Mystery, intrigue and secrets - Everything is Lies has all of these and more. A psychological thriller that will take you on a rollercoaster of twists and turns.

Sophia is a twenty something living the high life in London. She returns home to find her mother hanging from a tree and her father in a pool of blood. The police suspect attempted murder-suicide but Sophia knows her mother isn’t a killer and must set out to prove her innocence.

This book had me gripped from page one. Great plot and plenty to get your teeth into.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK Michael Joseph and the author for the chance to review.

No-one is who you think they are

Sophia's parents lead quiet, unremarkable lives. At least that is what she's always believed. Everyone has secrets

Especially those closest to you

The police are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide.

What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born?

Everything Is Lies is the story of Sophia, a young architect living in London, who one evening while on a night out, gets yet another phone call from her needy mother, asking her to come home to their isolated home in rural Suffolk. Sophia, used to these calls, refuses but later feels guilty, and turns up early the next morning to make her peace.

To her horror, she discovers her mum hanging from a tree in the garden and her dad critically injured. Sophia is sure that the woman who brought her up isn't a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is up to Sophia to clear her mother's name, and to do this she needs to delve deep into her family's past - a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were there . . .

Subsequently she discovers that her mum was writing a book telling the story of her youth, which is also the story of a strange group based in luxurious country house, a manipulative and controlling man and a decades-old murder, and before long her mother’s pursuers are now following Sophia…

4 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

I was given an advance copy of this book, and was very excited to get started after reading Dear Amy last year.

This didn't disappoint! For me, this was better than Dear Amy. I've read the whole story within 24 hours and it kept me gripped throughout. I've read other reviews saying there were slow parts but I didn't feel this.

I'd give it 4.5*, whilst it was a great book I had figured a few things out and therefore didn't quite get the "WOW" factor that others might get from it.

I would definitely recommend this one to friends.

This is the first book I’ve read by author Helen Callaghan, I will definitely be looking out for her work.
Following Sophia through the challenges of working out what happen to her mother makes for gripping reading.
It reminds you that your parents had lives of their own before you were born and Nina wasn’t afraid to document everything that had happened to her. Great book one that I couldn’t put down.
Highly recommend

A really great book with some unexpected elements to it. Helen Callaghan has really excelled with this story and the book is well written and keeps you gripped in.

“Everything is lies, and nobody is who they seem.”

Helen Callaghan’s second novel sets its stall out early on, and how true it is. I liked her first book, Dear Amy, a lot, but she’s surpassed an already high bar with Everything is Lies, which has the reader questioning throughout what is real and who can be trusted.

I don’t want to give away too much, but the setup of the story is shocking - architect Sophia is called home by her mother Nina (a bit anxious, a bit needy) and makes a horrific discovery - her mother dead, apparently by her own hand, and her father stabbed and close to death.

From there the story is told alternately by Sophia and through Nina’s notebooks, which recount astonishing details of a past her daughter knew nothing about. Seeking the truth about what happened to her parents - and to her mother long ago - Sophia is also facing both challenges in her professional life and some frightening personal dangers. There are some intriguing parallels between past and present.

Everything is Lies is an absolutely brilliant read with a genuine corker of a twist which I didn’t see coming at all - or at least, not until mere seconds before it was revealed. Like all the best twists it seems if not obvious, at least guessable, in retrospect -but I didn’t suspect at all, and I bet most other readers don’t either.

Fast-moving, thought-provoking and highly recommended.

Sophia lives in London with a good job and friends. She finds excuses not to go home to her parents, who live in Suffolk running a garden centre. One night she receives a call from her Mum asking her to come home straight away, but Sophia has a hot date and is a little drunk. The next day she feels guilty and drives home to horrifying scenes. Her Mum is dead and her Father in a coma.
This story is really about her mother Nina and her past and how it can come back or does it ever leave us. Sophia is determined to find out the truth but will she like what she finds and what will be the consequences for everyone involved.

Sophia is an Architect is a high profile firm. She is out enjoying herself after work when she gets another call from her mother asking her if she can come home, this time it’s an emergency. She reluctantly agrees to go home the following day.
When she arrives at the family home she finds her mother dead hanging from a tree in the garden and her dad is unconscious after being stabbed, on the ground.
The police are called and they believe that Sophia’s mother killed herself and tried to kill her father too. But, she doesn’t believe it as she finds out that they have been victims of several burglaries. She also hers that her mother has finally written her memoir. She goes in search on the notebooks that it has been written.
The story then goes back to Sophia’s mother’s college years when she meets Aaron Kessler and the cult at Morningstar. Sophia find out that her mother is not the person she knew.
I was looking forward to reading this as I have read Helen Callaghan’s previous novel Dear Amy which I really enjoyed. But this story wasn’t what I was expecting. Although there was a lot of twists and turns and mystery to this book. I thought that the middle of the story was quite slow. But as for the ending, I didn’t see that coming.
Thank you Netgalley and Penguin books for a copy of this book.

When I first got into this book, my heart sank - not another cult story - but actually, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I thought it was well written and had a very satisfying end. Highly recommended.

I found this book to be original and riveting. I couldn’t wait to read the diary at the centre of the mystery, and it really kep me guessing. Looking forward to any future books by this author.

Full of guilt having not gone home following a phone call from her mother the previous evening Sophia arrives back the next day. She never will find out what was troubling her mother as she has apparently committed suicide and her Father is badly injured. Sophia cannot believe that her mother would do such a thing. The police don’t think there is anything to investigate but Sophia is determined to establish what really happened. She discovers some journals her mother has written and learns she has a publisher. The journals reveal a very different side to her mother, and if they are to be believed are very disturbing. In her quest for the truth Sophia finds that her mother was involved with a cult in her youth, everything she had thought was true of her mother seems to be a lie.
A good read with some surprises along the way.

