One little secret between a married woman, her lover, and a killer.In this thrilling standalone from the internationally bestselling author of the Frieda Klein series, a married woman’s affair with her boss spirals into a dangerous game of chess with the police when she discovers he’s been murdered and she clears the crime scene of all evidence.It should have been just a mid-life fling. A guilty … evidence.
It should have been just a mid-life fling. A guilty indiscretion that Neve Connolly could have weathered. An escape from twenty years of routine marriage to her overworked husband, and from her increasingly distant children. But when Neve pays a morning-after visit to her lover, Saul, and finds him brutally murdered, their pied-à-terre still heady with her perfume, all the lies she has so painstakingly stitched together threaten to unravel.
After scrubbing clean every trace of her existence from Saul’s life—and death—Neve believes she can return to normal, shaken but intact. But she can’t get out of her head the one tormenting question: what was she forgetting?
An investigation into the slaying could provide the answer. It’s brought Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Hitching, and Neve’s worst fears, to her door. But with every new lie, every new misdirection to save herself, Neve descends further into the darkness of her betrayal—and into more danger than she ever imagined. Because Hitching isn’t the only one watching Neve. So is a determined killer who’s about to make the next terrifying move in a deadly affair….
more
The novel begins with a very domestic scene. Neve, a 40ish mom is fixing breakfast and packing school lunches for her three children and making tea for her husband who starts his day by unloading the dishwasher. This is a normal morning for families all over the world. But we soon find out that life isn’t as happy as it first appears. Neve, after 20 years of marriage, has decided to add some excitement to her life by having an affair with her boss Saul. Why not – her life has gotten in a rut, she is the major breadwinner in the family and her children have gotten to the age that they don’t really need her anymore. As the family is having breakfast, she receives a text from Saul to meet him at the flat he rents because he misses her after the fun evening they’d had the day before. When she arrives at the flat, she finds Saul brutally murdered and immediately goes into survival mode. To cover it up, she lies to her husband, her family, her friends and the police. As her lies get more confusing, she lies to cover her lies. I was reminded of the line “Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive.” The rest of the book is full of twists and turns as Neve keeps changing here story and changes her mind over and over about who really killed Saul.
This was an interesting novel and I didn’t have a clue who the ‘bad guy’ was until near the end of the novel and enjoyed all of the red herrings. My main problem with this book is that I really didn’t like any of the characters. I thought that Neve hid too much of herself from those she loved, I thought that her husband was a lazy person who didn’t contribute emotionally to the family and I didn’t like their daughter Mabel who had a terrible attitude toward her parents. I also didn’t like any of Neve’s work friends. It’s really difficult to get invested into a story if you don’t connect with any of the characters. That said, this book did have a lot of promise and an interesting story line so I plan to try some different books by this author.
Thanks to goodreads for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
The Lying Room was my introduction to this author (actually a husband and wife team writing under a pseudonym), and it certainly won’t be the last book of theirs that I read. Neve Connolly does pretty much everything wrong when she finds her lover murdered, and the lies come back to haunt her. The characters in this story are well-drawn and multi-dimensional, if not overly likeable, which is a challenge in terms of keeping readers invested. French pulls it off, and keeps us guessing as the story unfolds, spiraling Neve ever deeper into chaos and danger. An excellent read!
Great series , working my way thru them, up to book 3 now
I didn’t make it through the book. I did not like it at all. Not just too wordy, but never got anywhere. Just kept saying the same things over and over and over……….. And making ridiculous decisions. I couldn’t stand it anymore after 45%.
I got about 10 pages into this and couldn’t get into the story.
The Lying Room is a remarkably well-told story, an excellent murder mystery, filled with lots of unexpected twists and turns. I dare you to figure out “who done it” before it’s revealed. The book is filled with wonderful characters, all well-defined, ones you can relate to.
You’ll find a great depiction of a working mother and the life of a real family. There are plenty of secrets. Neve suffers a mid-life crisis that leads her to do something she never thought she would, have an affair. But when she discovers her paramour dead, she takes a path that few would and tries to erase her existence from the crime scene. As things begin to spiral, time with her family becomes precious and tense. More secrets will come out at home and at work. Will Neve be able to maintain her claim of innocence, keep her family together and protected, and deal with the grief?
This was a page turner. I kept reading it long after I should have gone to bed, desperate to discover what would come next and trying to guess who was behind the murder. I could never outguess the author. This book will keep you interested and guessing. I enjoyed it very much and look forward to reading other books by this author.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. I thank them for their generosity, but it had not effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.
