This isn't the worst John Marrs book I've read, but it's definitely not my favourite. I think I tend to prefer his sci-fi thrillers more than his psychological ones.

And I understand stories revolving around dysfunctional and crazy families are meant to have shock factor. The reader should be yelling ‘What the heck?!’ throughout the book - that is a sign of an engaging story. But I think this took it one too many ‘shocks’ too far. It's just…. convenient? I don't know how else to describe it. It's as if JM was throwing in everything he could think of to give the story multiple twists and turns and it was just too much. Sometimes less is more, you know? There was too much for me to even consider this story realistic and then I'm completely taken out of the moment and it no longer becomes a thriller because it is no longer believable.

But I will say the writing style and flow is very nice. It's so easy to quickly devour the story, which I did, even though I didn't love it.

Wow! This quickly made it into my top thrillers of all time! Crazy, creepy codependency. Such a suspenseful book. There were so many twists and surprises from the get go of this book, not just towards the end like most thrillers. Both of the main characters were unreliable and crazy. Such a twisted story. Highly recommend!

This is the first time that I am reading a book by John Marrs and if this is the way heweaves his stories. I would be reading all of his previous works soon

The title is beautiful, very apt and is just about that.......Nina and Maggie.....Nina is the daughter who has locked up her mother in her house and initially we get to know that all's not well between both. Why?

This book gave me the feeling of solving a jig saw puzzle but the only difference is that initially all pieces seem incompatible and till you reach the middle of the story that I just couldn't see what's happening. The story progresses amidst all excitement.

The story gets narrated in two POVs and goes between past and present. Initially till half the story .....it was so difficult to take sides. I was oscillating between both of them

This has been one tumultuous ride with lots of questions in my head and some of which didn't get answered even till the end but the pace of the story doesn't let you have one dull moment.

This is one psychological thriller that I would recommend you to read if you like this genre to enjoy a dark thrilling story. Through this journey I also got to learn how twisted relationship could get if there is no transparency, communication or honesty between the two people.

If you are craving for a pacy read that will play with your mind then pick this one up.

I requested an eARC of the book in Netgalley and am so happy to have been approved by the publishers. All opinions are mine alone.

I started this book on Mother’s day which was so surreal, reading about a very complicated relationship between two deeply flawed people who just happen to be mother and daughter. I don’t normally like to compare books, but this was everything I had hoped Darling Rose Gold, and to a lesser extent, Behind Closed Doors, would be.

It spans two different timelines that are slowly unfolding, each with two different perspectives, mother Maggie and daughter Nina. In the present, Maggie is living in the attic of their home, not allowed to travel more than a floor from her bedroom. 20+ years in the past, Maggie is dealing with her troubled daughter and doing everything she can to protect her... but did she go too far?

There are endless secrets and twists and turns and I changed my mind on who was more awful after every one. Ultimately, they’re two terrible people who I kept wanting to get to know more and that’s what Marrs has done so well.

4.4⭐️

Whoa! That was an awesome roller coaster!! John Marrs does it again!

Maggie hasn't been the best mom so Nina is determined to punish her now that's she's older. Her mom ruined her entire childhood by being a bad wife and making her daddy go away so now she must suffer!

This book goes back and forth between Maggie's POV and Nina's POV. The two remember things back to 24 years prior. Their own versions of each memory and the reasons they did what they did both blaming one another.

Whose the crazy one though? Both have kept secrets and done evil things. Was it jealousy or done out of love?

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer Publishing for the chance to read one of my favorite authors in exchange for my opinion.

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on shoes." Charles Spurgeon

It was clear from the prologue that this was going to be another gorgeously written book by John Marrs and an easy five stars. I was so engrossed in reading this crazy, unpredictable thriller that I didn’t notice the time, read through the night, and the birds were singing as I finished.

Nina and her mother Maggie live together in the house she grew up in. But no one else knows that. Everybody else believes Maggie moved away after getting ill two years ago, which is when Nina attached a chain to her ankle and imprisoned her in her bedroom to punish her for what she did. But nothing is as it seems and Nina has no clue that there are sinister secrets lurking behind her mother’s actions. Maggie would rather die than allow her to find out the truth; which just might happen as their game of cat and mouse gets out of control...

