I should preface this by saying that I have high expectations for this book. I’ve read the other two novels written by Clare Mackintosh and she is becoming my favourite author in the genre. As such, when I heard about her new book, I preordered it instantly and have been patiently waiting for months now for it to arrive.

Later on, I will also be reviewing her two other books here in the blog, as well as other books in the genre, since it has been my predominant choice of books over the past year.

This review will be only in English since there isn’t a Portuguese edition of the book yet.

Title: Let Me Lie

Author: Clare Mackintosh

Publisher: Sphere (8 Mar. 2018)

Synopsis:

The police say it was suicide.

Anna says it was murder.

They’re both wrong. One year ago, Caroline Johnson chose to end her life brutally: a shocking suicide planned to match that of her husband just months before. Their daughter, Anna, has struggled to come to terms with their loss ever since.

Now with a young baby of her own, Anna misses her mother more than ever and starts to ask questions about her parents’ deaths. But by digging up the past, is she putting her future in danger? Sometimes it’s safer to let things lie . . .

My review for those who want to read the book:

As I sit here staring at the keys looking for the words to describe the book, the only thing I can think of is that I envy the reader that is about to open a Clare Mackintosh book. It is a great experience. From the first page, you want to know more and more about what’s going on, and when you reach the final paragraph you’re left wondering when you can start the next adventure at the hands of this writer.

This book follows a great recipe: you care for the characters and you get absorbed into the world that is unfolding in front of you. I find the author’s past working in law enforcement gives an extra level of credibility to the story. The chapters are written following different characters and that helps keep the story fast paced as we see it happening from different angles, as well as the writing style being different between them, avoiding a monotonous tone throughout the book.

However, this sometimes leads to a cliché of things unfolding in a parallel way to different characters without any reason for it to occur. It is subtle and only happens a couple of times throughout the book. Most of the time, we can see Mackintosh’s capability of following the thought process for each character separately, even if they’ve had an encounter at some point.

Even though some of it I had figured out at the end, Clare Mackintosh is a magician that keeps waving her hand on the opposite direction of what is actually happening, and that’s what I think make this books great.

Overall, it’s a very fast paced book that doesn’t leave you yawning in any chapters, but rather keep you on your metaphorical toes. When I started reading it, I didn’t realise how fast I was going through the pages which I always think is can be an indicative of the quality of the book, as well as my interest in it.

So, if you’re thinking about reading this book, my personal opinion is that if you are looking for a good crime novel, then yes, go pick up a copy or get it for your e-book reader. On the way, pick up the others by the same author as well (I Let You Go, Sphere, 7 May 2015, and I See You, Sphere, 20 April 2017), which I will review here in the blog at some point. For now, I am already waiting for the next book.

The next part contains spoilers: so stop here if you don’t want to read them! Leave a comment bellow letting me know whether or not you’re reading the book!

My review for those who have read the book (spoilers):

Following the book’s narrative with three narrators, I’ll give my opinion on the three flows of the story.

Anna’s side of the story: this is considered to be the main character. After all, the main events happen to her, and we see from her point of view most of what’s happening in the present time. She is trying to live her life even though all these tragedies keep happening to her and I don’t think she is the typical naive person, but rather a girl that doesn’t know what type of lemonade to make with the lemons she was given. For me, the most important moment is in the last lines of the book, which leave us with the question if she indeed had more guts that we saw throughout and if she was the one that decided to end the story the way it did. We can see the anger build up in the last chapters, albeit subtly. This is the trick with these books: we always go back to look for answers of what we don’t know.

Murray’s side of the story: This is the “police” side of the story, even though he is retired and only a civilian. Through here we see most of the thought process behind capturing the perpetrators of the story. Besides what we learn from the crimes that have happened, his whole story ends up being on a completely different arc. I have to admit, though, that his character was the one that I cared the most about. The way he was dealing with his wife’s BPD was heart wrenching, specially in the Christmas pages, which left me with a lump on my throat. Where he thinks about the what could’ve beens of his life and how lonely he was. The fact that she dies was only salt on the wound, even though since it was a natural cause it didn’t build up on Murray’s guilt, which was what I expected the outcome to be. On this edition of the book, there is an extra scene: the moment Sarah and Murray meet. It’s lovely, and I’m glad I could read it and read a little bit about who he was before his whole life depended on someone else. I really liked the ending of this character, and I’m glad he has the rest of his retirement to enjoy being himself.

Perpetrator’s side of the story: This was the most surprising one. We are led to believe that throughout the first part of the book, it is Caroline speaking, but that in Part Two it changes. This is very clever, although it never specifically indicates any change other than the fact that it is no longer in italic. My first clue of it not changing is that if now we know the perpetrator through Caroline’s stories, why didn’t the chapter names appear and was left blank? Still, it is so cleverly written that it still made an impression when the truth is revealed in the later chapters of the book.

My overall opinion on this book it that it was worth the read. If you’ve read the book, please leave a comment letting me know what you think!