“Some people are so busy chasing perfection they don’t appreciate the wonders right in front of them.”
Darling Girls is one of the most gripping 2024 mystery-thriller novels by Sally Hepworth. The story follows Jessica, Norah and Alicia, three girls who were rescued from family tragedies and brought up by the ever-doting Miss Fairchild on her idyllic farming estate. Yet, their upbringing wasn’t as pleasant as everyone assumes. Miss Fairchild had stringent rules and could be extremely unpredictable if they were ever broken. In a moment of desperation, the girls broke free and set out hoping to leave Miss Fairchild in their pasts. But, when a body is found under the home they all grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves under the spotlight as the primary witnesses. Or, are they prime suspects? If you love thrilling stories of sisterhood, secrets, love and grizzly murder, join us today at What We Reading for the best books like Darling Girls!
The Family Next Door – Sally Hepworth
Kicking off our list of books like Darling Girls is another one of Sally Hepworth’s best novels, The Family Next Door. The small suburb of Pleasant Court more than lives up to its name. It’s the sort of place where neighbours look out for one another, and children are able to play freely in the street. But, without a husband or a child, Isabelle Heatherington knows she doesn’t belong in this family paradise.
Ange, Fran and Essie all have their own secrets to keep hidden. As their obsession with their newest neighbour grows, the secrets these three women are keeping buried gradually begin to spread – and they’ll soon discover that when you look at something too closely, you see things you never wanted to catch a glimpse of.
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Like Mother, Like Daughter – Kimberly McCreight
When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she is greeted by food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then, she finds her mother’s bloodied shoe under the sofa. Despite her outward appearance as a put-together corporate lawyer, Kat is in fact her firm’s fixer. And she’s learned how to be a good one at that too.
In the days leading up to her sudden disappearance, Kat had been noticing more and more threats around her, all of which she had kept hidden from her daughter. Similar to Darling Girls, Like Mother, Like Daughter is a thrilling novel full of emotional suspense about the love between a mother and a daughter, both determined to save one another before it is too late.
Listen For The Lie – Amy Tintera
Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their quaint Texas town: pretty, smart and enviable in every way. Lucy married a dreamy man and found herself in a big home with a bigger ring on her finger. Savvy was the local social butterfly who was popular with everyone, especially the men in town. But, after Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered head to foot in the blood of her best friend, everyone is convinced she is a killer.
Years later, Lucy is still unable to recall the events of that fateful night. She has moved to LA in an attempt to move on from it all. Except when the true-crime podcast, Listen for the Lie, decides to investigate Savvy’s murder, the opportunity to return to the place she vowed never to step foot in again and finally solve the mystery (regardless of whether she was the one responsible or not) soon proves too tantalising an offer for Lucy to refuse. Like Darling Girls, Amy Tintera’s Listen for the Lie is one of the most gripping mystery thriller books from 2024.
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Kill For Me, Kill For You – Steve Cavanagh
One grim evening on New York City’s Upper West Side, two strangers encounter each other purely by chance. Over shared drinks, Amanda and Wendy discover that they have plenty in common, particularly their loneliness and a burning desire for revenge against the men who wrecked their families. As they talk throughout the night, they come up with a perfect plan: if you kill for me, I’ll kill for you.
In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the beautiful brownstone abode she lives in with her husband, Scott, is broken into. She’s attacked by a man with striking blue eyes, who then vanishes into the night. How will she ever be able to feel safe again, knowing that this blue-eyed attacker is out there? Similar to Darling Girls, Steve Cavanagh’s Kill for Me, Kill for You is a heart-racing crime thriller featuring ordinary, desperate women who make dangerous pacts to exact revenge after being pushed to the brink.
The Push – Ashley Audrain
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, doting mother to her new baby, Violet, whom she herself never enjoyed. Yet, in the haze of the early days of new motherhood, Blythe becomes convinced that something is terribly wrong with her daughter. But is it all in her head?
Blythe’s husband, Fox, is convinced that her claims that Violet doesn’t behave like normal children do are all in her head. The more he dismisses her, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity. Then their son, Sam, is born and Blythe finally feels the blissful connection she has always imagined. But, when their lives are upended in one shocking moment, Blythe is forced to face the harrowing truth of the devastating fallout. Ashely Audrain’s The Push is an immersive psychological thriller that challenges our attitudes toward motherhood and what happens when women aren’t believed, perfect for anyone who loved Darling Girls.
She’s Not Sorry – Mary Kubica
Meghan Michaels is struggling to find the balance between being a single mother to a teenage daughter and working as a nurse with a full-time rota. Whilst she is on duty at the hospital one day, a patient named Caitlin is brought in a coma with a traumatic head injury. Meghan is told that she had jumped from a bridge and plunged over twenty feet before hitting the train tracks below.
But, when a witness emerges with jaw-dropping details about the fall, it calls everything they know into question. Was Caitlin pushed and, if so, by whom and why? Meghan has always done her best to keep her emotional attachments out of her patients, but this time soon proves different. It is only when it is too late that she realises how much danger both she and her daughter could be in. Like Darling Girls, Mary Kubica’s She’s Not Sorry is a gripping 2024 thriller brimming with themes of motherhood, love and shocking secrets.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
