From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Do No Harm and The Night Olivia Fell—an “emotionally charged mystery” (Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author)—comes a thrilling new suspense novel about the insidious nature of family secrets…and their deadly potential.If you can’t remember it, how do you prove you didn’t do it? Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and … do it?
Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street. She can’t remember what happened but the police are highly suspicious of her.
Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London—Kat’s former home—for answers. But as she unravels her mother’s carefully held secrets, Eva soon realizes that someone doesn’t want her to know the truth. And with violent memories beginning to emerge, Eva doesn’t know who to trust. Least of all herself.
Told in alternating perspectives from Eva’s search for answers and Kat’s mysterious past, Christina McDonald has crafted another “complex, emotionally intense” (Publishers Weekly) domestic thriller. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell’s I Found You and Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her, Behind Every Lie explores the complicated nature of mother-daughter relationships, family trauma, and the danger behind long-held secrets.
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A suspenseful novel full of family secrets
After reading ‘The Night Olivia Fell’ I knew I’d want to read every book Christina McDonald writes. So, I was very excited to read ‘Behind Every Lie’ and made sure I pre-ordered the moment I could.
The book opens with Eva covered in blood and then seeing her mother crumbled on the floor dead. Eva struggles to remember what happened. Did she do it or someone else? If so, who and why? Eva travels to London to explore her mother’s past she knew nothing about. Why did her mother have so many secrets, and why did she lie to Eva? Was there something in her mother’s past that followed her and was the reason behind the murder?
I loved the fact it was written from two points of view. Eva in the present and Kat, her mother, in the past up until her murder.
This is such a great read! The characters are complex and the plot line sucks you in. It’s hard to put down. It was fun to analyze the characters and their words and behaviors to solve who did it. I thought I had it figured out, but there were some twists near the end, and I was wrong!
So, put dinner in the crockpot and tell your kids not to bother you unless it’s an emergency! Enjoy Christina McDonald’s newest page turner.
Wow! Behind Every Lie is an emotionally charged, thrilling, suspenseful and very dramatic story! I loved this book as much as I loved Christina McDonald’s debut novel The Night Olivia Fell!
The story is told from two perspectives. Eva, who thinks she killed her mother when she wakes up in the hospital covered in blood after being struck by lightning. Katherine, Eva’s mother who has kept a secret to protect her daughter. Just how far would you go to keep your child safe?
This story was delivered with superb intensity and complexity, and was filled with so many surprises! Kudos to Christina McDonald for another awesome five star book!
I really enjoyed The Night Olivia Fell, so I was very excited to read Behind Every Lie. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t hit the mark for me in the same way. Not that this book was bad, it still earned 3 stars and I still finished it, but it was a just bit far-fetched than even I am willing to go.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s twisty, it’s turny and there are definitely “WHAT???” moments. And I really appreciated that McDonald started her reveals early enough in the book that the pieces started to come together without just jamming them down our throat in the last chapter. Regrettably, even though the pieces started coming together, I had figured out much of it on my own.
I would still recommend this book, as it is quite a good thriller. But if you are a seasoned thriller reader, you may be less enthralled with this one.
Thank you to Gallery, Pocket Books for my copy of this book via NetGalley.
This story was slower for me to get into. The characters were a bit confusing and then the story clicked and took off! I’m glad I stuck with it because it turned out to be a great story
Eva Hansen and Liam Sullivan are now living together after dating for 18 months. Liam is a successful property developer and Eva paints and makes pottery.
After spending an evening out for dinner with her mother, aunt, and brother, Eva wakes up in the hospital where she is told she was struck by lightning, but she cannot remember anything. Then she learns that her mother has been murdered and she herself was found not far from her mother’s home covered in her mother’s blood.
The story delves into the past of Eva and her mother. It is a very complicated story and, quite frankly, one I found difficult to believe. So much drama! This is why we call upon the police to help with difficult situations.
I read and reviewed her other book and found that to be good, but again, profoundly dramatic. I have to hand it to the author for having quite an imagination. I know that a lot of readers enjoyed this book as will many others. I’m sorry to say that I found it exhausting.
Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Oh my! Christina McDonald has knocked it out of the park with her new suspense novel Behind Every Lie. If you liked her debut novel The Night Olivia Fell, you will love this one. It is every bit as good. I think it was even better.
The author had a way of steering my thoughts. I was all over the place trying to figure out the murderer. I’m not very good at it, but she took me on an amusement park ride. I kept changing my mind like a loop de loop.
If you like suspense and trying to figure out who done it, you’ll love this book. It has everything I love in a book. It thoroughly entertained me and grabbed my interest.
Someone suggested this book be read in one sitting. If I didn’t have a husband and furbabies, I would have. It is that good.
Now, I am eagerly waiting for a new Christina McDonald book. Great job Christina!
