The Lying Room
from the bestselling author of Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
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3.9 • 22 Ratings
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Publisher Description
The addictive thriller from the master of psychological suspense and author of Richard & Judy Book Club pick Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
‘Expertly paced, psychologically sharp, thoroughly enjoyable' Louise Candlish
‘Meticulously plotted, psychologically astute’ Sarah Vaughan
'Confirms Nicci French as the giant of the genre' Erin Kelly
‘A pure adrenaline rush’ Jenny Colgan
Neve Connolly looks down at a murdered man.
She doesn't call the police.
‘You know, it’s funny,’ Detective Inspector Hitching said. ‘Whoever I see, they keep saying, talk to Neve Connolly, she’ll know. She’s the one people talk to, she’s the one people confide in.’
A trusted colleague and friend.
A mother.
A wife.
Neve Connolly is all these things.
She has also made mistakes.
One that is now spiralling out of control.
Bringing those around her into immense danger.
A liar.
A cheat.
A threat.
Neve Connolly is all these things.
Could she be a murderer?
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
By now, we know Nicci French books to be a few things: completely suspenseful, impossible to second guess and written with a surgeon’s precision. This standalone novel is all of this—with an extra dollop of delicious intrigue. In it we meet Neve Connolly, a wife and mother people seem to trust and adore. It soon becomes clear that all isn’t as it seems when she discovers the dead body of a man she knows, but decides not to inform the police. Supreme pleasure is taken in unspooling the real Neve secret by secret until we hurtle breathlessly towards a climax we’re delighted to say we completely and utterly failed to see coming.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Family drama and office politics take center stage in this tense standalone from the pseudonymous French, the husband-and-wife writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French (the Frieda Klein series). Neve Connolly's discreet affair with her married boss, Saul Stevenson, was meant to relieve her stress at being the family's primary breadwinner and main parent to three challenging children, while her illustrator husband, Fletcher, goes on endless job interviews. Then she finds Saul murdered in his London apartment. Fearing the affair will become public, destroying her marriage and devastating her emotionally fragile daughter, Mabel, she scrubs the apartment of every bit of her presence. But she forgets her signature piece of jewelry. When she returns for it, it's missing, as is the murder weapon that was lying next to the body. Neve's co-workers wonder what will happen to them, since Saul's company only recently acquired their firm, while she worries she'll be the primary suspect. French makes Neve a fully rounded character through her relationships with friends and colleagues, though Neve's family dynamics stoop to the melodramatic. Fans of domestic thrillers will be rewarded.
