I really I enjoyed this book by Jo Spain., Lots of unexpected twists which kept me engrossed..
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read it.

This thriller has a great opening chapter and equally satisfying last line, but the middle dragged quite a bit. Also, the premise is not as unique as I thought and left me feeling deliberately misled (which I’ll explain at the end below).

I found the story and whodunit quite predictable (there were quite a few hints, plus a lot of been there done that in other books), so nothing really shocked or surprised me. One chapter (Las Vegas) in particular came across as wacky and out of place.

Nevertheless, it was a fun read and some of the characters (especially the female lawyer) were pretty awesome.

⛔️⛔️ Spoilers below! ⛔️⛔️

The copy I read had the uncorrected cover blurb and synopsis i.e. ‘charged with HIS murder’. It’s just one word but makes all the difference as compared to the updated cover pictured here.

This drastically affected my expectations, reading experience and overall rating. This could have been a jaw-dropping and clever story, but all I felt after finishing it was that I had been deliberately misled with a non-factual and inaccurate blurb/synopsis/premise.

The Perfect Lie had me hooked from that very first draw dropping chapter and I found myself not being able to put it down until I finished it. The story is narrated across multiple timelines from the POV of Erin except for the Harvard timeline.

I really liked Erin but I felt like she was a bit naïve and way too trusting at times.
I enjoyed all of the characters and I liked that I didn’t know who I could trust because in my opinion it made it more intriguing.

This book has so many secrets, twists and turns it made my head spin. There were so many times where I thought that I knew what the big twist was but oh boy how very wrong I was. I had a lot of theories but that definitely wasn’t one of them. Jo Spain has done a fantastic job and I look forward to reading more of her books.

I recieved an advanced copy for free, and this is my honest opinion.

Erin wakes up one morning content with her life. She loves her husband and the life they have created in Long Island. Her marriage to Danny, a cop, started with a whirlwind romance but he is the perfect man for Erin. Then there's a knock at the door and Danny's partner is here to arrest him. Danny jumps to his death with his wife and colleages watching. One year later, Erin is on trial for her husband's murder and has learnt that Danny was not as perfect as he seems.

I am a bit conflicted in my thoughts about this book. I whizzed through the pages quickly and was immediately engaged in the plot - how on earth could Erin be on trial when everyone saw Danny commit suicide?
There's three time periods -two set in the past and one in the present .It was intriguing and satisfying to see how both timelines in the past were related and set events in motion. However, I really struggled with the chapters from the present time period. This was to the extent that at 75% of the way through I was still desperate for answers - not in excited anticipation of the ending but because I was so confused and irritated. I came up with several wild and wonderful theories because I don't feel enough hints or clues were hidden in the plot for the reader. Added to that the Erin was quite irritating as a character and my favourite characters were those in the background like Bud and Karla.

Having said that, I really enjoyed the last 25% of the book when all becomes clear and there are a series of clever and thought provoking twists, malice and tension.

I am glad I read the book but it's not one I'd urge people to prioritise it in their TBR piles.

Thank you to the author, Netgalley and Quercus for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Perfect Lie? More like the perfect thriller! 🤩

What I loved about this was how twisty it was. There was always an unknown surprise around the corner, and it made it - in parts - hard to put down. The writing was punchy, snappy and gut wrenching, which combined with the storyline made it felt very real.
I found myself reading faster and faster because of it, and that's always a sign I'm enjoying what I'm reading! 🙌🏻

About half way through I did wonder what was going to happen in the next 200 or so pages and what was going to be uncovered, but once it started to kick off (as all great thrillers do) the length was pushed from my mind.

If you want a great thrilling read, check out The Perfect Lie, which is out today! It's gripping, thrilling and will have you questioning how well you really know those around you...

Thank you #NetGalley and @quercusbooks for the honour of being able to read this. And thank you @jospainauthor for being a class act to interact with, and for this corker of a story.

I'll certainly be checking out the rest of her books!
💘

What an opening!! A strong and engaging voice, and a thriller to keep you guessing. I am definitely going to be looking for more by Jo Spain and shall be recommending as a summer read.

I loved this. Jo Spain writes THE BEST twisty psychological thrillers, the premise for this one is highly intriguing and the execution does not disappoint.

Plenty of witnesses to a suicide so why is Erin on trial for murder? Well of course nothing is straightforward here and you’ll soon be immersed in a labyrinthine plot that will keep you turning pages long into the night.

