Teresa Driscoll
Teresa Driscoll has published 11 books across 3 series. The recommended reading order starts with Moments (2013).
Teresa Driscoll writes psychological thrillers and women's fiction, drawing on decades of experience as a journalist and BBC TV news presenter. Her work has sold more than two million copies in twenty languages. Driscoll began her career in print journalism, working her way up to chief reporter before moving into television, where she spent 15 years on BBC's Spotlight program. Throughout her broadcasting career, writing remained her primary focus, and she continued to write magazine pieces and dabble in fiction. After retiring from television, she dedicated herself to writing full-time, exploring the emotional aftermath of crime and its impact on those affected—a theme that deeply moved her during her years covering the subject.
Her debut thriller, I Am Watching You, reached number one on Kindle charts in the UK, USA, and Australia, selling over a million copies in English alone. Driscoll's books have been optioned for film, and she continues to publish in both the thriller and women's fiction genres. She lives in Devon with her family.
Shelf & Shadows
Order of PI Matthew Hill Books
- TagscrimemysteryDescriptionJournalist Alice Henderson receives a phone call one Wednesday with a chilling threat. She hangs up, assuming it's a hoax targeting the newspaper. The next Wednesday, the stalker calls again. Then the pattern becomes unmistakable: every Wednesday, like clockwork, the terror returns. I Will Make You Pay is a psychological thriller about a woman forced to hunt through her own past for the reason someone wants her to suffer. Alice's articles have made her a local champion, but the threats suggest this isn't about her work. When the police investigation stalls, her boyfriend hires private investigator Matthew Hill. The warnings escalate with every passing Wednesday, and soon the stalker turns attention to Alice's family. Someone believes she deserves punishment, and the countdown is tightening. Alice must uncover what she's being made to pay for before the threats stop being warnings and become something she can't survive.Publication dateOctober 10, 2019Amazon rating4.3/5Print length319LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas & Mercer
- TagsthrillersuspensemysteryDescriptionThree schoolgirls made a promise thirty years ago: take the horrible truth of what they did to the grave. The Promise is a psychological thriller about what happens when that vow begins to unravel. Beth and Sally have tried to move on from the trauma, while Carol has distanced herself from both of them. All three remain adamant the secret must never surface, even as the memory haunts them. Then shocking news threatens to expose what they did as teenagers. Beth hires private investigator Matthew Hill to help her and Sally reconnect with estranged Carol before the terrible act comes to light. She wishes she could take back the vow they made. But someone is watching, and that someone will stop at nothing to keep the secret buried. With her family now in peril, Beth faces an impossible choice: break the promise and risk everything, or protect the people she loves while the past closes in.Publication dateFebruary 7, 2019Amazon rating4.2/5Print length313LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas & Mercer
- TagsthrillermysterysuspenseDescriptionHer Perfect Family is a psychological thriller that opens on what should be the Hartley family's proudest moment. Rachel and Ed have gathered to watch their daughter Gemma graduate, but when she stumbles on stage, the reason is a bullet — she has been shot in front of everyone, and now she lies in a coma, her attacker still at large. PI Matthew Hill arrives at the scene and finds a cryptic message Gemma received earlier that day: someone close to her was about to be exposed. As he digs into the Hartleys' lives, each layer he peels back reveals another lie. The parents are holding something back, and their stories don't match. Gemma can't speak, the shooter is still hunting, and the family Matthew is supposed to protect may be the one keeping him from the truth. The question is whether he can break through their secrets before the next shot is fired.Publication dateNovember 1, 2021Amazon rating4.2/5Print length330LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas & Mercer
- TagschildrenDescriptionPrivate investigator Matthew Hill finds missing children for a living, but when his wife Sally calls to say their eight-year-old daughter Amelie has vanished, the nightmare becomes his own. One second she was there, the next she was gone. Close Your Eyes is a thriller about a man whose past has finally caught up with his family. Years ago Matthew left the police force after a grieving mother blamed him for her son's death. She promised that one day he too would feel her pain. That threat has shadowed his family ever since, and now Amelie's face is on the news and the clock is ticking. Matthew knows the statistics better than anyone — the longer a child is missing, the less hope there is of finding her alive. As a canal is searched and the hours slip away, he and Sally must face the question neither can bear to ask: is this the revenge that woman swore to take, and will they ever see their daughter again?Publication dateJanuary 1, 2025Amazon rating4.3/5Print length335LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas & Mercer
Order of Short Story Collections
