Books Read: Lying to You by Amanda Reynolds

You think you know the truth about that night, but what if your husband is LYING TO YOU?

When Jess Tidy was Mark Winter's student, she made a shocking accusation. Mark maintained his innocence, but the damage was done.

Karen Winter stood by her husband through everything, determined to protect her family.

Now, ten years later, Jess is back. And the truth about that night is finally going to come out...

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I'd like to thank Anne Cater from Random Things Through my Letterbox for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour and Headline for my copy of Lying to You to review which I received via NetGalley.

Firstly I have a confession to make in that I still haven't read Amanda Reynolds'  debut novel Close to Me despite meeting the author last year and getting her to sign my proof copy of the book!  Last year was a bad year for me reading wise and sadly this book was one of the ones to be neglected but having just finishing reading her current book Lying to You I resolve to rectify this sooner rather than later.

Lying to You is a story that will have you questioning and doubting as to who is telling the truth about the events of that fateful night 10 years ago, there were so many inconsistencies in their respective accounts that as a reader you really have to reserve judgement until all the facts have been revealed.  But as is so often the case in real life it is so easy to jump to conclusions, and I'm as guilty as charged in that aspect whilst reading this book, as certain things said and actions taken by the respective characters made them totally unreliable narrators and made you question who was telling the truth, or what they believed to be their own versions of the truth...

Jess has not been home since she fled her small town but now she's back and not only having to deal with the death of her mother and all that entails for her dysfunctional family, but it also means that there is a likelihood that this will bring her face to face with her teenage mentor Mark Winter and his wife Karen who she last faced in a courtroom. The story is told from the viewpoints of the two main female characters Jess and Karen, and it was clear that they were both deeply troubled, tormented women who have coped with blotting out feelings and emotions in their own ways.

But what I thought was an interesting concept is that we also get to see accounts of that period 10 years ago through two other means, transcripts of therapy sessions between Jess and supervision sessions with a counsellor, as well as Karen reading chapters from a novel she has discovered written by Mark on his computer.  Both were clever additions which really helped to give us as readers a few more snippets of the relationship between Jess and Mark and help us piece together what really happened.  At times I almost found myself flicking through the pages a bit too quickly to get to the next transcript or chapter of the novel to read these aspects of the storyline, almost more so than the events of the current day.

It feels wrong to say I enjoyed reading this book considering its subject and the fact that I didn't particularly warm to any of the characters involved but it is testament to the writing skills of Amanda Reynolds that I found this to be a cleverly crafted, compelling read.  I'll be interested to see where she takes us with her next book.

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