Books like 'Afterward'
Readers who enjoyed Afterward by Jennifer Mathieu also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery psychological realistic family friendship crime kidnapping drama suspense
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One Among Us by Paige Dearth
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA kidnapped girl is forced into human sex trafficking Eleven- year-old Maggie Clarke is abducted from her loving family and thrust into the indescribably horrific and largely unknown underworld of human sex trafficking. In captivity, Maggie's life turns into a nightmare most children couldn't imagine... -
Home by Harlan Coben
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsTen years after the high-profile kidnapping of two young boys, only one returns home in Harlan Coben’s gripping Myron Bolitar thriller.A decade ago, kidnappers grabbed two boys from wealthy families and demanded ransom, then went silent. No trace of the boys ever surfaced... -
Little Lost Secrets by Cheryl Bradshaw
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen a dead body is found in the walls during a home renovation, detective Georgiana Germaine gets swept into a cold case murder...Categorized as:
suspense crime family kidnapping mystery fiction pollution-climate-change contemporary -
Identity by Nora Roberts
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA new thriller about one man's ice-cold malice, and one woman's fight to reclaim her life.Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan's job as a bartender... -
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Next of Kin by Kia Abdullah
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Abdullah’s legal thrillers make John Grisham seem like a maiden aunt.” Sunday Times Crime Club “An enthralling, heartbreaking and thrilling courtroom drama that had me shouting out loud and gripped until the last page.” Nadine Matheson, author of The Jigsaw Man“Brilliantly tense, this is another clever page turner from Kia Abdullah that I couldn’t put down. Just superb... -
What She Saw by Wendy Clarke
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsShe lied to her daughter to save her family. Everyone knows Leona would do anything for her daughter Beth: she moved to Church Langdon to send Beth to the best school, worked hard to build a successful business to support them and found them the perfect little cottage to call home. Leona and Beth hike together, shop together, share their hopes and fears with one another... -
No Child of Mine by Susan Lewis
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom internationally bestselling British author Susan Lewis comes an unflinching, thoroughly suspenseful novel—perfect for readers of Jodi Picoult—about the darkest secrets a family can hide. Alex Lake’s life is centered on helping people. Her job as a social worker in a British seaside town is more than a career: It’s the very essence of who she is... -
Good as Dead by Susan Walter
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt all starts with a promise from a stranger: We’ll take care of everything.Holly Kendrick’s husband is dead. Holly saw it all. In one violent moment, a hit-and-run accident turns Holly’s life upside down. Then a fixer for the high-powered guilty party approaches Holly with an offer she is in no position to refuse... -
Riverstar by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAfter ending an affair with a married movie producer, feisty Hollywood makeup artist Bella Webber finds herself back in the quaint Oregon town of River Valley, the location of a famous director’s latest film... -
Secrets Mothers Keep by Anya Mora
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOn Friday night in the clay fields of Bethel Creek, seventeen-year-old Daniel Reyes is found brutally attacked and left for dead. On Saturday morning, Cora Maxwell finds her teenage son’s clothes covered in blood. A small town torn apart by a horrific hate crime. An investigative reporter hell bent on finding the truth. A mother’s worst nightmare... -
Deserve To Die by Miranda Rijks
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDom and Stacey have the perfect life. Until they meet Tamara. Brilliant, beautiful, she hides a horrifying secret. One that may destroy them all.Happily married with two wonderful children, Dom and Stacey are living the dream. He runs a successful design agency, she is finding fame as an author of children’s books.Everything is perfect... -
Heartsong Cottage by Emily March
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDaniel Garrett is no stranger to heartache or tragedy. Once a successful detective, his world fell apart with his son's murder and his wife's suicide. Leaving the police force, Daniel devotes his life to finding missing children, but when a case goes sour on the anniversary of his personal tragedy, he returns to Eternity Springs hoping for some of the town's fabled healing... -
Juste une ombre by Karine Giébel
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCloé Beauchamp est une jeune femme à qui tout semble réussir; belle, brillante, sur le point d'être nommée à la tête d'une prestigieuse agence de publicité... Et amoureuse, depuis peu, d'un homme charmant. Elle cache à la perfection ses failles et les horreurs qui ont jalonné son passé. Mais lentement, sa vie va se transformer en cauchemar... -
