A page-turner to be sure! Secrets - Lies and a Mother's descent into Despair, Paranoia ....Madness?
These characters are not the most likeable, but you can't stop reading about them. The small village where everyone knows everyone and yet no-one saw anything on the night that young Beth disappears - really? Melanie, Beth's mother, rips through the village with her accusations and wild behavior. She annoys everyone, even the police, who say she is hindering their investigation. But, she just doesn't stop!
There is a lot going on here, descriptions are wonderful and I especially liked the way we hear from Melanie - her voice, if you will. There is one baffling incident that just should not have been in the story, totally was not needed in my opinion, concerning Jacob. It's small, but noticeable. Overall, a most enjoyable read. I would definitely read Ms. Copperthwaite again.

**Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley in exchange of an honest review.**

This was an entertaining psych thriller. The multiple viewpoints were well written, so they were not confusing, or hard to follow. I was able to figure out the major twists before they happened, but that is not too unusual for me, so I didn't take much away for that. It was a fast, easy read, and those are always nice to have!

A well written gripping psychological thriller. Really enjoyed this book.

Does Melanie Oak have the perfect life? She's married to her childhood sweetheart, Jacob. They have a beautiful, loving, teenage daughter, Beth.

Then Beth goes missing. She is discovered beaten and close to death, lying in a frozen creek on the marshes close to their home. Melanie is consumed by grief but determined to find her daughters attacker.

Did someone in the village see anything? As Melanie pieces together what has happened she discovers her innocent daughter her own dark secrets.

Gripping, tense and very hard to put down. What a great read this is. It is full of clues and suspects. I was hooked after reading the prologue. The characters are believable. Most chapters are voiced by Melanie who I did not like but that just made the story more believable for me. The authors description of the intensive care unit gave me chills. The ending does not disappoint.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Barbara Copperthwaite for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A very good thriller with a good plot and a surprising ending. This could be based on any family, anywhere. I never really had empathy with Melanie, the lead character, and at times I got really irritated with her actions. The book is fast paced from the beginning with plenty twists to keep the reader intrigued. Very good characterisation although I never liked any of them! My huge thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for my copy.I reviewed on Goodreads.

Addictive, Thrilling, Captivating! I could not put this book down, it captures your interest from the very first page until the very last! Follow a grieving mother who's 13 year old daughter was attacked and left for dead in the nearby marsh. We follow her journey through every emotion that follows grief, and suspect after suspect. Through every twist and turn you keep suspecting someone new, but the one person you never suspect, the one hiding there all along is who it is! Then not only do you get the shock of a lifetime finding out who left her for dead- you get another one right after!! You will literally be screaming WHAT??!! An amazing read for any fan of books! Any genre- this book hit it all and i loved every second of it!

The storyline is without a doubt one that is a parents worst nightmare. Realising your child has gone missing but then even when found, the nightmare only really starts to begin.

My heart literally poured out with grief for Melanie and her husband Jacob. Their only daughter clinging onto existence with very little hope of pulling through. Having to go to the hospital day after day and not see any signs of improvement, my heart literally broke for them. One particular part of the story had me in floods of tears and I had to have a bit of a breather whilst I composed myself. It really did make for some very emotional reading in parts.

I have to admit I am not a lover of stories told in the first person but I think the fact that Melanie was speaking in her head more to her daughter than the reader, which I think was her way of keeping Beth alive and being there with her, was something as a human being I could relate to.
The story does flick about quite a bit between Melanie, her daughter Beth and a character that we don't get to find out until later on in the story. I have to admit to guessing correctly quite early on who the character behind those chapters was. As the book description suggests though, there was a twist that I certainly did not see which totally rocked me so it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book whatsoever.

As the title of the story suggests, this is one novel that is riddled with lies and deceit. It is one that will have you turning page after page whilst discovering untruth after untruth. It had me feeling so many emotions of shock, anger, frustration, love, it really took me on an emotional roller coaster of a ride. A ride that will leave lasting memories, which for me is a sign of a good book indeed.

If you've been following my blog, then you know psychological thrillers and I have had a bit of a rocky relationship lately. But then something like this comes along and my faith in the genre is restored.

Melanie's thirteen year old daughter Beth doesn't come home one day. During a search, she's found in a freezing creak, left to die. Melanie and her family live in a small village so whoever attacked Beth, must be someone they know. As Melanie feels the police aren't doing enough, she sets off to investigate on her own, alienating both her family and the villagers.

The Darkest Lies hooked me from the very first page and didn't let go. A psychological thriller this may be, but it was also highly emotional. Most of the story is told through Melanie's point of view and those really hit their mark with me. Her daily struggle to adjust to a life she didn't bargain for and her sheer determination to find the truth and justice for Beth was heartbreaking.

The small village and its residents hold a lot of secrets and nobody is who they seem to be. Can Melanie even trust anyone else but herself when everyone around her could be a suspect? There are plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing, leading all the way to a jaw-dropping ending that left me spinning.

