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Extracts

Lisa Jewell’s None of This Is True: Extract

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Features

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Read: An exclusive new chapter from Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs

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Extract: Three chapters from Lisa Jewell’s The Family Remains

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Penguin authors pick their favourite books of 2021

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Reading lists

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Lisa Jewell on the books that shaped her life

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The book that changed my summer

the addictive, psychological thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs

Then She Was Gone

She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl. 
She had her whole life ahead of her. 
And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone. 
 
Ten years on, Laurel has never given up hope of finding Ellie. And then she meets a charming and charismatic stranger who sweeps her off her feet. 
 
But what really takes her breath away is when she meets his nine-year-old daughter. 
 
Because his daughter is the image of Ellie. 
 
Now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back. 
 
What really happened to Ellie? And who still has secrets to hide? 
_________________ 
 
OVER 1,000 5* REVIEWS - this is why readers love this book: 
 
'Grips to the point of OBSESSION' 
'My life STOPPED while I read this book' 
'My heart was THUMPING in my chest' 
'This is EDGE OF YOUR SEAT reading' 
'This book left me BREATHLESS' 
'Cancel all plans and BUY THIS BOOK'

A missing girl. A buried secret. From the ten-million-copy bestselling author comes a brand new look for this compulsively twisty psychological thriller that will keep you hooked to the very last page. 
 
‘A tense, clever page-turner that everyone will be talking about.’ Adele Parks 
‘Dark and claustrophobic but also heartfelt and moving ... packs a huge emotional punch that will leave you winded. I loved it.’ C. L. Taylor 
‘Both utterly gripping and startlingly original. Prepare to be hooked.’ Sun 
_____________ 
 
Ellie was her mother's golden girl. 
She had her whole life ahead of her. 
And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone. 
 
Ten years on, Laurel has never given up hope of finding Ellie. And then she meets a charming and charismatic stranger who sweeps her off her feet. 
 
But what really takes her breath away is when she meets his nine-year-old daughter. 
 
Because his daughter is the image of Ellie. 
 
Now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back. 
 
What really happened to Ellie? And who still has secrets to hide? 
_____________ 
 
OVER 180,000 5* RATINGS - this is why readers love this book: 
 
'Breathtaking. Compulsive. Suspenseful. Poetic.' 
'One of the top 5 thrillers I’ve ever read.' 
'I wanted the book never to end.' 
'Suspense filled… edge of my seat… I could not put this down!!' 
'This was my first Lisa Jewell book, and it will definitely not be my last.' 
'Dark, winding and haunting, I couldn't put this one down.'

LISA JEWELL was born in London in 1968. 
 
Her first novel, Ralph's Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another eighteen novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs (all of which were Richard & Judy Book Club picks). 
 
Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. She lives in north London with her husband, two teenage daughters and the best dog in the world.

the gripping Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller

The Family Remains

PREPARE TO BE HOOKED . . . 
 
Early morning: on the foreshore of the river Thames, a bag of bones is discovered. Human bones. 
 
DCI Samuel Owusu quickly sends the bag for forensic examination. The bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago. 
 
Also inside the bag is a trail of clues which lead DCI Owusu to a mansion in Chelsea where thirty years previously three people lay dead, while a baby upstairs waited for someone to pick her up. 
 
Four deaths. An unsolved mystery. A family whose secrets can't stay buried for ever. 
_________________ 
 
'I was ENTHRALLED. Empathetic, gripping, authentic' Gillian McAllister 
'A GRIPPING read. Superb!' Shari Lapena 
'Fast-paced, cleverly plotted. GRIPS from first page to last' Paula Hawkins 
'Artful, slippery, HUGELY SATISFYING. A rare treat awaits!' Louise Candlish 
'The story EVERYONE has been waiting for.' Adele Parks

Prepare to be hooked . . . 
 
* #1 UK SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * 
* A NEW YORK TIMES BSETSELLER * 
* OVER 2,000 5 STAR REVIEWS * 
 
'I was ENTHRALLED' Gillian McAllister 
'A GRIPPING read' Shari Lapena 
'A sheer PLEASURE to read' Harriet Tyce 
'Artful, slippery, HUGELY SATISFYING' Louise Candlish 
'The story EVERYONE has been waiting for' Adele Parks 
___________ 
 
LONDON. Early morning, June 2019: on the foreshore of the river Thames, a bag of bones is discovered. Human bones. 
 
DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene and quickly sends the bag for forensic examination. The bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago. 
 
Also inside the bag is a trail of clues, in particular the seeds of a rare tree which lead DCI Owusu back to a mansion in Chelsea where, nearly thirty years previously, three people lay dead in a kitchen, and a baby waited upstairs for someone to pick her up. 
 
The clues point forward too to a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts. 
 
Four deaths. An unsolved mystery. A family whose secrets can't stay buried for ever . . . 
___________ 
 
'GRIPS from first page to last' Paula Hawkins 
'Compulsive, gripping and immersive' CL Taylor 
'Twisty and strange and surprising' Emily Henry 
'Perfection on a page' Alice Feeney 
'Guaranteed to send your blood pressure soaring' Red Magazine 
'It's a triumph. Brava!' Erin Kelly 
'Lisa Jewell is, simply, outstanding' Alex Marwood 
'Compelling, ingenious, breath-stopping' Tamar Cohen 
'A witty and propulsive stunner of a novel' Katherine Heiny 
'This is Lisa Jewell at her absolute best.' Paul Burston 
'A compulsive, dark, satisfying tale' Catherine Steadman 
___________ 
 
Readers can't get enough of The Family Remains . . . 
 
***** 'There's nothing about this book that I would change. Seriously.' 
***** 'My expectations were high and this still managed to surpass them.' 
***** 'The writing is outstanding from start to finish and it's an engrossing read.' 
***** 'I could not put it down and loved the surprises and twists.' 
***** 'Lisa Jewell can write one hell of a thriller!!'

A psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Family Upstairs

I Found You

Two women. Twenty years of secrets. And a man who doesn't remember anything. 
 
Or does he? 
_____________________ 
 
'Fresh and intriguing, with characters so real I ached for them. I loved I Found You' 
Clare Mackintosh 
 
'I LOVED I Found You. A proper thriller with wonderful characters' 
Sabine Durrant 
_____________________ 
 
Everyone has secrets. What if you can't remember yours? 
 
'How long have you been sitting out here?' 
'I got here yesterday.' 
'Where did you come from?' 
'I have no idea.' 
 
Lily has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night, she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. 
 
Alice finds a man on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, no idea what he is doing there. Against her better judgement, she invites him into her home. 
 
But who is he, and how can she trust a man who has lost his memory?

Everyone has secrets. What if you can't remember yours? 
 
'Fresh and intriguing, with characters so real I ached for them. I loved I Found You' Clare Mackintosh 
'I LOVED I Found You. A proper thriller with wonderful characters' Sabine Durrant 
'Dark and moody, this is a mystery with substance' Kirkus Reviews 
____________ 
 
Two women. Twenty years of secrets. And a man who doesn't remember anything. 
 
Or does he? 
 
Lily has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night, she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. 
 
Alice finds a man on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, no idea what he is doing there. Against her better judgement, she invites him into her home. 
 
But who is he, and how can she trust a man who has lost his memory? 
____________ 
 
Readers love I FOUND YOU . . . 
 
***** 'Wow! I loved this book. A fantastic psychological suspense novel.' 
***** 'This book had EVERYTHING!!! I enjoyed this very, very much.' 
***** 'Lisa Jewell never lets me down ever. A great book with an ending you may not be expecting.' 
***** 'This is my favourite novel by this author so far.' 
***** 'For fast paced suspense, well developed characters, and a great story, it just doesn't get any better than this!'

The #1 bestseller. ‘I read it all in one sitting’ – Colleen Hoover

The Family Upstairs

Prepare to be hooked . . . A compulsive thriller from Lisa Jewell. 
 
* #1 UK SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * 
* OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD * 
* HOLLY WILLOUGHBY'S SUMMER READING HIGHLIGHT * 
 
'I read it all in one sitting.' Colleen Hoover 
'I loved The Family Upstairs!' Sarah Jessica Parker 
'Really good, gripping. I couldn't bear for it to finish...' Olivia Colman 
'A twisty and engrossing story of betrayal and redemption.' Ian Rankin 
'Rich, dark and intricately twisted' Ruth Ware 
_______________ 
 
In a large house in London's fashionable Chelsea, a baby is awake in her cot. Well-fed and cared for, she is happily waiting for someone to pick her up. 
 
In the kitchen lie three decomposing corpses. Close to them is a hastily scrawled note. 
 
They've been dead for several days. 
 