The quality of the writing and storytelling is superb as ever and the unpredictable sense of it is maintained throughout. Overall a most excellent read that I adored and will happily recommend.

Jo Spain's The Perfect Lie opens with a shocking image: after a romantic morning in bed, Erin's husband jumps to his death from their balcony. Right from the off, there are questions: Why did Danny's colleagues show up that morning? What could have been so bad that Danny had to jump out of a 4th-floor window right in front of his wife knowing exactly what watching him fall to his death would do to her? And when there were witnesses to his suicide, why is Erin being tried for murder?

I raced through this book in one night, constantly questioning every element of the story. I thought I had the twist figured out every few chapters and until I got to the midpoint, I was wrong every time. But even though I did work out the big twist early-ish, in no way did it spoil the reading experience. The intricate and beautifully crafted story reveals itself over three timelines, each of them gripping and suspenseful. The pace ratchets up to an exhilarating degree in the final third with plenty of reveals and twists until finally, the three timelines resolve into an immensely satisfying end.

An exhilarating, pacy psychological thriller that I'll be recommending for a long time.

The Perfect Lie is the latest domestic thriller from Jo Spain and asks: how well do you know your husband? An editor at a publishers in New York City, 32-year-old Erin Kennedy resides in the resort town of Newport, Suffolk County and is part of the seemingly tight-knit community on Long Island. She lives with her Homicide Detective husband of less than 2 years, 33-year-old Daniel "Danny" Ryan. Originally from Ireland, Erin emigrated to the US 5 years ago following a family tragedy that shattered her into tiny pieces. Erin awakes early on a Tuesday morning and stares at the clock. It's already 7:15 am and the fine July day does wonders to lure her out of bed. Suddenly there's a knock on the front door of their fourth-floor apartment. Danny is in the shower when the firm knock occurs and Erin opens the door to find her husband's Police colleagues gathered outside. She, of course, allows them inside to wait for Danny but they remain tight-lipped on why they were there. Danny finishes up in the bathroom and begins to stride into the living area when he realises his partner, Ben Mitchell, is there. Taking a swift glance and an even quicker flit, Danny walks to the french doors and jumps off their balcony committing suicide without a moment’s hesitation and hurtling to his inevitable death on the concrete below. Erin rapidly becomes inconsolable as the shock of what's just happened hits her and she asks herself how on earth she didn't see it coming. Why did he take his own life; he was happy or at least Erin thought he was. It's safe to say she is devastated at losing her soulmate.

To make matters worse she feels totally alone as those she can trust are all back home in Ireland and she has very few friends in The Big Apple. Erin finds it odd that the police haven't even bothered to check her welfare after the horrific experience especially when Danny was a cop and she thought cops looked out for one another and their families, sticking together through thick and thin. She becomes hellbent on finding out the truth and discovers that the unusually early knock that morning was to arrest Danny rather than to pick him up ready for his shift. But her digging isn't appreciated and 18 months later Erin finds herself on trial accused of murder. But how can she have murdered her husband when several witnesses saw him jump? Naturally, Erin is terrified but adamant to find out what her not-so-innocent husband was hiding from her. This is a compulsive, captivating and deviously twisty thriller with an interesting plot containing a mystery at its heart. It seamlessly switches between the 3 plot parts - The Lie, The Truth and The Whole Truth, and the 3 time periods: Then (July 2019), Now (December 2020) and Harvard (December 2016) and each strand combines to create a thoroughly engrossing and exciting read. What truly makes this scintillating, however, is Spain's masterful ability at keeping secrets under wraps and innately knowing when and what to reveal really create fireworks. Twisty, drama-filled, mysterious and entertaining with plenty going on to keep you riveted. Highly recommended.

As a big fan of Jo Spain, I was delighted to get my hands in this book, and I really enjoyed it.
I had to keep turning the pages as I couldn't work out what was going on, and I was coming up with some crazy ideas as to where the story was going. I love a book that really makes me over think the details.
I really liked Erin as a character, and really felt for her as the story progressed.
Well written and really enjoyable.

This thriller kept me guessing and a couple of times, even had me going back to previous chapters so I could be sure of what I’d read! Our heroine is Erin Kennedy, an Irish girl working in publishing in NYC and living with her husband of three years out on Long Island. She narrates her story across two timelines: one is the present and Erin is on trial for murdering her husband, and the other is a year earlier around the third anniversary of her marriage to Danny, a detective from Long Island. Our second narrator is a younger woman called Ally, a PhD student and proctor at Harvard University. My confusion arose from how these characters related to each other and the author is clearly a master of telling her readers just enough to keep us reading, but not enough to ruin the later revelations, twists and turns - and there are plenty of them!

