Jane Robins

A GOOD HOUSEKEEPING “GREAT READ” “A deliciously creepy psychological thriller.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review This chilling psychological suspense novel—think Strangers on a Train for the modern age—explores the dark side of love and the unbreakable ties that bind twin sisters together. Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful, up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless façade, not everything is as it seems. Callie, Tilda’s unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix’s domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in Saran Wrap and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom trash. She knows about Felix’s uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister’s arms. Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an Internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgment when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies—or was he murdered? A page-turning work of suspense that announces a stunning new voice in fiction, White Bodies will change the way you think about obsession, love, and the violence we inflict on one another—and ourselves.

An Addictive Psychological Thriller

White Bodies

A Good Housekeeping “Great Read” This “deliciously creepy psychological thriller” (Publishers Weekly)—think Strangers on a Train for the modern age—explores the dark side of love and the unbreakable ties that bind two sisters together. Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless façade, not everything is as it seems. Callie, Tilda’s unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix’s domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in Saran Wrap and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom trash. She knows about Felix’s uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister’s arms. Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgment when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies—or was he murdered? A page-turning work of suspense that announces a stunning new voice in fiction, White Bodies will change the way you think about obsession, love, and the violence we inflict on one another—and ourselves.

Il magnifico Spilsbury ovvero gli omicidi delle vasche da bagno

Beyaz Bedenler

Bessie Mundy, Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty are three women with one thing in common. They are spinsters and are desperate to marry. Each woman meets a smooth-talking stranger who promises her a better life. She falls under his spell, and becomes his wife. But marriage soon turns into a terrifying experience. In the dark opening months of the First World War, Britain became engrossed by 'The Brides in the Bath' trial. The horror of the killing fields of the Western Front was the backdrop to a murder story whose elements were of a different sort. This was evil of an everyday, insidious kind, played out in lodging houses in seaside towns, in the confines of married life, and brought to a horrendous climax in that most intimate of settings - the bathroom. The nation turned to a young forensic pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury, to explain how it was that young women were suddenly expiring in their baths. This was the age of science. In fiction, Sherlock Holmes applied a scientific mind to solving crimes. In real-life, would Spilsbury be as infallible as the 'great detective'?

The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath

Corpos perfeitos

De relatie tussen tweelingzussen Tilda en Callie verandert wanneer de eerste verliefd wordt op een dominante, gewelddadige man die enkele weken na hun huwelijk overlijdt.

Witte lichamen

Solo tu puoi salvare tua sorella. Sei tu la gemella migliore… Ne sei davvero sicura? «Assolutamente da non perdere.» Library Journal «Una storia perturbante, ricca di tradimenti e colpi di scena. Il finale, poi, vi lascerà senza fiato. » Lansing State Journal «Un thriller coinvolgente, in cui il confine tra l'amore e l'ossessione si fa sempre più sottile.» Booklist «Inquietante e dal ritmo travolgente!» B.A. Paris, autrice del bestseller «La coppia perfetta» «Il thriller perfetto» Elle Callie e Tilda sono gemelle, eppure non si somigliano affatto. Callie è timida, goffa e impacciata. Tilda è un'attrice di successo, ambiziosa, carismatica. Ed è fidanzata con Felix, bellissimo uomo d’affari. Insieme sono la coppia perfetta, invidiata da tutti. Da quando c'è lui, Tilda si è perfino riavvicinata a Callie e ha ripreso a invitarla a casa sua a guardare vecchi film, come Delitto per delitto, il capolavoro di Alfred Hitchcock in cui due sconosciuti pianificano di uccidere l'uno la moglie dell'altro. All'inizio, Callie rimane affascinata da Felix, così gentile e premuroso. Poco dopo il matrimonio, però, si rende conto che Tilda è sempre più magra e passa il tempo rintanata in un appartamento ormai irriconoscibile, dove il suo allegro caos ha lasciato il posto alla precisione maniacale di Felix: tutto è nuovo e così ordinato da far paura. E poi nota i lividi sulle braccia della sorella, scopre gli antidepressivi nell’armadietto del bagno, assiste alle reazioni esagerate di Felix per questioni da nulla. Preoccupata, Callie cerca in Internet forum di sostegno alle vittime di uomini prevaricatori e violenti: le storie di quelle sconosciute le sembrano fin troppo familiari e Callie si convince che la sorella sia in pericolo. Deve proteggerla. Ma come, se Tilda per prima non vuole farsi aiutare? Proprio nel momento in cui ha l’impressione che la situazione stia precipitando, Callie riceve una proposta da una delle donne del forum, una proposta che potrebbe risolvere in un sol colpo i problemi di entrambe. Callie è sconcertata, non può accettare. Poi, però, Felix muore. E Callie capirà di aver commesso un errore imperdonabile…

