Why am I passionate about this?

Like most authors, I love reading stories as well as writing them. Being of a certain age, I’ve read plenty. For me, the best tales are those where women overcome deadly odds to create their own happy ending. Those are the books I aim to write too. My characters are much braver than me! While they grapple with challenges, I’m simply tied to a keyboard. Sometimes I take my laptop to a coffee shop (mine’s a flat white, please). I live in Bristol, in the English West Country, and have spent time in Birmingham and London. They all feature in my books and give them a strong sense of place.


I wrote

Lies at Her Door

By A.A. Abbott,

Book cover of Lies at Her Door

What is my book about?

Lucy Freeman feels her life will never happen. While she doesn’t resent her rock star brother’s jet-setting lifestyle, she struggles…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The End of Her

A.A. Abbott Why did I love this book?

Stephanie is the mother of twin babies. Fighting a fog of sleep deprivation, she’s unnerved to find the front door open and a fire in her kitchen. Has her mind drifted so far south that she has unwittingly put her precious girls at risk? Then her husband’s old flame accuses him of murdering his first wife. The price of silence is a slice of Stephanie’s large inheritance. Stephanie has to make a choice: who to believe, and who to protect. 

Shari Lapena is one of my go-to writers for a gripping read with believable characters. With this tense, twisting psychological thriller, she gradually unravels secrets while still keeping you guessing. 

By Shari Lapena,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The End of Her as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'The queen of the one-sit read' Linwood Barclay

'Shari Lapena is one of the best thriller writers in the business' Steve Cavanagh

'I tore through it. It kept me on my toes throughout and the ending was just fantastic. Really tense!' Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange

___

It starts with a shocking accusation . . .

Stephanie and Patrick are recently married, with new-born twins. While Stephanie struggles with the disorienting effects of sleep deprivation, there's one thing she knows for certain - she has everything she ever wanted.

Then a woman from his past arrives and makes a…


Book cover of The Tree of Hands

A.A. Abbott Why did I love this book?

Ruth Rendell is famous for her detective stories, but she also wrote exquisitely nuanced and layered psychological thrillers. Exploring love, greed, and selfishness, The Tree of Hands is about two very different women. Benet has achieved success as a writer but is grappling with bereavement. Carol, a goodtime girl, didn’t plan to have two-year-old Jason and is relieved when he goes missing.

Benet is tricked into looking after Jason and falls in love with him before discovering his identity. There is a heart-stopping moment when Benet takes Jason to Carol’s local library, intending to leave him there to be returned to his mother. Benet thinks she is doing the right thing, while the reader knows how hellish Jason’s life will be. Can Benet’s love overcome her scruples?

By Ruth Rendell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Tree of Hands as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Edgar Award Finalist: In London, a missing child unites three mothers in grief, madness, and murder.
 
When Benet Archdale was a young girl in North London, her mother, Mopsa, made her nervous. The woman was unsound, and posed ever-present dangers. Yet Benet understood her sickness and forgave her threats. In pursuit of a relatively sane life as a novelist and loving single parent, Benet has since kept Mopsa at a distance. But it’s not only the sudden death of Benet’s two-year-old son that shakes her safe world. It’s the past. Mopsa has returned to be at her inconsolable daughter’s side.…


Book cover of Find You First

A.A. Abbott Why did I love this book?

Linwood Barclay is adept at dreaming up quirky characters. Find You First frequently switches between points of view, but there is no confusion because the characters are distinct and interesting.

On the face of it, this is a tale of two men with too much money. Tech billionaire Miles donated sperm as a student and wishes to trace his natural children. Meanwhile, sleazy Jeremy, a Jeffrey Epstein-style character, is trying to silence his victims. However, the real stars are two sparky young women, Chloe and Nicky. Chloe, suddenly confronted by the father she never knew, joins forces with Miles to find out why his other kids are being killed. Fifteen-year-old Nicky is the victim who fights back. When the disparate strands of the story come together, these ladies kick butt.

By Linwood Barclay,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Find You First as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One will change your life. One will end it.
Who will ... FIND YOU FIRST?

'The best book of his career' STEPHEN KING
'Insanely paced, wildly entertaining' JOE HILL
'A full-throttle powerhouse of a thriller' T.M. LOGAN
'Sharply drawn' SUNDAY TIMES
'Keeps the engine racing' THE TIMES

It's a deadly race against time...

Tech billionaire Miles has more money than he can ever spend, but he can't buy more time. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, he is forced to take a long, hard look at his past.

Somewhere out there, Miles has children who don't know it, but they might…


Book cover of Killing The Girl

A.A. Abbott Why did I love this book?

