Title: The Lies You ToldAuthor: Harriet Tyce
Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Dec. 1, 2020
Genres: Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Source: Grand Central Publishing
Book Rating: 8/10
In the playground it”s the law of the jungle
But at the school gate, there are no rules at all…
When Sadie Roper moves back to London, she”s determined to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. First, she needs to get her daughter settled into a new school-one of the most exclusive in the city. Next, she”s going to get back the high-flying criminal barrister career she sacrificed for marriage ten years earlier. But nothing goes quite as planned. The school is not very welcoming newcomers, her daughter hasn”t made any friends yet and the other mothers are as fiercely competitive as their children. Sadie immediately finds herself on the outside as she navigates the fraught politics of the school gate.
But the tide starts to turn as Sadie begins to work on a scandalous, high-profile case that”s the perfect opportunity to prove herself again, even though a dangerous flirtation threatens to cloud her professional judgment. And when Liza, queen of the school moms, befriends Sadie, she draws her into the heart of the world from which she was previously excluded. Soon Sadie and her family start to thrive, but does this close new friendship prevent her from seeing the truth? Sadie may be keeping her friends close, but what she doesn”t know is that her enemies are closer still…
Review:
Menacing, intricate, and twisty!
The Lies You Told is a sinister, psychological thriller that introduces us to Sadie Roper. A troubled young mother who after returning to London after the dissolution of her marriage, enrols her eleven-year-old daughter in the competitive, toxic Ashams Girls School to fulfil the stipulations of her mothers will. But when her daughter, Robin, goes missing, and it comes to light that more than one student seems to have died suspiciously, Sadie’s life quickly spirals out of control.
The prose is taut and intense. The characters are secretive, vulnerable, and suspicious. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine into a suspenseful tale of deception, manipulation, jealousy, power, revelations, mayhem, violence, and murder.
Overall, The Lies You Told is a tight, unpredictable, satisfying thrill ride by Tyce that had just the right amount of twists, turns, and surprises to keep me thoroughly engrossed from start to finish.
This book is available now.
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Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Harriet Tyce
Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before working as a criminal barrister for nearly a decade.
Having escaped law and early motherhood, she started writing, and completed the MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. She has written three novels to date, the Sunday Times bestsellers Blood Orange and The Lies You Told. It Ends At Midnight was published in April 2022 to critical acclaim.
She lives in north London with her husband and children, and two very nice dogs.
Photo by Rory Lewis Photography.
