Lesley Pearse Books in Order (Belle, Suspects, Deception…)

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Lesley Pearse is a best-seller British novelist who started writing more than a decade before being published for the first time. Her books always center around women with troubles. She published more than thirty books, not always in the same genres, from romance to crime, traditional sagas, historical, and contemporary. He is known for Belle, Never Look Back, Dead To Me, or Suspects among others.

How to read the Lesley Pearse’s Books in Order?

The Belle Series

1. Belle (2011) – Fifteen-year-old Belle, though raised in a London brothel, is an innocent young girl. But when she witnesses one of the girls brutally strangled by a client, she is cast into a cruel, heartless world. Snatched from the streets and sold into prostitution, she is made a courtesan in New Orleans. At the mercy of desperate men who crave her beauty and will do anything to keep her, Belle’s dreams of home, family, and freedom appear futile.
2. The Promise (2012) – With her husband Jimmy enlisted and in the trenches of Northern France, Belle finds she cannot watch idly from the sidelines. Volunteering to help, Belle herself is sent to France as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. But when a tragic accident brings her face to face with a past she thought was behind her, Belle finds herself caught in an impossible situation. As violence and death rage around her, Belle must choose between a forbidden passion and love and loyalty.
3. Survivor (2014) – With her reputation in tatters, 17-year-old Mari needs to get away from the gossip of her small town. So the chance to leave for London seems like the perfect fresh start. But war is brewing . . . And when London is overwhelmed by the Blitz, Mari’s glamorous new life is blown apart. Lost and alone, she must learn what it means to survive . . .

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Standalone Novels

• Georgia (1993) – When nine-year-old orphan Georgia James is unexpectedly fostered by the kindly Celia and her bank manager husband she can hardly believe her luck. But then – on her fifteenth birthday – she suffers the cruelest betrayal of all at the hands of her foster father and is forced to run away, leaving everything she loves behind her. Penniless, sleeping rough, Georgia is soon introduced to the sleazy Soho world of brassy strippers, sweatshops, camaraderie, and hardship. Fired by a fierce ambition, blessed with an extraordinary voice, her long struggle for fame and fortune begins. But even when she reaches the top she finds that the scars of the past can open up to ruin her…
• Tara (1994) – This is the story of three beautiful and talented women. Mabel, whose great love for a gambling man has brought her close to insanity; gentle Amy, who marries a man brutalized by war and failure; and Tara, who is hungry for success and life on her own terms.
• Charity (1995) – Charity Stratton’s bleak childhood is changed forever when both her parents are killed in a fire. Separated by the authorities from her younger brothers and sister, Charity is sent out to work as a skivvy in a boys’ boarding school. Her loneliness and misery are eased when she falls deeply in love with the dashing but fickle sixth-former, Hugh Mainwaring, but when she discovers she is pregnant with Hugh’s baby she soon realizes just how alone she really is.
• Ellie (1996) – Ellie is a sweet-natured brunette, generous of heart with a sparkling smile and an accent that reveals her East End background. Bonny is beautiful and spoilt, with cascades of blonde hair, the brightest pair of blue eyes, and a mouth like Cupid’s bow. The two girls meet in London at the end of the war when, seduced by two American airmen, they pool their wits and resources and set off to make a living on the stage.

• Camellia (1997) – Camellia Norton is orphaned at fifteen when her mother’s body is fished from a river in rural Sussex. And when she discovers a cache of letters amongst her mother’s effects she realizes that the past she has always been so sure of has been built on a tissue of lies. Devastated, she runs away to London, and loses herself in a metropolis that offers opportunity, temptation, and danger, especially to a young girl hungry for love and acceptance.
• Rosie (1998) – Her brutal, violent family will be the death of her . . . Without a mother, Rosie is at the mercy of her father and thuggish brothers. Then one day a friend comes to the farm in the form of cockney housekeeper Heather Farley. But soon enough Heather vanishes, abandoning Rosie to her fate. Only when Thomas Farley comes to find his sister several years later, does Rosie learn the terrible truth about Heather – and her family.
• Charlie (1999) – When sixteen-year-old Charlie witnesses a brutal attack on her mother by two strangers she is shocked and terrified. But after talking to the police, she realizes that her father’s business dealings can’t be so innocent . . . With her father away, it is left to Charlie to protect her mother. And somehow she must find out who wants to hurt her family – and why – without losing faith in her beloved parents.
• Never Look Back (2000) – Sixteen-year-old Matilda is a poor Covent Garden flower girl until the day she saves the life of Tabitha, a minister’s daughter. Welcomed into Tabitha’s family, Matilda is offered the chance of a lifetime. She leaves behind London’s slums and enters the darkest corners of New York. Traveling across the vast plains to the Wild West, she finds herself in San Francisco, a city in the grip of the gold rush.

