Overall I think this book was pretty good. Although I must admit that it did take a while in the beginning to get going. At first I was confused by the constant use of nicknames, surnames, and first names, I could barely keep all the characters straight since they were being called so many different names. But once I got to about 40% through the book, I was more able to understand what what happening.
The story was interesting, a group of teens go camping in the woods and the youngest member ends up missing. The remains of the young girl are discovered thirty years later and it's up to the police to put together the pieces of what happened that night. It was a powerful story of friends trying to protect each other and stay strong but in the end, all they did was help hide the true events of a gruesome crime.
I thought the author did a great job of keeping up the twists and turns all the way until the end. Although I think when you finally find out who the killer is could have been more dramatic. The person basically just admits it and the other character barely has a reaction. But there were a few times where my heart did race while reading a particularly tense part.
I did find that the text was hard to follow at some points. I don't know if it was just the digital formatting of the text that was sent to my Kindle, but the typesetting could use some work. The viewpoints were constantly shifting and there wasn't any indication of a viewpoint switching (such as a line to break the paragraphs or the character's name in bold). I was having a hard time knowing who was telling the story, so it should have been more clear when the text jumped from a different viewpoint or to another time frame. Sometimes I would have to reread sections because the voice changed and I got confused.
However, overall I thought it was an exciting story and I was really dedicated to finding out what happened to poor Aurora. I also enjoyed some of the character development, I really found Topaz and Coraline interesting and their whole odd relationship unnerving. The book also had a great ending that left me as a reader feeling like everything had been wrapped up nice and tidy. I would probably read another title from the author!

I really enjoyed this book, particularly as the story had flashbacks to the 1980s when the incident occurred. One slight niggle was the accuracy of this time, for example, one particular reference was made to how a person would receive texts to gain information- I don't know of anybody that had a phone that could send texts back in 1989! Niggles aside, the story is very complex and we'll thought out. Overall a very good book.

Brilliant gripping thriller.

A group of friends go camping one night but one girl never makes it home. 30 years later, she is found.

A well paced thriller with birth today and 30 years ago intertwined making it a gripping enjoyable read.

This is an intriguing story, not fast paced but very thoriughly detailed.
A group of teenagers goes on a forest camping trip, taking the younger Aurora who is dazzled by her inclusion, but unaware of what might be expected from the drug taking hard drinking group.
The teenagers forest trip turns into something unimaginably terrible. Aurora , the murdered teen, is not discovered till many years later, by which time the teens are all in respectable career positions.
DC Sheen, patient and with his own connections to the group, manages to slowly feel his way through the tissues of lies.
The lies and cover ups continue through the story, but it is interesting to see how the layers peel away, leaving the characters open . They are all to blame in different ways, and the realisation is shocking.
I enjoyed reading this book. Thanks to NetGalley for a review copy.

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story is about a girl that goes missing on a camping trip. Thirty years later her body is found and DCI Jonah Sheens and his partner, Hanson investigates the case. There is a whole gang including Aurora’s sister that was on the trip so there are a lot of suspects and lots of dead ends. The story goes back and forth from Aurora’s diary entries from 1983 leading up to her disappearance to the present day investigation.

This book started off okay but I started to really struggle with it a quarter of the way through. It just didn’t keep my interest and found it really slow. None of the characters were likeable and the detectives relationship problems added nothing to the story. The main thing that I liked about this book was that it was set in an area that I know so I could visualise the places.

Great book! Kept me intrigued all the way from the first page to the last. A lot of twists and a superb story. I recommend you buy and read it for yourself!

Twists and turns throughout 'She lies in wait kept me reading on through the night. I am generally pretty good at guessing the perpetrator in crime novels but I was way off this time. A very enjoyable crime novel.

