Search results for ""Author Helen FitzGerald""

On her first shift at an Edinburgh halfway house for violent offenders, a young woman is taken hostage … and that's just the beginning… The twisty, shocking, darkly funny thriller by award-winning author Helen FitzGerald. 'A new novel from Helen Fitzgerald is always a major event … magnificent' Mark Billingham ‘Outrageous, hilarious and dark as hell – this is Helen FitzGerald on absolute top form’ Doug Johnstone ‘[Lou] is irresistible and very funny … The set-up is fascinating, the narrative is both fast-moving and convincing’ Literary Review _______ They’re the housemates from Hell… When her disastrous Australian love affair ends, Lou O’Dowd heads to Edinburgh for a fresh start, moving in with her cousin, and preparing for the only job she can find … working at a halfway house for very high-risk offenders. Two killers, a celebrity paedophile and a paranoid coke dealer – all out on parole and all sharing their outwardly elegant Edinburgh townhouse with rookie night-worker Lou… And instead of finding some meaning and purpose to her life, she finds herself trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse where she stands to lose everything – including her life. Slick, darkly funny and nerve-janglingly tense, Halfway House is both a breathtaking thriller and an unapologetic reminder never to corner a desperate woman… __________________________ ‘Tense, claustrophobic and laugh-out-loud funny … an amazingly talented writer’ Michael Wood ‘A genius combination of horror, humour and humanity' B M Carroll Praise for Helen FitzGerald **Shortlisted for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year** 'Sharp, shocking and savagely funny’ Chris Whitaker ‘Dark, dark, deliciously dark' Amanda Jennings 'Wickedly funny, breath-stealingly tense and utterly chilling' Miranda Dickinson 'The main character is one of the most extraordinary you'll meet between the pages of a book' Ian Rankin 'Sublime' Guardian 'A dark, comic masterpiece' Mark Edwards 'Urgent, angry, absolutely terrifying’ Erin Kelly 'Tantalisingly powerful' The Times 'The classic thriller gets a hell of a twist' Heat 'FitzGerald writes like a more focused Irvine Welsh or a less misogynist Philip Roth' Daily Telegraph 'Domestic life is rarely served up quite so dark as this’ Sun

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When a middle-aged couple downsizes to the countryside for an easier life, their two daughters become isolated, argumentative and violent … A chilling, vicious and darkly funny psychological thriller from bestselling author Helen FitzGerald. ‘Sharp, shocking and savagely funny. Helen Fitzgerald is a wonderfully original storyteller’ Chris Whitaker ‘A new novel from Helen Fitzgerald is always a major event … magnificent’ Mark Billingham ‘I devoured Keep Her Sweet … shite parenting and a dysfunctional sister relationship goes to fatal extremes’ Erin Kelly–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Desperate to enjoy their empty nest, Penny and Andeep downsize to the countryside, to forage, upcycle and fall in love again, only to be joined by their two twenty-something daughters, Asha and Camille.Living on top of each other in a tiny house, with no way to make money, tensions simmer, and as Penny and Andeep focus increasingly on themselves, the girls become isolated, argumentative and violent.When Asha injures Camille, a family therapist is called in, but she shrugs off the escalating violence between the sisters as a classic case of sibling rivalry … and the stress of the family move. But this is not sibling rivalry. The sisters are in far too deep for that.This is a murder, just waiting to happen…Chilling, vicious and darkly funny, Keep Her Sweet is not just a tense, sinister psychological thriller, but a startling look at sister relationships and they bonds they share … or shatter. –––––––––––––––––––––––––‘A wonderful book about a toxic family … funny, shocking and full of heart. FitzGerald at her coruscating best' Doug Johnstone ‘Definitely one for those who love deadly dysfunctional families, whip-smart writing, and their stories dark, dark, deliciously dark’ Amanda Jennings ‘A novel rippling with power and intensity. A true page-turner’ Michael Wood ‘Wickedly funny, breath-stealingly tense and utterly chilling … a book you’ll want to talk about’ Miranda Dickinson ‘Helen Fitzgerald has an uncanny ability to balance savagery and hilarity … an absolute banger of a book’ Matt Wesolowski 'A crazy but addictive, dark and funny, read’ Louise Beech ‘Dark humour sings from the pages’ Russel McLean ‘A fascinating and original tale of a family in rapid decline’ Jen Med’s Book Reviews‘You will canter through this psychological thriller’ Café Thinking Praise for Helen FitzGerald*Worst Case Scenario was Guardian, Telegraph, Herald Scotland AND The Week BOOK OF THE YEAR**Sunday Times TOP 40 Crime Novels in the Last 5 Years**Longlisted for Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2020* ‘The main character is one of the most extraordinary you’ll meet between the pages of a book’ Ian Rankin‘Sublime’ Guardian ‘This darkly, funny, shocking and surprisingly emotional thriller is unlike anything you’ve ever read before’ Fabulous ‘A dark, comic masterpiece which manages to be both excruciatingly tense and laugh out loud funny at the same time’ Mark Edwards ‘Urgent, angry, absolutely terrifying, yet suffused with the humanity and humour you expect from a Helen Fitzgerald novel’ Erin Kelly‘Tantalisingly powerful’ The Times‘Ash Mountain is the author at her masterly best … I loved it!’ Louise Candlish‘The classic thriller gets a hell of a twist’ Heat‘FitzGerald writes like a more focused Irvine Welsh or a less misogynist Philip Roth’ Daily Telegraph‘Domestic life is rarely served up quite so dark as this – but that only makes you hungry for more’ The Sun

