Mandasue Heller fans don’t want their crime wrapped in cotton wool. You want it raw, a bit rough round the edges, and so real you can smell the stairwell.
You want estates where everybody knows your business and nobody grasses. Women who’ve been knocked down more times than they can count and keep getting back up. Families that would die for each other, right up until somebody does something unforgivable. Mandasue Heller has been writing that world out of Manchester for over twenty years, and with The Child out this summer, a lot of her readers are finishing it and looking for what’s next. So these are my picks for books like Mandasue Heller. Five gritty British crime thrillers, all on Kindle. The accents change from Manc to London, but the nerve doesn’t.
Why Mandasue Heller readers get hooked
She writes what she knows. Before she was a bestselling novelist she was a singer, and she spent ten years living in the Hulme Crescents, a place she has described as the best and the absolute worst years of her life. Her first book came out of that, and every one since has the same honesty. Nobody in a Heller novel talks like they’ve swallowed a dictionary. They talk like your neighbours, which is exactly why it’s so frightening when things go wrong.
That’s the kind of crime fiction I write too, only my corner of the map is North and East London. If the gangland side is what keeps you up at night, my list of books like Kimberley Chambers and the books like Lynda La Plante list will keep you busy for months.
The best books like Mandasue Heller
01If you loved The Child
Who Killed Lenny Gunn?
Whoever finds her husband’s killer inherits the Gunn empire.
In The Child, a widow learns her husband had secrets the hard way, at his funeral. Queenie Gunn’s husband has been dead since 1996, and his secrets are sitting round her dining table.
Queenie Gunn has called the whole family round to tell them she’s dying. Cue the vultures. The Gunns have run their corner of Islington and Hackney for decades, and every single one of them reckons the crown should be theirs. Lenny Gunn was murdered in 1996, and somebody at that table knows a lot more about it than they’ve ever let on.
Perfect if you love: dead husbands with secretsfamilies at warwho gets the money
Side effects: you’ll read every will you ever see very, very carefully.
02If you loved Tainted Lives
Dead by 06:00
They all knew he was innocent.
Tainted Lives follows kids who find each other when nobody else wants them, and what that bond costs them as they grow up. Danny and Theo were that close once, before one of them went to prison for something he didn’t do.
Two in the morning. One phone call. Danny grew up on the Packington estate. Theo grew up in a big house on Thornhill Square. Best mates, right up until Danny went to prison for something he didn’t do. Thirty-two years later, they’ve got four hours to settle it, and by six this morning, somebody is going to pay.
Perfect if you love: childhood friendsestate lifeloyalty and betrayal
Side effects: you’ll text your oldest friend at 3am asking if there’s anything they want to tell you.
03If you loved her tough women
I Am Queenie Gunn
Before they feared her, they underestimated her.
Heller’s women get knocked down and come back swinging. Queenie came back and took over.
Before the money, the big house and the reputation, Queenie was a mouthy girl off Chapel Market with nothing to lose and a tongue that could strip paint. Then she met Lenny Gunn. This is how a nobody became the woman nobody in London was stupid enough to cross. Plenty of people underestimated her. Most of them only did it once.
Perfect if you love: women who fight backrags to richesold school London
Side effects: you’ll develop a stare that can end an argument without a word.
04If you loved Run
Don’t Lie Back
You can always trust your therapist. Can’t you?
In Run, Leanne can’t tell if Jake is her way out or her road to hell. Nicole thought she’d married the way out.
Nicole can tell within minutes whether a woman is really ready to leave. She’s built a whole career helping women walk away from men who control them, and she’s got the perfect husband to prove she knows what a good one looks like. Then a new client starts describing her partner. The way he talks. The things he does. And he sounds an awful lot like Luke.
Perfect if you love: controlling menmarriages that look perfectslow-burn dread
Side effects: you’ll start reading your partner’s texts upside down from across the room.
05If you loved Two-Faced
My Name Is Not Evie Marsh
Her name was the first lie.
You’ll know the feeling. A woman smiling at you, saying all the right things, and something about her you can’t quite trust.
New name. New look. New job inside the company run by the man who destroyed her family. All she has to do is smile, keep her head down and keep the real her buried until she can bring him down. Revenge was the plan. Nobody planned for what she’d dig up along the way.
Perfect if you love: revenge plotsfalse identitiesundercover tension
Side effects: you’ll look at the new girl at work and wonder what her real name is.
Three more for a Heller night in
Read those five already? Look at you. These three are just as dark, and two of them start with a marriage you wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Little Apples Grow
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Rosie Hart moves into a crumbling Highgate house to care for the dying matriarch of the most feared family in the East End. The Driscolls think they’ve hired some help. They haven’t. Out 1 December.
Pre-order on Amazon →
The Ghosted Wife
Till death do us part.
Maria’s husband walks straight past her as if she isn’t there, and her children don’t answer when she speaks. Something in that house doesn’t add up, and the last line will stay with you for a long time.
Buy on Amazon →
One of Us Dies on Saturday
Two texts. One weekend away.
Lauren gets a text saying her husband is going to kill her on Saturday. At the exact same moment, Mark gets one saying his wife is going to kill him. Which one would you believe?
Buy on Amazon →Where to start with Mandasue Heller
Every Mandasue Heller novel is a standalone, so you can pick up any of them and dive straight in. If you want to go back to the very beginning, her first novel was The Front, published in 2002 and set in the world she knew best. Tainted Lives is a favourite with a lot of readers for how much it puts you through, and her newest, The Child, is her twenty-first novel. You can find the full list on her publisher’s author page and keep up with her news on Facebook.
Your questions answered
What books are like Mandasue Heller?
If you loved The Child, try Who Killed Lenny Gunn?. If Tainted Lives is your favourite, read Dead by 06:00. Both are gritty British crime thrillers about families, loyalty and secrets.
What is Mandasue Heller’s newest book?
The Child, her twenty-first novel, came out in hardback in summer 2026. A widow inherits her husband’s fortune, then a young woman turns up at the funeral with a baby she says is his.
Do I need to read Mandasue Heller’s books in order?
No. Her novels are standalones, so you can start anywhere. Her first was The Front, published in 2002.
Where are Mandasue Heller’s books set?
Mostly in Manchester. She lived in the Hulme Crescents for ten years, and the area inspired her novels.
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.
Kadie x
P.S. Manchester or London? Fight it out in the comments on TikTok, Instagram or Facebook.