Who has been looking after the baby? 
 
And where did they go? 
 
Two entangled families. 
A house with the darkest of secrets. 
_______________ 
 
More love for The Family Upstairs . . . 
 
'My eyes were glued to this book!' Hayley Morris 
'You don't read a Lisa Jewell book, you fall into it.' Erin Kelly 
'I swear I didn't breathe the whole time I was reading it.' Clare Mackintosh 
'Creepy, intricate and utterly immersive.' Guarian 
'I had a thrilling for-God's-sake-tell-me-what-happened sensation in my stomach for the entire read' Ruth Jones 
'Absolutely brilliant.' Sarah Pinborough 
'Glitters like a blade and cuts even deeper.' AJ Finn 
'I was hooked from the first page.' Alice Feeney 
'Utterly compelling. Deliciously dark and twisty .' Jane Corry 
'It's absolutely bloody brilliant.' Tammy Cohen 
'I genuinely struggled to put this one down.' The Unmumsy Mum

The addictive, No 1 bestselling Richard and Judy book club pick

The Night She Disappeared

'Mum, there's some people here from college, they asked me back to theirs. Just for an hour or so. Is that OK?' 
 
Midsummer 2017: teenage mum Tallulah heads out on a date, leaving her baby son at home with her mother, Kim. 
 
At 11 p.m. she sends her mum a text message. At 4.30 a.m. Kim awakens to discover that Tallulah has not come home. 
 
Friends tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a pool party at a house in the woods nearby called Dark Place. 
 
Tallulah never returns. 
 
2018: walking in the woods behind the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started as a head teacher, Sophie sees a sign nailed to a fence. 
 
A sign that says: DIG HERE . . .

'The Night She Disappeared is by far her best thriller yet.' HARLAN COBEN 
 
'Insane suspense. I loved it.' LEE CHILD 
 
'A gothic, multi-layered tale, deeply satisfying. We both loved it.' RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB 
 
The Night She Disappeared is UNBELIEVABLY good. I was utterly utterly agog.' MARIAN KEYES 
___________________________ 
 
A cold case. An abandoned mansion. A family hiding a terrible secret. Prepare to be hooked. Lisa Jewell's latest thriller is her best yet. 
 
Midsummer 2017: teenage mum Tallulah heads out on a date, leaving her baby son at home with her mother, Kim. 
 
At 11 p.m. she sends her mum a text message. At 4.30 a.m. Kim awakens to discover that Tallulah has not come home. 
 
Friends tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a pool party at a house in the woods nearby called Dark Place. 
 
Tallulah never returns. 
 
2018: walking in the woods behind the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started as a head teacher, Sophie sees a sign nailed to a fence. 
 
A sign that says: DIG HERE . . . 
___________________________ 
 
'No one thickens a plot like Lisa Jewell. I couldn't put this book down. Jewell just keeps getting better. It's SO GOOD!' SHARI LAPENA 
 
'Absolutely loved this one by Lisa Jewell - compelling, deep, surprising, tense, modern. Most thrillers are in black and white to me in terms of character and Lisa is blazing saturated technicolour.' GILLIAN MCALLISTER 
 
'Masterly. Gripping from start to finish.' JOANNE HARRIS 
 
'I'm calling it early. This is Lisa's best book yet, and she always sets that bar high! Stayed up so late because I couldn't put it down.' ADELE PARKS 
 
'Oh my God, so good. A head-scratching, heart-racing, page-turning triumph - I think this might be my favourite Lisa Jewell yet.' LOUISE CANDLISH 
 
'I swear her books are masterclasses for authors. Every time I read one, I'm in awe. I loved this one so much - clever, slick and so intriguing. Lots of emotion and I love how all the sub-plots come together. #bowdowntoLisa' MEL SHERRATT 
 
'Another first-class mystery . . . Totally enthralling.' HARRIET TYCE 
 
'I predict another number one.' ERIN KELLY 
 
'Once again Lisa Jewell has knocked it out of the park. Another masterclass in thriller writing from one of the world's most consistently brilliant authors. I was superglued to the pages.' MARK EDWARDS 
 
'Totally absorbing. I felt as though I'd slipped into the book and lived there for a few days, heart pounding. So so so amazing!' KATHERINE HEINY 
 
'Intriguing and wonderfully dark' THE SUN 
 
'I'm passionately attached to Lisa Jewell, whose novels somehow manage to be good-natured, creepy and tense all at once.' SARAH PERRY 
 
'Nail-biting. Left me reeling.' JANE CORRY 
 
'A compelling psychological thriller full of twists and turns... ideal for fans of Ruth Rendell and Lianne Moriarty' YOURS BOOK CLUB

I love all Lisa's books, but The Night She Disappeared is by far her best thriller yet.