A highly engrossing and gripping psychological thriller that shows there are still some gems to be discovered in this tricky genre.

Many thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for my advanced copy, which I chose to review.

I enjoyed this book but I found the narrative a little hard to follow at times. I had to remember that it is written as a mother relating events to her daughter but not actually speaking to her daughter in person. It is very well written if not a little wordy but the story is great. The twists and turns are very surprising and it brings to mind that old saying of "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer". But if your friends are your enemies, Beware!

Melanie's young daughter is found almost dead in a marsh, she lives in a small village where everyone knows everything about everyone. Suddenly when something like this happens no one knows anything. Living in such a small village you know you have to know who has done the crime, or someone knows something, but everyone is choosing not to tell their little bit of knowledge of that night to hide their own secrets. An old friend comes to the village and befriends Melanie, but he may have one of the biggest secrets of all. This book is really good, I could not stop reading it.

I got this book from NetGalley. Melanie and Jacob's 13-year-old daughter Beth doesn't come home one day and is later found beaten and unconscious. It becomes obvious early on that Beth lied to her parents about what she was doing the night she disappeared, and Melanie takes it upon herself, with the help of a friend, to investigate as she feels the police are not doing anything to find Beth's attacker. I didn't really like most of the characters in this, but I did enjoy the story. It was a page-turner, and I was really interested to keep reading and see what happened next. There were two big "reveals" at the end, sort of plot twists of who did what, one of which was a surprise and the other I saw coming from early on. I rated this one 4 stars, but it was more like 3.5.

Melanie Oak is a mother that gets the news that every parent out there dreads the most, that her little girl Beth has been hurt and is in the hospital hanging onto life. Melanie had walked her daughter most of the way to a friends house but as typical of a young teen Beth convinced her mother she could make it on her own but the next morning they find the girl had never arrived having lied to her parents her plans for the night.

Melanie being the distraught mother makes it her mission to make sure that the truth is revealed about what really happened to her daughter that night. Being a small community someone somewhere must have seen something and knows how her daughter ended up broken and beaten alone in the marshes and Melanie is determined she will get to the truth no matter the cost.

The Darkest Lies is a psychological thriller that takes a reader on quite a journey to get to just what happened to a young girl who is now hanging onto life. A lot of the story is told from the point of view of Melanie, the mother, who is doing a lot of internal talking to her injured daughter Beth about how she is going to find what happened that night. Now I’ve read books of this nature before but for some reason at times in this story Melanie would irritate me a bit with her internal monologue to Beth, perhaps because I questioned that her child is still alive why isn’t she spending time with her?

However, putting aside my doubts of Melanie and her character I found the story within this book quite compelling. There were a lot of twists and turns to keep a reader’s interest along the way in the story. I had my different guesses at the outcome in here and one of my suspicions happened to be true but then the author throws another twists at the reader and completely adds more to the story I don’t think anyone would expect. In the end I thought this one was a pretty good read even with questioning my liking the main character in parts of the book.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Gripping and shocking with its many layers of deceit. I loved how I was kept guessing and second guessing myself as I tried to unravel what was happening in front of me, ahead of the characters.

There are a couple of perspectives in this story, Beth who is clearly up to something, but it isn't really clear initially what, there is a voice that appears every now and then who is clearly a person you wouldn't want to ever meet, as they are dastardly. And then there is Melanie's voice, who is the main character and yet the hardest one to describe.

For Melanie is going through a living nightmare, which leads her to question everything and everyone she has ever known on the search for the truth. At times I wonder if she is on the verge of a breakdown, and others I found myself really sympathizing with her situation.

I was hooked from the first few pages, where I had the feeling that something big was about to happen, but wasn't really sure which direction the story would go. From there my interest and addictive nature were drawn in further and further, until I lost track of time. I intended at one point that I was just going to read "one more chapter" but half an hour later, I realised I had read about another 20% of the story, and reluctantly had to leave the book until the following day, for fear of an incredibly late night.

I was very impressed by just how well this book had been crafted, with every time a new piece of evidence appears, or a new theory comes out, a whole bunch of other questions come to mind, and I found myself wondering just who if anyone was even telling the truth.

This is the first book I've read by Barbara Copperthwaite, and it certainly won;t be the last. The Darkest Lies captured my imagination and had me completely enthralled in the action. I found it to be very well written and a story that got under my skin while I was trying to figure everything out.

Thank you so much to Bookouture and Netgalley for this copy of the book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3
This book starts off with Beth, a thirteen year old girl sneaking off and then going missing. The story then switches to Melanie, the mom’s POV. It irritated me that Melanie speaks directly to the missing Beth in a sort of stream of consciousness. The writer gets the worry and the tension right, I just didn't care for all thoughts and internal comments directed to Beth. Which is kind of funny, because God knows I often find myself internally talking to people.