• Trust Me (2001) – When their father tragically kills their mother, Dulcie and her sister are sent to an orphanage. Told that a ‘better life’ awaits them in another country, they are shipped off to Australia. But the promises made turn out to be lies. And it seems to Dulcie that everyone who ever said ‘trust me’ somehow betrayed that trust. So when she finds a kindred spirit in Ross, another orphanage survivor, hope swells in her heart.
• Father Unknown (2002) – Daisy was adopted. But when her mother dies, she finds her secure existence thrown into turmoil by the discovery of a scrapbook. Inside it is information about her real mother. However, when Daisy drops everything to go in search of her roots, she uncovers a harrowing story of greed, misery and corruption. She also risks hurting her adored Dad, the only true family she has left.
• Till We Meet Again (2002) – Susan is the woman who walked in a doctor’s surgery one day and committed murder. Beth is the lawyer assigned to defend Susan. But her client is uncooperative. Until both women realise that twenty-nine years earlier, they were childhood friends . . . While the evidence mounts up, their friendship starts to regrow. But for one of them, there can be no happy ending . . .
• Remember Me (2003) – Mary, a Cornish mariner’s daughter, makes the biggest mistake of her short life when she steals a silk hat. Convicted and sentenced to be transported to Australia, she endures horrific conditions aboard ship before landing in a brutal and barbaric country. It will take all her courage just to survive. But Mary is also determined to make something of herself in this rugged man’s world.

• Secrets (2004) – 1930. Twelve-year-old Adele is placed in a bleak, cruel children’s home after a family tragedy drives her mother to madness. But when trust is betrayed Adele has no choice but to run away . . . Alone and friendless, she heads for Sussex, to seek out the grandmother she has never known. However, the journey, without food or shelter, leaves her desperately ill. Surrounded by the beautiful Rye Marshes, Adele is finally nursed back to health.
• A Lesser Evil (2005) – Following her heart, Fifi moves with Dan to London where they rent a seedy flat in Dale Street, Kennington. Though Fifi must now become acquainted with squalor, she is soon drawn into the goings-on behind the shabby front doors of her new neighbors. But it is the Muckles, at number 11, who are the street’s focus. Rumors of criminal depravity and shocking behavior are rife. So when Fifi steps in to help their youngest child, she risks the wrath of this frightening family. Suddenly, not only her marriage and her family but the lives of all the inhabitants of Dale Street are at the mercy of the immoral Muckles . . .
• Hope (2006) – Baby Hope, the unfortunate proof of Lady Harvey’s adultery, is smuggled out of a privileged aristocratic household to a nearby village. There, her true identity a secret, she grows up in the arms of the poor, but loving, Renton family. But the day comes when Hope must pay her way. What could be more natural than being taken into service by the Harveys? However, when she sees something she should not, she is threatened and blackmailed into leaving her beloved Renton’s forever.
• Faith (2007) – Scotland, 1995. Laura Brannigan has been put away for murder. She insists that she didn’t kill Jackie. But her search for true justice seems futile. Then she receives a letter that takes her back to her youth and the memory of an old love, Stuart . . . Twenty years ago was a heady time for Laura: she’d escaped an abusive home, and together with Jackie they had made a fresh start. They had sworn to be sisters forever.

