Liz Nugent is a writer of award-winning psychological suspense novels Unravelling Oliver (2014), Lying in Wait (2016), Skin Deep (2018), [Our] Little Cruelties (2020) and Strange Sally Diamond (2023). All five books topped the Irish bestsellers list and Liz has won multiple literary awards. Some of her books have also been optioned for screen adaptations.
Liz’s books have been translated into 30 languages and she has also written extensively for radio and television
This wickedly dark, twisted and brilliantly observed new novel from international number one bestselling author Liz Nugent is published in the UK & Ireland by Penguin Sandycove and in Canada & USA by Simon & Schuster.
‘Put me out with the bins,’ he said, regularly. ‘When I die, put me out with the bins. I’ll be dead, so I won’t know any different. You’ll be crying your eyes out,’ and he would laugh and I’d laugh too because we both knew that I wouldn’t be crying my eyes out. I never cry.
Reclusive Sally Diamond causes outrage by trying to incinerate her dead father. Now she’s the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media, but also a sinister voice from a past she does not remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her early childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time - making new friends and big decisions, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say.
But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world? And why does her new neighbour seem to be obsessed with her? Sally’s trust issues are about to be severely challenged….
“ Strange indeed … and smart, too! Shocking, disturbing and utterly original, Strange Sally Diamond will grip you from first page to last. “
- PAULA HAWKINS
“ It’s compassionate and challenging, letting us imagine the lives that are forgotten when the news cycle moves on … a very special book.”
- VAL MCDERMID
‘Three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin.’
Will, Brian and Luke grow up competing for their mother's unequal love. As men, the competition continues - for status, money, fame, women ...
They each betray each other, over and over, until one of them is murdered.
But which one?
Cordelia Russell has been living on the Côte d'Azur for ten years, posing as a posh English woman fallen on hard times. But her luck is running out.
'Once I had cleared the bottles away and washed the blood off the floor, I needed to get out of the flat.'
When Cordelia returns home at dawn after a big night out, her stomach turns as she hears the flies buzzing in her bedroom. It hasn't taken long for the corpse to commence decomposing...
From the award-winning author of the No 1 bestseller, Unravelling Oliver, comes another absorbing, twisty, brilliantly observed story of murder in high places.
'My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.'
The last people who expect to be meeting with a drug-addicted prostitute are a respected judge and his reclusive wife. And they certainly don't plan to kill her and bury her in their exquisite suburban garden.
"Taut, crisp, clear, a storm-warning of a book. It has the eeriness of 'The Turn of the Screw'; but as these screws turn, a mighty tension takes hold. Masterly."
Sebastian Barry
Unravelling Oliver is an extraordinary story of psychological suspense and an enthralling portrait of a thoroughly modern monster.
'I expected more of a reaction the first time i hit her'
Oliver Ryan is a handsome and charismatic success story. He lives a life of enviable privilege and ease with his wife Alice. Enviable until, one evening after dinner, Oliver attacks Alice so viciously that he beats her into a coma..
'Unravelling Oliver' won the Best Crime Novel award at the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards 2014