Here’s the thing about a Lisa Jewell book. It starts so normally. A nice house. A nice family. A nice cup of tea. Then, about forty pages in, you realise somebody in that nice house has done something unforgivable. Probably years ago. Probably in the attic.
If you’ve just finished It Could Have Been Her and you’re already twitchy for the next one, welcome. These books like Lisa Jewell have the same dark families, the same rotten roots and the same twists that make you go back and reread chapter one with your mouth open. They’re all psychological thrillers, and all but one are out now on Kindle. (The other is a pre-order. You’ll want it.)
Why do we love Lisa Jewell books so much?
Because she writes about families like ours. Well, hopefully not exactly like ours. She takes an ordinary home, peels back the wallpaper and shows you what’s been hiding underneath for twenty years. No shoot-outs, no car chases. Just secrets, and people who’ll do anything to keep them.
5 books like Lisa Jewell to read next
01If you loved The Family Upstairs
Who Killed Lenny Gunn?
Whoever finds her husband’s killer inherits the Gunn empire.
In The Family Upstairs, Libby inherits a Chelsea mansion and a whole lot of trouble. In Who Killed Lenny Gunn?, the inheritance is an entire crime empire, and the trouble is sitting round the dinner table.
Queenie Gunn has called the whole family together to tell them she is dying. The Gunns have run their corner of Islington and Hackney for decades, and every one of them has an opinion about what happens next. Lenny Gunn, Queenie’s husband, was murdered in 1996. Somebody sitting in that room knows a great deal more about it than they have ever let on.
Then carry on with I Am Queenie Gunn and Carol Gunn Returns. (She was dead for twenty-one years. That’s all we’re saying.)
Perfect if you love: family secretsinheritance gone wrongLondon crime families
Side effects: you’ll never read a will the same way again.
02If you loved Then She Was Gone
The Ghosted Wife
Till death do us part.
If Laurel’s story broke your heart, Maria’s will finish the job. A mother, a family that carries on without her, and an ending that leaves you winded.
Maria’s husband walks past her as if she isn’t there. Her children don’t answer when she speaks to them. Night after night she watches the family she loves carry on without her. Something in that house doesn’t add up, and the very last line will stay with you for a long time.
Perfect if you love: heartbreaking family storieshaunting secretsendings you’ll want to talk about
Side effects: you’ll read the last line, scream, and go straight back to page one.
03If you loved Don’t Let Him In
Don’t Lie Back
You can always trust your therapist. Can’t you?
Lisa Jewell taught us to be very careful who we let into our homes. Nicole let one in years ago. She married him.
Nicole can tell within minutes whether a woman is serious about leaving. She has built a career helping women walk away from men who control them, and she has the perfect husband to show for it. Then a new client starts describing her partner, and he sounds an awful lot like Luke.
Perfect if you love: charming men with secretscontrolling relationshipsmarriages that aren’t what they seem
Side effects: you’ll start checking your husband’s alibis. For no reason. Just in case.
04If you loved None of This Is True
My Name Is Not Evie Marsh
Her name was the first lie.
Loved the woman who wasn’t quite who she said she was? Meet another one. This time she’s on the right side. Probably.
She has a new name, a new look and a job inside the company run by the man who ruined her family. All she has to do is keep her real self hidden long enough to bring him down. Revenge was the plan. Nobody planned for what she would find out along the way.
Perfect if you love: women with secret pastsfake identitiesrevenge
Side effects: you’ll google every new colleague. Thoroughly.
05If you loved It Could Have Been Her
Little Apples Grow
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
A crumbling old house. A girl who vanished. Something terrible hidden away for years. Sound familiar? Now move it to Highgate, add a feared East End crime family, and a carer who isn’t there to care.
Rosie Hart takes a live-in job caring for Vi Driscoll, the dying matriarch of a feared East End family, in a crumbling house in Highgate that backs onto the cemetery. Rosie has her own reasons for being there, and they have nothing to do with kindness. The Driscolls have buried a great many things over the years. Rosie has come to find out where.
Perfect if you love: crumbling gothic housesburied family secretsslow-burn revenge
Side effects: you’ll look at your own back garden very suspiciously.
Your questions answered
What books are like Lisa Jewell?
If you loved The Family Upstairs, try Who Killed Lenny Gunn? If you loved Don’t Let Him In, try Don’t Lie Back. If you loved It Could Have Been Her, try Little Apples Grow.
What should I read after It Could Have Been Her?
Little Apples Grow: a crumbling house full of buried secrets, a dying matriarch and a carer with her own reasons for being there. It’s out on 1 December.
Is It Could Have Been Her a sequel?
Yes. It’s the sequel to Don’t Let Him In, and Jane Trevally from that book takes the lead. Read Don’t Let Him In first.
Are these books on Kindle?
Yes. Every book on this list is out now on Kindle apart from Little Apples Grow, which is out on 1 December 2026 and available to pre-order now.