Books

Shadow Creek

Shadow Creek

There’s something deadly lurking in the shadows at Shadow Creek...

Due to a last-minute change in plans, a group of unlikely traveling companions finds themselves on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. They include the soon-to-be-divorced Valerie; her oddball friends, Melissa and James; her moody teenage daughter, Brianne; and Val’s estranged husband’s fiancée, Jennifer. Val is dealing with unresolved feelings toward her ex and grappling with jealousy and resentment toward his younger, prettier new flame, a woman with some serious issues of her own. Brianne is sixteen and openly rebellious, caught up in a web of secrets and lies.

What Val and her companions don’t know is that a pair of crazed killers is wreaking havoc in the very same woods. When an elderly couple is found slaughtered and Brianne goes missing, Val finds herself in a nightmare much worse than anything she could have anticipated. She was half-expecting it to be the trip from hell, but what she never could have predicted was that this impromptu little excursion would become an all-out struggle for survival

Sample Chapter

Random House / 2012

Now You See Her

Now You See Her

From New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author Joy Fielding comes an edge-of-your-seat thriller that asks: how much do you really know about your own family?

"Devon is dead, Marcy."
"You're wrong. She's here."

When Marcy Taggart goes to Ireland after divorcing her husband of twenty-five years, a chance encounter catapults her entire life into turmoil. Years earlier, her daughter, Devon, disappeared in the icy waters of Georgian Bay after a canoeing accident, her body never recovered. But on a day trip to Cork, Marcy is certain she spots Devon walking down the street. When her daughter disappears into a crowd, Marcy begins a desperate search to find her — and to uncover the disturbing truth that might, in the end, be her only salvation. Exhilarating and engaging, this is Joy Fielding at her best — delivering a pulse-racing, tension-filled read.

Sample Chapter

Random House / 2011

The Wild Zone

The Wild Zone

From New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author Joy Fielding comes a pulse-racing story of a harmless bet gone deadly wrong.

This is how it starts. With a joke.

Two brothers - Will and Jeff - and their friend Tom are out one night at their favorite South Beach bar when they decide to make a bet on who can be the first to seduce a mysterious-looking young woman drinking by herself. Pretty, dark-haired, blue-eyed Suzy has an innocent - almost ordinary - girl-next-door way about her. "Just waiting for Prince Charming to hit on her," Jeff says.

But Suzy isn't as naive as she seems. And she has an agenda of her own. Soon another challenge is born, only this one proves to be lethal.

Dark secrets, hidden passions and a story filled with intrigue, The Wild Zone will keep you in suspense until the very last page is turned.


Sample Chapter

Random House / 2010

Still Life

Still Life

Globe and Mail bestselling author Joy Fielding delivers a riveting new tale of suspense, told from the vantage point of a comatose woman.

Beautiful, happily married, and the owner of a successful interior design business, Casey Marshall couldn't be more content with her life until a car slams into her at almost fifty miles an hour, breaking nearly every bone in her body, and plunging her into a coma. Lying in her hospital bed, Casey realizes that although she is unable to see or communicate, she can hear everything. She quickly discovers that her friends aren't necessarily the people she thought them to be–and that her accident might not have been an accident at all. As she struggles to break free from her living death, she begins to wonder if what lies ahead could be even worse.

Smart, suspenseful, and overwhelmingly addictive, Still Life is a novel Fielding's fans won't soon forget. "Fielding delivers chillingly satisfying twists" - People magazine

Sample Chapter

Atria Books / 2009

Charley's Web

Charley's Web

New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Joy Fielding tells the story of an ambitious journalist whose foray into the mind of a killer puts her own family in jeopardy. Charley Webb is a beautiful single mother who writes a successful and controversial column for the Palm Beach Post. She's spent years building an emotional wall against scathing critics, snooty neighbors, and her disapproving family. But when she receives a letter from Jill Rohmer, a young woman serving time on death row for the murders of three small children, her boundaries slowly begin to fade. Jill wants Charley to write her biography so that she can share the many hidden truths about the case that failed to surface during her trial. Seeing this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Charley begins her journey into the mind of this deeply troubled woman.

Her path takes a twisted turn, however, when the anonymous letters she's recently received from an angry reader evolve into threats, targeting her son and daughter. As Charley races against time to save her family, she begins to understand the value of her seemingly intrusive neighbors, friends, and relatives. As she discovers, this network of flawed but loving people might just be her only hope of getting out alive.