Lisa has certainly done it again with another first class mystery. It's got it all - captivating characters, a mysterious mansion in the woods and a burning question set up from the start to draw the reader in. I just had to know what happened next. Totally enthralling.

Lisa Jewell has made a thriller out of my favourite literary ingredients. Abandoned mansion [tick]. Sex [tick]. Boarding school [tick]. SECRET TUNNELS [tick]. Kick-ass matriarch [tick]. Clues in paintings [tick]. I predict another number one.

Absolutely loved this one by Lisa Jewell - compelling, deep, surprising, tense, modern. Most thrillers are in black and white to me in terms of character and Lisa is blazing saturated technicolour.

The only thing predictable about this ending is how unpredictable it is.

From the number one bestselling author of The Family Upstairs

The Girls

You live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people's houses. 
 
You've known your neighbours for years and you trust them. Implicitly. 
 
You think your children are safe. 
 
But are they really? 
 
Midsummer night: a thirteen-year-old girl is found unconscious in a dark corner of the garden square. What really happened to her? And who is responsible? 
 
Utterly believable characters, a gripping story and a dark secret buried at its core: this is Lisa Jewell at her heart-stopping best.

LISA JEWELL was born in London in 1968. 
 
Her first novel, Ralph's Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another eighteen novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs (all of which were Richard &amp; Judy Book Club picks). 
 
Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. She lives in north London with her husband, two teenage daughters and the best dog in the world.

Lisa Jewell

The new addictive psychological thriller from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs

Buy now and prepare to be hooked from the Number One bestselling thriller author . . . 
 
* AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * 
* OVER 6,000 FIVE STAR REVIEWS * 
* AUDIBLE NO.1 SIX WEEKS IN A ROW * 
 
'Gloriously dark' Lucy Foley 
'A moody, slippery novel' Gillian McAllister 
'One hundred percent brilliant' Clare Mackintosh 
'Shocking and creepy and glorious' Nicola Walker 
'Utterly addictive' Claire Douglas 
___________ 
 
Celebrating her 45th birthday at her local pub, podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie is also celebrating her 45th. 
 
A few days later, they bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie says she thinks she would be an interesting subject for Alix's podcast. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. 
 
Alix agrees to a trial interview and indeed, Josie's life appears to be strange and complicated. Aix finds her unsettling but can't quite resist the temptation to keep digging. 
 
Slowly Alix starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it Josie has cajoled her way into Alix's life - and into her home. 
 
Soon Alix begins to wonder who is Josie Fair really? And what has she done? 
 
* The Hi! I'm Your Birthday Twin podcast has been bought to life! Listen to all 4 episodes and find out more at penguin.co.uk/BirthdayTwin * 
___________ 
 
More love for None of This is True . . . 
 
'You will ignore everyone and everything until you&rsquo;ve finished it' India Knight 
'Left me reeling' Adele Parks 
'Really dark and twisty' Graham Norton 
'MAGNIFICENT' Marian Keyes 
'So suspenseful, so smart, so insightful.' Katherine Heiny 
'A pitch-black fever dream of a novel' Ruth Ware 
'Have never read a book so fast!' Hayley Morris 
'A sleek, playful, mesmerising read' Louise Candlish 
'Twisty twisty twisty' Emily Henry 
'You're in for a treat' Jojo Moyes 
'Rollercoaster of a read' Jane Fallon 
'I inhaled it!' Harriet Tyce 
___________ 
 
Readers can't get enough of None of This is True . . . 
 
***** 'Lisa Jewell is BACK with a banger baby!!! and this might just be my favourite of hers yet.' 
***** 'I'm speechless after reading this bone chilling, dark, twisty, mind bending thriller' 
***** 'Did it deliver??? OMG !!! wait until you read this!!!' 
***** 'OMG!!!!!! Dare I say this may just be Lisa Jewells best book yet!?' 
***** 'What in the actual hell did I just read???? Bingeable, unreliable, unhinged in the best way, and well developed!'

Lisa Jewell

None of This is True

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