The story vacillates between flashbacks to Beth and present day Melanie. Beth’s storyline is told from a third person point of view, even though insights are given into what Beth is thinking.

After the initial chapters and everyone is waiting for Beth to wake up from her coma, the story begins to drag. And the further into the story, the more Melanie grated on my nerves. She's like the stupid girl in the horror movie who goes against common sense. I struggled to keep going through the middle of this one. The pace picks up towards the end. And I admit to having guessed wrong as to who was to blame for Beth.

My thanks to netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of this book.

This is the third book by the fantastic Barbara Copperthwaite and as always her writing just takes you there. "There" could be any number of places but for me in this book it was the marshes. She writes so beautifully, never overly descriptive but enough to let your minds eye paint the picture for you.
The book is written from a few different perspectives, it jumps from the heartbroken loving words of a mother to the disgusting rants of a murderer and never a false step in the crossover of the narrative.
Melanie and her husband Jacob are reeling after their teenage daughter goes missing. When her body is found near lifeless on the marshes the close knit village rallies round to comfort them.
When Mel decides to investigate how Beth, her daughter came to be somewhere she should not have been and find out for herself who harmed her precious child she starts to suspect everyone around her. Those that she had called friends all of her life are suddenly prime suspects.
I loved all the characters in this book. I loved the dynamics between Mel and Jacob as a couple and as parents too, I loved Wiggins and I even loved to hate the bad guys.
I was sitting reading this book and at 75% completion on my Kindle it had all been tied up. .....and then a whole other drama starts to unfold.
All in all I felt like I needed a stiff drink or maybe a paramedic several times while reading this book. It does not disappoint!

What a great book. Not the fastest paced book but a slower yet more creepy story.

I had an idea of the protagonist but my word the end was simply brilliant.

Oh dear -this is a book which rips your heart out and then stamps on it.
I was quite pleased to find out Fenmere was a fictional setting however and that the real Friskney where it’s based on is where the author happily spent her childhood.

The pain and anguish of the mother was heartbreaking and her frustration palpable. In a village like hers, someone must know something and this I felt as a reader so I did feel as if I could relate to the mother in this way. She did run to the police or to tell someone of every little details but then is this not the actions of a desperate mum?

The short and snappy chapters added to the pulsing pace of the story. Then the pulsating machines in the hospital added even more tension. I could hear them pounding in my ears to be honest. A tense, twisting story of a village on the edge with everyone a suspect who walks or wanders onto the page.

Difficult to read knowing what was going to lead to the attack and that did make me uncomfortable at times and the mother did annoy me but the overall story and the ending was worth the read.

I really, really liked this book. However, I did have a few issues with it. Melanie, the mother, drove me crazy when she would go to the police on every little hint of something that happened with her daughter. Or, when she would go to the townspeople specifically to accuse them. I understood her frustration. It was a small town. Things don't happen there that someone doesn't know anything about. Also, my stomach kind of turned when I suspected Melanie's new friend had something to do with Beth's disappearance. The thought that she is riding around with him?

All of that put aside, the book is so good that you can overlook this crazy woman who berates most of the town insinuating they know something about her missing daughter.

And the ending, definitely classic and I even did a major fist pump after reading it.

A great read that I just could not put down as there were so many suspects and so many clues, I was so perplexed, I just had to know!

Huge thanks to Bookouture and Net Galley for approving and allowing me to read and review this thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for this review copy.

Melanie Oak waves goodbye to her teenage daughter, Beth, who is going to her friend’s house for the night. Beth never turns up there, in fact Beth never had any intention of staying at her friend’s house. Beth is found barely alive on the marshes near their home, having been severely beaten but who did it and who was the person she went to meet that night? Stricken with grief, Melanie decides to try and find out herself. Deciding that it must be someone Beth knows, she begins to suspect the whole village, and it seems like everyone in the village has a secret. Bumping into old friend, Glenn, who has recently returned to the village, he helps her to try and work out who could have done this. But is Glenn everything he says he is?

Wow, wow, wow, I loved this one. Granted, it’s a hard read broaching on subjects which you probably don’t want to read about, but the story grips you from page one and doesn’t let you go until the end. The story is told from different perspectives of Melanie, Beth and a mysterious person who you don’t find out it is until the end. The story reminded me of an episode of a TV programme, like Broadchurch! Everybody seemed to be a suspect at some point and everybody seemed to be hiding something! I think I have said ‘they did it’ about every single character, which is great as it has kept me guessing all the way through. I thought I had it all worked out about half way through the book and was quite disappointed that I was going to read the other half knowing who it was, but I was wrong!! The plot kept changing and twisting until I gave up trying to work it out and just concentrated on finishing it to find out what was going on.

The plot all becomes clear some way before the end, but the story continues past finding out ‘whodunit’. Without giving away too much of the plot, it was like having two books for the price of one!

First book by this author, and definitely won’t be the last. Excellent book, would definitely recommend this one! Five stars!