Frances Hegarty Book order (chronological)

Een Amerikaan reist naar Engeland om zijn jeugdliefde na twintig jaar op te zoeken, maar hij ontdekt dat ze in de gevangenis zit wegens moord op haar gehandicapte zoontje.

Elisabeth Kennedy is a complicated, prickly ex-police detective recovering from a brutal attack of deadly acid - and a woman who is determined to fight back. Unable to escape the memory of her sister's murder, Elisabeth flees the stiflingly safe confines of her mother's seaside home to return to her own precarious existence in an apartment high atop a crumbling London bell tower. In her self-imposed exile, she assumes she will be safe, anonymous. But even the most cloistered places are not sacrosanct - especially the human heart. As she tracks her quarry through a London peopled by the pathetic and the poisonous, Elizabeth is headed for something far more chilling than loneliness, more savage than self-doubt

Isabel Burley returns to her childhood home to look after her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. There she finds an angry old woman, prey to the threats of failing memory, the inability to run her own life and the local villains, who are eyeing her isolated house. The real threat, however, comes from within. Isabel thinks she has gone home to do good, but really she is looking for the love she lacked as a child. Isolated by her mother's growing dementia, the two women become locked in a relationship of hatred and simmering violence, with roots that go deep into the past. . .

In de loop van het onderzoek naar de moord op de echtgenote van een plaatselijke projectontwikkelaar krijgt de politie toch twijfels over de identiteit van de mogelijke dader.

Elisabeth Young is a picture restorer with modest needs -- complete privacy and the beauty of the paintings she painstakingly brings back to life. But as she works absorbed and alone in her basement flat, she becomes haunted by the echo of mysterious footsteps and a silent figure in the shadows. When a wealthy recluse persistently invites her to restore his remarkable collection, the offer finally proves irresistible. His luxurious residence seems to be the refuge she seeks -- because of the warmth, because of the paintings and because she is so desperately afraid of the footsteps outside. Too late, Elisabeth realizes her error as privacy becomes her nemesis.