In Behind Every Lie, a lightning strike survivor discovers that memories are fallible, identities are fungible, and she can’t trust anyone — including herself. With nuanced and dubiously trustworthy characters, dual timelines revealing decades of secrets, and a tension-packed plot, Christina McDonald has crafted an engrossing and utterly addictive thriller. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!
I tore through this book in one sitting. The characters were well-developed and the plot was tense and moved quickly. I especially liked how the flashback chapters filled in the gaps for the reader and contributed to the intrigue of the current-day plot. I also found the parallels between pottery and people to be especially insightful. It was an excellent page-turner, and I definitely recommend it. For more thoughts, please visit my blog at Fireflies and Free Kicks Fiction Reviews. This review was based on a digital ARC of the book, and all opinions are my own.
It took me a bit to get going on this story but I’m glad I stuck with it. another good character and even though it started slow it REALLY moved along and I stayed up late reading it. I recommend it
Celeste Robertson
This starts off with Eva having blood on her hands and her seeing her mother on the floor. Then Eva runs and an explosion knocks her out. Next thing she knows she wakes up in the hospital having been struck by lightning and she is told her mother has been killed. Detective Jackson thinks she is the number one suspect – but Eva can’t remember anything about the night. No w, if that isn’t enough to suck you in, I don’t know what is.
This book was written in two point of views. One of Eva current day and one of her mother Kat from 25 years ago leading up to the night she is murdered. This story reminded me of The Twilight Wife by AJ Banner. It might have been the setting, or it might have been the fiancé. I liked this book more than the Night Olivia Fell and I really liked that.
Everything is wrapped up very neatly in this book. I felt that every question was answered and there was nothing left open. Sometimes author’s second books just don’t seem to live up, but this is not the case. Great job.
Christina McDonald’s Behind Every Lie is a cleverly plotted and emotionally charged page-turner about memory, trusting yourself, grieving, and letting go. Family secrets run deep in this compelling exploration of how far a mother will go to protect her child. Full of twists and turns, this is domestic suspense at its best!
After I read “The Night Olivia Fell” by Christina McDonald I quickly knew that the author was going to be one of my favorite writers, and that I would be reading more of her work again. So I was super excited to have won (from the author) an advanced digital copy of her newest novel “Behind Every Lie.” I finished the book back in early December, but decided to hold off on writing a review just so I could savor the story a bit more. Christina McDonald has once again written a brilliant story. Just like her debut novel her sophomore effort grabs your attention from the opening line of first page and never let’s you go until the final turn of the last page. Behind Every Lie is a suspenseful, edge of your seat, intriguing thrill ride. I throughly enjoyed every page of this novel. This fast-paced, chilling story toggles between the past and present day which keeps it enthralling. The dynamic exploration of the complicated mother/daughter relationship is so well written and emotionally charged throughout the captivating storyline. This book kept me up reading late into the night and trying to figure out whodunnit until the very end. If you are looking for a intense book filled with family secrets, lies and deadly consequences to add to your 2020 reading list then I highly recommend Behind Every Lie.
Synopsis: Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street. She can’t remember what happened but the police are highly suspicious of her.
Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London–Kat’s former home–for answers. But as she unravels her mother’s carefully held secrets, Eva soon realizes that someone doesn’t want her to know the truth. And with violent memories beginning to emerge, Eva doesn’t know who to trust. Least of all herself.
So many secrets, so many lies, and I had no clue who to believe. Every character in this book has a story to tell. Each story had lies and truths that were told but it was tough to tell who to believe. I enjoyed every word that I read. I was excited to keep reading, looking for times when I could read another chapter.
I loved that Eva worked to solve her own mystery. She took what she knew and put the pieces together. She was not sitting back and letting the police put the clues together. I questioned who was helping her and who was working against her. I was intrigued by Liam and Eva’s relationship. I questioned if Jacob was a good friend. Andrew was my biggest question as far as if he was a good guy or not. It was fun to start putting the clues together and figuring out the answers to my questions as I continued reading.
I am a fan of Christina McDonald having read The Night Olivia Fell and look forward to reading more of her books.
I binge read this in one sitting because it is a fast paced read and as usual, I NEEDED to know what happened.
This thriller definitely has some strong content triggers including domestic violence, rape, abortion and death of a child.
I’m not sure exactly where i stand on my rating. The premise is that Eva the main character was struck by lightening and wakes up to find her mom dead and is inside who killed her and what happened as her memories are either loss or hazy. The story alternates between a flashback in her mon’s voice/perspective and present day with Eva attempting to investigate and jostle her memory.
Without divulging details, I saw several twists coming and I’m just not 100 sure about the ending (endings are always hard). This was good but not a knock it out of the park five star read for me.
As far as thrillers go, it had a lot of elements that I love – twists & turns, an unsolved death, a complicated backstory, a main character struggling to trust her own understanding of reality and memories. Bottom line: it was entertaining and very bingeable in one sitting.
