When justice collides with the past, the truth becomes the most dangerous weapon of all.
In Kiss and Tell, acclaimed TV drama scriptwriter T.J. Cooke delivers a gripping and emotionally charged crime thriller that redefines the genre. This isn’t your typical detective story — there are no cynical cops or formulaic serial killers. Instead, we meet Jill Shadow, a criminal lawyer whose life and career are built on determination, resilience, and secrets she can no longer outrun.
Jill isn’t the polished, privileged lawyer you’re used to. Raised in a tough London estate, she’s a self-made woman who clawed her way from secretary to top criminal defense attorney while raising her daughter, Hannah, alone. Every victory came at a cost — exhaustion, compromise, and a carefully buried past that could destroy everything she’s built.
That past takes shape in the form of Jimmy Briscoe, Jill’s ex-boyfriend and Hannah’s father, a charming but reckless man who once dealt drugs on a massive scale. When Jill was eighteen, Jimmy’s arrest shattered her world, forcing her to raise their baby alone. Twelve years later, Jimmy is out of prison — and back in her life, bringing with him the ghosts she thought she’d buried for good.
But Jill has no time for personal drama. Her latest client, Bella Kiss, a mysterious Hungarian woman caught at Heathrow with a kilo of heroin strapped to her body, insists she was framed while working as an informant for the police. When that very detective turns up dead and Jill begins receiving threats from a shadowy figure known only as “the suited man,” she’s pulled into a conspiracy that blurs the line between crime and corruption, loyalty and betrayal.
As Jill navigates a labyrinth of drug cartels, money laundering, and murder, she discovers that Jimmy may be entangled in Bella’s case — and that his offer to help might be more dangerous than his silence. Is he seeking redemption, or revenge?
“Kiss and Tell” is more than a thriller — it’s a deeply human story about secrets, survival, and the fine line between guilt and justice. T.J. Cooke’s sharp, emotionally intelligent writing immerses readers in the moral complexities of modern crime and the personal cost of truth.
Praised by readers as “a crime thriller with soul” and “an addictive, one-sitting read”, this novel grips you from the first page and doesn’t let go. With its cinematic pacing, psychological depth, and unflinching realism, Kiss and Tell will appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn, Tana French, and Lisa Jewell — authors who understand that the most dangerous secrets are often the ones closest to home.