In this gripping novel of suspense, the disappearance of a couple’s baby daughter leaves everyone a suspect.Susan has everything she ever wanted. A loving husband, an angelic daughter and the cottage of her dreams in County Cork. Her picture-perfect life seems too good to be true. And it is.At a housewarming party with their new neighbours, her daughter Amelia goes missing. As friends become … missing. As friends become suspects, Susan’s life spirals out of control. And when Amelia’s yellow cardigan is dredged from the lake, every parent’s worst nightmare suddenly seems horribly real.
In the aftermath of Amelia’s disappearance Susan and her husband Paul are not themselves. Someone is hiding something. What if Susan and Paul’s entire relationship was built on lies stretching back years?
Some secrets may be best left buried in the past, but uncovering the truth could be the only way to find Amelia – before it’s too late.
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Looking at this book’s reviews, people either loved or hated it. I think I’m in the middle. It does get crazy when Susan’s despicable plan starts to play out, and there are certainly no redeeming qualities in any of the characters. But the WOW and the OH Sh*T factors were there and kept me reading. I guess I like plots that are unpredictable and maybe a little off the wall although the end was somewhat disappointing. I really wanted Susan to pay a little more for her sins. I can’t say more without spoilers, so I’ll stop here.
A good revenge story with a surprise ending.
Under Lying is a suspense-thriller that focuses on the sudden disappearance of a couple’s little girl. Susan and Paul’s daughter Amelia goes missing during a house-warming party. After Amelia’s disappearance, the relationship between Susan and her husband slowly begins to disintegrate. Paul appears as if he is pointing the finger of blame at Susan and others. There are a lot of moving “parts” at this point in the book, a lot of characters and actions to consider with nothing looking too obvious. Other minor characters are introduced during the party such as Helen, a neighbour that seems friendly and supportive of Susan during the ordeal.
The book is split into two timelines, the past and the present. I wasn’t too keen on the flicking back and forth between the two. I would have preferred that the author didn’t separate the timelines and rather integrated the past into the present without having to define it in separate chapters. I think this segregates the flow of the story way too much and is almost distracting.
In the past timeline, Susan is a student with a twin brother, also a student. Susan’s brother, Adam, goes out to get champagne for their 21st party, and a terrible accident kills him. Susan goes through the various phases of grief, even attending a bereavement group at her old primary school to try and cope with the loss. This is where we meet Jenny, also coping with loss in her life and the two become friends.
I found it hard to feel sympathy for Susan. Early on in the book, I felt nothing but an annoyance for her. I understand this character has endured a lot, but for some reason, she reads like she is just overly-needy and I find that aspect of her difficult to like. Losing a child is a severe topic to tackle, and I commend the writer for choosing this as a foundation for the book. It’s abundantly clear early on in the current timeline that Susan is either very good at acting like she’s grieving for her daughter or entirely truthful about it. I think this aspect of Susan’s personality is both the best and the worst part about her. I also would have thought that after losing a brother as a teenager and a twin at that, Susan would be slightly more experienced in dealing with this level of grief.
Turning to the husband, Paul, he isn’t as engaging as Susan, but there is an air of “what the hell is going on” with him throughout the first half of the book that keeps you wondering about his motivation. Lots of questions arise, which is mirrored in the actions of the detectives assigned to solve the case.
The first major twist in the story comes about half-way through the book, and it’s not very subtle either. I did feel that there was a bit of a “jump” in the plot development, almost like the author was trying to rush through the rest of the story to get to the end. That said, this particular plot twist does what it was intended to do, which is to catch you completely off-guard. It seemed a little “out of nowhere”, but I think the author fully intended for this to happen and for the most part, it works well.
There are several twists throughout this book, but I didn’t feel the others were as impactful as the first. Susan doesn’t escape my original thoughts about her which makes it a lot easier to get behind the person she became as the plot progresses. By the end of the book, I expected to feel a little more relieved than I did, relieved that the story was over and that I didn’t have to continue reading about a character I didn’t enjoy.
I was a tad disappointed at the end as the book had so much promise, which kind of dwindled right after the first twist is revealed. I found myself more invested in the main character than the character deserved. And the ending felt like something was missing or unfinished – perhaps unfinished business or justice unserved.
I was set to give this book 2 stars, but the ending was exciting enough that I decided to give it 3 stars. I felt the description of this book was misleading, and would have not chosen this book if I had a better description of the book (not the authors fault, since they don’t write the descriptions.) The book was far more like a soap-opera with unbelievable story twists and total character changes, then an actual suspense novel. Although not portrayed graphically, abuse was prevalent throughout the book-psychological abuse, child abuse, spouse abuse, friend abuse. Their was little character development, and all of the main characters were either either complete idiots, or completely evil–and in at least the case of 1 character, both. The characters actions often contradicted what their character development would have led us to predict–I guess that is the “suspense” part of the story? One of the characters personality changes back and forth from being completely narcissistic to having a conscience and doubt about the evil actions it perpetrates–this change did not make any sense in the book. Many distracting inconsistencies in the book, for example when the author makes a big deal about the parents and 2 year old’s bedroom being on the same floor in chapter 1….but in chapter 3, suddenly the child’s bedroom is on the 1st floor and the parents on the 2nd floor. A minor note for US readers, the author is UK and uses UK English, most of which is understandable and which has no bearing on the story if one isn’t familiar with it ( ie whether the main character is buying her husband biscuits or cookies doesn’t matter.) One noticeable exception where we learn 2 characters are living above a chipper. As a US reader, my first thought was the book was going straight for out and out horror…a few chapters later though the context made clear that a UK chipper is a fast-food restaurant, not the US definition. Some of the scenes were incredibly ridiculous, like when a character leaves a good-bye note written in lipstick (leaving the good-bye note didn’t even make context with the characters actions.) While I like the fast pace of the ending, and it did keep me reading until the end (hence the 3 stars, instead of 2 stars,) the actual ending was unbelievable and did not make sense. At least with 1 of the characters involved in the final confrontation, the reasoning for this characters actions was at least loosely explained. With the other character, there was no reason given for this characters actions, other than perhaps narcissism, which didn’t make sense, since unlike the other character, this character had not been portrayed as a narcissist. Overall, if you don’t mind the abuse in the story, and just want some non-thinking entertainment, this books works. If you want a serious suspense story, look elsewhere.