It’s difficult to say much about this story without giving anything away. Needless to say this has a plot that is intriguing and at times confusing in its complexity. But as the twists and turns are gradually revealed it all makes sense. A story full of threats, betrayal, anger, obtuse warnings and some lies and outright liars. The concept is so clever - Erin's policeman husband Danny jumps to his death from their 4th floor balcony, and 18 months later she is in court charged with her husband's murder. How on earth does that work?!
The characters are brilliant. You really get to know and empathise with Erin, and I was rooting for her the whole way through. Even the side characters are superbly written. I especially liked barman Bud and Danny's brother Mike. Ending did feel a little rushed, or maybe that was me just not wanting it to end just yet. Overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain.
With thanks to #Netgalley and Quercus Books for the ARC in return for a review.
Hands up I am a Jo Spain fan and having read The Perfect Lie, I am going to remain one.
The Perfect Lie is a change of scene for the author who usually sets her books in Ireland but moves to Newport, Long Island for The Perfect Lie.
Erin Kennedy moved to the USA five years ago following a family tragedy back home in Ireland. Life seems to be getting better for Erin, she is happily married to Danny a police officer and all seems to be coming right with her world. Then Erin answers the door to their apartment and is told that Danny's colleagues are there to arrest him. Disbelievingly Erin turns to Danny and he jumps from their apartment balcony to his death. Erin's world is shattered especially when Danny's colleagues won't give her the answers she is looking for. As Erin works her way through her grief and anger, it appears that the more questions she asks the fewer answers she gets. Fast forward 18 months and Erin is on trial for murder.
The subplot of a student being attacked appears at first to have very little to do with the main story but slowly but surely the dots begin to join.
Jo Spain weaves a tense, multilayered story which keeps you turning the pages. The reader is lead down blindalleys and back out again, thinking that you have solved they mystery there is a perfectly good explanation why a character did what they did with no sinister motive. Everytime I thought I had figured out the main suspect I was spectacularly wrong. Each character has their place in the story and as ever Jo Spain's characterization is spot on. The narrative runs along at a fair pace and I would suggest that when you start the book be prepared to keep reading because you won't be able to put it down.

Great read. Brilliant storylines. You need to concentrate reading this one. Erin is a fabulous character who has to endure a lot of tragedy and mishaps in her life but her true Irish grit and determination get her through. This one will definitely keep you on you toes.

WOW, A gripping book that will take your breath away from the opening scenes. The story is told through the past and the present. With multiple points of view, which draw together brilliantly at the end. You won’t want to put this book down.

Erin believed she had the perfect life, she had moved to New York from Ireland after a family tragedy. As far as she was concerned her and Danny were happy and their life was good. Until that day in front of witnesses he threw himself off their 4th floor balcony. Why? Eighteen months later Erin finds herself in court for the murder of her husband.

How much did Erin really know about Danny? She is pretty much on her own with not many friends in the USA and the police not talking. Erin feels like she is losing her mind.

It’s difficult to say much more about this story without giving anything away. Needless to say this has a plot that is intriguing and at times confusing in its complexity. But as the twists and turns are gradually revealed it all makes sense. A story full of threats, betrayal, anger, obtuse warnings and some lies and outright liars.

Erin is a strong character and is determined to get to the truth, despite the consequences. When the truth does emerge it is shocking. I love how this author can misdirect the reader on several occasions, you think you have it and then you are just so wrong.

I would like to thank #netgalley and #Quercusbooks for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

Wow this book was unputdownable! Honestly it's starts with such a bang I was hooked. I felt all the pain and fear along with Erin our main character from the start all the way through.

Erin's life is shattered at the beginning when after a lovely perfectly normal seeming morning her beloved husband jumps to his death from their balcony. She spends the story trying to find out what on earth had caused this and why she had no idea, and while doing so ends up on trial for her husbands murder.

The story is told using different time lines and POVs and slowly unravels the mysteries that lead to her being arrested. It Is so cleverly told and leaves you never quite knowing what was happening until the end.

I will leave it there as my full review will be on my blog for the blog tour starting 13th May. Keep an eye out for that!!