Behind Every Lie is the sophomore effort from Christina McDonald. I really enjoyed her first book, The Night Olivia Fell and knew I had to read this book as soon as I was offered it. Right off from the prologue, I was hooked. The question and the intrigue just bounced right off the pages. What was this “murder mystery” going to bring me? A main character that has no memory of what happened. Is she a killer? Or is there more to her story??
After the prologue, we are introduced to our characters from before the incident happened. Eva and Liam are a newly engaged couple living in Whidbey Island, Washington. They seem like a normal successful couple. But then we get a taste of Eva’s mother, Kat. From then on the story is told in Eva’s and Kat’s POV in the past and present, England and America. I enjoyed the back and forth of mother and daughter, but the story telling seemed a little choppy. It was enough to keep me pulled in and turning the pages, but I always felt like I was missing something.
Behind Every Lie was well- paced and kept my interest, but it also didn’t feel like all the clues were there to draw the audience in in a cohesive manner. There was just too much happening to Eva. I felt like everything that could be thrown out at her, was. It was too much. It became too unbelievable without enough focus on the smaller details. I actually liked the story being told in the past that brought us to the present, but then the author had to throw something else in there that didn’t seem necessary.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad story, but the ending could’ve been fleshed out better. I liked the fast paced story and the questions arising from the crime. Who’s good versus who’s bad? It had potential but fell flat in the climax with too much going on to Eva. 3+ stars
“Behind Every Lie” is a compelling psychological thriller that I just couldn’t put down! Boasting an intriguing premise that drew me in right from the get-go, this riveting story continued to hold me captive right up until the very end.
Alternating between past and present and offering up different point-of-views, this murder mystery unfolds slowly, revealing a multi-layered plot spun from a complex web of secrets and lies. So, while “Behind Every Lie” begins with Eva Hansen waking in the hospital after being struck by lightning and learning of her mother’s murder, the TRUE story actually started many years before.
As the puzzle pieces started to fall into place, some of my early suspicions proved not a perfect fit, but I was at least riding along the right track. That said, nothing delights me more than a mystery that I can’t quite figure out. Christina McDonald delivered a story that did just that.
Uncovering the truth behind all the lies and living with the consequences.
Behind Every Lie by Christina McDonald is a masterfully written domestic mystery thriller about dark family secrets and the resulting consequences of a lifetime of lies and deception. I was completely blown away by the author’s brilliant writing style and her amazing talent in crafting such an intriguing and clever story. The haunting prologue immediately pulled me in from the very beginning. Kat’s murder and the detailed plot definitely held my attention. Eva’s search for the truth behind the lies was entirely captivating and had me questioning everyone’s motives up until the very end. This thriller is a fast paced read that is filled with lots of tension, twists and turns, and a shocking and revealing conclusion that makes this book impossible to put down. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this intense, emotionally charged and utterly amazing thriller!
Behind Every Lie is a standalone book that takes place in Seattle/Whidbey Island where Eva currently lives and London where Kat used to live. The chapters are written with the alternating points of view of the two main characters Eva Hansen and her mother Kat. Chapters also alternate between Eva in the present and Kat beginning 25 years in the past. Each chapter provides new clues and still more unanswered questions leaving you in expectation of what will happen next. The alternating points of view helped me understand each character and really feel for them. I particularly enjoyed the anticipation that came with this writing style. As the story progresses and the mystery comes to a climax the different timelines seamlessly converge and lead to the night of Kat’s murder revealing shocking secrets of abuse, rape, manipulation, revenge and decades of lies.
The story begins with a celebratory lunch where Eva, her mother Kat, brother Andrew and Aunt Lily all gathered together. It’s clear that Eva feels uncomfortable and insecure but they’re all there to celebrate Kat’s award for saving a little girl’s life. Next, Eva wakes up in a hospital after being struck by lightning to discover that her mother was murdered the night of their gathering. Eva can’t remember what happened or why she was found outside of her mother’s house. Her memory is fuzzy with only small vague hints of that night. The detective investigating the murder is clearly suspicious of her lack of memory. Her fiancée, Liam, is questioning her every move and is suspicious. When Eva finds out that she’s a suspect in her mother’s murder, she determined to find out the truth and clear her name. A note found in her mother’s office has Eva questioning everything about her past and leads her to London where she begins to unravel the truth behind her mother’s closely guarded secrets. Eva soon realizes that there’s so much she didn’t know about Kat. She discovers that most of her life is a lie but self doubt and a sketchy memory of the past has her wondering if she’s the one responsible for her mother’s murder. As she gets closer to finding out the truth she begins to suspect that she too is in danger. When she discovers the truth will it forever change her relationship with her fiancée Liam? Will she be forgiven for her own past decisions? Will the truth destroy her relationship with her childhood friend Jacob?