La gemella sconosciuta

Bessie Mundy, Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty are three women with one thing in common. They are spinsters and are desperate to marry. Each woman meets a smooth-talking stranger who promises her a better life. She falls under his spell, and becomes his wife. But marriage soon turns into a terrifying experience. In the dark opening months of the First World War, Britain became engrossed by 'The Brides in the Bath' trial. The horror of the killing fields of the Western Front was the backdrop to a murder story whose elements were of a different sort. This was evil of an everyday, insidious kind, played out in lodging houses in seaside towns, in the confines of married life, and brought to a horrendous climax in that most intimate of settings -- the bathroom. The nation turned to a young forensic pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury, to explain how it was that young women were suddenly expiring in their baths. This was the age of science. In fiction, Sherlock Holmes applied a scientific mind to solving crimes. In real-life, would Spilsbury be as infallible as the 'great detective'?

'Was rich Mrs Gertrude Hullett murdered at her luxurious 15-room home on Beachy Head? Detectives are tonight trying to establish the cause of the 50-year-old widow's sudden death . . . ' Daily Mail, 1957 In July 1957, the press descended in droves on the south-coast town of Eastbourne. An inquest had just been opened into the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Mrs Bobbie Hullett. She died after months of apparent barbiturate abuse - the drugs prescribed to calm her nerves by her close friend and doctor, Dr John Bodkin Adams. The inquest brought to the surface years of whispered suspicion that had swept through the tea rooms, shops and nursing homes of the town. The doctor's alarming influence over the lives, deaths and finances of wealthy widows had not gone unnoticed - it was rumoured that the family doctor had been on a killing spree that spanned decades and involved 300 suspicious cases. Superintendent Hannam of Scotland Yard was called in to investigate. The Curious Habits of Dr Adams brilliantly brings to life the atmosphere of post-war England, and uses a wealth of new documents to follow the twists and turns of an extraordinary Scotland Yard murder enquiry. As expertly crafted as the best period detective novel, this book casts an entertainingly chilling light on a man reputed to be one of England's most prolific serial killers.

A 1950s Murder Mystery

The Curious Habits of Dr Adams

How the Trial of Caroline Brought England to the Brink of Revolution

Rebel Queen

It was Lady Jersey, the calculating mistress of the foppish George IV, who chose Caroline, Princess of Brunswick, to become George's wife. She selected a woman 'with indelicate manners . . . and not very inviting appearance', and George, who hadn't taken the precaution of meeting his wife before marrying her, was suitably disgusted. In 1797, just three years after their marriage, the couple separated with George writing to his wife that neither of them should 'be held answerable to the other'. Caroline took him at his word and proceeded to live exactly as she pleased, departing for Europe and a life of scandalous associations and debauched parties. Rumours of Caroline's lifestyle soon reached George and, although he was no stranger to indiscretion himself, he determined that she would never become Queen. To the shock of the nation, he demanded that Caroline face a trial for adultery. The voice of the popular press in Britain, raised in anger for the first time in Britain, roared in disapproval at her humiliation and Caroline's unlikely role as a heroine of Radical feeling was assured. Jane Robins re-creates this extraordinary morality tale in vivid and entertaining fashion, revealing a little-known story of surprising modernity that sheds new light on a revolution that might have been.

Traces the early nineteenth-century adultery trial of Queen Caroline, describing her loveless arranged marriage to George IV, their mutual separation and affairs with other people, and the public's riotous defense of Caroline. 40,000 first printing.

Jane Robins

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