The Woman Who Lied by Claire Douglas is a suspenseful and intricately plotted psychological thriller that will have readers questioning everything. The story follows Emily, a woman whose seemingly perfect life begins to unravel when secrets from her past resurface, threatening to destroy everything she holds dear. Douglas masterfully builds tension, keeping you hooked with unexpected twists and unreliable characters that make you constantly doubt what’s true. With its clever plotting and emotional depth, this book explores themes of trust, betrayal, and the lengths we go to protect our secrets. A must-read for fans of dark, twist-filled mysteries that keep you guessing until the last page. Thank you Claire Douglas, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, and NetGalley for this ARC!

Manu thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted eARC.

This was a great thriller that kept me guessing the whole time. I definitely recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Paperbacks for this ARC!

I was a big fan of Claire’s other books and I really enjoyed The Woman Who Lied. Like her other books this thriller is full of twists and red herrings! I really thought I had the killer figured out but I was wrong. I really enjoyed the use of a serial killer trope and the ‘mixed media’ with excerpts from Emilia’s book throughout.

Fans of domestic thrillers will love this one!

Emilia is the bestselling author of the DI Miranda Moody series. She has found success in her writing and is living a happy life with her second husband and two children when her life suddenly takes a turn and starts to imitate her art. Incidents from her books are being replicated in real life, including scenes from her most recent manuscript, which has not yet been published. The list of people with access to the unpublished manuscript is small, contributing to a downward spiral where Emilia doesn’t know what’s real or who to trust.

This was an intriguing premise and snagged my interest almost immediately. It is a story within a story as well as dual POV, which I typically enjoy. In this case the format did contribute to a few confusing moments in the first part of the story, but any confusion was ultimately cleared up by a surprising twist at the end of Part One of the book.

Claire Douglas does a great job of giving us a front-row seat to Emilia’s thoughts and feelings. We could sense her fear and confusion and were on that downward spiral alongside her, falling into paranoia and despair not knowing who to trust or where to turn. Any one of the people we meet in the book could be the killer. There is no one who is above suspicion, including those closest to Emilia.

There is a nice sized cast of characters and it does take a minute to get familiar with who is who, but the larger cast is another one of the positives in the book. There are a lot of suspects to choose from. As hard as it is for Emilia to trust anyone or to figure out who could be doing these things, it’s just as hard for the reader to pinpoint one motive or to settle on one suspect.

The story moves a little slower in the second half and it does get slightly convoluted in a couple of places, but it is all very much worth the payoff. Some of the twists and turns weren’t totally shocking but the final reveal was a complete surprise.

This was my first Claire Douglas book. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of her writing.

Thanks NetGally and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for the copy.

This was a phenomenal book! The plot was so interesting and really kept me engaged. The characters were so well developed and deep. The relationships were worth the read, never mind the fantastic mystery!!

Oh, this was SO good! I'm on a big thriller kick this year and couldn't put this one down -- my first read by Claire Douglas but absolutely not going to be my last. I loved the "secret author" plot line, it was very interesting to see how someone so successful could also live a relatively "normal" life, where few know of her success. Emilia was a super relatable main character, and I found myself super tense on the edge of my seat through several moments here where I thought one thing was going to happen and tried to prepare myself for it, only for a twist to come by and sweep my "preparation rug" out from beneath me! Loved that, excellently done and will definitely be looking for more from Douglas in the future.

First time reader of Claire Douglas and won't be my last. Great story line with strong characters. It was a creative ending that left you guessing until the very end. I LIKED IT!! The twist and turns have you coming to your own conclusion just to be smashed and thrown in your face. I found myself not wanting to put it down. So if your looking for a great murder mystery book look no further! A++ rating 5 Stars. Highly recommend to all.

I love this author but this isn't my favorite book she's written. It is probably me and my mood this month. I am a mess. I just was not feeling this one. I am looking forward to the next one.

Emilia, a popular bestselling crime novelist is living her best life. She has a wonderful husband and two beautiful children. While writing her 10th novel in her well-loved Detective Miranda Moody series, eerie things start happening to Emilia. Each troubling experience pulled straight from the pages of one of her novels. Someone must be targeting her, but who? As the creepy events keep happening, Emilia begins to get the feeling the person after her is someone she knows well. Her suspicion is confirmed when something terrible happens that mirrors exactly what happens in her unreleased novel. Only her inner circle has had access to the advanced copies…

This was a good book that kept me pretty engaged throughout. There were quite a few twists, but nothing super jaw dropping or unbelievably shocking. I was kind of hoping there would be a big twist at the end, but there wasn’t. Overall, I thought this was a quick fun read. It was my first novel my Claire Douglas and definitely won’t be my last!

This was so twisty, but nothing felt so crazy that it wasn't realistic. I did predict a few twists, but usually they were followed with something that I literally never saw coming so it balanced out. I did kinda guess the end, but the build-up to it definitely threw me off of it.