Thank you to the author, Quercus Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The tagline of this book is clever, and the dramatic beginning pulls you in. The story is told in three different timelines, which doesn't always work well, particularly as you need to get deep into the book to work out where the third intersects with the other two. Unfortunately, I found my interest flagging by the time I got to that point and I felt the story dragged quite a bit, plus the whodunit aspect was fairly foreseeable,

The Perfect Lie started off with a bang. Holy hell, I quite frankly had to put my kindle down for about ten minutes so I could catch my breath. Its been a long time since an opening chapter has absolutely blew my mind. I love impactful openings, and this really did kick it up a notch. Erin moved to the US from Ireland after the death of her sister. She didn’t expect to fall in love with her perfect match, Danny. They marry and everything is fairytale perfect until that fateful day that she won’t ever forget.

Danny is a detective in Homicide in New York City. He’s been working extra hard lately and both he and Erin are looking forward to getting away for a while. A knock on their door changes both their lives forever. His partner, Ben Mitchell arrives with some bad news. There’s no discussion and no explanations. Danny walks straight over to their balcony and jumps straight off it. The shock wasn’t just reserved for Erin – I was completely gob smacked. Jo Spain has a talent hitting her readers over the head…making them sit up and pay attention. I felt Erin’s hurt and shock…Never have I wanted to reach in and give a character a hug.

So how on earth is Erin in court for murdering her husband?

The Perfect Lie is told in three different POV’s. Erin Now, Erin Then and Harvard. Now this is where my thoughts on this novel start becoming a little conflicted. The Harvard chapters don’t really feel necessary, and they are just clunky and take up too many pages. I don’t feel that it really added any insight or understanding to the overall narrative. The story moved along fine without it.

Erin thought she knew everything about her husband and their life together, but it was The Perfect Lie. I was really looking forward to reading this one, but it fell a little short. It dragged a lot in the middle and I ended up skim reading a lot of it. I was still intrigued with how it would all end. It was still a good book with excellent writing, but it was definitely a 5-star book at the start then slowly kept dropping as I progressed through. Thank you to Quercus and Netgalley for the opportunity to review.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of Jo Spain, this book did not disappoint. The opening was outstanding. Compelling, twisty, and definitely unputdownable.

This was a strong, intriguing read that kept me interested for the majority of the book. Now, I know how rare it is for a book to hold my attention for the entirety, and this one nearly achieved it. I was hooked from the start, and the side story of Lauren definitely added to the suspense of how it related to Danny's death.
The characters were all likeable, and I empathized with their situation.
The dual timeline was very effective in helping the reader to put the puzzle together.
A great read.

Don’t try to solve this one as you read - it has so many twists and turns that you’ll never keep up! The ending was a surprise for me and the path to get there was fascinatingly complex. Apart from the excellent plot, the characters were extremely well developed and the dialogue and engagement realistic. I thought the pacing was a bit uneven, with some aspects getting a lot of time and others perhaps a bit rushed, but that minor issue is nothing compared to the terrific plot.

I'd never read a Jo Spain book before but as soon as I heard her talk about this book at the quercus word of mouth event a few months ago, I knew I needed to read this one!

It has a strong opening and a banging ending but I did feel like it dragged on a bit in the middle. The main thing that kept me reading was the intrigue around how Erin watched her husband kill himself but then was also on trial for his murder! How!? Why?! I needed to know!

Poor Erin, I really did feel for her at first. Her police officer husband jumps to his death in front of her and she gets no real support from his colleagues. As the story goes on she slowly learns, and we are slowly drip fed, bits and pieces from his life in the run up to his death. Mostly leaving us all with more questions than we had before. I was practically screaming at the book to just tell me what the hell was going on!

I did think the story was quite clever (I didn't see the ending coming) and for people who like their thrillers to be a slow burn and not too dark and gory then this is a great one to read. It's well written, interesting and quite shocking in places, it was just a little bit too slow for me!

ive 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.

The story is told in three timelines, the present day and the court case, Erin before the court case and Harvard.