The Ex-Wife by Jess Ryder
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsYou’ve got everything she wants …Newly married Natasha has the perfect house, a loving husband and a beautiful little girl called Emily. She’d have it all if it wasn’t for Jen, her husband’s ex-wife who just won’t leave them alone …Then Natasha returns home one day to find her husband and Emily gone without trace... -
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The Last Thing She Told Me by Linda Green
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsEven the deepest buried secrets can find their way to the surface...Moments before she dies, Nicola's grandmother Betty whispers to her that there are babies at the bottom of the garden.Nicola's mother claims she was talking nonsense. However, when Nicola's daughter finds a bone while playing in Betty's garden, it's clear that something sinister has taken place... -
The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhat would you do if you learned that the life you lived was a lie? Nina McCarrick lives the perfect life, until her husband, Finn, is killed in a car accident and everything Nina thought she could rely on unravels.Alone, bereft and faced with a mountain of debt, Nina quickly loses her life of luxury and she begins to question whether she ever really knew the man she married... -
The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsTwo sisters raised in fear are about to find out why in a chilling novel of psychological suspense from the author of The Thinnest Air.Ignorant of civilization and cautioned against its evils, nineteen-year-old Wren and her two sisters, Sage and Evie, were raised in off-the-grid isolation in a primitive cabin in upstate New York... -
A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsMiles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. Missy had been his first love, and Miles fervently believes she will be his last. As a deputy in the North Carolina town of New Bern, Miles Ryan not only grieves for Missy, but also longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews... -
Things We Never Say by Caitlin Weaver
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThree mothers. Three secrets. One devastating scandal.Anna has always been the quiet one, the soft-spoken mother who kept her head down and her secrets close. But when she's thrown together with Maggie and Rhea on a PTA project, they begin to bond over wine and gossip, and slowly share the truths behind their picture-perfect lives... -
One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsVicky Seagrave is blessed: three beautiful children, a successful, doting husband, great friends and a job she loves. She should be perfectly happy. When she risks everything she holds dear on a whim, there's only person she trusts enough to turn to. But Vicky is about to learn that one mistake is all it takes; that if you're careless with those you love, you don't deserve to keep them . . -
Spilled Blood by Brian Freeman
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA taut thriller about two rural Minnesota towns locked in a deadly feud--and a teenage girl caught in the crossfire. Linked by the Spirit River, the two towns couldn't be more different: in affluent Barron, a powerful and secretive scientific research corporation enriches its residents, while downriver in blue-collar St. Croix, victims of that company's carcinogenic waste struggle to survive... -
Missing Daughter by Rick Mofina, Mark Owen
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFamilies with nothing to hide don’t have so many secretsLife can change in an instant. For Ryan and Karen Lane, it happens on the morning they discover their twelve-year-old daughter’s window open, their beloved Maddie missing from her bed.Police investigate. Suspicions swirl. A teenage boy admits he was outside her bedroom window the night she disappeared... -
Closer Than You Know by Brad Parks
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBrad Parks delivers another riveting, emotionally powerful stand-alone domestic suspense thriller perfect for fans of The Couple Next Door and What She Knew.Disaster, Melanie Barrick was once told, is always closer than you know.It was a lesson she learned the hard way growing up in the constant upheaval of foster care... -
My Little Girl by Shalini Boland
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratings‘I’m sorry. Your daughter is missing…’Claire Nolan receives a panicked phone call, telling her that her seven-year-old daughter Beatrice has gone missing on a trip to the local fair.It’s every mother’s worst nightmare. And it’s happening to her... -
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The Reunion by Samantha Hayes
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThey were all there the day your sister went missing...Who is lying? Who is next?Then–In charge of her little sister at the beach, Claire allowed Eleanor to walk to the shop alone to buy an ice cream. Placing a coin into her hand, Claire told her to be quick, knowing how much she wanted the freedom. Eleanor never came back... -
The Halo Effect by Anne D. LeClaire