Oh my word! This book is incredible. Six teens go camping, five return. But where is Aurora? What happened to her? Where did she go? Was she taken? Did she run away? The story switches between present day as they unpick and reconstruct what happened that night and thirty years ago when Aurora disappeared. And every time you think you have it figured out you realise you haven’t the story twists and turns and keeps you absorbed from start to finish. Really really enjoyed it

This is a well written murder mystery whose narrative zips along. Quite a lot of time is spent building up the backgrounds of the detective team involved in solving the case: DCI Sheens a detective with 30 years experience, a rookie, Juliette Hanson and O'Malley and Lightman. The abusive relationship that Hanson is in is not tied up and I strongly suspect that this book has been commissioned as part of a series about DCI Sheens and Hanson with a nod to hopefully finding a tie in TV deal.

The story revolves around the disappearance in 1983 of a lovely fourteen year old teen who has gone missing overnight whilst camping in the woods on a fiercely hot day with a group of older teens who are her sister, Topaz's friends. The eldest in the group has bout a stash of drugs which he has hidden in a hollow beneath a huge beech tree and the teen's evening becomes quite debauched with a threesome, drugs and drink and festering resentments. To complicate matters DCI Sheens was a contemporary at school with the group and was involved in th einitial disappearance. 30 years on Aurora's body is found in the hollw under the tree but most of the drugs stash is missing. Forensics show Aurora was murdered but who out of the gilded teens who are now all successful and wealthy adults did it?

This is not great literature but it did keep me turning the page. It also wasn't an overly complex tale so no threads were lost in late night reading. This was a great lightweight read.

When past and present collide.

In 1983 a group of friends head to a camping trip in the heart of the woods, a brook babbles by the side of the camp and the fire crackles as the adolescent friends drink and dance in reckless abandonment.

On awakening they realise that the youngest member of the camp, Aurora Jackson, has disappeared overnight. It’s a case that confounds the nation as it lies unsolved for 30 years, until her remains are discovered.

During these years Aurora’s story has become ‘old and tired’. The teenagers who were present on that fateful evening although haunted have moved on.

DCI Sheens history means that he has more that a fleeting insight into the case and he is tasked with piecing together witness accounts that have lay dormant for years.

As the narrative shifts to Aurora, her voice recounts her story from beyond the grave. Her innocence and youth spilling from the page and adding a poignant tenderness to the story as it unfolds.

As past and present collide we realise that no-one can be trusted and a fog of suspicion envelopes everyone.

Overflowing with teenage angst and woven together with an unsettling thread of evil. - She Lies in Wait is an elegantly constructed and finely-tuned crime debut. Atmospheric and chilling, it will have you shivering under your duvet this January - highly recommended!

An intricate well written whodunnit which managed to get me involved with each character, I looked forward to reimmersing myself in the story every day. Even though, it takes quite a while to navigate through the different protagonists and timelines, it is completely worth it and I have to admit that I did not expect the final twist at all. This is a well crafted novel and I will follow this writer closely as the bar is now set quite high.

I liked this book. A good mystery but a slow start but once you get into it it is another non put downable story. I would recommend this if you like a good thriller/murder mystery.

An enjoyable thriller revisiting the disappearance of a beautiful young girl thirty years earlier.
Not hugely original and better on the fast pace and good plotting than the slightly unoriginal characterisation, but none the less I enjoyed it and it kept me guessing til the end.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in return for an honest review.

Rating: 5

1983. 6 friends woke in a stupor into a nightmare. One of them was missing.
30 years later, Aurora Jackson's remains are finally found in a secret hideaway, known only by the friends. Who would you trust?

Wow! I don't know exactly what I was expecting with this book, but I was very happily surprised by how much I liked it! I managed to read this book very quickly, and could not put it down. I absolutely loved the writing style, and I appreciated the third person style. There weren't any parts where I had felt the book dragged, which I feel happens while reading some books of a similar nature. The pace was also great, it was gradually built up till the end.

The actual story telling, I found very interesting. If you love crime-solving type stories, this book is for you. There is a real progression, and insight of how the detectives worked through the investigation, it felt very realistic. And the small twists and turns in the plot kept it all very interesting.

