Double Exposure Seven strangers, escaping reality, meet by chance on a Caribbean island and form a charmed circle of lasting friendships.
When newly qualified London doctor, Joanna Lyndhurst, takes a spontaneous holiday alone on the romantic island of Antigua, her long-term boyfriend, Sebastian, warns her to keep quiet about her job. 'It's a matter of simple psychology,' he tells her. 'The world is full of hypochondriacs.' But Jo is not the only one concealing the truth. Amongst the enchanting and diverse bunch of characters she meets, from widely disparate backgrounds, it turns out not one is quite what they seem.
Lowell, the American lawyer, and Vincent, an art-dealer from Amsterdam, have travelled the world in a long-standing relationship, while maintaining separate lives and private worlds that do not overlap. Feisty New York banking executive, Merrily Morgenstern -tough, ambitious and looking for romance -keeps them all in stitches with her lurid tales of Manhattan high-life yet conceals her real anxiety about the threat to her own career. Sandy-haired Jessica, steeped in a world of culture and classical music, mourns a lost love whom she dare not discuss. And Cora Louise and Fontaine, mother and daughter from the steamy South, keep up appearances, and dread the exposure of their own murky secret.
By mutual consent, the holiday becomes an annual tradition as close friendships develop and the group starts to meet on each other's home ground. Yet the Caribbean sunshine has its own darker side. Someone is on the trail of a killer ...
Set against a splendid backdrop of classical music, and flitting from the sun-kissed Caribbean to the sultry swamps of the American Deep South, to the dizzying heights of London's Albert Hall, Double Exposure is a hugely entertaining novel combining the charm and wit of a group of friends with a brilliant and nail-biting mystery. 'Totally fascinating’ Express on Sunday
'A hugely enjoyable book' Woman & Home
Paperback - Null
Kensington Court Don’t Look Now…
It is almost Christmas, and Kate Ashenberry, disillusioned and in flight from her violent lover, arrives in London to spend the festivities alone, with only a kitten for company. But the heart of the Victorian mansion block she has made her home is its residents, and nothing beats the variety of those living in Kensington Court. Within days, Kate finds she has a whole new family, sometimes fun, sometimes interfering, always neighbourly. Yet Kate has a sense that all is not quite right, and when the killing starts, the cosy, comforting camaraderie of Kensington Court collapses entirely... 'Kensington Court draws you in, and will have you racing through the final pages for the brilliant, twisting climax' Company
'Good characterisation and atmosphere keep things scary' Mail on Sunday
'An intriguing whodunnit' . Family Circle
‘Kensington Court has a chill factor of 10' Options
'Carol Smith skilfully sustains the suspense until the closing pages' The Times
Darkening Echoes Five women meet in a hospital ward in West London. Five strangers from widely differing backgrounds, forced by cramped conditions into passing intimacy that will nevertheless spark off rivalries as well as set the foundations of enduring friendship.
Beth, the career cook - popular, successful, at case with herself and very much her own woman; Vivienne, the jaded socialite, disillusioned with the tawdriness of her glitzy life and fearful for her marriage; sad Catherine with the domineering mother, frightened of the present and forever seeking refuge in a past that never really was; free-wheeling Sally, the wild colonial, with a spirit as unfettered as her morals; and Georgy, the New Yorker, a stranger newly arrived in town with the singular pursuit of love.
Five apples in a barrel ... but one of them is bad. 'An entertainment with a glamorous gloss and a good twist at the end' Sunday Telegraph
'A witty, hugely enjoyable and confident debut' The Times
'A rattling thriller' Independent on Sunday
'It's skilfully plotted, has well-drawn characters and a bloodthirsty climax' Daily Express
Double Exposure
Double Exposure