This book is quite simply a masterpiece. I inhaled and inhabited it; the outside world disappearing away around me. Fast-paced, deftly plotted, intricate and layered, this is storytelling at its best. I’ve been a fan of John Marrs since reading his first book, The One, and, to be honest, I didn’t think he could top that for me. But he knocked me for six with this one. I read a lot of thrillers, many of them dark, warped and twisty. But in all my years of reading I think this has to be one of the most dark, warped and twisty of them all. I’m kind of scared of him after reading this.

Nina and Maggie are memorable, richly drawn, complex and flawed characters. The both play victim and villain and it is never clear who is who in their crazy, twisted games. It is a testament to the author’s talent and nuanced writing that I found myself still having empathy and understanding even when they did the most despicable things. Neither of them is particularly likeable, but they are compelling and I vacillated between compassion and loathing towards them throughout the book.

Reading this takes you on one hell of a ride. Each time I thought I had it figured out everything I thought I knew would be turned on its head and there were so many twists and turns that I got book whiplash.

What Lies Between Us has shot to the top spot of my favourite thriller this year and is now my favourite book by this author. I just hope this is picked up for adaptation like my previous favourite, The One, which I’m excited to see on Netflix soon.

READ. THIS. BOOK.

What Lies Between Us starts off with the creepy vibes pretty immediately. As the book volleys from Maggie's to Nina's POV and across time periods from the present to 25 years and then 2 years earlier, the revelations keep coming, leaving you with more and more questions and a greater sense of foreboding. Even when you start getting a picture of what might have gone on, and how disturbing the reality is, the twists don't stop. This was an absolutely unique thriller that kept me increasingly disturbed from the first page to the last!

This book was so amazing. The twists and turns were not to be expected, i dont think i guessed a single twist that came like I usually can with mystery thrillers. The plot and concept of this book was so interesting and captivating. I seriously have no words. This book is so enjoyable!

Oh my goodness yet again this author has delivered another brilliant thriller with What Lies Between Us. So very dark, with two characters who behave in the most horrifying ways, I don’t think I’ve read anything this year so far that had me literally gasping out loud with shock.
The mother and daughter relationship is imagined on a whole other level in this psychological thriller with daughter Nina holding her mother Maggie captive in the attic of their house. In the opening paragraphs with Maggie’s descriptions of the street view outside her window I thought maybe she was going to be a character who perhaps witnessed some terrible crime, confined by old age/disability in this one room. So I was completely aghast when I learned of her exact predicament. The kind of human behaviour that Nina is capable of is depraved and so very very wrong but the author manages to draw you into their world with such ease that I was both gripped ,horrified and saddened at the lives these two women were leading. I just felt compelled to keep reading regardless of what was going on around me since this author expertly leaves the reader with cliffhangers at every opportunity making it virtually impossible to put down. Never has the phrase ‘just one more chapter’ been so pertinent.
What I love about his style of writing is the way he cleverly fools you into only seeing and taking things at face value whilst at the same time you know full well there will be plenty of lies and secrets buried deep beneath the outer layers of both Nina and Maggie’s characters. It’s interesting how initially my sympathies and loyalties lie with an ageing woman who is being kept prisoner in her own home, a perfectly innocuous character and my curiosity was piqued from the beginning,wanting to understand the reasons for her imprisonment. The sickening details of Maggie’s confinement transported me to her shrunken, miserable world unable to imagine events that have led her to this point in time. However as the storyline develops its apparent that both characters are hiding behind well constructed facades and with my allegiance constantly switching between the two women I felt like I was in the middle of a lengthy struggle for power. It never ceases to amaze me how well some writers manage to create individuals to showcase the very worst of human behaviour and the author has come up with the goods in the guise of Nina and Maggie. The question of whether or not you need to like a character/s to engage with the storyline is easily answered here; NO!! The extent to which a person will act, with behaviours they will justify in the name of love is simply astounding and I couldn’t decide which character I detested more. The balance of scales kept tipping with every new twist in the tale which came at regular intervals keeping me transfixed to the pages. Love, hate, revenge and power are all wrapped up together with so many lies and secrets in this elaborate game of cat and mouse, where the stakes are incredibly high but will there be a winner??
Simply told from both Maggie and Nina’s perspective with a timeline alternating between past and present, I did think some of the revelations were thinly disguised,making it not impossible to predict the direction the storyline was taking. Ordinarily I would find myself disappointed at the ease with which I was in line with the author’s thinking but not in this case. Ultimately I just wanted to understand what motivated both Nina and Maggie to behave in the ways they did.
John Marrs is one of my favourite go to authors, so confident am I in his ability to imagine fictional characters and scenarios that will keep me turning the pages and What Lies Between Us didn’t disappoint. Completely different from his previous novel The Passengers (which I still rave about) this takes the ordinary mother/daughter relationship and turns it inside out, upside down and twists it until you have two very damaged individuals trapped in a grotesque power struggle. A struggle that is fuelled by love turned sour and a need to protect whilst further ignited by a need for control and revenge. BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT.
If you haven’t discovered this author yet then what are you waiting for???
My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read.