Filled with complex characters and a plot rich with intrigue, Charley's Web is Joy Fielding at her heart-skipping, mesmerizing best.

"a first-rate mystery thriller" - St. Petersburg Times

"Suspenseful...Fielding turns her latest pageturner into a chillingly tense read while creating another winning lead in the smart-mouthed Charley" - Booklist

Sample Chapter

Atria Books / 2008

Heartstopper

Heartstopper

From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Mad River Road comes a spine-tingling thriller about a picturesque Florida town -- and the killer determined to prey on its teenage girls.

Welcome to Torrance, Florida. Population: 4,160. As Sheriff John Weber would attest, the deadliest predators to date in his tiny hamlet were the alligators lurking in the nearby swamps. But that was before someone abducted and murdered a runaway teenage girl...and before the disappearance of popular and pretty Liana Martin. The pattern is chilling to Sandy Crosbie, the town's new high school English teacher. With a marriage on the rocks, thanks to her husband's online affairs, and a beautiful teenage daughter to protect, Sandy wishes she'd never come to the seemingly quiet town with shocking depths of scandal, sex, and brutality roiling beneath its surface. And as Sheriff Weber digs up more questions than answers in a dead-end investigation, one truth emerges: the prettiest ones are being targeted, the heartstoppers. And this killer intends to give them their due....

Alternating between the chilling journal entries of a cold-blooded murderer and the sizzling scandals of small-town life, Heartstopper is Joy Fielding's most exciting novel of suspense yet.

"Thrills and chills - with substance... As much a smart domestic drama as it is a taut thriller" - People magazine

"Compulsively readable... you'll be up all night"
- Kirkus Reviews

Sample Chapter

Atria Books / 2007

Mad River Road

Mad River Road

After spending a year in prison, Ralph Fisher has explicit plans for his first night of freedom: tonight, someone will be held accountable. He goes to murderous lengths to obtain the address of his former wife -- the woman he blames for his fate and against whom he has sworn vengeance. Determined to bring her to his idea of justice, Ralph's next step is to travel from Florida's sandy beaches to Dayton, Ohio, where his ex-wife is struggling to make ends meet on Mad River Road.

As riveting and beguiling as Joy Fielding's previous bestselling novels, , Mad River Road is a novel about courage, truth, and the strength that comes only when you believe in yourself.

"Nail-biting suspense... breathless twists and turns... (these) women in jeopardy excite and delight"
- Publishers Weekly

Sample Chapter

Atria Books / 2006

Puppet

Puppet

Living a no-strings-attached life in glamorous Palm Beach, beautiful, steely-nerved criminal attorney Amanda Travis knows exactly what she likes: spinning classes, the color black, and one-night stands. Here's what she dislikes: the color pink, nicknames...and memories. Which is why she has shut the door on two ex-husbands, her estranged mother, and her hometown of Toronto. Then comes the news that will shatter Amanda's untouchable world: her mother, who has always held a strange power over everyone she encounters, has shot and killed a complete stranger. Forced to return to Toronto, Amanda must confront her demons and unravel the truth behind her mother's violent act -- while the taunting, teasing name from her past dances in her head...Puppet...telling her that someone else is orchestrating her fate.

"Nail-biting suspense.... An exciting crime thriller"
- Harriet Klausner

Sample Chapter

Atria Books / 2005

Lost

Lost

Losing Julia has become a constant in Cindy Carver's life. The first time Julia disappeared, she was five years old and vanished at the playground. That inspired motherly paranoia. The second was when, at age fourteen, Julia decided to move in with her father. That broke Cindy's heart. But when twenty-one-year-old Julia disappears without a trace after a promising audition with one of Hollywood's most powerful and influential directors, Cindy begins a frantic search. Secrets are revealed, lives are forever altered, and Cindy is forced to acknowledge the disturbing truth about the young woman she realizes she never really knew.

Every stranger was a possible friend; every friend a possible foe. How well do we know anybody? How well do we know ourselves?

