense, crime fiction, free read, giveaway, mystery books, suspense fiction

Get a Darker Minds Book FREE

6th December 2021 by claireladds Leave a Comment

I am thrilled to announce that I have a new Darker Minds novella! It’s called Beneath the Flesh, and the best news is that you can download this book ABSOLUTELY FREE when you sign up to my Readers’ Club.

When you join, you receive Beneath the Flesh as your welcome gift. You also regularly get other gifts and goodies, exclusive behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, news about my upcoming and new releases and any sales I have got on, and loads of other stuff that you get first eyes on.

Here’s a taste of what you’ll find inside Beneath the Flesh:

IF YOU INVITE A STRANGER INTO YOUR HOME, YOU’D BETTER HAVE NO SECRETS

There’s an argument. A moan. Ella is too scared to wait and see what’s happened. But the next morning, her landlord has vanished, leaving her alone with Miriam, a cruel and abusive landlady. If Ella hadn’t run away years ago, she wouldn’t be stuck here now.

Miriam wakes. She’s not in bed. She’s confused. Then she finds a knife next to her – and it’s soaked in blood, just like her husband’s bed sheets.

When Miriam advertises for a tenant two months later, one comes knocking. While Miriam can’t wait to install Maya into her missing husband’s bedroom, Ella knows there’s more to this new paying guest than she’s letting on. Because Ella knows exactly who she is. But is Maya an ally – or an enemy?

Revenge is a dish best served cold…

This book is part of the Darker Minds crime and suspense thriller series: Dark minds are at work. Sometimes it takes a darker one to stop them.

Perfect for readers who like their dark crime mixed with a good dose of suspense.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, I look forward to welcoming you inside my Readers’ Club. 😊

I’d love to join the Readers’ Club

Filed Under: News Tagged With: crime and mystery fiction, crime and suspense, crime fiction, Darker Minds Crime and Suspense, free read, Readers Club

Till You Die (Final Part)

20th November 2021 by claireladds Leave a Comment

Welcome to the last in this mini-series of Till You Die posts. We’ve reached the final part of the story. Is Joanna going to get her happy ending after all? I’ve said before that I really enjoyed creating the character of Joanna. Do you think she would find a place in the Darker Minds series – maybe in an alternative and novelised version of this story? Let me know if you do!

Darker Minds: Dark minds are at work. Sometimes it takes a darker one to stop them…

Anyway, on to the last part of story, and a quick mention that you can still get the full e-book as the welcome gift when you join my Readers’ Club – at the moment. More of that later.

Enjoy the last part of Till You Die.

Happy reading! 😊


Till You Die (Final Part)

That first few weeks at home together whisked by in a haze of happiness for Joanna. Whenever Joseph fell asleep, Craig held her and kissed her, and he made her plates of food. She struggled to move around for the first couple of weeks, and hated that Craig had to do everything for all of them. She hated most of all that she found it too difficult to change Joseph, and it upset her. But she did manage to feed him, and she used this as her way of bonding with her baby. The scar would heal, the pain would subside, and she would be off the iron tablets before long, she hoped. She had everything she’d ever wanted: her own family, a beautiful house, and plenty of money so that they never had to worry about anything, ever.

***

One day, about three weeks after they’d bought Joseph home, they were eating lunch, and Joanna was just finishing feeding a hiccupy baby, when Craig’s mobile rang. It was lying on the table, and he snatched it up like lightning. Joanna looked up at Craig’s face but he had already turned himself to face the window.

‘Oh, hi…wait a mo.’

That feeling of billowing sickness Joanna had had before returned with a vengeance. She heard the door of the utility room close behind Craig. It had always clunked when Gran had lived there, and it was freezing in that tiny cubby hole. No one went in it unnecessarily. What was necessary now? Who was so necessary now?

Joanna knew she shouldn’t listen to his mobile calls. Everyone has a right to their privacy, she thought. But in the midst of all her new-found happiness, that little man with the walnut head that glowed green in the reflection of the glass appeared at the back of her eyes. And he wouldn’t go away, even as she held tiny Joseph tightly to her.

She took the baby into the bedroom and laid him down in his Moses basket. Then she took off her slippers and, in bare feet, crept noiselessly back down the stairs, clinging to the handrail with one hand, to her scar with the other. She eyed each step warily – they had so nearly been her undoing.

The utility room door was closed but there was a gap near the middle hinge where at the door had bowed once, when it had been taken off, painted, and left to dry at an angle against a wall. Craig’s voice muffled its way through this crack. Putting her ear right to the opening, she could hear the words.

