Let Me Lie: The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller

Reviews

T. Giles

“If Anna and Ella die before you, I inherit the lot. An aspect I really liked was how the two stories were intertwined but never directly linked. However there was a third person who squeezed themselves in between random chapters which kept completely throwing me off the scent. The narrative begins with an eerie chapter from a mysterious character who is informing readers that death does not suit them and yet it is also a small glimpse into what may have been the start of a relationship that tragically went downhill.

Ali

Overall I think Let Me Lie was an addictive novel that kept me on my toes from start to finish. “If she goes to the police, she’ll put herself and her baby in danger. I enjoyed all the characters, from Anna and Murray to all their friends, colleagues, parents and family.

Emma

”With the police involved, the narrative now splits into three points of view – Anna, Murray (the semi-retired detective) and the mysterious character. Let Me Lie is a plot full of captivating chapters, ones in which will make you stay awake until the early hours but let me tell you this – it is worth it the tired eyes in the morning. In these suspense/mystery books its obviously quite important to create a number of different characters in order to provide the reader with enough people to be suspicious of. Murray added a very interesting element to the plot, not only as the man who was trying to solve the mystery of the parents suicides but he also had a home life in which was very similar to Anna’s.

Now lets discuss the impeccable character development in this novel. I was absorbed by the short chapters and excellent character development, and the excitement and emotion of the plots kept me interested.

Anna managed to get Murray interested enough in the suicide of her parents to re open the case, but his wife was never linked or anything to do with Anna or her family. With Anna struggling to come to terms with the fact that her parents committed suicide, she begins to wonder if things are all what they seem and when a postcard slips through her post box, she immediately thinks that her parents were murdered and so, she does the one thing that any other person would do – she goes to the police. It was really quite shocking to find out in the authors note at the end that although Clare writes completely fiction stories that she has created in her mind, some aspects are based on her experience in the police force. I was unable to guess the ending of either plots and was continuously being thrown from one idea to another throughout.

However I find that this can sometimes be overdone which results in a lot of characters with limited personality that I end up forgetting about with the turn of a page. Whilst reading the alternating chapters it was always clear who’s POV (Point of View) we were reading from, as the chapters were headed with either ‘Anna’ or ‘Murray’. The continual change in view point allowed the plot to have a lot more depth to it than it would of if Clare had written solely from Anna’s mindset. My mind was making accusations left right and centre whilst reading Anna’s chapters, and my emotions were high and hopeful whist reading Murray’s.