Armchair Thriller

On the commute home one evening, Antony Skipling picks up a cassette tape left behind by a strange man. What he hears on it will change his life forever.

Convinced there is a plot to kill him, Skipling goes to the police, who dismiss him as a crank. He then turns to a counseling service and reconnects with Susie, a female "befriender" that the service assigned to him years ago.

Skipling suspects that his ex-wife and the new man in her life have planned his murder. He confides in Susie, the only person who sympathizes--and whose friendship turns more intimate by the day.

With time running out, Skipling becomes increasingly desperate. And on the morning of February 28, while waiting on the platform for his train, he encounters the man he believes has come to kill him.

After a bout of heavy drinking, Mark Omney cannot account for his movements over the last 12 hours. When he sobers up, he learns that his wife Clare, has had a car accident.

Omney suspects that Clare is being held against her will at Meadowbank Clinic. Or has she finally left him, sick of his drunken and aggressive behavior?

For help, Omney turns to Annabelle Fraser, his old girlfriend. He is convinced that a conspiracy is afoot--and that Clare is sending him covert messages.

Omney attends the funeral of one of the clinic's former residents, suspecting his wife's body lies inside the coffin. Later that night, he and Annabelle return to find out for themselves.

The police catch Omney red-handed, and a deadly attack leaves him with only one way out.

Omney turns up the heat on Meadowbank, which is forced into the most desperate of measures.

Freckle-faced and bespectacled, 10-year-old Rachel travels from Scotland to London to visit her father. She hasn't seen him in the eight years since her parents divorced--and has no idea that the man who collects her at the train station is an imposter.

Rachel meets her supposed stepmother--in reality, another member of a terrorist group with plans for the upcoming Royal Garden Party at the palace. The conspirators are divided over whether to dispose of Rachel or use her as a front.

One of the team gets cold feet about killing a kid. Left to her own devices, Rachel tries to get a message to the police. She seizes her chance on a shopping outing for the next day's royal event.

Too late, the police uncover the plot against the palace. Rachel's "father" has his target in his sights, while her "stepmother" has her hands on the girl's throat. Unable to rely on the adults in her world, Rachel must find a way to save herself.

When kidnappers abduct his teenage daughter, Sue, industrialist Vincent Craig could easily raise the ransom money. But Craig intends to do things his own way.

Craig believes he knows who is behind the kidnapping--and that the motives are personal, not financial. Shaking off the police, he heads to the town of Hepton to begin his search.

Enlisting the help of a local crime reporter, Craig tracks down a disgruntled ex-employee named George Neecham.

While Craig's desperation mounts, Sue becomes increasingly comfortable with her kidnappers--especially with a young man named Frankie.

Detectives trace Craig to Hepton, but he has moved on to the abandoned factory where his daughter is being held.

Craig confronts his daughter's captor, but Sue--very much her father's daughter--does the unexpected.