"Disturbingly credible... You will not be able to put it down" - Tampa Tribune

Sample Chapter

Atria Books / 2004

Whispers and Lies

Whispers and Lies

Terry Painter enjoys her quiet life in tranquil Delray, Florida, where the single, forty-year-old nurse lives alone in the house she inherited from her mother. When young, vibrant Alison Simms rents the cottage on her property, the two women strike up a fast friendship -- and Terry is swept into a fantastic new life: dinners out, shopping, makeovers, even flirting with the handsome son of one of her elderly patients. But nothing about her newfound companion is as it appears, as Terry discovers when Alison's closely guarded past comes to light. Now Terry is locked into a race to reclaim her own life -- before she opens the door any further to the stranger she thought she knew...

Sample Chapter

Doubleday / 2002

Grand Avenue

Grand Avenue

Looking back, it seemed like paradise: lives filled with the blessings of  friendship, marriage, children, and career.  For twenty years, four friends - Chris, Barbara, Susan, and Vicki  shared everything and faced challenges of life and love head-on.  Now, one sits alone to ponder the strange twists of fate and circumstance.  Now, she must sift through the past to discover exactly what went wrong, how dreams turned to nightmares as friendships faded and lives were destroyed....  Joy Fielding unlocks the secrets hidden within even the closest relationships in a powerful and mesmerizing novel that explores the meaning of unconditional love.

Sample Chapter

Doubleday / 2001

The First Time

The First Time

Behind the shiny facade of her seemingly idyllic life in Chicago, Mattie Hart feels as if she is falling apart.  After sixteen years of marriage and one beautiful teenage daughter, Mattie has discovered that her husband, Jake, a high-profile defense attorney, is ensconced in yet another love affair.  It is only after Jake finally confesses his infidelity and leaves to live with his girlfriend that a far greater crisis descends upon the embattled Hart family and Mattie receives some devastating news that will alter all their lives.

Sample Chapter

Doubleday / 2000

Missing Pieces

Missing Pieces

It had to end in blood. Family therapist Kate Sinclair, healer of lost souls, perfect wife and mother, has suddenly become trapped in a nightmare of her own. Her teenage daughter has just discovered sex, lies and rebellion. Her ex-boyfriend has returned to threaten her marriage. Her once peaceful hometown is being awakened by chilling headlines: Another woman is missing.

Kate can sense the darkness gathering around her, can see the mistakes, the missteps, the missing pieces. 

Sample Chapter

Doubleday / 1997

Don't Cry Now

Don't Cry Now

Bonnie Wheeler had a picture-perfect life: a rewarding job as a school teacher, a happy marriage to a successful TV director, a sprawling suburban home, and Amanda, her adorable three year-old daughter. She'd heard the sordid details about her husband's ex-wife, Joan -- the drinking, the instability, the craziness. Then Joan called her with a cryptic warning -- you're in danger, you and Amanda! But when Joan is found murdered and Bonnie is the prime suspect, she knows this is no game. Suddenly her secure world is crashing in around her. Desperate to know who intends to harm her daughter, Bonnie is caught in a frantic race to keep Amanda safe -- even as she feels her own grasp on reality slipping....

"A page-turner ... maintains the suspense until the last surprising moment." Maclean's

"A chilling read."  The Toronto Star

Sample Chapter

Morrow / 1995

Tell Me No Secrets

Tell Me No Secrets

People are inexplicably disappearing from Chicago prosecutor Jess Koster's life. First her mother vanished without a trace eight years ago. And now a client, the victim of a brutal, sadistic rapist, is also missing. Someone is disrupting Jess's neat, ordered existence with chaos and terror. And from the shadow of her past, a maniac is watching her when she goes to work and waiting for her when she goes home, stalking her until there is no one Jess can trust. And she feels with blood-chilling certainty that her mysterious tormentor is perilously close and that the next person to vanish from the face of the Earth will be Jess Koster.

"Marvelous suspense ... The fear builds page by page."  New York Daily News

"A drama that hits home."  Cincinnati Enquirer

Sample Chapter

Morrow / 1993

See Jane Run

See Jane Run

One afternoon in late spring, Jane Whittaker went to the store for some milk and some eggs...and forgot who she was. Jane Whittaker has awakened to a nightmare. She doesn't know her name, her age...or even what she looks like. Frightened and confused, she wanders the streets of Boston wearing a blood-stained blue dress and carrying $10,000 in her pocket. Her life has become a vacuum, her past vanished...or stolen. And all that remains is a handsome, unsettling stranger who claims to be her husband, whispered rumors about a dead child whom she cannot recall...and a terrifying premonition that something truly horrible is about to occur.

