The Night She Lied by Lucy Dawson, book review

I decided to choose The Night She Lied with my Audible Credit because it sounded like just the sort of thriller I would have enjoyed. It turned out to be a book of two halves.

The Blurb

Every family has secrets. Would you kill to keep yours?

It’s midnight in the hospital when Jude’s phone rings, interrupting her precious 15-minute break. When she sees it’s her 70-year-old mother, Margaret, she braces herself for the usual complaints. But her blood runs cold at four words that will change everything…‘something terrible has happened.’

Margaret has been accused of an unspeakable crime committed 20 years ago. She insists she’s not guilty, and begs Jude to help her prove it. But as Jude is drawn into the dark secrets of her family’s past, she starts to question whether her mother is really as innocent as she claims to be.

Soon, Jude realises what happened 20 years ago is more entangled with her own life than she could ever have imagined. And as she stands face-to-face with her mother’s accuser, she knows the cost of protecting her family will be someone else’s life…

My Review of The Night She Lied.

As I said at the beginning it was a book of two halves for me. The first half had me completely gripped and I just ‘had’ to know what had happened. In other words, it was a real page turner. The Second half was more of a court room drama interspersed with a little background history. I don’t mind a court room drama and it was still very much a page turner, just different.

The main character, Jude, was difficult to warm to. Her mother was the villain of the story, or was she? Timothy and Johnny were my favourite characters at least they had some personality. Rick, or Richard was also unlikeable. It makes a difference to the story when you can’t find something relatable in characters.

It starts with Jude, working nights, and meeting a stranger with whom she finds herself attracted to, despite only losing her husband a year previously. She gets a call saying her Mother has been arrested on historical charges of abuse.

The story evolves and there is death, possibly murder, and abuse of minors which are all quite harrowing. But, even though I was hooked and I enjoyed the story, I do think that the author was trying to be too clever for her own good. I found the plot too complex and confusing and even though I like to be kept thinking about what was the truth really was, this gave the answers but still left you questioning. I think there is a talent in writing a story that leaves you thinking about the story for the right reasons and this book just doesn’t quite make it. I can’t really tell you more without giving the entire story away. I’m by no means saying it’s a bad story. I just think it could have been thought out a little more carefully, or maybe I need to read it again to see if there are some clues I’ve missed.

I’d definitely read something else by Lucy Dawson though, she has an excellent writing prose and I was completely taken in. The narrator, Rachel Atkins, was also a really good story teller.

The Night She Lied is Also available in paperback

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