‘No, OK, so it didn’t quite go according to plan. But it’ll all work out, I promise… She’s very weak… Yes, of course I want us to be together…’

Joanna’s heart began to pound in her chest. She knew that if she was capable of running upstairs to Joseph’s room and looked at the watch ball, that it would be glowing as it had been that night – that night Craig had tried to kill her. There! She had finally admitted it out loud to her own mind. It couldn’t have been any other way. She’d thought it would be all over, as soon as Craig knew that everything was all right – with the baby. She had thought they would get back to normal, be a happy family, and she could forget her silliness and her paranoia and put it down to the pregnancy.

The fuzziness that had been with her throughout the last nine months had gone now, and she was seeing things as clearly as she used to, before Craig had got his hooks into her heart, and her money. That little man – he had known.

She reared herself up. Weak, was she? Not as weak as Craig seemed to think. She laid one hand against her caesarean scar and shut her eyes as she placed the other against the door. The time had come to confront him, once and for all. If he didn’t want her, then he could leave her and Joseph, but she would ensure that he got nothing from her. None of her money. He wouldn’t get the chance to hurt her again. Her head whirred with what she would do and tears welled up across her eyelashes.

Craig’s voice filled her ears. That soft, soothing voice he had when they first met, in that solicitor’s office, when she’d been with Gran who wanted to leave Joanna the house and half her money.

‘Look, you can come over and stay any time you like, Mum. I just thought it would be better for Joanna if she felt more up to it first. I know I’ve been an idiot recently, but I’m just trying to look after my family.’

She pushed open the door. There was Craig, leant with his back against the radiator, mobile dangling from one hand, the other running through his beautiful dark crop of hair, just like his son’s.

‘I think I’ve upset Mum.’ Craig blew a huge sigh over Joanna’s shoulder as she rushed to him, burying her guilty, relieved face in his chest. ‘You know what she’s like – she reckons we don’t want her to help, so she’s being all funny.’

She smiled up at him. ‘Thanks, love. I’d like us to get to grips with our baby before anyone else starts telling us what to do. I’ve got enough with the midwife coming round all the time.’ She sighed.  ‘I’ll make you a cuppa in a few minutes.’

Then she padded back upstairs and leant forward into the Moses basket. Joseph – their beautiful, perfect baby – dribbled as he noticed her. She wiped his mouth and put out her finger. He clutched it, staring at her with those stunning emerald eyes he had inherited from his father. She knew she had everything she wanted here, in this house. The paranoia, the worrying, started by that little man in that weird little shop – was over. Her imagination had done its bit to try and destroy her life, just like her Gran’s has done to hers. They were a family. And nothing – not even Craig’s mother with her constant phone calls – would prevent it now.

Almost instinctively, she reached for the watch ball, sitting so patiently on guard near the window. She thought, just for a split second, about staring into its depths. Instead, sighing, she wriggled her captured finger free from little Joseph’s tiny, strong grasp. And, without the sick feeling or the raised heartbeat or the stinging eyes, she opened the bottom drawer where she kept the baby towels, and placed it underneath the bottom-most of the mound.

‘Time to live,’ she said. Then she made soft circles on the forehead of her green-eyed baby until he fell asleep. ‘Magic eyes,’ she said softly to herself as she stroked the black fluff of Joseph’s hair. ‘Magic all round.’

Joanna heard the vicious rumblings of the kettle downstairs as it boiled a full body of water.

‘He must have got tired of waiting,’ she smiled to herself.

***

Did the old man know? From behind his counter in that quirky little shop, could he tell that Joanna had pulled through, almost unscathed? How strong were his senses? Did he know that she stared at the last little piece of her family jigsaw while the kettle boiled downstairs, drowning out all other noises? Did he know that, as the kettle boiled, Craig spoke softly into his mobile, and his voice came through, soft and sweet, to the one on the other end who was waiting for magic to happen?

‘I’ll make a new plan. There’s the kid now, but Mum will deal with him. He takes after me, she’ll see that. I’ll have the money. And you’ve got all yours, too, now that husband of yours has finally been declared legally dead. And soon, I promise, I’ll have you. I love you, more than I’ve loved anyone. I’ll love you until you die…’

And the old man – could he sense that, under those pure white baby towels, the glass bauble, once known as a watch ball, glowed with all its might, in the hope that Joanna would see?


I WANT TO JOIN THE READERS’ CLUB

Take a look at Show Me Dead, the first novel in the Darker Minds series, here.

Show Me Dead by Claire Ladds

Filed Under: Read for Free Tagged With: crime and mystery fiction, crime fiction, free read, psychological thriller, Readers Club, short story

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