• Gypsy (2008) – Fifteen-year-old Beth’s life is shattered when she and her brother Sam are orphaned. Believing that only in America can they make a fresh start, brother and sister leave Liverpool and embark on the greatest adventure of their lives. In New York, Beth’s talent with the fiddle earns her the friendship of gamblers, chancers and other rogues. Dodging trouble across America, Beth and her friends head for the Klondike river in search of gold. How far must Beth go to find happiness?
• Stolen (2010) – She’s wearing an old-fashioned dress and her hair has been hacked off. There are signs she has been bound by her wrists and ankles. She doesn’t know how she ended up there, or even her own name. The police are baffled and when the doctors examine her, they make a shocking discovery: She has recently given birth. Who is she?
• Forgive Me (2013) – For when Flora leaves Eva a London artist’s studio in her will, she finds her mother had a secret past. In the studio’s attic are Flora’s paintings and diaries, and Eva learns her mother was a popular artist in the swinging sixties. But when Eva’s hunt for answers uncovers clues to a shocking crime, she soon learns why Flora chose to hide her past.
• Without a Trace (2015) – Coronation Day, 1953. Molly Heywood slips away from the celebrations and makes a shocking discovery: her friend Cassie is dead and her six-year-old daughter Petal has vanished without a trace. The only clue is a letter from London, where Cassie once lived. Now it is up to Molly to head there and uncover the past that her friend kept so well hidden.

• Dead to Me (2016) – Spring 1935. On London’s Hampstead Heath, two girls meet by chance: well-mannered and smartly dressed Verity and disheveled and grubby Ruby. Somehow, the mismatched pair form an instant friendship strong enough to survive their parent’s disapproval. When war engulfs the country – sending Ruby to Devon while Verity struggles to find a new beginning under a shadow from her past – the girls are convinced they will always be there for each other. Until the day one breaks the other’s heart . . .
• The Woman in the Wood (2017) – London, 1960. Living in the New Forest with their cold-hearted grandmother, twins Maisy and Duncan are neglected and unloved. So when Duncan fails to come home after exploring the woods, no one – least of all his grandmother – appears to care. Yet Maisy refuses to give up. Though she doesn’t know the woods well, she knows someone who does. The strange old woman who lives at their heart . . .
• The House Across the Street (2018) – 1964. Twenty-three-year-old Katy Speed is fascinated by glamorous Gloria and the goings-on at her house over the road. Who are the mysterious women that keep coming and going in the strange black car? Then one night, Gloria’s house burns to the ground. Bodies are found in the wreckage. And Katy’s horror turns to disbelief when her own father is arrested and charged with murder. Determined to prove his innocence, Katy sets out to uncover the truth about the mysterious house across the street and find the real murderer.
• You’ll Never See Me Again (2019) – When Betty’s husband returns from the war broken and haunted, she knows her marriage is doomed. So she escapes. On the run and armed with a new identity, Betty becomes penniless and alone, quickly realizing that starting again is much harder than she thought. And she never imagined it could end in murder . . .

• Liar (2020) – Amelia White didn’t expect her career as a reporter to start like this: by finding a young woman’s body, just around the corner from her Shepherd’s Bush bedsit. With rumors already spreading about this poor murder victim, she seizes her chance to write the true story. But when more bodies are found, the police are baffled. Reporting on the story, Amelia meets witnesses as well as suspects. If she can only work out who the liar among them is, she may be able to stop the murders.
• Suspects (2021) – Welcome to Willow Close. Nina and Conrad best thought they’d discovered their dream home. But on the day they move in, a body is found – the victim attacked and killed in the woods. As the police start to question the residents, they discover that they all have their own secrets. Behind each door, strange and even dark things are happening . . . Now everyone is a suspect. And no one is safe.
• Deception (2022) – After the funeral of her mother, Sally, Alice Kent is approached by a man named Angus Tweedy. He claims to be her father and tells her that he served time in prison for marrying Sally bigamously. What does he hope to gain telling her this now, thirty years on? How can her adored dad Ralph not be her true father? And why did her mother betray her so badly?
• Betrayal (2023) – Eve should never have married Don Hathaway. Yes, he gave her two beautiful children – Olly and Tabitha – but he is a bully. Worse than that, he hurts her. But, after one drunken rage too many, she has the courage to leave him. Eve is warned that it’s a difficult path, yet she needs to give her children hope for the future. Don, however, is bitter. And getting away entirely from him proves impossible. Until the day, Eve tries to teach him a lesson – and it all goes horribly wrong. Eve loves her children but now she carries a terrible burden that she dares not share. Has she betrayed her and her children’s futures?

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If you like the Lesley Pearse reading order, you may also want to see our Lucinda Riley reading order or our guide to Dilly Court’s series. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.