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this tour de force, a father, shaken by tragedy, tries to avenge his daughter’s murder—and restore his family’s shattered life. It was supposed to be a typical October evening for renowned portrait artist Will Light... -
The New Wife by Sue Watson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsYou can never truly know what goes on behind closed doors…My darling son, Sam, is marrying his childhood sweetheart and I couldn’t be prouder of the man he’s grown into. Walking out on his abusive father all those years ago was the best thing I ever did. And today he stands, tall and handsome, saying ‘I do’ to my dream daughter-in-law... -
What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsA searing yet ultimately uplifting young adult novel about a teenage girl's recovery from anorexia.Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has honed a dangerous skill: starving herself. Even when her parents send her to a treatment center, she can't stop. Then she begins receiving packages from someone she doesn't know... -
No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTwo children get on the train. Only one gets off...No one saw it happen.You stand on a crowded tube platform in London. Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.Everyone is lying.By the time you get to the next stop, you've convinced yourself that everything will be fine... -
One Year Gone by Avery Bishop
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA mother will risk everything to find her missing daughter in this twisty thriller from the author of Girl Gone Mad.“Sometimes teenagers run away… Give her a few days. She’ll be back.”That’s what the police tell Jessica Moore when her seventeen-year-old daughter, Wyn, vanishes. All signs point to this being true. But days become weeks. Weeks become months... -
Silent Child by Sarah A. Denzil
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsIn the summer of 2006, Emma Price watched helplessly as her six-year-old son's red coat was fished out of the River Ouse. It was the tragic story of the year - a little boy, Aiden, wandered away from school during a terrible flood, fell into the river, and drowned. His body was never recovered. Ten years later, Emma has finally rediscovered the joy in life... -
The Promise by Teresa Driscoll
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe chilling new psychological thriller from the #1 bestselling author of I Am Watching You. It was their darkest secret. Three schoolgirls made a promise – to take the horrible truth of what they did to the grave.Thirty years later, Beth and Sally have tried to put the trauma behind them... -
The Rose Petal Beach by Dorothy Koomson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsEvery love story has a dangerous twist. Tamia Challey is horrified when her husband, Scott, is accused of something terrible – but when she discovers who his accuser is, everything goes into freefall. Backed into a corner and unsure what to think, Tamia is forced to choose who she instinctively believes... -
The Escape Artist by Diane Chamberlain
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSusanna Miller may have lost legal custody of her beautiful eleven-month-old son, Tyler, but that doesn't mean she is giving him up. Even if her ex-husband, Jim, an attorney, and his new wife, Peggy, have every advantage to offer a child, Susanna knows the two of them cannot be as caring, loving, and devoted as she has been... -
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Faultlines by Barbara Taylor Sissel
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt’s the phone call every parent dreads: in the middle of the night, Sandy Cline learns that her twenty-year-old son, Jordan, has been in a car accident. Her nephew, Travis, was also in the car, along with Travis’s girlfriend. All three are alive—but barely. The car was smashed against a tree along a remote and winding road, beautiful but deadly, in their rural Texas Hill Country town... -
His Kidnapper's Shoes by Maggie James
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDaniel is my son. He has always been mine. And he always will be.On some level deep inside, Laura Bateman knows something is wrong. That her relationship with her son is not what it should be. That it is based on lies.But bad things have happened to Laura. Things that change a person. Forever... -
I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is a Vegan Terrorist: 6 Deadly Social Media Influencers by Dr. Harper
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Explosive Conclusion to the Dr. Harper Therapy seriesI'm a therapist, and I've worked with the wildest internet celebrities… A vigilante who treated humans as factory farm animals. A germaphobe who warned of the next major plague. My own best friend. A rapist who got cancelled online — and in real life. A psychic medium with a disturbing prediction... -
I Made a Mistake by Jane Corry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIT STARTED WITH A KISS... AND ENDED WITH MURDER. The darkly addictive new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of I Looked Away, Blood Sisters and My Husband's Wife. --------------------------------------------------------In Poppy Page's mind, there are two types of women in this world: those who are faithful to their husbands, and those who are not... -