- Tagsshort-storiesDescriptionMoments is a collection of short stories about love, loss, and the choice to live for the present. Published in 2013 as part of the Order of Short Story Collections series, the book gathers pieces that first appeared in magazines, each turning on a moment when ordinary life reveals its fragility or its grace. A woman confronts what she has been avoiding. A man learns what he should have said years ago. The stories circle the same question from different angles: what happens when time runs out, or when you realize it hasn't yet. Across 85 pages, the collection asks whether the day in front of you is enough — and whether you can see it before it's gone.Publication dateJanuary 3, 2013Amazon rating4.1/5Print length85LanguageEnglish
Order of Standalone Novels
- Tags---DescriptionMelissa Dance was eight years old when her mother died, and they never got to say goodbye. Seventeen years later, someone hands her a journal filled with her mother's words. Recipes for Melissa is a novel about what happens when a daughter opens that book and begins to read. The journal pulls Melissa back into her childhood — the memories of her mother's face, the pain of loss that never quite healed. As she works her way through the pages, cooking the recipes and reading the advice her mother left behind, the book becomes more than a collection of motherly wisdom. Hidden among the entries are secrets her mother kept, truths that could reshape everything Melissa thought she knew about her family and her past. The question Melissa faces is whether to keep those secrets buried or to share them — and whether learning the full truth about her mother will bring her the goodbye she never had or break open wounds she has spent seventeen years trying to close.Publication dateJune 5, 2015Amazon rating4.4/5Print length290LanguageEnglishPublisherBookouture
- Tags---DescriptionKate once had a life full of love and laughter, a time when she dared to dream. Then her family is shattered in the most unthinkable way, and she begins falling apart in silence. Last Kiss Goodnight is a novel about two women bound by tragedy and the secrets they keep from each other. When Kate meets Martha, she recognizes a kindred spirit. Martha is searching for a lost love, and tragedy has touched her life too. The two women are drawn to each other in ways neither can explain, but both are hiding painful truths about their pasts. Kate whispers promises to her baby that she will find a way, that she will not let them take him — but the threat she faces and the memories she has locked away remain unspoken. As Kate and Martha are forced to confront what they have each buried, the secrets between them begin to surface. The question at the heart of their friendship is whether two people broken by loss can save each other, or whether the truths they have hidden will pull them further apart. What they find in each other may be the only way either of them can learn to live again.Publication dateMarch 22, 2016Amazon rating4.3/5Print length282LanguageEnglishPublisherBookouture
- TagsthrillermysterysuspenseDescriptionElla Longfield overhears two men flirting with teenage girls on a train and realizes they are fresh out of prison. Her maternal instinct tells her to call for help, but something stops her. The next day, one of the girls — green-eyed Anna Ballard — has disappeared. I Am Watching You is a psychological thriller about the guilt that follows and the secrets that surface when someone decides Ella is to blame. A year later, Anna is still missing. Ella receives threatening letters that make her fear for her life, and an anniversary appeal reveals that Anna's friends and family have been hiding the truth. Sarah, Anna's best friend, hasn't told the whole story about that night. Anna's parents have kept secrets of their own. Someone knows where Anna is, but they are watching Ella instead of telling. The question is whether Ella will uncover what happened before whoever is threatening her decides she has seen too much.Publication dateOctober 1, 2017Amazon rating4.2/5Print length299LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas & Mercer
- TagsthrillersuspensemysteryDescriptionSophie is on a train with her husband, hours from home, when her phone rings. Two boys are in hospital after an accident. One of them is her four-year-old son, Ben. She left him with Emma, a new friend she believed she could trust — a kindred spirit, someone who understood her despite what the village was saying. Now Ben is hurt and Sophie is powerless, still miles away, with no way to reach him in time. The Friend is a 2018 psychological thriller about the mistake Sophie cannot undo. Emma seemed safe, but the rumours were there from the start, and Sophie ignored them. The closer Sophie gets to the truth about what happened, the more she realizes how little she actually knows about the woman she left her son with. The question is whether she trusted the wrong person — and whether her whole family will pay the price for that choice.Publication dateMarch 22, 2018Amazon rating4.2/5Print length303LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas & Mercer
- TagsthrillercrimeDescriptionA family fleeing a broken marriage arrives at a remote Cornish cottage hoping for a fresh start, but the house stirs something Hannah has spent years trying to forget. Tell Me Lies is a psychological thriller that turns a holiday refuge into a trap. Hannah, her husband Sam, and their eight-year-old daughter Lily have come to Owl Cottage after a betrayal nearly destroyed their marriage. The place should offer peace. Instead, dead creatures appear on the doorstep. Mysterious knocks echo at the door. Hannah begins to wonder if someone is watching them — or if the dark memories the cottage has awakened are finally pulling her under. When the disturbances spill into the local community and the police get involved, Hannah turns to Sam for help. He dismisses her fears. Now she has to decide whether the past has made her paranoid, whether she was wrong to trust him again, or whether something far more dangerous than memory is closing in on Owl Cottage.Publication dateApril 18, 2023Amazon rating4.2/5Print length326LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas & Mercer
