Böcker av Karen Woods

Even a locked door can't keep some secrets inside...

All families have secrets. Some protect. Others destroy.

How far would you go to get the life you want?

Prison walls are no match for a mother's love...

People can buy your silence, but not your loyalty...

Betrayal, family loyalties, secrets: not all gangsters live in the east end.Two families run this part of Manchester: the Johnsons and the Bennetts. With the head of the Johnson family banged up, the Bennetts have made their move. But power comes at a price...Now Charlie Johnson is out of prison and he wants his empire back. But the Bennetts have had a taste of the money and the control. Charlie's sons want to strike now and destroy their rivals but Charlie wants to wait. He has a personal score to settle.Charlie's wife Janey hates that her controlling husband is home from prison and is hatching a plan to leave him, but she knows he won't let her go easily - not with the secrets she carries. She needs allies - and through her daughter and her passionate affairs, she may have found the way out she needs.But for all of them, getting what they want will mean risking everything.

Lust, power, revenge: the gripping new gangland thriller from Karen Woods - the writer to show you the dark side of Manchester. Two women - one too innocent, one who knows too much. They have secrets, but none as lethal as those they uncover when they get caught up in turf wars between two strip club owners on the back streets of Manchester. Elsa Bradshaw is 18. Despite a tough start - never knowing her father, and barely seeing her mother who'd rather be chasing men - she's grown up with her grandmother's values and a desire to build a better life. But will falling for local bad boy, Clayton, change all that? Pamela Maylett seems to have everything - as wife of local lap-dancing club owner, Jordan, she's got money, influence and plenty of life's little luxuries. But is her beautiful home also her prison? She knows her husband is surrounded by women at work - after all, she was dancing when she met him. But Jordan won't let his wife back on the stage and Pamela misses the lights, the lust and the power. When Elsa crosses paths with Pamela, she is grateful to be taken under her wing, and shown a world she never realised was out there. Elsa has a lot to learn - about the clubs, about what she wants, and most importantly, what she'll do to get it. As the men that own the local clubs start a turf war, it's time for the women to step up...

From the backstreets of Manchester comes a new pulse-pounding gangland saga.You've got to fight for everything when you start with nothingSusan Knight has a good life. So she turns a blind eye to the gambling winnings her husband Donny puts through the books at her salon. After all, he needs some way to unwind. At work, he is headteacher at Second Chance, an alternative provision school for kids who have nowhere else to go.Being the headteacher gives Donny respect, money, and charm. But respect can be lost, money can be stolen and charm can only go so far.The kids at the school all have a story to tell - as do the staff. Drugs, debt, violence and threat are part of their everyday lives. Donny's got this far by never playing by the rules. But to keep winning, you have to keep chancing it all. To stay at the top means risking everything.Susan knows Donny walks a fine line - but if he stumbles too far on the wrong side of the tracks can she stand by him? And for Donny, if he loses Susan, he knows he might be pulled back into the life that's been waiting for him all this time...

This is a general introduction for artists and makers looking toincorporate textiles and textiles techniques into their work.

What would you do if you woke up one morning and learned you had lived for five years with a serial rapist/killer? How would you react especially when you knew he had been your stepfather?In this true story of Karen Woods, a fifty-something-year-old woman, you will learn how she reacted to that knowledge. When she was eight years old, her birth mother met and married Willie Roy Jenkins, a man who in 2013 was tried and convicted of committing the thirty-five-year-old Texas cold case rape and murder of a young woman. Enduring emotional and physical abuse from both, it so traumatized Karen that she suppressed that reality for over thirty-five years. Testifying at Willie's sentencing trial brought it all out into the open, plunging her into a raging depression that became full blown PTSD when she learned of his other victims.In this candid account of her life, she shares her sometimes rocky journey of healing given by the love of God. Karen tells her story in the hope that others suffering trauma will also find healing through God's love. Because with Him, all things are possible.

While Mikey Milne is locked up, his shoplifter mother Rachel is forced to fend for herself. Her life is soon in danger when menacing local gangster Davo finds out that Mikey ripped him off for £10,000 and gives her 48 hours to pay up. Mikey's girlfriend Sarah is from a nicer part of town; as green as grass, she does not seem to realise the extent of her boyfriend's involvement with local gangsters or that her well-connected family have threatened to have him bumped off if he ever goes near her again. She's smitten with him and hopes he can change... In Karen Woods 15th novel, prison walls can't keep the outside world at bay forever as dark family secrets come back to haunt fearless Mikey Milne.

Sandra Partington has led a dog's life. Abused by her husband and humiliated by her sister, she finds the strength to take revenge on both with spectacular consequences. In her fifth novel, Karen Woods deals with issues as diverse as domestic violence and celebrity culture in a way which will make you laugh and cry.

As heroin addict Shaun Cook lies comatose in hospital following a suicide attempt, his family come to terms with his life and their part in his downfall. At turns funny and heart-breaking, Karen Woods'' fourth novel sees her return to familiar territory to craft an indictment of modern society that will make you laugh and cry.

With evil Gordon locked up in Strangeways for 5 years, the characters from Karen Woods' debut novel 'Broken Youth' come to terms with life without him. Misty, now married to Dominic, gives birth to Gordon's child, Charlotte. Her former best friend Francesca also gives birth to one of Gordon's children, Rico, while staying with Gordon's heroin addicted brother Tom. Meanwhile, as the clock ticks down on his sentence, Gordon broods on the injustice of his situation and plots sweet revenge on those on the outside.