Claire Allan Books in Order
Find Claire Allan books in order, with standalone thriller and women’s fiction summaries, publication order, author background, and where to start.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
18 books
Rainy Days & Tuesdays
by Claire Allan
2007
Grace loves her son Jack, but motherhood has left her feeling lost and unlike herself. When her magazine chooses her for a public makeover, she must face her marriage, confidence, and happiness.
Feels Like Maybe
by Claire Allan
2008
Aoife is pregnant by singer Jake, who promptly disappears from her life. Back in Derry with baby Maggie, she faces family pressure while her best friend Beth quietly struggles to conceive.
Jumping in Puddles
by Claire Allan
2009
Detta O’Neill returns to Rathinch, Donegal, determined to help four lone parents build a support group. Niamh, Ruth, Liam, and Ciara each arrive with grief, secrets, and a need to start again.
It's Got to be Perfect
by Claire Allan
2010
Annie Delaney has a scrapbook full of dream weddings, dream homes, and dream men, but her real life is far messier. As relationships around her wobble, she questions whether perfect love exists at all.
If Only You Knew
by Claire Allan
2012
Cousins Ava and Hope are thrown together after their Aunt Betty dies in France. In Saint Jeannet, Betty’s letters reveal old heartbreak, hard-won peace, and truths the two women need in their own lives.
What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?
by Claire Allan
2012
Bridal shop owner Kitty is reeling after her husband disappears, while journalist Erin is planning a wedding with a fiancé battling cancer. Their lives collide among gowns, deadlines, secrets, and broken hearts.
The First Time I Said Goodbye
by Claire Allan
2013
In 1959 Derry, Stella Hegarty falls for Ray, a US marine, and dreams of a new life in America. Decades later, her daughter Annabel travels with her to Ireland and uncovers a long-buried love story.
Still You
by Claire Allan
2015
In 1963, Áine Quigley’s life shifts when her sister Charlotte returns to Temple Muse from Italy. Years later, as dementia threatens her memories, Áine looks back with help from her carer Georgina.
Her Name Was Rose
by Claire Allan
2018
Emily watches Rose die after letting her step ahead into traffic, then becomes obsessed with the life Rose left behind. As Emily edges closer to Rose’s family and job, the perfect picture starts to crack.
Apple of My Eye
by Claire Allan
2019
Seven months pregnant, nurse Eliana Hughes receives a note that makes her doubt her marriage and herself. As the threat grows, another woman watches from the shadows, desperate for a baby of her own.
Forget Me Not
by Claire Allan
2019
Elizabeth O’Loughlin finds Clare dying from a knife attack during an early-morning dog walk. Clare’s last words pull Elizabeth into a killer’s path, and it soon becomes clear the murderer is not finished.
The Liar’s Daughter
by Claire Allan
2020
When Joe McKee dies, Derry mourns a respected local man. His daughter Ciara and stepdaughter Heidi know another version of him, and when police question his death, old lies become possible motives.
Ask No Questions
by Claire Allan
2021
Twenty-five years after eight-year-old Kelly Doherty vanished on Halloween in Derry, journalist Ingrid Devlin reopens the case. The deeper she digs, the more dangerous the Doherty family’s secrets become.
The Nurse
by Claire Allan
2022
Nell Sweeney’s walk to the hospital seems ordinary until someone who has been watching her decides to act. Her disappearance exposes a threat aimed at women like her, and time is running out.
In the Dark
by Claire Allan
2023
Seven years after Nora Logue walked into the woods with her daughter Daisy and came out alone, she still has no memory of what happened. A chance to learn the truth may now put her son Luca in danger.
The Affair
by Claire Allan
2024
Sorcha rebuilds after her husband’s affair by supporting other betrayed women. When she welcomes lonely Tina into her home, friendship turns into a dangerous game, because one of them knows far too much.
People Don't Just Disappear
by Claire Allan
2025
When Bronagh follows a crying child from her doorstep, she vanishes. Her boyfriend Mal comes home to an empty house in Derry, and the longer she is missing, the more frightening the truth becomes.
The Perfect Mother
by Claire Allan
2025
Doula Mel flees to remote Derry after client Alice blames her for a birth tragedy and destroys her reputation. Pregnant again, Mel discovers Alice has found her, and the threats are closing in.
Where should I start?
For the psychological thrillers: Her Name Was Rose → Apple of My Eye → Forget Me Not → The Liar’s Daughter.
For Derry-set crime and missing-person suspense: Ask No Questions → The Nurse → In the Dark → People Don't Just Disappear.
For domestic secrets and motherhood fears: The Affair → The Perfect Mother.
For earlier women’s fiction: Rainy Days & Tuesdays → Feels Like Maybe → Jumping in Puddles → It's Got to be Perfect.
For emotional family drama: The First Time I Said Goodbye → Still You.
Author bio
Claire Allan was born and raised in Derry, Northern Ireland, and the city has never been just scenery for her work. It gave her first a newsroom, then a set of streets, families, rumors, and hard questions that kept finding their way into her fiction.
She got an early taste of journalism when she went to the Derry Journal for work experience at sixteen. Years later, she joined the paper as a reporter at twenty-three, covering the everyday life of the city alongside court cases, grief, politics, and the kind of human stories that don't leave you quickly.
A colleague, editor and friend, Siobhan McEleney, also gave her a nudge toward fiction. After McEleney's death in 2005, Allan has said the loss sharpened the thought that chances should be taken, not postponed. Her first novel, Rainy Days & Tuesdays, followed in 2007.
That book came from close-to-home territory, motherhood, work, body image, and postnatal depression. Her early novels, including Feels Like Maybe, Jumping in Puddles, and The First Time I Said Goodbye, stayed with ordinary people under pressure. They are warm in places, but they don't pretend family life is tidy.
Then she changed lanes.
In 2016, just before her fortieth birthday, Allan left the newsroom and moved into writing full time. After eight women's fiction novels, she turned toward darker material with Her Name Was Rose, a psychological thriller about guilt, envy, and the dangerous pull of someone else's apparently perfect life. The switch worked, and it set the shape for much of what came next.
Her thrillers often start with one sharp, everyday fear: a woman killed in front of a witness, a nurse who vanishes on her walk home, a child who goes missing in the woods, a mother who believes her baby is being threatened. Apple of My Eye, Ask No Questions, The Nurse, and In the Dark all use that plain question, what if this happened to me or someone I loved?
Derry still matters.
Allan's background as a reporter shows in the local detail, the interest in secrets hidden by respectable families, and the way public stories can rub against private shame. She writes about women, danger, grief, motherhood, obsession, and the messy stories people tell to survive.
She still lives in Derry with her family, and she also writes women's fiction under the name Freya Kennedy. It makes sense, really. Whether the book is lighter or darker, Allan keeps coming back to people trying to rebuild a life after the thing they didn't see coming.
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