The Erin from a year before is a very different person and early on in a shock scene, Erin and Danny are starting their day at their sea front apartment when his partner turns up at the door. Ben has two uniformed cops with him and when Erin answers the door he is not his usual self. He apologises but tells her they are there to arrest Danny. Erin thinks this is some elaborate joke, but her confusion gives way to horror as she realises Ben is serious. However, instead of being confused, Danny looks guilty and scared as hell. Before Erin’s eyes Danny runs to their fourth floor balcony, apologises to her, and throws himself from the edge. Ben doesn’t let her see, and she stands a little distance away, watching with disbelief as a small crowd gathers and paramedics work on her husband. Although Ben spares her the final image of Danny, broken on the sidewalk, she already knows he’s head. Through shock, and that awful first numb state of grief, she forgets to ask why Ben turned up that morning to arrest his own partner, why they take away papers and his laptop, and exactly what Danny is supposed to have done.

Those questions do come later though, especially when Erin has that realisation, that she isn’t being afforded the same support she’s seen other police widows receive from the precinct and the other wives. It’s almost as if she’s been cut off and they’re embarrassed by her, most notably not turning up for the funeral. It doesn’t take long for her to realise she’s going to need a lawyer. The police’s attitude tells her that Danny must have been suspected of corruption, and she needs someone who knows the system. Firstly they need to find out whether she’s still entitled to a widow’s pension, but next she wants them to do some digging into exactly what Danny was being investigated for. Her journey has her asking so many questions and she starts to wonder whether she knew her husband at all. With a small trusted group of friends and her sister Tanya, she starts to piece together the truth.

By now you’ve probably noticed the glaring big question mark in this story; if Danny committed suicide, how is Erin on trial for murdering her husband? I’m not going to ruin the story for you all so I’m not going to reveal any more. This question, and many others do get answered eventually. The author’s timing, in choosing what to conceal, what to reveal and when, is absolute perfection.

It takes a while for Ally and Erin’s stories to intersect, so after every one of Ally’s chapters I was racking my brains to work out where they fit. Ally is writing her PhD on crime novels and as proctor she is charged with taking care of one student hall of residence on the campus. It’s an unusual role that seems to cover mentoring, mothering, but also showing students how to have a good time. In fact, Ally’s hall parties have become so renowned that girls from other blocks want to get in on the guest list - so many that they’ve had to place a restriction on the amount of invites they can have per girl. We meet her as she tries to support a girl called Lauren, an undergraduate, who has been the victim of a crime. Luckily, Ally knows someone who may be able to help, and she offers to bring her boyfriend in to help with results neither of them expect.

I did struggle to understand Erin at times and her decision making. Of course she’s in shock and shouldn’t be making decisions anyway, but there were times when I was screaming at her not to do something. There was an element of her drifting along, rather than making well thought out decisions. Her grief is complicated by the manner of Danny’s death, but also because she’s angry he made this choice to lie to her, leave her behind and leave her haunted by that final image of him disappearing over their balcony. I think her confusion over where to be and who to spend time with was well done. To be with his family is difficult because their grief is different and not complicated by betrayal. She is shunned by the other detective’s wives so seeing them makes her angry. She feels abandoned in a country that isn’t her own, and she gathers a disparate group of new friends who offer support. There’s Bud, the owner of their local bar, her new firecracker of a lawyer, Karla, Danny’s psychotherapist and a man called Cal who knew Danny. These people seem to keep her afloat, but I didn’t trust anyone and treated all of them with suspicion. In feeling angry and betrayed with the one man she thought she knew, and his police colleagues, is she in danger of trusting all the wrong people? I found her story entertaining, compelling and the author paced it well. This would be a great read by the pool this summer and you’ll probably find yourself reading it in a couple of sittings, because like me, you’ll want to know exactly what’s going on. This book is a rollicking good thriller, that I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this summer.

Will be appearing on my blog on Friday for the blog blitz

This was a good thriller. The pub date is tomorrow! I think it'll be popular in a lot of book clubs!

How does she do it?

Jo Spain is an incredible writer who has knocked it out of the park once again with this twisty, meticulously plotted domestic noir thriller, this one had my heart pounding and my pulse racing. I haven’t read this authors entire back catalogue but The Perfect lie was all I needed to convince me that I need to, as a matter of priority!!

