The story starts with two voices — the first from a 9-year old child, and the second from a successful novelist, Lucy Harper. Soon you realise they are one and the same.

Lucy’s bestselling crime books about DS Eliza Grey has gained her fame and wealth; it has also bought her the jealousy and envy of her husband and assistant Dan.

Then he goes missing.

As a child Lucy’s younger brother Teddy goes missing in the middle on the night – does Lucy know more about both disappearances than she’s telling?

This novel drew me in immediately. I held my breath to the very last page. One of the best page-turners I have read this year - Excellent.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the opportunity of reading an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review - this book is due for release on June 25, 2020.

#NetGalley #PenguinRandomHouse #ToTellYoutheTruth

Well, I really thought I knew where this one was heading; was I right? Not a hope . . .

Thirty years ago, Lucy and her brother left their beds and went to the nearby woods but only Lucy came back. Her brother has never been seen again. Now, Lucy is a best-selling author with a support system provided by her husband to allow her to create her best-selling thrillers which are very popular. Then Dan upsets the equilibrium by forcing Lucy into life changes that she hadn't planned on and suddenly the past looms large . . .

With superb timing (aka sheer luck) I read this book during the summer solstice which was exactly when the original case occured, and I think it made the whole story just that little bit creepier! Lucy had trouble deciding who she could trust - and so did I. Every time I thought I had a handle on things, there was a turn of events which had me casting suspicion in entirely the wrong direction and I somehow managed to continue in this vein the whole way through! It's fair to say that I had absolutely no idea where it was heading and was wrong-footed so often that I began to doubt my own sanity, never mind that of the characters. This is an amazingly well-crafted novel by an author whose name on the cover was enough to attract me, and I was thrilled with the unpredictability of the story . My powers of perception have had a thorough work-out and, I fear, been left wanting. A stunningly good read - exciting, enigmatic and completely unfathomable for the most part - resulting in an altogether satisfying and rewarding read. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a sparkling 5* novel, worthy of my highest recommendation. 

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

The premise of this story was so good that I could not ignore the chance to read before publication. To Tell You the Truth (Century) by the bestselling author Gilly Macmillan has a narrator who is a very successful writer but when she was nine she was the only witness to her brother’s disappearance. He was never found.
It has been thirty years since Teddy her brother disappeared without trace, but in the years since Lucy has grown to be a successful writer and is married to Dan, but Dan also is a writer except his career has gone in the opposite direction to Lucy’s.

Lucy has created one fictional character in her novels who is Eliza Grey, and this character has given Lucy all the success as a writer. Eliza seems to be a constant companion in Lucy’s mind. Constantly there. But Eliza has always been there since childhood. Lucy is haunted by her own past, what really happened to her brother? Lucy’s marriage to Dan is just ok, but spending a lot of time by herself and only Eliza for company. I am sure you are already beginning to form your own story of the couple by reading this.

Now suddenly her husband has disappeared, and there are similar traits to how her brother disappeared. Now suddenly Lucy’s past has returned with a vengeance. The couple are also living close to where her little brother disappeared all those years ago. The police are now looking for clues and also clues. Strap yourself in as you the reader are in for a rollercoaster of a twisting psychological thriller that knows no boundaries.
There is something really dark and sinister about this thriller and as a writer writing about a writer, I think Gilly Macmillan really must have been itching to write this novel.

I have to say that as a thriller is beautifully paced and a well-crafted novel with such powerful characters including one imaginary character that seems to play such a part. Just one word of warning! Once you pick this up you will really struggle to put it down. Highly Recommended.

Having recently read "What She Knew -which I devoured -I couldn't wait to get stuck in to this.
.Unfortunately- I was really disappointed..
.I know it was a proof copy- but there were so many loose ends and unbelievable story lines -I couldn't wait to finish it. . Sorry.

Thank you Net Galley for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

Wow, my second book by Gilly Macmillan after Tha Nanny and i loved it even more. I love books that are about writers and their writing processes in some way. You feel like you get a sneak peek into their worlds and are, somehow, privy to their writing processes - even when you know that the descriptions in the novel are fictional!