Now, I read a few reviews that said this book is predictable, but I have to say that I could not work out what happened until it was actually revealed! And unlike some other mystery novels, I wasn't disappointed with the end, it was strange because it was obvious but at the same time masterfully hidden. I loved Sheens, and all of his team, the way they all worked together, and I can't wait for more books following them. I also liked the side story of Hanson, and her ex, and the progression she went through.

I was trying to think of negatives of the book, and I honestly couldn't think of much. Perhaps some parts were a little hazy, but I think that was the desired affect of Lodge. And I guess part of me wanted a slightly different ending, though I was still pleased with what had happened.

Thank you to net galley for an early copy in exchange for a review!

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.
Thirty years ago 14 year-old Aurora goes missing overnight from a campsite shared with her sister and a group of school friends. PC Sheens was involved in the search for her. Present day, and DCI Sheens and his team are tasked with the murder enquiry now that Aurora's body has been discovered. The story unfolds in two timelines, one from Aurora where the happenings that night are gradually revealed, and the present, through re-interviewing those school-friends. Gradually, discrepancies and new facts emerge; however there are some awkward moments for the DCI as he had also been at school with them. There are lies and omissions, misdirection and red-herrings, until finally there is only one conclusion to be made.
I particularly enjoyed DCI Sheens and his team, their interactions, and the police procedurals element and would love to read about them solving another case.
My only criticism would be that I felt some of the interviewing passages could have been truncated a little as they felt somewhat repetitive and circular.
A somewhat long, by nevertheless, captivating read.

Another alternate timelines thriller, coming back and forth from 1983. It took me a while to get into the story as there were too many names in both timelines and I was confused who was who.
I was able to guess the identity of the killer quite early in the novel but still enjoyed the style of writing and the tone of the book. I really felt so sad for Aurora.

Considering it's a debut, quite a good book, I will read again from Lodge.

I have to admit, this took me a lot longer to read than I expected - usually with a book like this, I can speed through it super fast as I love a good thriller, but She Lies In Wait felt a little long winded at times and took me a while to get into.

I liked the beginning of the story and found myself interested to begin with - it was a regular murder mystery with plenty of suspects and suspicion thrown around.

I didn't really find myself interested in the characters or particularly connected to any of them - they were all pretty much predictable and like archetypes, in my opinion. The story had the jock, the desirable main girl, the guy on the outside, the clinger on etc.

All the procedural parts of this story didn't really interest me, I've read books like this before which focus overly on the actual police work and I found myself skimming over these sections.

The only thing that kept me reading to the end was my will to find out what actually happened to Aurora or if I somehow guessed the killer correctly - I didn't which I give kudos to the writer for.

Overall, I really wish I enjoyed this book more as it sounded so promising. Unfortunately I won't be reading this again, I really don't like giving negative reviews but I have to be honest. It wasn't the worst story I've read by any means but not remarkable either.

Oh dear. This just did not resonate with me. I could not connect with the characters - not enough character development. Like moving through a ballroom at a masked ball. I continually got confused over who was who. And a lacklustre bunch of detectives led by DCI Jonah Sheens investigating a 30-year-old cold case that, for me, never got warm. I figured out half way through who the probable culprit was and still struggled to finish She Lies In Wait.

My thanks to NetGalley for my ARC, sorry that I did not enjoy it more.

This is a good debut crime novel from Lodge. It's one of those books where we go back and forth to tie the two ends of the story, which I love.

In 1983, seven teenagers go into the wood and only six come out. They find a body of the missing girl, Aurora, 30 years after thus incident.
DCI Sheens is our investigates this mystery. DC Hanson is one of his team. They question all the teenagers from that day. Did one of them kill her? Are they telling the truth?

As we go back in history and present time, we learn more about these people, their relationships and dynamics of the time. Also, the investigators were interesting characters.

All in all, an intriguing page turner, that kept me hooked.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for this ARC..

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It’s a great debut book and introduction to Jonah Sheens. Gripping tale of lies and deceit which will have you doubting all the main characters. A cleverly written crime book that will gave you gripped until the end to find out what happened to young Aurora