- TagscrimeDescriptionWhat Have I Done? is a psychological thriller about a single act of generosity that destroys everything Laura thought she knew about her life. Stranded in Paris during an air traffic crisis, she offers to share her hotel room with a young woman who appears lost and alone. The girl vanishes at dawn, leaving Laura with a faint sense of unease she cannot name. Weeks later, Laura's family becomes the target of attacks that dismantle her ordinary world piece by piece. Every thread seems to lead back to that night in Paris, to the stranger she let in. Then Laura finds herself in a police cell, accused of a serious crime she cannot understand. To save her family and herself, she must uncover the secret connecting that moment of kindness to the nightmare closing in around her. If she cannot solve it in time, everyone she loves will pay the price.Publication dateJanuary 6, 2026Amazon rating4.2/5Print length341LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas & Mercer
Frequently Asked Questions about Teresa Driscoll
Teresa Driscoll writes both standalone novels and a series. The PI Matthew Hill series should be read in the order they were published. The first book is I Will Make You Pay (2019), followed by The Promise (2019), Her Perfect Family (2021), and Close Your Eyes (2025). Her standalone novels can be read in any order, but generally follow publication dates. The short story collection Moments was published in 2013, followed by standalones Recipes for Melissa (2015), Last Kiss Goodnight (2016), I Am Watching You (2017), The Friend (2018), and Tell Me Lies (2023). There is one additional standalone novel not listed.
A good starting point for Teresa Driscoll's books is with her standalone novels. Recipes for Melissa, published in 2015, or Last Kiss Goodnight from 2016, offer an introduction to her writing style. If you prefer to start with her series, the PI Matthew Hill books begin with I Will Make You Pay, published in 2019. This thriller introduces the detective and sets the stage for subsequent installments. Her short story collection, Moments, published in 2013, is also an option for readers who enjoy shorter fiction.
It is not necessary to read Teresa Driscoll's standalone novels in any particular order, as each tells a self-contained story. However, her PI Matthew Hill series is designed to be read sequentially to fully appreciate the character development and overarching plotlines. The publication order for this series is I Will Make You Pay (2019), The Promise (2019), Her Perfect Family (2021), and Close Your Eyes (2025). Reading the series in order will provide the most cohesive experience of PI Matthew Hill's investigations.
Teresa Driscoll writes both standalone novels and a series. The PI Matthew Hill series features the same main character across multiple books, allowing for a continuous narrative. Her standalone novels, such as Recipes for Melissa and Tell Me Lies, each present a different story and characters, independent of any other works. She also has a collection of short stories titled Moments. This variety offers readers different ways to engage with her work, whether they prefer a connected narrative or individual tales.
Based on the available information, Teresa Driscoll has written at least eleven books. This includes four books in the PI Matthew Hill series: I Will Make You Pay (2019), The Promise (2019), Her Perfect Family (2021), and Close Your Eyes (2025). She has also published six standalone novels: Recipes for Melissa (2015), Last Kiss Goodnight (2016), I Am Watching You (2017), The Friend (2018), Tell Me Lies (2023), and one additional unlisted standalone. Additionally, she has a short story collection, Moments (2013).
The first book written by Teresa Driscoll appears to be her short story collection, Moments, published in 2013. Following this collection, her first standalone novel was Recipes for Melissa, released in 2015. The PI Matthew Hill series, which features a recurring detective, began in 2019 with the publication of I Will Make You Pay. These early works establish the foundations for her subsequent contributions to the thriller and mystery genres.
Teresa Driscoll's most recent book is Tell Me Lies, published in 2023. This standalone novel continues her work in the psychological thriller genre. Her next planned release is Close Your Eyes, scheduled for 2025, which is part of the PI Matthew Hill series. This upcoming book will further develop the character of PI Matthew Hill and his ongoing investigations. Readers can anticipate more suspenseful narratives from Driscoll in the near future.
Teresa Driscoll primarily writes psychological thrillers. Her books often explore themes of secrets, deception, and the darker aspects of human nature. The PI Matthew Hill series, for example, focuses on crime investigations with a suspenseful tone. Her standalone novels also delve into complex relationships and hidden motives, keeping readers engaged with twists and turns. While her work leans heavily into thrillers, there are elements of mystery and suspense throughout her narratives.
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Sandie Jones
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We verified the reading order for Teresa Driscoll's books by cross-referencing official publication dates, ISBN databases, and publisher catalogs.
Last verified: July 2026
Shelf & Shadows. (…). “Teresa Driscoll Books in Order.” Retrieved …, from https://www.shelfandshadows.com/authors/teresa-driscoll