Novels
by Charity Norman
Charity has eight books published by Allen & Unwin, and is currently working on her ninth.
As well as her full-length novels, Charity has published two short stories including Best Served Cold - a spin-off involving the characters of her 2015 novel See You in September - and The Snare, a murder mystery written for Dark Deeds Down Under 2, crime anthology edited by Craig Sisterson.
Home Truths
Livia Denby is on trial for attempted murder. The jury has reached a verdict.
Two years earlier, Livia was a probation officer in Yorkshire, her husband Scott a teacher. Their children, Heidi and Noah, rounded out a happy family - until the day Scott's brother died.
Grief and guilt leave Scott searching for answers, a search that takes him into the world of conspiracy theories. As his grip on reality slides, he makes a decision that will put the family on a collision course with tragedy.
Livia's family has been torn apart, and now her son's life is hanging in the balance. Just how far will she go to save the ones she loves?
(2024)
Remember Me
(2022)
They never found Leah Parata. Not a boot, not a backpack, not a turquoise beanie. After she left me that day, she vanished off the face of the earth.
After years of living overseas, Emily Kirkland returns to New Zealand to care for her father, Felix, who suffers from dementia. As his memory fades and his guard slips, she begins to understand him for the first time - and to glimpse shattering truths about his past.
As Felix loses his grip, the close-knit community is ripped apart by disturbing revelations that cast new light on a young woman's disappearance twenty-five years ago.
The Secrets of Strangers
A gunshot rings out in a London café, and the lives of five strangers will never be the same again. The only thing that's certain is that nothing is as it seems.
A regular weekday morning veers drastically off-course for a group of strangers whose paths cross in a London café, where an apparently crazed gunman holds them hostage.
But there is more to the situation than first meets the eye and, as the captives grapple with their own inner demons, the line between right and wrong starts to blur. Will the secrets they keep prevent them from escaping with their lives?
(2020)
See You in September
It was supposed to be just a short trip. But when Cassy is lured to an idyllic valley called Gethsemane, years pass before her friends and family see her again.
After breaking up with her boyfriend mid-holiday, Cassy spontaneously accepts an invitation to stay in an idyllic farming collective. Overcome by the peace and beauty of the valley, and swept up in the charisma of Justin, the community's leader, Cassy is convinced that she has to stay.
As Cassy becomes more and more entrenched in the group's rituals and beliefs, her frantic parents fight to bring her home before Justin's prophesied Last Day can come to pass. Can her family rescue her before it's too late?
(2017)
The New Woman
The Secret Life of Luke Livingstone
What do you do when you find that your husband - your father, your son - is not who you thought? Can you ever love them again?
Luke Livingstone is eternally lucky. A parent and grandparent, a respected solicitor, a pillar of the community. But beneath this successful life lies an unbearable secret - a truth so fundamental that it will shatter everything and everyone Luke loves.
With nowhere left to run, Luke must decide whether to survive at all - and if so, how to live. A family is tested to its limits, as each of them is forced to consider what makes a person essentially themselves.
also known as
(2015)
The Son-in-Law
Life can change in a moment. Forgiveness can take much longer.
On a sharp winter's morning, a man walks out of prison. Joseph Scott has served his term. He's lost almost everything: his career as a teacher, his wife, the future he'd envisaged. All he has left are his three children, but he is not allowed anywhere near them.
For three years Joseph Scott has been haunted by one moment - the moment that changed his life forever. Now he is starting over, and he wants his family back.
This is the story of Joseph and his wife, Zoe; of their children, Scarlet, Theo and Ben, for whom nothing will be the same; and of Zoe's parents, who can't forgive or understand.
(2013)
Second Chances
In the quiet of a winter's night, in a remote corner of New Zealand, the rescue helicopter is sent to airlift a five-year-old boy with severe internal injuries.
At first, Finn's fall from the upstairs verandah looks like a horrible accident; he's prone to sleepwalking. Only his frantic mother, Martha McNamara, knows how it really happened. And she isn't telling. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
Martha only wants the best for her family. That's why she moved heaven and earth to take them to the other side of the world, to start their lives afresh. And now she's faced with decisions she never dreamed she'd have to make, decisions with potentially devastating consequences. She's torn between her loyalty to her family and her need to protect them.
After the Fall
also known as
(2012)
Freeing Grace
Freeing Grace tells the story of David, curate of an inner-city parish, and Leila, his Nigerian-born wife. Unable to have children of their own, they're desperate for a family. When they finally hear that they've been approved to adopt a baby, Grace, they feel the life they have been waiting for can finally begin.
There's just one thing for which David and Leila cannot plan: Grace's birth family, the Harrisons, are not quite ready to let go.
In an attempt to create a safe home for Grace, the Harrisons enlist the help of their friend, the feckless New Zealander Jake Kelly - who's half in love with all of them, one way or another. Jake is sent on a quest that will force a shocking confrontation.
Everyone only wants what's best for Grace - but who can say exactly what that is?