You Can Trust Me by Sophie McKenzie

337 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: April 14, 2015

Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Women’s Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Thriller

Olivia, “Livy”, Jackson and her husband, Will have been rebuilding their marriage for the past six years. Will had a two-month affair with a coworker. The couple are attending a work gathering with Livy receives a few texts from her best friend Julia. Livy ignores them until later that night. She figures she will talk with Julia the next day for their scheduled Sunday breakfast. Livy arrives with her two children, twelve-year-old Hannah and seven-year-old Zach, but Julia does not open the door. Livy uses her keys and goes in. Julia appears to be sleeping on the sofa, but things are not what they seem.

The story has a slow pace, the characters are very developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view from different perspectives. Very solid mystery that kept me guessing until the end. If you like psychological thrillers, you may enjoy this one.

Sophie McKenzie does it again.
You Can Trust Me is a story full of mystery, death and happily ever afters.
A strong female character who won’t let anyone get in her way of finding all the truths she seeks.
Sophie is a fantastic writer and I can not wait to read what’s next from this author.

This is a decent mystery, although it's fairly easy to figure out if you read much in this genre. Overall, worthwhile to read if not entirely memorable.

Enjoyed some aspects of the book but felt let down slightly by the ending as it felt too cliche. However would be interested to see how Sophie Mackenzie progresses with further books.

Livy Jackson has lived with her fair share of upset, and it’s hard not to sympathise with her. Her sister was killed at the age of eighteen, and the killer was never found. Her husband had an affair a few years ago, and it’s obvious that the trust between them has been broken. Then her best friend, Julia, is found dead...a suspected suicide.
Livy can’t accept this and ends up on an increasingly dangerous quest to find out what happened. Once she starts digging, more and more secrets are unearthed. Who can Livy trust? Everyone seems to have been keeping secrets and the potential guilty party list grows longer with every incident.
Interspersed with this search are narratives from the killer, telling us about how each of his victims met their end. There’s some clues dropped that make one or two characters more likely suspects, and though one stood out the identity of the killer wasn’t revealed for certain until very late on.
With the unmasking of our killer coming at such a key moment in the story, it was more about the impact on Livy and her family and how people could recover from such an ordeal.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for my honest review.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

On a quiet, gray, Saturday morning, Livy arrives at her best friend Julia’s flat for a lunch date only to find her dead. Though all the evidence supports it, Livy cannot accept the official ruling of suicide; the Julia she remembers was loud, inappropriate, joyful, outrageous and loving, not depressed. The suspicious circumstances cause Livy to dig further, and she is suddenly forced to confront a horrifying possibility: that Julia was murdered, by the same man who killed Livy's sister, Kara, eighteen years ago.
Desperate to understand the tragedies of her past and hold her unraveling life together, Livy throws herself into the search for Kara and Julia’s killer, who she now believes is someone close to her family. But if that is true, can she still trust anyone? Damien, the man Julia was secretly dating? Leo, her husband’s boss and a close family friend? His son Paul, her husband’s best mate since college? Or even Will, her own dear husband, who has betrayed her perhaps one time too many?
And when Livy finally faces her sister’s killer, and he traps her with one horrible, impossible choice, she must finally decide: is she strong enough to trust herself?

I have read a few novels of late that have this style of plot - something happens in today's world that can be traced back to an event from 20+ years ago. They don't always work as the parallel stories don't mesh as you would expect. While this isn't necessarily a dual narrative, it certainly does have the historical event at the heart of the plot.

One thing this story did really well for me was the multiple possible suspects. As the plot plays out, more and more people become involved in the story, all with motives or opportunities and I think I probably had three guesses at the killer before finding I was wrong on all occasions! And that is a true skill - dropping enough hints to keep the reader eager, but not so much to make it obvious. That was cool.

The other thing that I enjoyed, although it wasn't a huge part of the story, was the killer's POV and I think that really helped add depth to their character. We got dark, menacing, brooding and scary. All the things we want from the antagonist. Getting into their head gave us a completely different aspect to the mystery that Livy was tracking down.

Overall, a cracking mystery novel and one that I recommend completely!


Paul
ARH

I read this book and reviewed it under a different title. I enjoyed it but can't post another review