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A deliciously dark, unapologetically funny, and nail-bitingly tense psychological thriller by the international bestselling author of The CryNUMBER ONE BESTSELLER***Guardian, Telegraph, Herald Scotland AND The Week BOOK OF THE YEAR******Sunday Times TOP 40 Crime Novels in the Last 5 Years******Longlisted for Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2020***‘Shocking, gripping and laugh-out-loud hilarious from the first line to the last. Brilliant’ Erin Kelly‘This frenetic novel’s strongest assets are its sheer verbal energy and the acerbic views of its heroine, who resembles a female Frankie Boyle’ Sunday Times‘The main character is one of the most extraordinary you’ll meet between the pages of a book’ Ian Rankin‘A scandalously rude comic masterpiece’ Daily Telegraph‘Sublime’ Guardian_________________Mary Shields is a moody, acerbic probation offer, dealing with some of Glasgow’s worst cases, and her job is on the line. Liam Macdowall was imprisoned for murdering his wife, and he’s published a series of letters to the dead woman, in a book that makes him an unlikely hero – and a poster boy for Men’s Rights activists.Liam is released on licence into Mary’s care, but things are far from simple. Mary develops a poisonous obsession with Liam and his world, and when her son and Liam’s daughter form a relationship, Mary will stop at nothing to impose her own brand of justice … with devastating consequences.A heart-pounding, relentless and chilling psychological thriller, rich with deliciously dark and unapologetic humour, Worst Case Scenario is also a perceptive, tragic and hugely relevant book by one of the most exciting names in crime fiction._________________‘Laced with pitch-dark acerbic humour, the classic thriller gets a hell of a twist’ Heat‘This darkly, funny, shocking and surprisingly emotional thriller is unlike anything you’ve ever read before’ Fabulous Magazine‘This novel is a funny, agonising account of one good woman’s battle with rage, guilt, fear, duty and disaster’ Literary Review‘Absolutely compelling company from start to finish in this wonderful, energetic, hard-hitting and deeply funny novel’ Big Issue‘Simply stunning. Dark, uncompromising, funny, and almost impossible to put down’ Luca Veste‘Outrageous, extremely funny and ultimately devastating’ Ambrose Parry‘Dark humour and darker truths permeate a thrilling crime novel that is fabulously transgressive and completely unique … nobody writes like Helen Fitzgerald’ Mark Billingham‘Helen Fitzgerald is one of a kind, and a welcome breath of fresh air in the world of off-beat but achingly relatable crime fiction’ SJI Holliday‘A dark, comic masterpiece which manages to be both excruciatingly tense and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time. Great stuff!’ Mark Edwards

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Synopsis coming soon.......

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Helen FitzGerald is the second youngest of thirteen children. She grew up in the small town of Kilmore, Victoria, Australia, and studied English and History at the University of Melbourne. Via India and London, Helen came to Glasgow University where she completed a Diploma and Masters in Social Work. She has worked as a probation and parole officer for ten years, most of it in Barlinnie, where she helps to prepare serious offenders for release. She's married to screenwriter Sergio Casci, and they have two children.