Written by an author from the English West Country city of Bristol, this story accurately captures the inequality of life in the 1970s. Fifteen-year-old Carol lives in a council estate on the edge of town. She goes to school with a farmer’s son who will inherit rolling acres. One day, she meets handsome Frankie, who is staying with his aunt in a manor house nearby.

Every reader will know louche Frankie is bad news. Carol, of course, falls for him and finds herself pregnant. So far, so predictable. What is far less predictable is the way Carol herself is sucked into crime, secrets, and lies. Forty years later, how far will she go to evade exposure? Emotional, clever, and exquisitely written, this book is hard to put down. 

By Elizabeth Hill,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Killing The Girl as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Killing The Girl has been recognised as a B.R.A.G. Medallion Honouree by IndieBRAG.

A perfect life, a perfect love – and a perfect murder.

Loving Frankie was easy. But Carol wasn’t the only woman Frankie charmed. When Carol’s obsession finally died, she killed and buried him. No other woman was to suffer from Frankie’s love.

Now his grave will be found and the mistakes she made will come back to haunt her.

As Carol revisits the past to justify his murder, she discovers that other friends lied. Will the truth set her free, or will her revenge on those who…


Book cover of Inceptio

A.A. Abbott Why did I love this book?

Inceptio starts as a psychological thriller, then becomes much more. Karen thinks of herself as an all-American girl. Trying to carve a career in New York’s cutthroat advertising world, she’s on the brink of success when she attracts a stalker. This is where the plot segues into alt-history, military strategy, and politics. It transpires that Karen’s late mother hailed from the technologically advanced state of Roma Nova, and Karen has access to dangerous secrets. Finding herself at the centre of a diplomatic incident, Karen is spirited away to Roma Nova and an uncertain future.

Author Alison Morton writes beautifully and has constructed engaging characters and settings. This is Book 1 of a series and can be read as a standalone, but I feel the others are too good to miss.

By Alison Morton,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Inceptio as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hunted by a killer, New Yorker Karen Brown is rescued by arrogant special forces officer Conrad Tellus and flees with him to her mother's mysterious homeland in Europe, centuries old Roma Nova. But the killer reaches into her new home. Pushed back on her own resources, she undergoes intensive training, develops fighting skills and becomes an undercover cop. Crazy with bitterness at his past failures, the killer sets a trap, knowing Karen has no choice but to spring it...


Explore my book 😀

Lies at Her Door

By A.A. Abbott,

Book cover of Lies at Her Door

What is my book about?

Lucy Freeman feels her life will never happen. While she doesn’t resent her rock star brother’s jet-setting lifestyle, she struggles to care for their sick mother. Then an old cellar collapses under her garden, and Lucy is shocked to find herself staring at a skeleton.

Devastated to discover the bones belong to the only man she ever loved, Lucy’s world is shattered when police suspect her of the killing. Turning sleuth to clear her name, she faces even worse dangers than a prison cell. Will exposing buried lies prove lethal? If you like a nail-biting mystery, the rotten scent of deadly secrets and women who find their inner strength, you’ll love this thrilling whodunnit.

You might also like...

From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

By Ben Stanger,

Book cover of From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

Ben Stanger Author Of From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Harvard- and MIT-trained physician-scientist, and I am drawn to research problems that bridge the basic and the practical – how a better understanding of cells and tissues can inform new therapies for cancer and other diseases. As children, we are all scientists – mini-hypothesis generators trying to make sense of the world. I suppose I never outgrew that curiosity. My list of best science books credits writers who bring to life the excitement that comes from looking at the natural world in a new way, a spirit that I try to emulate in my own writing. I hope you enjoy these books as much as I have!

Ben's book list on science written by scientists

What is my book about?

Everybody knows that all animals—bats, bears, sharks, ponies, and people—start out as a single cell: the fertilized egg. But how does something no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence give rise to the remarkable complexity of each of these creatures?

FROM ONE CELL is a dive inside the cell and its evolutionary prerogatives to explain how these "endless forms most beautiful," as Charles Darwin called them, come about. Along the way, we learn about the scientific process, filled as it is with serendipity, as the story is told through the eyes of the scientists who informed…

From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

By Ben Stanger,

What is this book about?

Every animal on Earth begins life as a single cell. From this humble origin, the nascent creature embarks on a risky journey fraught with opportunities for disaster-yet with astounding regularity, it reaches its destination intact. From One Cell illuminates this epic transformation-still one of nature's most mysterious feats-to show where we all come from and where we're going.

Through the eyes of the scientists unraveling the secrets of development, we see how all the information needed to build a human fits into a fertilised egg, and how the trillions of cells that emerge know what to become and where to…


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