Kat’s story takes you back 25 years when she lived in London with Eva. Kat is a socially awkward person who often deals with others with hard scientific facts and cold truths. She’s often detached, unemotional and cold. Kat shares a unique friendship with Rose and her daughter Laura. When tragedy strikes, Kat and Rose are forced to make decisions that will alter their lives forever. When Kat reflects on her choices, she wishes she was a better, more loving mother to Eva, in the end questioning her decisions and her deception. Did she lie only to keep them safe? Did the reasons and justifications for the choices that were made begin to blur over time? Did the lies ultimately keep them safe?
I absolutely enjoyed reading this story! The author’s writing style and masterfully crafted plot were absolutely brilliant and completely captivating. The author easily pulls you in and makes you feel like part of the story. I loved the smooth transitions between chapters, each one adding a detail that’s important to the story. The characters were all really well developed and complex, each hiding their own secrets. I connected with the characters, related to each of their circumstances and struggled with their guilt and lies. I was rooting for Eva as she finally was able to accept the past, forgive her loved ones and her own choices, and finally realize “In a world of bad breaks-broken hearts, broken promises, broken dreams-I’d managed to create the most beautiful future out of my very broken body.” I thoroughly enjoyed the slow uncovering of the truth, the twist and turns of the story, and how the lies, deceptions and betrayals all came together for a somewhat shocking and surprising ending.
There were so many layers to this thriller. The author’s use of rich settings, Eva’s lightning burns and the elements of lightning, thunder, rain and darkness to intensify the intrigue and the feeling of impending doom. Having the thunder and lightning finally reveal all of Eva’s memories was completely enthralling as she uncovers not only the truth behind Kat’s murder but the truth of who she is, her past attack and the reality of her relationship with Liam. So many answers all coming at once made the climax thrilling and surprising. I also enjoyed the author’s use of art, specifically kintsugi, to explain how something broken can still be functional and beautiful. “We can be strong and brave and broken and whole all at the same time.” This was also a wonderful story about mother and daughter relationships as well as the rivalry between siblings. In the end all of the characters made hard choices that required them to live with the consequences. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves complex family dynamics, murder mysteries/thrillers, a completely amazing multi-layered story and a shocking ending! This is the first book I’ve read by Christina McDonald and I quickly devoured it! I look forward to reading more of her books. In my humble opinion, Behind Every Lie was simply outstanding!
I received an advanced reader’s copy from Gallery Books and the author through BookishFirst in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.
Eva wakes up in the hospital to learn she has been struck by lightning, and her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Most surprising, the detective seems to consider her a suspect. A ludicrous thought, although one of the few memories Eva does have is standing over her mother with a bloody knife in her hand.
As eager to prove to herself as she is to show the detective she didn’t hurt her mother, Eva embarks on her own investigation, which takes her to London where she learns nearly everything she thought she knew about her history was a lie. Thank goodness she has her loyal fiancé, Liam, by her side as her own behavior becomes more erratic.
I’d been in a reading slump and needed a book that would grab me from the very first page, and this one definitely did. Both settings were appealing, and Eva was a relatable protagonist. Some of the plot twists I was able to guess, but some surprised me. All in all, an excellent suspense novel.
Christina McDonald is such an excellent author. I loved her first novel, The Night Olivia Fell and was eager to read her second.
Behind Every Lie again delves into the sometimes difficult relationships of mothers and daughters. It again discusses the lies we keep and how they can help us and how they can hurt us. Some secrets seem like protection, sure, but at what point do you need to come clean?
I love how McDonald doesn’t necessarily leave her readers in the dark. In Behind Every Lie we have two timelines and two character’s narratives racing together to meet up and blow your mind (basically).
First, we have Eva, a daughter on the verge of marriage. It seems like her life is really turning into what dreams are made of. A helpful fiance who encourages her art and supports her, a beautiful house, you name it! But then she wakes up disoriented and confused and in excruciating pain in a hospital bed. She’s been struck by lightning and the unfortunate side effects of that trauma just happen to make her life a hell of a lot more difficult. Paranoia, amnesia…. both things you don’t want to be experiencing when you learn your mother has been murdered and you can’t remember where you were the night before.
Speaking of her mother, we get to hear from Kat herself before her untimely demise. Kat’s timeline happens about 20 years before and drops us in England before their move to the United States. Introducing shady characters, unexpected tragedies, and crazy turns in this timeline too!
Just when you think you’ve got a handle of whats going on and who to suspect, McDonald throws another twist your way. I can’t wait to keep up with this author and what she comes up with next.
Another amazing book by this author this book will leave you breathless there is so many twists and turns you cant hardly keep up a definite must read the way she writes is a phenomenal because you literally feel what the characters are feeling the way she describes the atmosphere and the weather makes you feel it i highly recommend reading this book