Review - The Lie by C. L. Taylor

 

Published by : Harper Collins UK

24 April 2015

Copy : Paperback - Reviewer purchased

 

 

The Blurb

 

I know your name's not really Jane Hughes...

 

Jane Hughes has a loving partner, a job in an animal sanctuary and a tiny cottage in rural Wales.  She's happier than she's ever been but her life is a lie.  Jane Hughes does not really exist. 

 

Five years earlier Jane and her then best friends went on holiday but what should have been the trip of a lifetime rapidly descended into a nightmare that claimed the lives of two of the women.

 

Jane has tried to put the past behind her but someone knows the truth about what happened.  Someone who won't stop until they've destroyed Jane and everything she loves...

 

 

The Very Pink Notebook Review

 

 

The concept behind this novel is brilliant and I was looking forward to reading it.  I have to say, it is a very creepy and dark plot, maybe a little too dark for me, but that aside, it certainly had me thinking about it for days afterwards and I couldn't put it down when I was reading it - even if it was with one wary eye!

 

If you don't mind quite graphic, dark underbellies of worlds then this book is for you.  It will make you feel uncomfortable.  I, personally, didn't actually like any of the characters and found it a little hard to understand how the four friends, of whom the bulk of the story is set around, would actually be friends.  They are all very damaged, but this probably was the draw of friendship between them.  It ultimately turns out to be the demise as well.

 

The plot is thrashed out in both past and present tense, which I quite enjoyed.  I don't think I could have taken the intensity of it happening in present tense, so to get a break from what happened on 'the holiday' was always welcome.  I felt the first two thirds of the book were better than the final third when it all seemed to become a bit rushed.  I especially felt this with regard to the ending.  For me, it didn't tie up all of the unanswered questions quite enough.

 

That aside, for the bulk of the book I was gripped and it is certainly worth a read, particularly if you like the darker, grittier type of psychological thriller and as such I give it a very worthy :