For me, this book had the potential to be a 5 star book. When I first started reading the book, I found it to be a page turner and I was eager to progress through the book. The book itself is split into three parts and I found the first part to be a lot longer than it needed to be. I guessed what had happened to an extent within the first few chapters. The author wanted to wow the readers, however, I feel because of the synopsis, it is a very easy twist to guess. 

I found the ending to be almost rushed compared to the first two parts of book. 

All this said, I still did really enjoy the book. This author’s writing is superb and she knows just how to grab you. At no point did I feel bored or not enjoying the book, just found the twist easy to guess. I will definitely pick up more by this author and would recommend this book, but not perhaps for its twist

Erin’s life changes within seconds. Minutes ago she was lying in bed snuggling with her husband Danny. But while he is taking a shower the doorbell rings. Outside is Danny’s partner from the police and it looks as he is about to arrest Danny. When Erin turns and looks at Danny she sees him jumping from their window to his death. In the next chapter we learn that Erin is accused of murdering her husband. How is that possible?

The opening chapter got me immediately. Erin witnesses her husband killing himself. How could she be accused of murdering him? That’s the question that gripped me. The story jumps back and forth to Then and Now. Then is the time after Danny’s suicide when Erin learns what her husband was hiding from her. Now is when Erin is standing trial for murder eighteen month later. I was really confused what was going on because the author keeps us in the dark for quite a while. Unfortunately the story began to drag a bit halfway through when Erin slowly pieces together things about Danny she did not know. The story kept me interested because I really wanted to know what was going on and I did not see the twist coming. But somehow I was not totally engrossed into the book. I could not connect to Erin because sometimes she behaved quite weird. I am not a fan of characters who seems to have a bunch of people around them who obviously have no other purpose in life than to take care of them. That’s the case with Erin. Everybody wants to protect her and Erin never hesitates to call on them anytime. To me she appears to be weak and at the end her actions seemed a bit out of character. But maybe that’s just me just not connecting to her.

Overall I enjoyed the book but the story jumped too much back and forth. It slowed the pace down and there was a bit too much lingering on the question what Danny was up to before he killed himself. But it is still entertaining enough and it has a bunch of surprises on its sleeve. This is my third book from Jo Spain. I enjoyed all of them although they were all slow burner. But I am a sucker for tangled and unusual plots and that is one thing the author did not fail to deliver.

The Perfect Lie is an intricate and intelligent thriller that is sure to grab your attention. With a shocking opening and bombshells throughout, you’ll still be trying to figure this one out until the very end.

The book switches between three narratives – Erin in the past (from the day she sees Danny jump), Erin in the present (as she’s on trial), and a third in the past through two other characters. It takes a while to see the significance of Ally and Lauren at first, but it’s obvious that their story is going to connect to the present at some point so there’s a lot of mystery to be excited by.

The story in the present is also a bit of puzzle, not giving any details as to how Elin can be on trial for her husband’s murder when the opening chapter sees him jump to his death in front of his colleagues. But Spain’s vagueness is intentional, as the focus is on the build-up to the trial in an attempt to get your mind ticking away.

Normally, this is a narrative technique that I love, but I did end up finding it quite frustrating this time around as the set up went on for too long for me to get into the story properly. I knew that the answers were in the present, but it’s not until the halfway point that her current situation becomes more clear, either. Although your intrigue is strong, there are so many question marks in the first half of the book that I did struggle with trying to fill in the blanks for myself.

The conclusions are really worth the wait, though, and I did find Spain’s tricks and misdirections very clever by the end and understand why she had to structure it this way. There was only one explanation that I wanted and I did guess what was going on, but I wasn’t disappointed by this as I found that Part 3 of the book really justified the cunning start.

The end is wrapped up quite quickly after this, but it doesn’t feel rushed and every one of my questions was answered so I loved the quick turnaround. This ending is most definitely a five-star twist for me, but the set up of the story just took too long for me. Had it been evened out a little more, I would have really loved this.

Nevertheless, it’s a brilliantly written thriller that is sure to impress, and one that I hope will be talked about a lot this summer because it most definitely deserves the praise.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

(I'm on the blog tour for this on the 13th so my reviews will be live then)

This was a welk paced twisty thriller that kept me guessing from start to finish. It was really well written and kept me reading on.