Firstly let me share a little background on the book and it’s short synopsis .

He jumped to his death in front of witnesses. Now his wife is charged with murder.

Five years ago, Erin Kennedy moved to New York following a family tragedy. She now lives happily with her detective husband in the scenic seaside town of Newport, Long Island. When Erin answers the door to Danny’s police colleagues one morning, it’s the start of an ordinary day. But behind her, Danny walks to the window of their fourth-floor apartment and jumps to his death.

Eighteen months later, Erin is in court, charged with her husband’s murder. Over that year and a half, Erin has learned things about Danny she could never have imagined. She thought he was perfect. She thought their life was perfect.

But it was all built on the perfect lie.


OK so I’m going to start by saying I absolutely blooming loved this book!!! It’s a domestic noir trope done to true perfection…

It literally hijacked my attention from that very first page, and kept me hooked and utterly absorbed until the last. This compelling and thoroughly entertaining read is released today and I can’t recommend it to lovers of this genre enough… It has all the elements of the perfect thriller read woven through its pages…

✅ Cleverly orchestrated plot that is expertly woven and keeps you enthralled throughout.

✅ A storyline that’s twisty and pacey but that is easy to follow and brilliantly written.

✅ It’s written from various timelines and POV’s which I find add intrigue and depth to the storyline.

✅ Fleshed out characters, and adept world building.

✅ Fast paced,twisty and intense full of twists, turns, red herrings and blind alleys-.

It’s always amazing to read a book and find it supposed and shocks me. I’m a seasoned thriller reader and love the fact that despite reading so much within this genre and more often than not being able to guess what’s going to happen, The perfect lie kept me guessing and guessing.

Spains writing style is stunning and as you may expect for a talented screenwriter her dialogue is a dream to read, it’s realistic and flows perfectly and this really elevated my love of this book. Another of my favourite things was that within The perfect lie as you may or may not notice there are some very well placed clues hidden in there along the way, but with lots of red herrings, blind alleys and twists within the storyline even when I thought I knew the direction this book was taking me I was wrong!!

For me this is the hallmark of a great read and a talented writer.

If you are a fan of Jo Spain I’m sure you will have already hit the pre order button for this one, but if you’re completely new to the name, I can’t rate or recommend this book enough, you really must check it out…

Huge, heartfelt Thankyou to Netgalley , Quercus books and the lovely Milly Reid for allowing me to read this great book and for inviting me into the blog tour.

If you want a book that’s going to be a complete head scratcher then this is probably the book for you. I say that because I spent most of my time reading, also scratching my head wondering what was going to happen next, and how did Erin end up on trial after Danny jumped out the window. Equally if you want to read something that will have you questioning how we we really know people, then this book will also do that for you.

This is a tricky review to write because I don’t want to accidentally give anything away. What I can say is that we learn more about Danny, and indeed Erin, through the course of the book (because that’s in the blurb!). In learning about them we also meet a host of other characters who play their own parts, small and large, in this slow discovery of information. The story also follows a few different timelines as well, we have Erin after Danny jumped, Erin in court and another that links up in an unexpected way. Most of the characters are in some or all of the timelines and the author has done a great job of keeping them separate and not confusing the information. There was one point when I temporarily forgot who a character was because they were not being seen in their usual place, so if I did that I can only imagine the skill and effort that went into keeping everyone in their right places, with the correct information for that part of the story.

Everything is really well written, it was easy for me to visualise the settings and the sense of danger and suspense that were in some scenes, was really clear and something that I felt myself. Much as I’ve already commented on the head scratching aspect, I do feel it fits the book well because Erin, after Danny has jumped, is as much in the dark as the reader is and it was good to be feeling as lost and confused as she must have been at that time.

I’m not going to be cliched about the ending but I really didn’t see it coming. I did have very slight suspicions about something (I was close but not 100% correct) but there was a lot in the ending that took me by surprise and that made all the earlier confusion and questioning worthwhile. Don’t get me wrong, the confusion was engaging, but getting the full picture later made me feel much better. That bit of understanding meant that I could stop feeling like I’d missed something earlier on because “how did THAT happen?” was my almost constant question to myself while I was reading.

I love the author’s Tom Reynolds series, they are amazing, but her stand alone books are just something else. The ideas that end up in print as a formed, completed story are just out of left field and the idea for this book is no exception. Definitely worth checking out if you want something to twist your brain around.

