The Couple in the Photo (Book Ends)

A LibraryReads Pick

Be careful who you sleep with...They've already made their bed.

Lucy and her husband, Adam, have been best friends with another couple, Cora and Scott, for years. The four are practically family—they vacation together, co-own a beach cottage, and their children are inseparable. So Lucy is devastated when, while looking at a colleague’s photos of a trip to the Maldives, she spots a picture of Scott, apparently on vacation with another woman.

Then she learns that the woman in the photo has gone missing. Lucy can’t help but fear that Scott was involved. But searching for answers might uncover secrets about Scott, Cora, and even her own husband that could destroy the picture-perfect lives they have built together. Or maybe she was never part of the picture at all. Is it possible everyone knows more than they are letting on? If so, what are the consequences of exposing the truth?

Helen Cooper is the author of The Other Guest and The Downstairs Neighbor. She is from Derby and has a MA in Creative Writing and a background in teaching English and Academic Writing. Her creative writing has been published in Mslexia and Writers' Forum; she was shortlisted in the Bath Short Story Prize in 2014, and came third in the Leicester Writes Short Story Prize 2018.