I was happy to join on the blog tour for this one!

I read the book over maybe 4 days. The one good thing is this book keeps you guessing, right until the end. There was so many confusing moments which had me baffled, but it all comes right at the end with a few things I never seen.

I liked Erin’s character, but not many of the others made a massive impression on me. Actually, I liked Erins lawyer, she seemed quite the bad ass! But yeah Erin was a well written character and was someone you think you could get to know in real life.

The book was good, I gave it 3.5/4 stars as the husband death storyline was the only thing that kept me interested, the background stories I wasn’t too invested in. But like I said it did keep me reading as I needed to know what happened!

Thanks to Quercus books for my advanced Ebook for review.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This book focuses on Irish born Erin who now lives in America with her detective husband, Danny. They have a pretty normal life, until one morning, Danny’s partner from work, Ben, arrives to arrest him. Danny then promptly walks to their balcony in the apartment and jumps to his death. Erin, understandably, has many questions. Why was her detective husband going to be arrested? Why are the rest of the police force shunning her? What’s going on? And what was her husband hiding from her?

During this story, Erin comes across as a real strong, feminist character, but also is scared and vulnerable. She has morals, and believes in standing up for justice. The story stretches between various timelines, and we are slowly drip fed the intricacies that makes a bigger picture. Nothing and no one is as they seem. I enjoyed all the other characters, and from their characters actions and descriptions it was really easy to picture them in the minds eye. The upside of Erin’s crumbling life are the wonderful friendships she makes along the way. People like her who have ethics. The writing flowed really well, and I really enjoyed not getting the whole story in one go as it helped explain the characters and their actions more, the ending also felt more satisfactory. I am a great fan of this author and her work, and this book is just as brilliant as the other that have come before.

The Perfect Lie certainly hit the ground running with its opening - it was fantastic and the rest of the book did not disappoint. The twists and turns came thick and fast and it felt like a rollercoaster ride all the way to the utterly brilliant ending.

This is my first book by Jo Spain but it will not be my last.

I highly recommend The Perfect Lie.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for my ARC.

With The Perfect Lie Jo Spain has delivered yet another well paced twisty thriller that will keep you guessing and second guessing what happens next until the very end

Highly recommended

This novel has one of the most dramatic openings I have ever read. Following the early morning arrival of his police colleagues at his apartment door, Detective Danny Ryan runs to his balcony and jumps to his death in front of his wife. After that compelling scene, I was immediately pulled in to needing to find out why that happened.

Erin Kennedy arrived in New York five years ago after a family tragedy. She was only going to stay for a year, but fell in love with handsome police detective Danny. Now happily married and living the perfect life on Long Island, Erin has no idea of what is about to hit her. In one moment, her life as she knows it will be destroyed, following that fateful act one normal morning, and she will question everything she thought she knew about the man she loved. And eighteen months later she will find herself on trial for murdering her husband.

After the dramatic start, the plot builds gradually to a gripping level of suspense as Jo Spain weaves between the time leading up to that fateful morning and the time that followed, through unexpected twists and shocking revelations. And just when you think you know where the plot is going, she throws in a rapid turn to spin you off track. Also weaving through Danny and Erin’s story is an older thread, involving two female college students and it’s not until later that the significance of this is revealed.

Erin is a great character. She’s so totally in the dark about what’s going on at first, but she’s smart and stronger than she thinks and never gives up trying to find out the truth about her husband. It’s easy to feel sympathy for her having to deal with everything on her own. With Danny’s police colleagues being cold and distant, her family in Ireland and Danny’s mother in Florida, she is very much alone in a country she doesn’t know well. She also doesn’t trust what the police are saying about Danny, but knows there’s something he hasn’t told her.

With its idyllic lifestyle, Long Island is a great location for this mystery. Although Erin loves the relaxed atmosphere and vacation lifestyle, the shadowy undertones of class and privilege will ensure that an outsider like her will never feel welcome.

This highly addictive page turner is another excellent psychological thriller from Jo Spain. One that will keep you guessing right up to the suspenseful ending.