I don't usually enjoy thrillers written in the first person, but in this book it worked remarkably well. Getting inside the head of the victims and suspects was the only way to use flashbacks and emotional turmoil to best effect. This is one book where the suspects could not tell anyone what their true thoughts and feelings were, especially not to the police.
As a result, every character in the book felt well-developed with interesting backstories, including the police officers.
Placing the crime in the small town location was a master stroke - the killer knew the police and their strengths and weakness way ahead of planning the crime.
The gripping opening chapter will get you hooked and even if the pace slackens off in the middle which is bound to happen when there are 80 short chapters, the turning points and reveals make sense and are logical.
I didn't work it out until almost half way through the book!
Recommended.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. This was a great read for a new author for me. I really liked the characters in this book and shall certainly be looking out for other books from this author.

Adams wife Sophie disappears. Did she run off? Was she taken? Was her life picture perfect like everyone believes? Is she even alive? This story is well written and each chapter jumps narrators to keep you guessing and not give too much away!

Unconvincingly written and disappointingly “one-note”, Lying Next to Me has such a promising blurb – but for me, it failed to deliver. Initially, I wondered if Gregg Olsen was inspired by the case of Heather Teague, who went missing over twenty years ago in Kentucky. A witness with a telescope saw Heather, who was sunbathing by the side of a lake, approached by a man who dragged her into the woods at gunpoint. To this day, there have been no signs of her whereabouts. All that was left of her was a small scrap of her bathing suit, discovered by investigators as they combed the scene.

It’s a case that has always haunted me.

This novel will not. It’s certainly readable, and it starts with a bang. Adam and Sophie Warner and their three-year-old daughter are on holiday. While out crab fishing with his little girl, Adam sees his wife abducted on the shore. Though he rows back with everything in him, by the time he returns, there’s no sign of her – and the search begins.

Right from the get-go, it’s clear there’s more to Adam than there seems. He’s not acting like you’d “expect” and even in his inner thoughts, there’s a veil over his feelings, as if he’s playing a role. Interestingly, Adam knows one of the two lead detectives on Sophie’s case.

Lee is the sister of Adam’s childhood best friend, and their history is a fraught one – tangled with an instance where Adam saved her life, in the most harrowing of circumstances.

There isn’t a likable character in this bunch. Adam is a hapless asshole, more interested in drinking whisky than parenting his child. Sophie’s parents are akin to caricatures – her father particularly is such a blustering blowhard that he”s impossible to swallow as a functioning human being. There is zero nuance to his character.

Even Lee is unsympathetic, due to the deeply stupid things she keeps doing. Her misguided crush on Adam seems more befitting of a 13-year-old girl than a police detective. It’s not endearing. I just wanted to shake her.

By the end, I didn’t care what happened to any of them. Even Sophie. While the “twist” is a good one, I couldn’t muster up anything but vague sympathy.

I think I might have appreciated it more if we’d had more time with her – or any time at all – she remained a mystery, and since the entire book is based around her disappearance, it’s weird that she’s a question mark. We’re meant to wonder what happened to her and why, and Olsen gives us nothing to go on.

While there were promising elements to this tale, for me, it didn’t quite get there, and I think it would have benefited from more time taken to flesh out the characters and make them more well rounded.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate it, as always!

Talk about your unreliable narrators! LYING NEXT TO ME is told through the eyes of several characters, none of which is telling the whole truth. Three families are staying a lakeside cabins when one morning, while Adam and his daughter Aubrey are our in the dingy, they witness Aubrey's mother being abducted be a strange man. what follows is a slow unraveling of what, how and who was involves in the abduction. Really excellent plotting and a great story. Definitely Olsen's best.

A couple needing an escape from their every day lives, and their rocky marriage, take a vacation with their three year old child. But on the first day of their vacation, Adam sees Sophie grabbed by a total stranger. Out on the water and too far away to help, he watches as his wife is kidnapped. Adam is terrified for his wife’s safety, but at least he knows the investigation is in good hands, with his old friend Lee Husemann leading the investigation. As Lee investigates the abduction, she wonders if there is any connection to the other couple vacationing in a nearby cottage. They claim to have no knowledge of the incident, but Lee wonders. A twisted tale that only goes to show that you never really know the people you trust the most

Another interesting read by Gregg Olsen. It had me hooked from the first chapter, the characters were all very complex and sadly, flawed. I am not one, who likes to read books with multiple points of view, that being said, I wish I had more insight to the wife, and her view of things. So many accusations were thrown around , it would have been nice to hear her side of the story. I believe it would have given more insight into how, the couple ended up in the place they were in the beginning of the story . It left me wondering if she was the least flawed of the group of characters .It left me wondering about people, and you never really truly know someone, and the problems (and personality disorders) they deal with.
I received a free arc of the book, in exchange for my honest opinion of the book.

In true Gregg Olsen fashion, Lying Next to Me twists and turns enough to cause whiplash. When Adam's wife Sophie disappears on vacation and is found deceased, you cannot help but be skeptical of all the witnesses. Lee, one of the main detectives, has known Adam since they were kids and would never believe he could hurt his wife after all he found her after she was abducted. His in-laws want his head on a platter but a witness clears him from the crime. But as the suspects keep crawling out of the woodwork, the truth becomes a well buried secret that will push the detective to her limits to uncover the real murderer. None of the characters are very sympathetic and all are worthy of being suspects. Even if you figure out the whodunnit, the story will still hit you like a bucket of ice water, shocking and unexpected. This book delivers what readers expect from Mr. Olsen and as always entertains. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

I love Gregg Olsen's novels and was excited to read this new one.
This is a clever multilayered mystery thriller which although doesn't have likable characters, yet has a strong gripping plot with engaging character development.
There are lots of twists and turns as the plot unfolds until the end which I didn't expect at all.

Thanks Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the "Read Now" option, I voluntarily reviewed this book.

“Getting away” has multiple meanings in this novel as Sophie disappears in front of Adam’s eyes. As the layers are peeled back artfully by the author, a very clever story comes to light. Character development is strong even if you don’t especially like them.

This book is suspenseful but in the mode of Gone Girl the characters are unlikable and it's difficult to care enough to read about them. Sophie and Adam and their toddler are vacationing when Adam suddenly comes back from the beach with his daughter "to find his wife being attacked and abducted". Kristin and Connor are another couple staying in a cabin nearby. What is the tie between Kristin/Connor and Sohie/Adam. Did the husband commit the attack and murder on his wife? There are no witnesses to Sophie's alleged attack and abduction except for an older partly blind slightly suffering from dementia neighbor. There are a few layers to get through the mystery which makes it interesting but as I mentioned I didn't care for Adam, Sophie, Kristin and Connor.

I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. It is my first book read by this author. I hope to read more books by this author.