Claire Ladds

Crime and suspense author

new release

Hers or Mine: a New Psychological Suspense Thriller OUT NOW!

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I am beyond excited to tell you that Hers or Mine, my latest psychological suspense thriller, is available to buy from today! This is the first of several psychological suspense books I have for you in 2023, and I really hope you’ll love reading them.

So, what’s my new book about? Well…

COULD YOUR SECRETS BE THE DEATH OF YOU?

To the neighbours, Lucy and Andy are an ordinary couple with good jobs and a quiet life. But they’re hiding a dark secret. And it’s tearing them apart.

Seven years ago, you took my life away. And I want it back.

Life as Andy’s wife isn’t what Lucy thought it would be. Andy has become obsessive. It’s as if she’s a prisoner. Their secret has turned Andy into a manipulative control freak, and Lucy stays in hiding, inside the house. Her business will fall apart if she doesn’t do something, and she’s mortified by Andy’s serial philandering since their secret took hold of them in its vice-like grip. So, when a leaflet arrives for a hotel designed for struggling creatives, Lucy is desperate to persuade Andy that going there, for a break and to give her a chance to sort her head out, will make things better.

Andy has issues of his own: the temptation of an affair that he’s trying to keep under control, Lucy’s increasingly problematic behaviour, and the guilty knowledge of what he did seven years before. But when Lucy threatens to reveal their secret, he has no choice but to let her out of his sight. What harm can a few days do?

The time is coming. The plan is in place. And you’ll be here soon.

But Andy begins to regret his decision. Letting Lucy go off alone might have been really stupid. Can she keep the secret safe? How dangerous is Lucy’s behaviour? When Andy gets a disturbing phone call from his wife, he’s determined to go and get her back.

But at the hotel everyone is hiding secrets and telling lies. Someone is playing a twisted game. And they have murder in mind.

No one knows you’re here. No one knows who you really are. And no one will know if you disappear forever…

A twisty psychological suspense novel. It’s game on – and it’s about as personal as it gets. When everyone is lying, who do you trust?

You can find Hers or Mine on a whole variety of online bookstores, and you can find them all using the button below.

If you prefer to get your books for your local library or a library app, you can do that, too! Just request Hers or Mine from your librarian or through your preferred library app.

I’m currently working on the paperback and hardback, and both should be available in the near future.

BUY HERS OR MINE

Happy reading (and I hope – in the nicest possible way – you get some shivers of suspense up your back, too! 😁)!

Claire

That Killer Image OUT NOW!

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I am delighted to announce that my new suspense novel, That Killer Image is OUT NOW!

Three people. One killer. And a picture that someone will die for.

When Vicky meets Anthony, she sees him as a happy distraction from her claustrophobic relationship with her housemate and self-appointed guardian, Fran.

Anthony already knows Vicky because he has been following her every move. She is perfect for what he needs – a model for the ultimate photo of his life’s work – and he will do anything it takes to get that shot.

But Fran is not so easy to get rid of. Haunted by the disappearance of her sister, and blaming herself, she is desperate not to make the same mistakes again with Vicky. And when push really comes to shove, she has other ideas about that killer image.

Beneath obsession lies something more deadly…

You can buy the e-book of That Killer Image from a variety of bookstores, and find it in subscriptions, such as Kobo Plus and Scribd. You can also order it from your library, including (excitingly) through Borrow Box! The paperback and hardback are coming soon…

Thank you so much to everyone who pre-ordered a copy. Your support really does mean the world to me. It was fantastic to wake up to find that the book had already landed on the devices of readers in different countries, and that it had been bought it from a variety of retailers.

If you haven’t got your copy yet, you can find it at your preferred retailer using the link below. I hope you enjoy reading That Killer Image!

BUY THAT KILLER IMAGE
That Killer Image by Claire Ladds

Show Me Dead: A big THANK YOU! 😊

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I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has helped to make the release of Show me Dead as brilliant an experience as it has been.

Writers often do much of their work alone – the very nature of having to focus on the words you’re writing or editing means that’s par for the course – but it takes all sorts of people to help get a book launched. Whether you are someone who has bought the book, or downloaded it to read it in Kindle Unlimited, or whether you liked and shared my social media posts as I wittered on about how excited I was about this book (and I’m still excited because I love the story!), or whether you told someone else about Show Me Dead, or whether you’ve managed to do something else to spread the word about my book launch, I cannot thank you enough. You are AMAZING!

I’ve had some really flattering and humbling conversations with readers this week, who have contacted me and said some lovely things about this book and my writing itself. I honestly can’t thank you enough. Putting a book out into the world can feel scary because you never know for sure if it’s going to resonate with readers, or whether they’re going to enjoy it.

