How To Be Broken: The Advantages of Falling Apart

The past year has been ROUGH. It has pushed so many of us right to our absolute limits.

In 2020, while it seemed that the world was falling apart, psychologist Dr Emma Kavanagh began bringing together the psychological research on the impact of trauma, what it means, and what it does for us - the good and the bad. Within the psychological literature, she found important clues about why trauma and stress are not the life sentences they sometimes seem to be, and, most importantly, how they can often lead to growth beyond the despair.

This is a book about why it's ok to struggle, why it's ok to fall apart, and why it's ok to be broken. Because, once we give ourselves permission to be broken, we can put the pieces back together. And we can come back, stronger than we were before.

To Catch A Killer

I've been watching you DS Alice Parr.

I saw you trying to save the poor young woman you found in the park.

The woman I tried to kill.

I've been waiting for you to find her family. To find someone who cares about her.

But you can't can you?

You've never had a case like this.

I know everything about you. You know nothing about me.

Even though I'm the man you're looking for.

And you will never catch me...

The Killer on the Wall

The first body comes as a shock

The second brings horror

The third signals the beginning of a nightmare

When fifteen-year-old Isla Bell finds three bodies propped against Hadrian’s Wall, her whole world falls apart. In such a close-knit community, everyone knows the victims, and the man who did it.

Twenty years on and Isla has dedicated her life to forensic psychology; studying the brains of serial killers, and even coming face to face with the convicted murderer who turned her world upside down. She is safe after all, with him behind bars.

Then another body appears against the Wall.

And another.

As the nightmare returns and the body count rises, everyone in town is a suspect.

Who is the Killer on the Wall? 

The Missing Hours

A woman disappears

One moment, Selena Cole is in the playground with her children and the next, she has vanished without a trace.

A woman returns

Twenty hours later, Selena is found safe and well, but with no memory of where she has been.

What took place in those missing hours, and are they linked to the discovery of a nearby murder?

‘Is it a forgetting or a deception?’ 

Hidden

HE'S WATCHING

A gunman is stalking the wards of a local hospital. He's unidentified and dangerous, and has to be located. Urgently.

Police Firearms Officer Aden McCarthy is tasked with tracking him down. Still troubled by the shooting of a schoolboy, Aden is determined to make amends by finding the gunman - before it's too late.

Charlie’s old school friend is found dead at the side of the road and the police conclude that it’s an accident. Charlie isn’t so sure, but the police and her colleagues aren’t interested in hearing her theories.

SHE'S WAITING

To psychologist Imogen, hospital should be a place of healing and safety - both for her, and her young niece who's been recently admitted. She's heard about the gunman, but he has nothing to do with her. Or has he?

As time ticks down, with all three seeking answers, no one knows who the gunman's next target will be. But he's there. Hiding in plain sight. Far closer than anyone thinks...
 

Falling

A town in mourning. A murder in waiting.

Jim is a retired police officer and worried father. His beloved daughter has disappeared and he knows something is seriously wrong.

Tom has woken up to discover that his wife was on the plane and must break the news to their only son.

Cecilia has packed up and left her family. Now she has survived a tragedy but sees no way out.

Freya is struggling to cope with the loss of her father. But as she delves into his past, she may not like what she finds.

Before the plane crash, after the plane crash, such a short amount of time for the world to turn on its head.