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced copy.

Wow I dont know what to say! This book was absolutely brilliant! I *shamefully* have to say I have never read anything by this author before, but this wont be the last book!
There are 2 narrators of the book and at the beginning I really felt for one of them and couldn't believe how awful the other was, but throughout the whole book my views changed and went vice versa so many times I couldn't work out who I was routing for!!
I love the way it was written and could totally emphasise with both characters.
A few of the revelations you could see coming, wasnt a suspense thriller as such but this just made me want to continue reading to find out the consequences of what was happening! I finished it late at night because I couldn't put it down until I found out how it ended!
It made me feel sad and upset but also angry at the way it all had to turn out for them!
I was addicted to reading this book and would definitely recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley, publisher and author for a copy of of this book.

It's been a while since I've read a book that has gripped me so tightly and wouldn't let me go. The storyline was fast paced and captivating. The writing was wonderful!
What do you get when you mix co-depency, psychosis, and a mother's love? A five star read.I found myself on the characters side one chapter, and against them the next. Just when I thought I had it figured out, we'd get a new detail that had me rethink everything. This book kept on own my toes and I loved it!

Highly recommend!

I seem to be picking up a lot of dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship books!?!? I have no idea what that means, ha!

I liked this one a lot, definitely what I would call a psychological thriller. There were plenty of twists and the way the timeline is written makes sure they get revealed one at a time, letting the reader in on little pieces of the puzzle as you start to put together this very dysfunctional duo. I stayed fairly entertained the whole way through. My only criticisms was it was a bit long and with less internal dialogue and rehashed remorse for mistakes of the past could have been slightly more concise to keep me on edge the whole time, but, enjoyable overall. It begs the question "does mother truly know best?" and makes you wonder about the phrase, "I did it for your own good."

“What Lies Between Us”—John Marrs [5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️] Holy damn, what did I just read! This book was seriously sooo good and addicting and I legit couldn’t put it down. This was the first book I’ve read by this author, and now after this I’m excited to read more from him. This was quite the suspenseful page turner filled with many complexities throughout the plot to include the twisted relationship between a mother, Maggie, and her daughter Nina. Maggie is being held prisoner in the house that her and Nina share and there’s no chance of escape. What’s the reasoning behind such hatred to keep her own mother locked up as a prisoner? The story alternates between Maggie and Nina’s point of view going back 25 years ago and in between to present times. This book continued to keep me on my toes , shocking me as more secrets kept getting revealed while having me question who was the more cruel person and who I felt sorry for. This story was filled with mystery and intrigue, along with just enough twists and turns and I highly recommend it if you’re a fan of an awesome psychological thriller 👍🏼 *Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review*

Wow!! What a book to choose to read right after Mother’s Day 🤣🤣 This mother/daughter relationship was so twisted! They basically hate each other but are also very co-dependent. I really enjoyed how it was from both their perspectives within the past and present. It was fun trying to guess what lead to Nina’s decision to lock up her mom. I really had the hardest time trying to piece together who was the worst person between the two. I loved how there were all these shocking little details right up until the end. It was just fantastic!