To Tell You the Truth has two parallel mysteries, separated by time. Lucy Harper is a bestselling crime fiction wroter whose lead character Eliza Grey is well liked. Eliza is based on her friend of the same name who is inside her head. And when Lucy starts feeling that Eliza has become too real to handle, she writes her latest book without her. Her husband Dan is one of the worst characters in the book (i had to take breaks from reading because i felt so angry at him, i wanted to get into the plot and slap him) and when he disappears, she ends up becoming the prime suspect.

But he is not the only person to have disappeared from her life. When she was a child, she took her brother out on Solistic night without their parent's knowledge and he has been missing ever since. She has since then changed her name and only her husband knows of this past. So why has her husband bought a house for them in Lucy's old neighborhood? Are his intentions benign? What happened to her husband and her brother? Can we trust her? Is she unreliable enough to have killed her husband and not remember about it? Or is she being gaslighted?

These are some of the questions that propel this novel forward and make it an interesting, twisty and enjoyable read. I also liked the ending, it was almost poetic in its execution and very tender. This is a novel i will definitely recommend.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK/Cornerstone for an advance reader's copy of this book. Also sharing this on Goodreads and Instagram.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Uk Cornerstone for an DRC of this novel in exchange for an honest review .

A missing brother ... a mystery writer ... an imaginary friend ... a manipulative and jealous husband ... gaslighting ... a murder ...

An original, slow paced mystery from the lovely Ms Macmillan. The book definitely did not end the way I imagined - I really thought she was going somewhere else with the ending !

This book had some great characters. Lucy is a successful mystery writer whose imaginary childhood friend Eliza is the lead investigator in her mystery series - and still seems to be around 😱 . The development of the relationship with Lucy and Eliza was quite interesting to read.
Lucy’s husband ( the unsuccessful writer in the family )Dan was the most unlikable husband Ive read in recent memory. There was not one redeeming characteristic about him!

I absolutely loved this book. The story is refreshingly different and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The chapters alternate between Lucy’s childhood and her life now, which is a successful crime author married to Dan.
When Lucy was nine years old she wanted to be part of the summer solstice so tried to sneak out the house. Her small brother begged her to take him and not wanting to wake her parents, Lucy took him with her. He soon became tired so she tucked him up somewhere safe but when she went back, he was gone.
Lucy was questioned as a child about his disappearance and was helped through it by her imaginary friend, Eliza. With each chapter from the past we see how draining the questioning was on Lucy.
Having tried to put this behind her, Lucy has just finished another book that she’s submitted to her editor and her husband tells her he has a surprise for her.
However, when she sees it Lucy’s heart stops as she can’t believe Dan would do this to her.
As time goes on Lucy finds out Dan has been hiding a lot from her and when he’s gone, the truth is finally revealed.
I loved the way the past and present connected in this book and really liked Lucy as a character.
This is a gripping mystery thriller that I can highly recommend.
Thanks to Randomhouse UK, Cornerstone and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Lucy Harper is a best selling author. She has a secret that she's kept hidden for thirty years. Her name had been Lucy Bewley and she had ,most her brother Teddy in the woods when she was just nine years old. Teddy had never been found. Lucy has been haunted by this ever since. She had always denied knowing what had happened to her brother but her parents and the police thought that she was hiding something. Shes now married to Dan, he knows all about her past. So she was shocked when Dan bought a mansion right on the edge of the woods were Teddy went missing. Now Ben has gone missing and Lucy has to deal with the police again.

This story is told 8n the past and present. Lucy's husband Dan was controlling, manipulative, jealous of his wife's success but doesn't have a problem spending her money. There's plenty 9f twists in this well written ook. The pace is steady. It did take me a little while to get into the book, ut once I did I was hooked. I needed to find out what had happened to Danand Teddy. This is a fantastic read.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House UK and the author Gilly Macmillan for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lucy is a successful novelist and author of the Eliza Grey series. Her life would be perfect if it wasn't for her controlling husband Dan who is jealous of her success and likes to make her life difficult. One day Dan suddenly disappears and Lucy must confront the ghosts from her past...

This book is certified eerie!