Loved this book. It held my attention from the first page. The plot was brilliant with loads of twists and turns. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Helen Callaghan for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Absolutely loved this book I had sleepless nights needing to find out what's happening didn't figure it out till nearly the end would def recommend this book....

It started out well but didn't hold my attention much. The parts which should have been most thrilling were dragged out and dull. There is no uncovering the truth. Sophie's mother's book tells all. All she has to do is read it and find out. I was disappointed.

I requested this title as an ARC from NetGalley because I was in the mood for a twisty, page turning, stay up all night welded to my hands until completion kind of read. I’m happy to report, this book did not disappoint.

Short plot synopsis: Sophia, an up and coming young London architect receives a cryptic phone call from her mother one night. Returning home next day, Sophia discovers a nightmare crime has taken place which turns her life upside down and everything she has known is called into question in the aftermath.

Things I liked about it:

Callaghan’s novel is simply packed with layers of suspense and thrill- a huge chunk of the book is a story within a story and it works incredibly well in order to solve the problem of jumping back in time to set out Sophia’s mother’ story. At the same time, there’s several quite meaty present day dramas going on for Sophia, both in solving the mysteries left behind by her mother but with a nice little sub-plot related to Sophia’s work. It’s a lot of bang for your buck in terms of stuff going on and it kept me riveted.

Nina’s backstory was compelling for me- I won’t say too much so as not to give it away but I found Nina’s part of the story to be fascinating, particularly as it was written in diary form with the hindsight.

Multiple twists at the end were fun and wrapped up the story without too many loose ends.

It stayed on my mind for a couple days afterward- always a good sign.

Things I didn’t like so much:

Sophia is a whiny pain for much of the book- she’s not especially likeable and I am not sure if that is deliberate or not on the part of the author. Unpleasant protagonist seem to be a constant theme for this type of genre and I do wish writers could devise a protagonist that we don’t have to detest as they solve the mystery. Meanwhile I felt quite sorry for Nina and wished things had turned out better for her in some way.

There were a couple of points that required significant suspension of disbelief.

Would I read it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it? Absolutely.

This book was easy to read but just about ok. The jumping between timelines, between diary and present day, doesn't really work. Sophia's mother isn't that interesting of a character.

London architect Sophia MacKenzie receives a phone call from her mother asking her to return home to Suffolk because they need to talk. Sophia, enjoying a night out with colleagues and over the legal limit to drive, puts her mother off until the following day. But when Sophia does arrive home, her parents aren't there. Venturing into the garden she finds her mother's lifeless body hanging from a tree and her father lying near-death in a pool of blood.

Sophia is astonished to learn her mother was a member of a cult in the 1980s and had written three notebooks about her life inside The Order of the Ascendants, which are going to be published. As Sophia begins to read the notebooks, it becomes apparent her mother's hanging and the near-fatal attack on her father are somehow connected to their contents.

Oh what a wonderful tangled web of intrigue this book is! The timeline is split seamlessly between Sophia in the present and her mother Nina in the past. The reader is given small pieces of the puzzle. Some are easily figured out - which I suspect is the author's intention, but others are cleverly interwoven until the final chapters. The suspense gradually builds as the two timelines come together and Sophia finally discovers the truth about her mother's past and the repercussions for the present.

The book title tells the reader Everything is Lies; therefore I was constantly questioning motives - was everything as it appeared to be or was there something much more sinister lurking under the surface? Oh boy, was I paranoid or was I paranoid?! When that happens, I know I'm reading a a quality piece of fiction.

I thought the main characters were developed to a tee. Cult leader Aaron Kessler literally jumped off the pages as he was brought to life by the author. His charisma and control were both unsettling and disturbing. The two timelines worked extremely well and the conclusion was exactly as it should have been.

In my opinion this is an excellent psychological thriller and I have no hesitation in placing it as a Top Read of 2018.

* I received an Advance Reader Copy. My thanks to NetGalley, Helen Callaghan and Penguin UK - Michael Joseph.

Everything is Lies by Helen Callaghan

Having loved Helen Callaghan’s first book, I jumped at the chance to read this one. The twists and turns made for a great evening spent guessing what would happen to mother (in the past) and daughter (in the present).

Everything is Lies was a book that grew on me while I read. I loved the opening chapters, but then found the introduction of the notebooks a little jarring, before the novel regained my full attention and had me flipping through the pages by the end. At first I just wanted to hear about Sophia’s life, as her mother was already dead, but by the end I cared just as much about both characters. The twist was very well done and I didn’t predict it until very near the end, which made the close of the novel much more enjoyable.

There were a few times when the difference between the privileged lives of some of the characters distanced me a little from the novel, but overall this was a fantastic reading experience. The cult aspect of the book was a lot different from what I was expecting going into reading, which made for a nice change from some of the more predictable books I’ve read recently.

Looking forward to reading this author’s next book!

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback, thank you to NetGalley and Penguin U.K. for the opportunity to read this book.

The basic idea of the book reminded me of the recent successful novel "The Girls", but was less gritty and immediate. That said, it was written in a pacey fashion and was interesting read. My main disappointment was being able to guess the conclusion before reading the chapter about Notebook 3.
Even with the above caveats I enjoyed reading this book.

I really enjoyed this book - there were a lot of twists & turns. Kept me hooked until the end.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author & the publisher for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.