CRIME THRILLER FICTION
WOMEN UNDER PRESSURE. SECRETS WITH A PRICE. FROM SCREENWRITER-TURNED-NOVELIST SUSAN WILKINS. Susan's Books Sign upTHE DS JO BODEN THRILLERS
Seven British psychological crime thrillers with one detective at their heart. The series is complete — every book stands alone, best read in order.
Welcome
About Susan
I spent twenty-five years writing television drama, with over 100 broadcast credits including episodes of Casualty, Heartbeat, Coronation Streetand EastEnders, and I created the BBC detective series South of the Border. It was the best possible training in one thing: never letting the reader off the hook.
Now I write crime thrillers that dig deep into human psychology. How do ordinary people end up on the wrong side of the law? That’s what I’m always asking. My protagonists are usually women facing down ruthless opponents; some are detectives, others are survivors caught in a web of lies they didn’t choose.
Creating characters from scratch is the best part of the job. They become real people to me, and I want my readers to be privy to their thoughts and feelings, their struggles and triumphs. I’ve created cops, like Jo Boden and Megan Thomas, and then more morally complex individuals, like Kaz Phelps. I love writing series because it gives these characters space to grow and take on a life of their own.
I grew up in Essex, studied Law, and now live in Devon, where I walk by the sea most days and drink too much coffee.
The DS Jo Boden Thrillers
IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME – Book 1
She’s good at burying things. Not this one.
Sixteen years ago, a man was convicted of murdering Jo Boden’s sister. Now he’s walking out on licence, a filmmaker no one believes is asking whether they got the wrong man, and Jo — a detective who deals in facts — finds herself in someone’s sights. Is she being warned off, or hunted? Because if the wrong man went down, the right one got away with it
SHE’S GONE – Book 2
She went out for a run. She never came back.
Phoebe Lennox, eighteen, vanishes three weeks into her first term at Cambridge. The police call it posh parents panicking. Her mother knows better — but her fear runs deeper than she will explain. Phoebe left her phone behind. There’s CCTV of her meeting a man nobody can identify. DS Jo Boden suspects this is no false alarm. Somebody knows where Phoebe is. So who’s lying, and why?
HER PERFECT HUSBAND – Book 3
The perfect man is the perfect liar
Three months after they met, Sophie Latham married a man too good to be true. Then a protester dies on his brother-in-law’s estate, the police come knocking, and Ollie asks her to lie. She does. Is he protecting his sister, or himself? DS Jo Boden knows the shame of trusting the wrong person. How well can you ever know the one you fall for?
LIE DENY REPEAT – Book 4
If everyone is lying, who do you trust?
Dr Cheryl Woodward has the perfect Cambridge life — until a boy dies in a stupid teenage stunt and it’s her son who filmed it. The dead boy’s father wants someone to blame. The police keep coming back. And Cheryl discovers that everyone she loves is hiding something. Including her. Can she protect her son without telling the truth? All of it?
SEE ME FALL – Book 5
She can’t remember. Someone made sure of that.
Emma Harris wakes at dawn in a stranger’s bed, hurt, drugged, the whole night wiped. Her clothes are folded over a chair. Someone tidied up. She runs to her sister, a senior detective — but all their lives Rachel has been the one who’s believed, and Emma the one who exaggerates. Will anyone take her word this time? DS Jo Boden knows the perfect victim is a woman nobody believes.
YOU LEFT ME – Book 6
Everyone thinks she’s crazy. Nobody thinks she’s dangerous.
A threat has been flagged against a Cabinet Minister at a sweltering Cambridge college reunion, and DS Jo Boden is there to spot the danger in the crowd. She’s looking in the wrong place. Claire Naylor organised this reunion. A quiet schoolteacher whose daughter is dead — and who has her own ideas about who’s to blame. Fragile, they say. Not to be believed. Nobody has seen the knife in her handbag. Before the weekend is out, there will be blood on someone’s hands.
WHAT IT TAKES – Book 7
You can never escape what you’ve done.
Lexi Harper arrives at a remote country mansion to pitch for the listing of her career — and finds her client on the kitchen floor, his throat cut. The police want her story. A billionaire wants the sale to go through regardless. And someone is watching Lexi. Someone who knows who she was before she reinvented herself. When DS Jo Boden takes her statement, she hears the whisper of a lie. How long can the past stay buried?
DETECTIVE JO BODEN BOX SET
COLLECTION – Books 2-4
She went out for a run and never came back. He wasn’t who he said he was. It started as a prank — it ended in murder.
Books 2–4 in one collection: three complete British psychological crime thrillers. A mother whose daughter vanishes, a bride who married a stranger, a scientist whose perfect family is hiding something. On every case, DS Jo Boden — a detective who trusts her instinct over the official line, and has secrets of her own.
DS JO BODEN BOX SET
COLLECTION – Books 5-7
A woman with no memory of the night that ruined her. A grieving mother everyone underestimates. A witness with everything to lose.
Books 5–7 in one collection, the second half of the series: three British psychological crime thrillers about women up against money, power and the people who close ranks to protect both. On every case, DS Jo Boden — a detective who trusts her instinct over the official line, and has secrets of her own.
A KILLER’S HEART
A gripping speculative thriller with a shocking conspiracy at its heart.
A heart transplant saved Adam Hardy’s life. But as he recovers from surgery, strange visions surface. Adam’s organ donor wasn’t killed in an accident – he was murdered.
For fans of Michael Crichton, David Baldacci and James Patterson.
THE MEGAN THOMAS SERIES
Detective Megan Thomas spent years undercover. It cost her a marriage and her peace of mind, but she got the job done.
She moves to Devon for a fresh start, a quieter pace of life – but the countryside is full of dark secrets too.
Can Megan find justice for others, when she’s no longer sure of herself?
Reviews
What Readers are Saying
She’s Gone
Another addictive, compelling read from Susan Wilkins. The tension builds from the first page.
Debbie Howells
It Should Have Been Me
A first rate thriller, tense and twisty… Susan Wilkins is a writer at the very top of her game.
Elly Griffiths
A Killer’s Heart
Unpredictable, intricately woven… I couldn’t stop reading.
Goodreads Reviewer
Buried Deep
Compulsive and thoroughly captivating… I read it all in a single tense sitting.
Reader’s Retreat
Susan Wilkins for fast-paced crime thriller fiction.
Coastlines
Always fascinated by the sea, Susan walks along the Devon coast every day. You’ll often find watery worlds in her fiction, from sleepy Devon harbours to the murky depths of the Thames.
Good Reads
You’ll find a wide range of books on Susan’s bedside table. If pressed, her favourite comfort read is Daphne du Maurier. However when writing she prefers non-fiction. Connect with her on Goodreads here.
Cooking Up A Storm
If she needs a break from plotting her latest novel, you’ll find Susan experimenting with a new recipe in the kitchen, or enjoying a cup of coffee in the garden. Her mince pies are very popular, often making an appearance outside of Christmas festivities.
Bright Lights, Big City
Susan moved to London in 1981, living in various parts of South London before moving to Stoke Newington, opposite a newsagent selling the best homemade Turkish Delight. Her favourite parts of the city are the riverside and Greenwich Park.
Tools Of The Trade
Today, Susan dictates the majority of her books using some handy software – less screen time, more thinking time. But her office still has its fair share of notebooks, whiteboards, post it notes and cue cards to keep every plot in shape.
Estuary English
Although Susan’s experience of growing up in Essex was quite different from Kaz, the heroine in her debut novel The Informant, the county lends itself well to fiction, from colourful characters to even more colourful language…
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