I would like to give a special shout-out to my fabulous cover designer, Emmy Ellis, who has done a superb job of making the covers in the Darker Minds Crime and Suspense series truly gorgeous. Also, it’s a real privilege to have author friends and colleagues who are always willing to listen to another writer talking ‘shop’. Jay Nadal and Meg Jolly have encouraged me so much in the last few months. If you ever want to read police procedurals, both of them write great ones!

If you haven’t got your copy of Show Me Dead yet, you can grab it for a very limited time for 99p/c, or get it with your Kindle Unlimited subscription and read for FREE.

Download Show Me Dead
Show Me Dead – FREE to read in Kindle Unlimited

Would you like to hear more from me? Join my Readers’ Club and get exclusive gifts and bonus content. You’ll also get a FREE copy of Beneath the Flesh, a Darker Minds Crime and Suspense novella.

Yes, I’d like to join the Reader’s Club

Show Me Dead – OUT NOW on Amazon!

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This is a very exciting day for me because it’s LAUNCH DAY for Show Me Dead!

I am absolutely thrilled to say that Show Me Dead is now available to buy from Amazon. And if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can download and read the book FREE as part of your subscription – and I’d love it very much if you do! 😁

If you pre-ordered the book, then it should already have landed on your device. You may even have already started reading it, which is fantastic.

Show Me Dead is the first book I’ve written in my new Darker Minds series. Each book in the series is a standalone novel, linked by a premise:

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

Here’s a bit about Show Me Dead, in case you’ve not yet come across it.

THE DEEPER YOU GO, THE DARKER YOU GET. THE STAGE IS SET…

Ripped away from her circus family and kidnapped, Angel finds herself the unwilling ‘guest’ in a dilapidated theatre, belonging to a man who calls himself the Puppet Master.

She’s not the only captive, either. All of the broken and terrified people below ground are forced to perform for a very darkly discerning audience.

When performers begin to go missing, no one knows why, or who will be next. Fear is growing and Angel intends to ensure one thing – that it won’t be her. What is happening here? Just who is the Puppet Master, and what does he want with her? Angel may well wish that she’d never found out. But is he really the one pulling the strings?

To save them all and get to the truth, Angel has to perform the darkest show of all. But truth comes at a price. And someone will pay…

You can find, buy, and download to read as a Kindle Unlimited book by clicking the button below:

BUY OR DOWNLOAD SHOW ME DEAD

I really hope you love reading Show me Dead. I have had such an amazing time writing it, and loved every second of creating the darkness inside the main characters. I would love to know what you think of Angel and of the Puppet Master – and which one you found yourself drawn to most. Do feel free to contact me and let me know.

To all my readers – thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for helping my launch day be fantastic. If you’ve bought or downloaded my book, that’s just wonderful. If my words thrill you, touch you, scare you, or make you want to read more books, then I can’t ask for more than that. I write because I love it, and if I can bring you along for the ride, then it’s literally the most fantastic feeling ever!

Show Me Dead by Claire Ladds

Release Day for Baby up the Chimney!

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It’s release day – finally – for Baby up the Chimney, and I couldn’t be more excited!

This novel has been a long time coming, beginning as a short story in 2010, developing into an unwieldy monster of a first draft by the end of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) by 2014, and eventually turning into the book I am incredibly proud of today.

My ARC (Advance Reader Copy) readers gave me some fabulous feedback, which was enough to make me realise I’d done the right thing in completing this book. Then people started pre-ordering, and today readers have already purchased. Thank you SO much to anyone who has. I find it an immense honour and extremely humbling that someone wants to part with their cash to read my work, and I know that my feelings about that will never change!

In case you don’t know what the book is about, here’s the blurb:

Baby up the Chimney - an historical novel by Claire Ladds
Baby up the Chimney by Claire Ladds

One day. That’s all it takes for four lives to be changed forever.

London, 6th March 1971. Women pour into London to take to the streets in solidarity for equal pay and equal rights. But while public spectacle and a friendly call to arms pervades the day, in private, one family is about to find that everything they thought was the truth about their loved ones has the potential to blow their world apart. And one man, back from the dead, has unfinished business with them…

A novel of dark secrets, lies, betrayal and vengeance, in which the shadows of history, haunting memories and the truths they dare not tell come back to try and destroy them.

When the truth is not what you thought it was, do you ignore it? Do you try to rewrite history to protect those you love? Or do you seek revenge?

You can purchase Baby up the Chimney from the following stores:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Amazon worldwide

Kobo

Apple

Nook

All other stores

Add it to your Goodreads ‘Want to Read’ list

See it on BookBub

If you’d like to read more about my inspiration for this book, the writing processes, and all sorts of other little revelations – including how the Brontës made their way into the novel, I visited the Auto.erraticism blog earlier today to discuss it. You can read the post here.

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