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Now a major BBC 1 drama starring Jenna Coleman (Victoria, Dr Who) and Ewen Leslie (Top of the Lake, Safe Harbour), The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald brings a parent's worst nightmare to vivid life.Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, Helen FitzGerald's acclaimed psychological thriller brings a parent's worst nightmare to vivid life. Taut, dark, and emotional, The Cry follows the story of a missing baby and the investigation that thrusts his mother and father into the spotlight-and threatens to reveal the unthinkable.On a grueling flight from Glasgow to Australia, Joanna copes with what most mothers dread: a newborn that will not stop crying. Ill herself, Joanna tries to soothe baby Noah to no avail, and to the consternation of her fellow passengers. Alistair is finally able to settle his son, but not too long before they have to disembark and begin a long drive to Melbourne.When Noah mysteriously disappears after the couple stops along a lonely roadside, the criminal inquiry becomes a white-hot, global media sensation. As the focus on them intensifies, lies, rumour and innuendo spread, and Joanna and Alistair slowly begin to turn on each other. Someone is hiding the truth. But will knowing the truth bring Noah back?Filled with stunning twists and all-too-realistic scenes from a relationship in crisis, The Cry offers gripping suspense and emotional drama that will keep you guessing all the way to its shocking finish.

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Single-mother Fran returns to her sleepy hometown to care for her dying father when a devastating bush fire breaks out. A heartbreaking, nail-biting disaster-noir thriller from the bestselling author of The Cry and Worst Case Scenario. ‘Urgent, angry, absolutely terrifying, yet suffused with the humanity and humour you expect from a Helen Fitzgerald novel’ Erin Kelly ‘Tantalisingly powerful’ The Times ‘Ash Mountain is the author at her masterly best … I loved it!’ Louise Candlish ________________ Fran hates her hometown, and she thought she’d escaped. But her father is ill, and needs care. Her relationship is over, and she hates her dead-end job in the city, anyway. She returns home to nurse her dying father, her distant teenage daughter in tow for the weekends. There, in the sleepy town of Ash Mountain, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem, she falls in love for the first time, and her demanding dad tests her patience, all in the unbearable heat of an Australian summer. As past friendships and rivalries are renewed, and new ones forged, Fran’s tumultuous home life is the least of her worries, when old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants… Simultaneously a warm, darkly funny portrait of small-town life – and a woman and a land in crisis – and a shocking and truly distressing account of a catastrophic event that changes things forever, Ash Mountain is a heart-breaking slice of domestic noir, and a disturbing disaster thriller that you will never forget… ________________ ‘A new novel from Helen Fitzgerald is always a major event, and Ash Mountain is magnificent’ Mark Billingham ‘There is plenty of human depravity in the plot but none of that is as terrifyingly overmastering as the fire’ Literary Review ‘Domestic life is rarely served up quite so dark as this – but that only makes you hungry for more’ The Sun ‘Dark, atmospheric and terrifying’ Ambrose Parry ‘Compelling’ Independent ‘A hugely entertaining writer, with lovingly constructed landscapes and so-real-you-can-actually-hear-it dialogue but the thing she does best of all is create a little warm and cosy microcosm of life, then throw in a bloody great firecracker of a detail that sends the whole thing off into a completely different direction’ Crime Fiction Lover Praise for Helen FitzGerald ***Worst Case Scenario was Shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020*** ‘The plotting is intricate and beautifully handled, and the narrative pace is absolutely breakneck … a wonderful, energetic, hard-hitting and deeply funny novel’ The Big Issue ‘The main character is one of the most extraordinary you’ll meet between the pages of a book’ Ian Rankin ‘A dark, comic masterpiece which manages to be both excruciatingly tense and laugh out loud funny at the same time’ Mark Edwards ‘The classic thriller gets a hell of a twist’ Heat ‘FitzGerald writes like a more focused Irvine Welsh or a less misogynist Philip Roth’ Daily Telegraph ‘Domestic life is rarely served up quite so dark as this – but that only makes you hungry for more’ The Sun

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Some people love goodbyes...23-year-old Catherine is mainly interested in Facebook and flirting, but she reluctantly takes a job at a local care home after her mother puts her foot down - and soon discovers that her new workplace contains many secrets.One of the residents at the home, 82-year-old Rose, is convinced that something sinister is going on in Room 7 and that her own life is under threat. But Rose has dementia - so what does she actually know, and who would believe her anyway?As Catherine starts investigating Rose's allegations, terrible revelations surface about everyone involved. Can Catherine find out what's really going on before it's too late?

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Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award When a baby goes missing on a lonely roadside in Australia, it sets off a police investigation that will become a media sensation and dinner-table talk across the world. Lies, rumours and guilt snowball, causing the parents, Joanna and Alistair, to slowly turn against each other. Finally Joanna starts thinking the unthinkable: could the truth be even more terrible than she suspected? And what will it take to make things right? Perfect for fans of Julia Crouch, Sophie Hannah and Laura Lippman, The Cry was widely acclaimed as one of the best psychological thrillers of the year. There's a gripping moral dilemma at its heart and characters who will keep you guessing on every page.

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