Behind Closed Doors by Susan Lewis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe powerful new novel about how life can change course in a heartbeat. From the Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of Never Say Goodbye. When fourteen-year-old Sophie Monroe suddenly vanishes one night it looks at first as though she's run away from home.Her computer and mobile phone have gone, and she's taken a bag full of clothes... -
What Doesn't Kill Her by Carla Norton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Edge of Normal, a riveting new thriller in which the heroine must confront her former tormentor who has escaped from a hospital for the criminally insaneReeve LeClaire is a college student, dammit, not Daryl Wayne Flint’s victim. Not anymore—not when Reeve is finally recovering a life of her own after four years of captivity... -
The Quiet People: The nerve-shredding, twisty MUST-READ bestseller by Paul Cleave
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"A cinematic, raging, rollercoaster of a plot with a wry humour … The Quiet People is wildly entertaining and will keep you guessing right to the end." — New Zealand Herald"A superb novel from a champion storyteller." — Crime Watch"Cleave writes the kind of dark, intense thrillers that I never want to end. Do yourself a favour and check him out... -
I Thought I Knew You by Penny Hancock
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFor fans of He Said/She Said and Anatomy of a Scandal , Penny Hancock’s I Thought I Knew You is about secrets and lies – and whose side you take when it really matters.Who do you know better? Your oldest friend? Or your child?And who should you believe when one accuses the other of an abhorrent crime?Jules and Holly have been best friends since university... -
All For You by Louise Jensen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe new gripping psychological thriller from the bestselling author The Date and The SisterMEET THE WALSH FAMILYLucy: Mother. Wife. Falling to pieces . . .Aidan: Father. Husband. In too deep . . .Connor: Son. Brother. Can never tell the truth . . .Everyone in this family has something to hide, but what are they trying to protect, and at what cost?IT WAS ALL FOR YOU... -
Good Little Liars by Sarah Clutton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEmma held the photo for a long moment before her eyes focused on the girl’s face. She dropped it and let out a muted cry.The girl in the photograph was Tessa.Twenty-five years after losing her friend Tessa in a tragic accident, Emma’s life is happy and settled. She rarely thinks about the day that Tessa fell to her death, or the secret that she made Emma swear to keep just hours before... -
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Sophie Last Seen by Marlene Adelstein
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSix years ago, ten-year-old Sophie Albright disappeared from a shopping mall. Her mother, Jesse, is left in a self-destructive limbo, haunted by memories of her intense and difficult child, who was obsessed with birds... -
Whisper Me This by Kerry Anne King
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsSingle mother Maisey Addington has always fallen short of her own mother’s expectations—never married, a bit adrift, wasting her high IQ on dead-end jobs. The only thing Maisey’s sure she’s gotten right is her relationship with her twelve-year-old daughter, Elle…until a phone call blows apart the precarious balance of their lives... -
Working Fire by Emily Bleeker
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of When I’m Gone comes a compelling novel of a bond between sisters, tested by tragedy…Ellie Brown thought she’d finally escaped her stifling hometown of Broadlands, Illinois; med school was supposed to be her ticket out... -
My Sister's Secret by Tracy Buchanan
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhat if everything you’d built your life on was a lie? Willow’s memories are happy: full of smiles, love and laughter. But a mysterious invitation to a photographic exhibition exposes a secret that’s been buried since a tragic accident years ago. Willow is forced to question everything she knew about Charity, her late mother, and Hope, the aunt she’s lived with since she was a child... -
Say Nothing by Brad Parks
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsJudge Scott Sampson doesn't brag about having a perfect life, but the evidence is clear: A prestigious job. A loving marriage. A pair of healthy children. Then a phone call begins every parent's most chilling nightmare. Scott's six-year-old twins, Sam and Emma, have been taken. The judge must rule exactly as instructed in a drug case he is about to hear... -
That Day You Left by Dorothy Koomson
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA powerful, thought-provoking emotional thriller from Sunday Times bestseller Dorothy Koomson. Previously published as THE FLAVOURS OF LOVE.Would you protect your husband's killer?It's been 18 months since that day when Saffron's husband, Joel, was murdered. Everyone in her life believes she is coping well. And no one suspects the mother-of-two knows who killed Joel...
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