"Intelligent ... extraordinary ... an entertaining page turner"  Newport News Daily Press

"The stuff of nightmares... readers are frightened out of their wits"  San Diego Union

Sample Chapter

Morrow / 1991

Good Intentions

Good Intentions

Lynn Schuster didn't expect the phone call from Marc Cameron, the other woman's spouse. And she never expected to feel a strong attraction to him when they met and he offered her the perfect way to get even with her cheating husband. Savvy divorce lawyer Renee Bower warned Lynn to be careful. But Renee had a troubled marriage of her own; chilling suspicions about her stepdaughter's hidden agenda and her handsome psychiatrist husband's after-hours consultations were chipping away at her cool exterior. And now, as their lives unravel in counterpoint during this hot Florida summer, Lynn and Renee are learning more than they ever wanted to know about love and betrayal.

"Buoys the spirits of anyone going through divorce." Chicago Tribune

"Perceptive."  Publishers Weekly

Sample Chapter

Doubleday / 1988

The Deep End

The Deep End

Joanne Hunter's secure suburban world is falling apart. Her husband's desertion after twenty years of marriage leaves her stunned. Eve, her best friend, is strangely distant. Her grandfather, who's been a pillar of strength and support, lies ill and helpless in a nursing home. Lana and Robin, her teenage daughters, claim every ounce of her energy and devotion and all the love she feels she has lost. Only one person seems to care -- a stranger with a rasping voice, a tormentor with a vicious mind. Danger and despair close in with each ring of the telephone. Each deadly message lures her inexorably towards the deep end...

"Once you've got into it, there's no escaping."  The New York Times

"Runs rings around Mary Higgins Clark"  Kirkus

Doubleday / 1986

Life Penalty

Life Penalty

It was every mother's worst nightmare and Gail Watson was living it ever since that sunny spring afternoon when her six-year-old daughter Cindy was found, brutally raped and strangled, in a park only blocks from their home. Her family and friends urge her to forget, to go on with her life. But Gail is living for just one thing: to see her daughter's killer caught and punished. She has given the police sixty days. Now that deadline is up, and Gail is going after Cindy's murderer herself daring him to strike again in a spine-chilling search through a dark and dangerous underworld...where only one of them can come out alive...

"Dramatic and heart-rending ... The emotions are almost tangible." Richmond Times Dispatch

"Tense and unforgettable."  Anniston Star

Doubleday / 1984

The Other Woman

The Other Woman

"Hello, I'm Nicole Clark. I'm going to marry your husband." The young woman was stunning and her message stunningly clear when she told Jill Plumley. What wasn't clear was how Jill could save her perfect marriage and her attractive husband from the younger, sexier, very clever Nicole. The frightening thing was, Jill knew that David could be stolen. She had done it herself. She had taken David from his wife when she, Jill, had been the other woman. And David was still a prize catch: handsome, rich, successful and irresistible. Yes, Jill knew what it was like to be David's mistress; she knew everything that would happen. But she didn't know what to do about it.

"Masterful ... a conflict played out with deftness and deadliness of  fencers." Richmond Times Dispatch

"A chilling story."   Los Angeles Herald Examiner

Doubleday / 1982

Kiss Mommy Goodbye

Kiss Mommy Goodbye

Those goodbye kisses Donna received from her children when ex-husband Victor picked them up for their day's outing with him were for all time...forever. Only Donna did not know that, and the memory of her children's kisses on the day they disappeared came back to haunt her. For Victor did not return. Instead, this handsome, twisted man, who had destroyed their marriage and almost destroyed Donna's sanity, vanished with her little boy and girl. And Donna was left with a lover whose love was no longer enough...a new life that had suddenly turned agonizingly empty...and a terror-filled quest to find her children that would take her across the country and beyond the law...

"Immensely engrossing and fulfilling!"  Indianapolis News

"A knockout!"   The New York Times

Sample Chapter

Doubleday / 1980

NOTE: The Best of Friends, The Transformation, and Trance are out of print, and the only places you might be able to locate them are in libraries, used bookstores, or on e-bay. But I don't recommend searching for them- they're early efforts and nothing like what I do now, so I think you'd be disappointed. Please stick with everything from Kiss Mommy Goodbye on.