'An authentic and exciting story. The perfect summer read' -- Clare Mackintosh, author of the bestselling I LET YOU GO From the author of the bestselling Some Day I'll Find You comes a novel of dark suspense set in the Lake District where, beneath the inviting water of the lakes, danger and death are waiting. The summer of 1976 was unprecedented in living memory. Days of blazing sunshine bled into weeks and months. In the Lake District, Cumbria's mountains and valleys began to resemble a Grecian landscape. People swam in delightfully tropic waters to cool off. But, barely three feet below the surface, the temperature remained just a degree or so above freezing. As the summer blazed on, the drownings began... What if someone wanted to take revenge? To remove an abusive, controlling partner from their life? When and where better to stage a murder and pass it off as an accidental drowning?
Not until she was 16 did Stella Arnold learn the full truth about her father, how handsome, charming James turned out to be a cold-blooded, psychotic extortionist, racketeer and killer. Knowing now what her father was capable of, she decides to study psychology and the criminal mind, and to further her education in America. In the spring of 1962 she flies to Boston where, being beautiful, bright and fashionably English, she becomes someone of huge fascination and on every invitation list. Then comes an invitation one summer weekend to the home of the Kennedys. Stella quickly becomes part of the inner Kennedy circle as they party through the hot summer nights. Both brothers, JFK and Bobby, make their moves on her but she firmly, charmingly, repels them.
Further south, on the Florida Keys, a killer is on the loose. The case, unsolved, begins to rock America, and with her specialist knowledge of psychopaths, Stella is co-opted by the police investigation and prepares to fly south...
James Blackwell is sexy and handsome and a fighter pilot - every girl's dream partner. At least that is what Diana Arnoldthinks when her brother first introduces them. Before long they are in love and marry hastily just as war is declared.
Then fate delivers what is the first of its cruel twists: James, the day of their wedding, is shot down over Northern France and killed. Diana is left not only a widow but pregnant with their child.
Ten years later, contentedly remarried, Diana finds herself in the south of France, sitting one morning in a sunny village square. A taxi draws up and she hears the voice of a man speaking English - the unmistakable voice of someone who will set out to torment her and blackmail her and from whom there can be only one means of escape...
Richard Madeley is fascinated by the speed of change in family life and how being a father has changed since the time of his father and grandfather. In FATHERS AND SONS, Richard looks back at his own family to illustrate just how far British men's relationships with their sons have moved.
Richard's grandfather had a childhood of almost unimaginable betrayal and sadness. His family abandoned him as a child to older relatives and emigrated without telling him. He grew up in a miserable situation and without any positive parenting role models yet managed to marry and have a son of his own. Richard's father was aware of his own father's discomfort and occasional frustration and anger, and grew to understand that this was due to his upbringing. He remembers no affection, or endearments from his dad and was packed off to a desolate boarding school in an echo of his own father's betrayal. In a bucking of the family trend, Richard's mother, a Canadian, introduced more loving and demonstrative relationships which Richard has continued with his own son and step-sons.
Both a family story and a wide-ranging look at Britain's evolving social character, FATHERS AND SONS is a uniquely honest and touching exploration of how our families operate.
