The Lie by C. L. Taylor

Synopsis

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 . . .

Review

I have read all of C L Taylor’s books to date from her romances (Heaven can wait is in my top 10 books of all time) to her thriller ‘The Accident’ last year, so this book was on my list of highly anticipated books of 2015! The more and more I read the plot, the more intrigued I became, wishing this book would just be absorbed into my mind by some kind of voodoo or something. This book doesn’t disappoint. Just a small handful of pages in and I found it absolutely compelling.

You start this book introduced to Jane who works in an animal rescue centre, and it's not long before you're plunged into the first intrigue. You are then plunged into the past. I think this is where the book absolutely shines. You are treated to beautifully written descriptions of Nepal and Ekantra Yatra, the resort the friends stay in.

That isn't to say the future isn't as enjoyable it is, I felt myself freaked out by what was happening to Jane and the scene in the old lady's home with all the rabbit sounds gruesome and the end of that chapter properly creeped me out.

Jane was really likeable and easy to relate too, I sympathised with her for the whole duration of the book.

At first I really expected that I would like Daisy, sometimes introverted people like Jane need an extrovert person like Daisy, but as time went on, she seemed less and less likeable. Even when hearing her past antics before Nepal. Leanne I never liked from the start, and was immediately suspicious when she was so insistent on going to Ekantra Yatra, even at the risk of Al's health. Al was the opposite of Daisy, I wasn't keen on her to start with, but warmed as soon as they left Britain. Whether I liked or disliked the characters, they were all completely believable and it was easy to find myself emotionally invested in the book pretty much from the get go.

I can't say too much about the story as I don't want to give anything away, but worry not, you will want to finish this book almost as quick as you start it. I had a few guesses as to certain things, but it was completely wrong and when the reveal gradually happened it was not something I was expecting at all. Another cracking thriller from C L Taylor. Compelling from page one, a must read this year, and the sooner, the better!

Released on 23rd April 2015
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Published by: HarperCollins UK, Avon
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review.