Lucy, a writer, has an ahem, vivid imagination to say the least. She is traumatised by her little brother's disappearance and on top of that she has an imaginary best friend who is also the star of her book series. If this is not enough to get you hooked on the story, I don't know what will!

The mystery (actually, two mysteries) is told switching between the past and the present, in combination with the Eliza Grey series. There is a lot of unreliability, and lots of twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat.

A guaranteed enjoyable read.

Disclosure: I would like to thank the publisher for my advanced reader copy of the book. This is my honest review.

https://jemimareads.wordpress.com/
https://www.instagram.com/jemimareadsofficial

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! To Tell You the Truth takes a common (but functional) concept of the 'writer within a book' and explores the merge between fiction and reality. I really enjoyed the alter ego dynamic between Lucy and Eliza and felt it was explored consistently and with great appeal. I liked the characters as a whole for the most part (or disliked when needed) and felt that the book was overall an easy read.

My main issues lie with the plot itself as well as its pacing; the story felt too slow for me to be really hooked the way I expect from a thriller and it moreso felt as if I was contently meandering through the pages. I like a sense of adrenaline and yearning to know what happens which I didn't really get. The ending was a little anticlimactic for me because of this and while solid with no major gaping plotholes, it definitely could have been pushed further!

This book kept me guessing from the very beginning till the very end. Spooky at times and interesting unreliable narrator. I suspect Lucy's story will captivate every reader out there!

What is To Tell You the Truth? Is it a mystery? Is it a ghost story? Or is it the story of a woman hovering on the edge of mental illness after a childhood trauma? As a character in the deeply disturbing thriller says here “Imagination meets reality.”

Lucy Harper is the successful author of a detective series featuring heroine Eliza Grey. Years before, when she was nine, she made a midnight trip into the woods behind her home to view pagan revelers dancing around a bonfire on the Summer Solstice. Against her better judgement, she took he three year old brother Teddy with her. He disappeared that night and was never seen again. Lucy knows where she left him and has kept that a secret from everyone except the two people she trusts. One is her husband Dan, a would be writer who manages her life so she is free to write her bestsellers. The other is more problematic. It is Eliza, her detective and the imaginary friend from her childhood. Eliza was with her the night Teddy went missing. In her just completed new novel, Lucy has tried to banish Eliza by making her only a small part of the story. The novel is rejected. Now Don presents her with an unpleasant surprise. He has purchased a hulking mansion that needs renovation at he edge of the same woods where Lucy left Teddy. Lucy’s fragile hold on reality loosens as she begins to see Eliza everywhere and listens to her advice. Then, after an argument, Dan drives away and does not return. What happens next will have you turning pages as fast as you can as you to discover what happened to both Teddy and Dan.

This is a fantastic 5 star read! In Lucy, Gilly Macmillan has created a memorable, wounded, creative woman. The other characters are incredibly real and Teddy’s story, told in alternating chapters, is heartbreaking. I with I could give more than 5 stars. To Tell You the Truth deserves that!

Gilly Macmillan’s latest novel To Tell You The Truth features the ultimate in unreliable narrators, as past and present events in Lucy Harper’s life seem to align with disturbing similarity, when an unsettling house move forces her back to the scene of a traumatic childhood event.

I have to admit that I’m always a little wary of books where the main character is a writer, but Gilly Macmillan uses Lucy Harper’s day job to such good effect here that any qualms were quickly swept aside.

Although Lucy’s married, she spends a considerable amount of time alone with only her imagination for company, and I could well believe how she might find it harder to distinguish between what is real and what is imagined.

It feels only too likely that confusion might arise when a writer’s work takes her inside her own head, where the boundaries between worlds created and those actual and lived in can become blurred and less distinct, especially during intense writing sessions leading up to a deadline for a book or when she has only recently emerged from that all-consuming period of work.

This also helps to explain why Lucy appears to zone out and be elsewhere at times, enabling Gilly Macmillan to realise a credible connection between something straight out of Lucy’s childhood that accompanies her into adult life, while allowing us to see its influence on her and her career.