I am so over books that describe characters who make bad decisions over and over and over. It is just irritating. And Neve is the epitome of such actions. If you are a newbie to the thriller genre, then you may enjoy this book. But as a frequent reader of thrillers, I found the book a little too unrealistic. There are so many good thrillers on the market, that an author has to be on her A-game to really catch my attention and pull me into the book.
So while not a bad book, it wasn’t the best one I’ve read either. It was just okay.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Secrets and lies and lies and secrets!! Boy does Neve have them in spades!! Neve is looking down at her murdered lover and she makes the decision not to call the police. Fletcher and the kids cannot know about her affair. She becomes embroiled in more lies and more secrets and in the process Mabel, her troublesome daughter, who is about to head to University becomes involved as well. Neve and Fletcher’s friends from back at University have their own lists of secrets and lies and I begin to wonder if anyone in this book is real about anything. It begs the age old question – what would you do to protect yourself and those you love?
The Lying Room grabs your attention from the beginning and will not let go. Neve Connolly has been married twenty years with three children and she has been getting a little something on the side. An early morning text sends Neve stumbling upon the body of her lover with a bashed in skull. With a cold calculated concentration, Neve cleans up any evidence of her affair and proceeds to try and live her life. Neve is not particularly a sympathetic character especially the way she calmly steps over the blood of her lover to get rid of any evidence that might be found. She claims to be in love but her actions seem self preserving. The book keeps you reading to see who really committed murder and if Neve’s affair will come to light. One thing is made clear quickly, Neve is a really good liar. The book will make you question how far some one would go to hide their secrets. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.
This book is far from “run of the mill” – keeps you eager to turn the next page!!!
Full of twists and turns. Lots of suspects a day family with a lot to lose.
Only okay … the long-suffering heroine is truly long-suffering. At some point, I wanted to just give up on that type of martyrdom, and say enough is enough. At least the ending was slightly more upbeat than almost the entire book.
I really loved this book, I was so excited at having found one that was well written and kept me enthralled. Finally!
And then the last couple of chapters. Sometimes I find authors try too hard, and that’s what I feel about the ending. The story, the book was so good, and then it just became crazy absurd.
Neve is a middle aged mom, who is having an affair. She arrives at the apt of her lover only to find him dead, murdered. She cleans up EVERYTHING. And then goes home and the police show up anyway.
The book presets Never as a smart capable much loved person, juggling a difficult college bound daughter, a somewhat detached husband, a group of friends who never seem to go home and a murder. The fun part is that everyone in the story short of the pet guinea pig is a possible suspect, with motive and opportunity. And the police officer keeps on showing up at her door. Will she find the killer in time to cover herself? Will the police figure out what she did? Quick, edge of yours read .
A woman, Neve, is having an affair with her boss, Saul. When she goes to meet him for a tryst one morning, she is stunned to find him dead in the flat where they would meet. She then decides to clean up the murder scene to wipe away any trace of their affair. However, when she discovers that she left something in the flat, and goes to retrieve it, she makes a terrifying discovery. Now she knows that someone knows about the affair and she doesn’t know what to do.
Neve tried to balance her family, her co-workers, and the detectives as she tries to find the truth about Saul’s murder. Unlikely relationships and secrets come out, and Neve is troubled more and more.
I liked the tension in this book, but I was not convinced of Neve’s ability to be so methodical and to find out the murderer. I found this to be unreal, which prevented me from liking this book more.
#TheLyingRoom #NicciFrench #NetGalley
Long a fan of Nicci French, this was my first stand alone book of hers I’d read. It surpassed any expectations I had of knowing I was in for a treat. I’m sure I held my breath the whole way through, and in fairness was asked only once to suspend belief and just go with it. Otherwise, yes, everything could have happened just as it was written. I thought the mother-daughter dynamic was a brilliant, realistic subplot gotten exactly right, lent just the perfect struggle of the closeness/push-away dance mothers and their daughters do as they’re about to separate on the cusp of adulthood. So many possible suspects, so many possible scenarios. Who is secretly watching our protagonist every minute, why and from where? She’s just a wife , a mother, an employee. Yes, she’s crossed a thin personal line, but why should it bother anyone outside her family who doesn’t even know it happened? The tension mounts and mounts. Nicci French has perfected the art of the true definition of page-turner. They (the husband-wife team that are Nicci French) just don’t ever disappoint. One of the best thrillers I’ve ever read. I do so much love their days of the week thrillers, read in order, of course, too.
I am the BIGGEST Nicci French fan – this book was disappointing to me – not along the epic story lines of the old books.
If you like stories full of friends you can’t rely on, lots of drinking and a never ending chase between a detective and a suspect – this is your book. For me all those things took away my focus on the story itself.
I would have rated this a five because it is very well plotted, but at times, mostly in the beginning, for me it was way too wordy. Overall, a great read.