Season 3, Episode 5: "A Gift From the Universe"
with John Marrs and Jennifer Hillier
We're excited to bring you John Marrs and Jennifer Hillier.
John Marrs, before becoming a full time writer in 2016, was a freelance journalist interviewing celebrities from television, film and music for national publications including The Guardian's Guide, OK! Magazine; Total Film; Empire; Q; GT; The Independent and the Daily Express. His debut novel The Wronged Sons, was released in 2013 and in 2015, he released his second book, Welcome To Wherever You Are. In 2017 came his third, The One. It became a No.1 Netflix series, was translated into 35 languages and has sold almost a million copies. The Wronged Sons was re-edited and re-released in 2017 under a new title, When You Disappeared.
His fourth book, The Good Samaritan, was also released in 2017 and became a world-wide No.1. In 2018 he released his police procedural thriller Her Last Move, and twelve months later came The Passengers. In 2020 came bestseller What Lies Between Us, which has been optioned by Renée Zellweger's production company and won the International Thriller Writers award for Best Paperback Original Novel. It recently became his third novel to sell more than 300,000 copies. That book was followed a year later by The Minders.
Welcome to Wherever You Are was re-released in 2021 with a new edit and new title, The Vacation. It was shortlisted in the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize competition. In 2022 came the psychological thriller Keep It In The Family which sold its 100,000th copy in just ten months. In 2023 he released his fourth best selling speculative fiction novel, The Marriage Act. And in February 2024 comes psychological thriller The Stranger In Her House, which has been optioned by a TV production company. It will be followed in May 2024 by another speculative fiction book, The Family Experiment. And in 2025 he plans to release another thriller, You Killed Me First
Jennifer Hillier is the USA Today, Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail bestselling author of Things We Do in the Dark, described as “an intoxicating thrill ride” by the New York Times and “propulsive and chilling” by People magazine. It’s a Book of the Month Club selection, an Indigo Top Ten Best Book of the Year, an Amazon Editor’s Spotlight Pick, a Loan Stars pick, and my third consecutive novel to be honored as a LibraryReads pick, which places me in their Hall of Fame.
She is also the author of six other psychological thrillers. Her USA Today bestselling novel Little Secrets is currently being adapted for Peacock by Tish Cyrus’s Hopetown Entertainment, writer Melissa Scrivner Love and Universal Television, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Anthony Award. Jar of Hearts won the ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel and was also shortlisted for the Anthony and Macavity Awards.
Read Along!
"A proper twisty thriller."—Sarah Pinborough
A stranger has infiltrated your family…and now he’s taking over.
Paul’s just here to help, or so he claims—sent by a charity for vulnerable people to do odd jobs for elderly widow Gwen. But for Gwen’s daughter Connie, there’s just something about Paul that rings alarm bells from day one. He’s a little too kind, a little too involved…Worse still, Gwen seems to have fallen under his spell.
The last thing Connie wants is a stranger meddling in the safe routine she’s built around Gwen. She loves being the one Gwen turns to for cooking, cleaning and company. But the more Paul visits, the more Gwen is relying on him. By the time he conveniently finds himself between homes and has no choice but to move in, Connie is certain he’s trying to push her out completely.
It’s her word against his, though, and as her attempts to unmask him become ever more desperate she’s not the only one left wondering if she’s lost her grip on reality. But when events start spiralling rapidly out of her control, should Connie wage all-out war on Paul and risk losing Gwen forever—or has that been his plan all along?
"Propulsive and chilling." --People Magazine
"An intoxicating thrill ride. Hillier jams her foot on the accelerator and never lets up." --New York Times Book Review
Things We Do in the Dark is a brilliant new thriller from Jennifer Hillier, the award-winning author of the breakout novels Little Secrets and Jar of Hearts. Paris Peralta is suspected of killing her celebrity husband, and her long-hidden past now threatens to destroy her future.
When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she'll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it's not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it's only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she's worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future.
Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who Paris really is, and when she's unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris's secrets. Left with no other choice, Paris must finally confront the dark past she escaped, once and for all.
Because the only thing worse than a murder charge are two murder charges.
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The Book Club
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