A very clever compelling thriller
Although have to say the synopsis and blurb are misleading
The opening chapter is about as intense as a book gets and then via 3 time lines we get to the reason for the opening chapter, having ‘past past’,
‘past’ and ‘now’ in alternating chapters does keep you rapt to the detail but still a couple of times I had to focus and get the characters rightly placed and in the right time zone
Talking of characters as is expected with a Jo Spain novel they are perfect for the story and range from likeable to loathsome
Because of the nature of the story you are constantly wanting to know what really happened and who is to blame and like any good drama it is tempting to guess all the way through, all I will say is I guessed wrong
Enjoyable

8/10
4 Stars

EXCERPT: 'I'm afraid I have bad news.'

The day your life changes can begin in the most ordinary way. I've experienced it once before. Just like this, the knock on the door.

I wait for it, my stomach tight, the battle response of a war weary soldier.

Who's dead?

ABOUT 'THE PERFECT LIE': He jumped to his death in front of witnesses. Now his wife is charged with murder.

Five years ago, Erin Kennedy moved to New York following a family tragedy. She now lives happily with her detective husband in the scenic seaside town of Newport, Long Island. When Erin answers the door to Danny's police colleagues one morning, it's the start of an ordinary day. But behind her, Danny walks to the window of their fourth-floor apartment and jumps to his death.

Eighteen months later, Erin is in court, charged with her husband's murder. Over that year and a half, Erin has learned things about Danny she could never have imagined. She thought he was perfect. She thought their life was perfect.

But it was all built on the perfect lie.

MY THOUGHTS: Where do I start? All the time I was reading, frantically flipping pages, I was puzzling: her husband jumped, there were witnesses - Police, no less - so, mystery #1, how could Erin possibly be charged with murdering her husband?

About 75% through, and I had an inkling. Yes, I was right, but did that impact my enjoyment of this intriguing and riveting thriller? Hell, no! That was one wild, mind-bending read.

The story is split over three timelines:
Erin, then (July 2019) - starts with the day of husband Danny's death and moves forward to merge with
Erin, now (December 2020)- current day dealing with Erin on trial some seventeen months after Danny's death; and
Harvard (December 2016) with Lauren and Ally.

So mystery #2 is what do Lauren and Ally have to do with Erin? Not telling, but it is important. I did feel that these sections were a little long winded and repetitive in places, hence the 'only just short of the full five stars' rating.

If you can imagine a rollercoaster ride through a hall of mirrors, that was my experience reading The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain. I always read this author on a day I have cleared of everything else, because once I start, there's no separating me from her latest.

I also enjoyed the author's little humourous asides, they produced quite a few chuckles. Thanks for a brilliant read Jo Spain!

⭐⭐⭐⭐.8

#ThePerfectLie #NetGalley

I: @jospainauthor @quercusbooks

T: @SpainJoanne @QuercusBooks

#contemporaryfiction #crime #mystery #psychologicalthriller #suspense #thriller

THE AUTHOR: Jo Spain is the author of the bestselling Inspector Tom Reynolds series and several international No. 1 bestselling standalone novels. Her first book, With Our Blessing, was a finalist in the 2015 Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller.
Jo, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, writes TV screenplays full-time. Her first crime series was broadcast on RTE in 2018 and she's currently involved in a number of TV developments including adaptations of her own novels. In 2021, she co-wrote Harry Wild, starring Jane Seymour, with the Emmy award-winning David Logan (airing 2022).
Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and four young children. In her spare time (she has four children, there is no spare time really) she likes to read. Her favourite authors include Pierre Lemaitre, Jo Nesbo, Liane Moriarty, Fred Vargas and Jodi Picoult. She also watches TV obsessively.
Jo thinks up her plots on long runs in the woods. Her husband sleeps with one eye open. (I can see why!)

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Quercus Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage.

I loved this psychological thriller so much I read it in one day. Such a dramatic opening that I was second guessing everything I thought I knew about the book. Great beginning and a fabulous twisted ending. I could not put this book down! Definitely worth giving up a day to read!

Erin Kennedy, 32, an editor in a publishing house, lives in Newport, Suffolk County on Long Island with her detective husband of less than two years, Daniel (Danny) Ryan, 33. Erin is from Ireland originally but moved to New York five years ago after a family tragedy.