I really like how "normal" Amelia and her family were. I feel like in a lot of thrillers, even ones with similar general ideas, the main character or family are either deeply unhappy or their lives just aren't actually realistic. The family actually liking and respecting each other made this feel so much better than some others where it's "I'm married but I hate my husband and/or my kids and/or my job".

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the advanced copy of this book!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to receive this book for an honest review.

I had high hopes since I really enjoy books by Claire Douglas. But I am so sad to say this one had me bored. Maybe it was just me but I will not give up on this author. I would suggest give it a try maybe it was just me.

•I love reading books about books and books about authors. I think it’s so fun and this one was no exception.

•Author Emilia Ward is a bestselling author of a series about a detective named Miranda Moody. Over the span of nine books, Miranda has solved countless crimes. It was all fictional until one day, Emilia begins having strange things happen to her and her family. These things just so happen to be incidents from her books. Recognizing this, it seems odd but doesn’t immediately cause alarm. That is, until she realizes that the latest incidents are things from her unpublished tenth book.

•I couldn’t get enough of The Woman Who Lied. I was hooked from the very beginning. I kept making predictions on the outcome, and I was wrong every single time.

•Thank you to Claire Douglas, NetGalley, and Penguin Books for a copy of this book. It became available on July 6, 2024.

I really enjoyed this book and had trouble putting it down. It centers on Emilia, an author who has just finished the 10th book in a series she writes when things start happening around her that mirror things that happened in her books in a way that is too unique to be a coincidence. Even scarier, some of the stuff that happens comes from her newest book which hasn’t actually been released yet, making it clear that the culprit is in her inner circle.

This book was super tense with many believable red herrings. I thought I had it figured out multiple times, only to be proven wrong when a new piece of evidence was uncovered. Emilia was a likable and realistic character who I thought acted the way someone in her position would. Her relationship with her family, ex, and friends also felt authentic to me. I saw some reviewers say that the storyline felt convoluted and/or unrealistic but I didn’t feel that way at all. I thought it was a solid story, only made better by the chapters that were not told from Emilia’s POV, which added to the mystery and provided valuable background information. I liked the ending and thought it was a perfect way to end the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would strongly recommend it to those who like psychological thrillers and have a hard time finding a book with true surprise twists. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this one. It was fresh and not too predictable. The writing was stellar and it kept me on the edge of my seat. Though, the ending did bum me out a little because it turned out to be too convoluted. Overall, it was a good, quick read.

This book was so great, I read it back to back and bought the physical copy! I love this author, she never disappoints.

The story had me from very early on and I was super invested in finding out what was going on. I love the plot line of a serial killer copying an authors work. I wonder if this actually happens or has happened in real life.

The twists and turns never stopped and as always, it was not the person I thought it was. I felt so bad for Emilia, every time she thought she solved something, three more things happened and she was (as we all were) suspecting everyone!

This book made me glad I am not a public figure of any kind, I just couldn’t. But reading about it is so much fun. This book was a ride and a must read

I enjoyed the mystery within the mystery of this book. The resolution was satisfying, the plot was intricate and moved at a clip, and I liked that the main character had flaws for which she had to take accountability. This has been my favorite of Douglas’s books, many of which I’ve read.

NetGalley and Harper Collins sent an ARC of this book at my request, for which I thank them. But because I split my time between US, UK, and EU and it was published in the UK first, I had already read this book months ago. Once I started reading though, I immediately recognized my mistake and could recall the plot and the main character of this book. I say all this as an endorsement. I read hundreds of books a year and this stuck with me. 4/5 stars.

DNF'd around 20%. I have previously read from this author and enjoyed it. But I just couldn't get into this one. It never really gripped me or sparked my interest and I found myself not wanting to pick it up again. I never felt connected to the main character or engaged with the plot.

Actual Rating 3.5

This work includes interludes between some chapters that are used to build tension in the primary timeline and were mostly used quite well. I enjoyed Emilia as a protagonist and appreciated that she was relatable and well written. It was also interesting to watch her fall apart as the book went on and things escalated, and it certainly added to the tension.

The author did a great job including misdirection and twists that didn’t feel too absurd and were things that I didn’t see coming. I enjoyed not knowing where this story was going for the most part. This is a bit of a slow build, but I think the author balanced the slower pace with the increase of tension relatively well.

If you’re interested in psychological thrillers that stay away from many of the overused tropes of the genre, then I recommend checking this one out. I’ll definitely read more from this author. My thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really enjoyed this book! I thought the story line was unique and the "killer" was copying her books. I couldn't put this one down.

The woman who lied is a crime novel that follows an author who is being targeted by a stalker. The stalker is following the plot lines of her books and doing stuff to her. She has to figure out who is stalking her before something happens to her or her family.

I thought this book was just ok. I liked the book plot line and that kept me interested. However, i feel like the plot was just far fetched. A lot of things that happened just didn’t seem realistic to me. It also felt slow and dragged a bit for me.

This book wasn’t bad but not amazing either.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!