A DANGEROUS secret and a daughter’s attempts to discover what it is lead to devastating consequences in the latest thriller by Sanjida Kay.

Set in Leeds, the Lake District and Bristol, My Mother’s Secret has been described as chilling and gripping.

It is the third published thriller for writer and broadcaster Sanjida, who spent part of her teenage years in Ben Rhydding, and who now lives in Bristol with her husband and daughter.

Last year Sanjida was invited to Ilkley Literature Festival to speak about her critically acclaimed second novel The Stolen Child, which was set on and around Ilkley Moor.

Her first thriller, Bone by Bone, was longlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.

Now her latest work, available from May 3, will tell a story from the point of view of three women: Lizzie Bradshaw, Emma Taylor, and her teenage daughter, Stella.

Stella thinks that her mother has a secret. She knows her mother had a traumatic childhood, and that she’s an unusually anxious person, who sometimes has panic attacks. But she believes her mother is hiding something bigger, and Stella is determined to find out what it is. As Emma tries to keep her secret, Lizzie is caught up in a terrible crime, and Stella’s investigations will uncover something truly shocking that could shatter all their lives.

Sanjida said it was hard to describe the inspiration for the story without giving away the secret.

She added: “There were a few stories in the news that obsessed me at the time. One of them was about undercover police officers who infiltrated environmental activist groups and had families with some of the women they were investigating. Although My Mother’s Secret is not about undercover cops, it made me think about longterm lies and deception within close relationships, whether you can ever truly know those you love dearly, as well as power imbalances within marriage.”

Sanjida is now writing another psychological thriller for Corvus Books, provisionally called The Holiday, about the death of a child and a visit to small Italian island that goes horribly wrong.

My Mother’s Secret is available to pre-order from Amazon for £12.99 for paperback or £3.79 for Kindle.

Visit Sanjida’s website at www.sanjida.co.uk, or contact her through Facebook at www.facebook.com/SanjidaKayAuthor,

Twitter: @SanjidaKay and Instagram: @Sanjida.Kay