It’s nearly 7.15 on a Tuesday morning in July and there’s a firm knock on the door of their fourth-floor apartment and, straightaway, Erin knows that it’s her husband’s police colleagues. She’s a bit confused but lets the three officers in and that’s when Danny takes one look at his partner, Ben Mitchell, walks to the French windows and jumps to his death from their balcony.

It’s a disturbing beginning and really had me wondering what had made Danny do that! Poor Erin is very shocked and horrified and can’t believe that she didn’t realise Danny was feeling so distraught. She feels very alone – she has a few friends in New York but her family are back home in Ireland and the police don’t seem to be looking out for Erin like you’d expect after the death of one of their own.

Erin is determined to uncover the truth about Danny and what he was involved in and she slowly discovers some shocking facts and the story takes some very intriguing turns!

The book is set in three parts: The Lie, The Truth and The Whole Truth, and there are three time periods: Then (July 2019), Now (December 2020) and Harvard (December 2016). The strands of the story all combine well to create a fiendishly puzzling crime thriller!

At first, I was a bit confused by the Harvard sections and how they related to the rest of the story and also couldn’t believe that Erin was being charged with the murder of her husband. It all seemed rather baffling! All sorts of thoughts were running through my mind and I was considering several different theories but the author had me bewildered until right near the end, when I eventually worked most of it out!

Overall, I really enjoyed The Perfect Lie – it was a gripping and entertaining read, which moved along at a great pace, and I raced through it in less than a day, desperate to uncover all the lies and truths! The characters were well drawn with some intriguing personalities, and also some rather unpleasant protagonists, and it was fascinating to learn about the pasts of various people and how they all fitted into the story.

The book contained some great twists and turns, along with some fantastic elements of misdirection – I was shocked by numerous revelations throughout! This was a great story, which was well plotted and cleverly written.

I really enjoyed The Perfect Lie. I was gripped straight away, within the first few pages and at times I didn’t want to put it down.
It’s full of good characters with a few twists and I really liked how the past and present tied in together. It was hard to know who to trust and although I expected more courtroom drama towards the end I still thought the ending was good.

When Erin Kennedy woke up on a lazy mid-August morning with her cop husband Danny Ryan, she didn’t know that by breakfast, her life would have changed forever. When an unusually early knock on the door rouses Erin from her bed, she can’t imagine who would need to see her at that time of the morning. Behind the door is Danny’s partner … but rather than arriving to pick Danny up for work, he’s there to arrest him. Turning to her husband in disbelief, Erin watches helplessly as Danny jumps out of their fourth-floor window to his death in front of numerous witnesses. Now, one year later, Erin is on trial for murder. The victim? Her husband.

In The Perfect Lie, Jo Spain tells a compelling story of a woman who faces the confluence of all her worst nightmares: first, she is widowed through a suicide she could never have predicted, and then she is put on trial for the murder of her husband … even though it is impossible that she killed him, and there are witnesses to testify as such. The concept of this novel was one that immediately caught my interest, and I was rearing to get my teeth into what promised to be a twisty, punchy, mind-bending thriller.

Overall, Spain put together a good book. The characters were interesting, and the book was driven forward with a strong, compelling plot. I found the writing style easy to read, and the use of multiple timelines to follow a type of past vs present narrative ramped up the tension and stakes in the novel. The book was well-executed and a real page-turner, keeping me moving quickly through the book to see how the story played out. Unfortunately, I saw the twists coming and wasn’t that surprised by them, but I don’t think this was really the fault of the author. Perhaps because of the number of thrillers I read, predicting plot twists has become nearly second nature, but the experience of reading the book didn’t suffer greatly from the fact that I spotted the twist coming. That being said, the twist itself was a good one. It didn’t wander into the realm of the ridiculous as so many books tend to do, so it was a satisfying ending to a solid mystery.

Given that this was my first experience of Jo Spain’s writing, I was very pleasantly surprised. The book was easy to read and this made it easy to keep turning pages and thinking “maybe just one more page before bed”. Spain explored both the emotional aspects of losing a loved one while still keeping the mystery moving along smoothly. By the end of the book, I was satisfied that all the threads had been woven together in a way that made sense, while not feeling twee and overdone. The characters felt real, even if their circumstances made you wonder how much bad luck one person could possibly endure.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and would absolutely pick up more of Jo Spain’s books in the future. There’s something about the way that family drama and emotions intertwine in this book that is so satisfying and real, making the experience of reading the book a much more pleasurable one. Perfect for fans of Big Little Lies, this book will make you question who you can trust, and who will be there for you in your darkest hour.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for the ARC in exchange for a review!