Thank you Thomas & Mercer Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. What did I just read?! Weird timing reading this book about a woman stuck- literally CHAINED in her house, while we are all in quarantine ourselves. But John Marrs does it again. I think out of all of the crazy messed up books I've read (which is a lot) this book wins for most DYSFUNCTIONAL family dynamics ever. As someone who is basically best friends with their mom, this was quite a trip. It also makes me scared to have children. Holy hell. I like that it is told from both perspectives, both present time and in the early years. Highly recommend.

I struggled so hard with what to rate this book.

I never guess the plot twists in any book, and I mean never. That being said, I guessed several of the twists in this one. And somehow... I couldn't put it down. Ultimately, if I'm able to tear through a book in a 24 hour period, I can't in good conscience give it less than 4 stars. A very dark, intense story overall! Many thanks to NetGalley for the advanced download.

I am still thinking about how messed up this book was. It had a very slow build and then things got dark and interesting very quickly. I was horrified, but I just couldn’t stop reading! The mother-daughter relationship in this novel was complicated, Nina was punishing Maggie for something that she did and the reader needs to figure out what that is. I was interested in the reasoning behind Nina and Maggie’s behaviours.Nothing is as it seems with books written by Marrs. You think you know what happened, but then at the end of the book you’re left questioning everything that you thought you know.

This was my first John Marrs novel and I went into it completely blind. Let me tell you, this was a whacky one! There were so many “jaw dropping” surprises for me that I did not anticipate. The relationship between the mother and daughter in this book was so disturbing on one hand and on the other represented that all consuming love mothers can have for their children.

I would highly suggest that you do not even read the synopsis and just keep everything about this story a complete surprise. Just pick it up and read it ok?!

This book releases on Friday, May 15th and will be available on Kindle Unlimited.

Big thank you to NetGalley, John Marrs, and Amazon Publishing UK for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

How far would you go to protect your family if you knew it was the right thing to do? How far would you go to punish someone if you knew it was the right thing to do?

In What Lies Between Us, John Marrs gives us a mother and a daughter who are willing to push the limits of right and wrong.

"Maggie sits down for dinner with her daughter, Nina. They talk about Nina's colleagues and her job at the library. After dinner they go upstairs to Maggie's attic room where Nina chains her to a bolt in the floor. And Maggie stays there until Nina comes back - maybe tomorrow - maybe the next day. Why is Maggie chained up? What happened between the mother and daughter?"

The story shifts points-of-view between Nina and Maggie and also moves from the present to the past to give us the story of why Maggie is chained up. We see just how disturbed Nina is and the crazy logic they both use to make the "right" decision. This is a good book for those who like messed-up characters. (Nina likes to steal books from the library so her Mum will have something to read during the day - books like Room and Flowers in the Attic) Tough ending. and you'll look twice at your neighbor's flower beds.

Book has excellent pace. You may guess at some of the things that happened but Marrs will surprise you with others.

Only thing I did not like were the handful of cliches. Authors should use their own words and not fall victim to trite expressions. It's not rampant, just occasionally annoying.

Excellent book from Marrs - great addition to your summer quarantine reading list.

What a dark and crazy thriller!
This is a psychological domestic thriller about a mother and daughter relationship. This book is about some really messed up characters, a lot of trigger warnings, and dual timelines floating from present to past.
I really loved how twisty and thrilling this book was, and loved how many of the chapters ended on a cliff hanger. I feel like when thrillers are written this way, it keeps the reader engaged, and I flew through this book in the span of two days.
The reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because I found some of the story line unbelievable/unrealistic, yet it was original. The ending was a bit ambiguous, which I prefer in thrillers, but I felt like it just didn't have the "oof" I wanted at the end, so I felt a bit unsatisfied. I do not even know my feelings towards the characters (except for obviously knowing they are all extremely unhinged), and so I felt like maybe we could have had a bit more of a tidy ending, or at least one final reveal to leave you pondering about who the crazy person is?
This is definitely a thriller I'll be recommending, although I do feel like it will only pertain to a certain audience (super dark, trigger warnings, a bit unrealistic etc).
Also, I was rooting for Maggie the whole time.