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  • Published: 4 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9780857506054
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $55.00
Categories:

The Lover

  • Mary Watson



The unputdownable new domestic thriller from the instant Irish Times bestselling author of THE CLEANER, about a woman accused of murdering her lover.

You never know what happens behind closed doors.

Rafe seems like your perfect man – intelligent, charming, attractive.

He also happens to be your boss.

You’re too swept up to care for office gossip. In Rafe, you have found the one.

You go back to his house one evening and falls asleep in his arms.

When you wake, you reach out for him. But something feels cold beside you…

Rafe is dead – murdered in bed as you lay next to him – and everyone is going to think you did it.

  • Published: 4 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9780857506054
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $55.00
Categories:

Praise for The Lover

Praise for Mary Watson

:

A heart-thumping thriller packed with exciting twists.

Daily Mail

Thrilling and otherworldly.

Sunday Times

A masterclass in tension. Plotted like an intricate spider's web, I was glued to the page for the entirety.

Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things

Revenge is a dish best served up spotless...The relentless attention to detail is wonderfully claustrophobic.

Sunday Independent

Domestic noir at its finest.

i Paper

A modern fairy tale – beautiful, dark, visceral, truly spellbinding.

Sunday Times and Irish Times No. 1 bestselling author Andrea Mara

Tense from the first page, the pressure builds inexorably. A multifaceted tale of secrets, obsessions and betrayals.

Sam Lloyd, bestselling author of The Memory Wood

Absolutely thrilling. Mary Watson is fast establishing herself as one of the most sophisticated and elegant contemporary domestic thriller writers around.

Edel Coffey

Tight, tense and beautifully written and very human - my favourite kind of thriller.

Kitty Murphy, author of the Dublin Drag Mysteries

The Lover is the kind of book that gets under your skin — in the best way. Mary Watson has delivered another unputdownable thriller!

Jen Bray, author of The Lies Between Us

A hooky, twisty psychological thriller. It kept me turning the pages until the satisfying end.

Fiona Gartland

No one does creeping domestic noir like Mary Watson. Tense and truthful – with a killer ending.

Gill Perdue, author of If I Tell

The Lover is a thrillingly fast-paced and addictive read. Hallie’s voice pulls you in from the very first page and breathlessly drags you along for the ride - every twist and turn taken at high speed - until you reach its shocking destination.

Deborah Masson, author of I'll Be Watching You