The added bonus here is that Lucy Harper is not just any writer but the author of a bestselling crime series. This means that she carefully considers how her narrative plays before saying something and any omissions from her story to the police or others can be put down to her skill and experience gained as a crime writer. Lucy either believes herself to be ahead of or at least keeping up with the professionals because of what she knows from having researched and written her books.

Even when she’s dealing with the civilians in the book, she thinks she knows exactly what to say and when, and just how much information to hold back, and why, to satisfy their interest, throw them off the scent (or rather stench) of her secret, or in order to get them to tell her what she needs to know.

Layer upon layer, each informs and shapes the story she tells herself and us, the reader. Add to this already potent mix Lucy’s husband, Dan, who also had aspirations of becoming a successful writer and is now seemingly reduced to being her assistant and living off her earnings, but who asserts himself in more manipulative ways. Now place them both in a private lane full of neighbours with secrets, inadequacies and jealousies as big as their houses, leave to simmer and wait for Lucy’s old and new lives to collide and bubble over.

All in all, it’s a captivating combination which, when taken together with events in her adult life seeming to mirror and threatening to bring that traumatic event from her childhood back out into the open, all make for a unnerving psychological thriller in which it’s not always clear what Lucy actually sees and what she can only imagine. I kept questioning whether Lucy was losing her mind, genuinely in danger, or if she was simply messing with mine?

To Tell You The Truth is way more tricksy than its title suggests; scenes in the novel flicker and flare like the figures dancing around the bonfire in the woods on that fateful Summer Solstice, when a nine-year-old girl went in search of woodland spirits, who for this one night would be mixing with real people and making mischief until dawn. It’s only when she returns home and tries to tell the story each time – to her parents, to the police and, perhaps most importantly to herself – that the night’s mischief reveals itself in all its utter devastation.

To Tell You The Truth is a brilliantly bruising daymare of a thriller and I relished how cleverly Gilly Macmillan structured this, playing mind games with me and Lucy Harper, and keeping me guessing until the very end.

Well written psychological thriller that keeps you guessing.

The author writes very cleverly and although you like the narrator you’re not sure whether you can trust her which adds an extra edge.

Enjoyable read.

Lucy writes police detective novels whose heroine is DI Eliza Grey. Fans love her books, eagerly awaiting the next. But what the fans don't know is that Eliza is Lucy's imaginary friend from childhood, constantly with her and sharing her life.
She is married to Dan who once wanted to be an author but now looks after Lucy so she can write. He is resentful that his career has taken a back seat to hers.
But Lucy has a secret from her past. What happened to her little brother, Teddy, when she was nine?
Gripping and full of twists and turns.

To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan
This is psychological thriller begins with the story of Lucy who arrives home on the night of Summer Solstice covered in mud and leaves but without her little brother , Teddy. It becomes obvious that she is not telling her parents, or the police, everything which she knows about what happened to her little brother. Fast forward to the present and we discover that Lucy is now a very successful novelist who writes stories about D S Eliza Grey who has been her “imaginary friend” since childhood.
Her husband is a thwarted novelist whom Lucy has allowed to take control of her life and finances. There follows a plot with twists and turns and mysteries at every juncture. Who is telling the truth and who can Lucy trust? I enjoyed the story but found the ending a little bit disappointing and I also struggled to believe that someone so successful could also be so gullible. I am sure it will be very well received but whilst I found it an interesting read I was not fully convinced by the main character. Many thanks to the publishers, Penguin Random House, and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I often wonder where authors find their ideas. How they sculpt the shadows of our lives into chilling nightmares. Lucy Harper is really good at this. In fact, she excels at it. Her series featuring DS Eliza Grey is so successful there is a page about her, including fanfictions. Knowing what it means to be addicted to a series, this detail showed me right away that Lucy Harper, the new main character I was getting to know, was among the best crime fiction writers. It takes the best to ignite such passion in readers!

If Lucy’s career is speeding on the highway of success, her private life is not so shiny. Contrary to her character Eliza Grey, Lucy is kind, caring, and unfortunately not well-equipped to stand up for herself. It is clear from the beginning that sweet Lucy shares qualities I recognized from author friends. The doubt, the pressure, that niggling feeling what you are writing is not worth what everyone is expecting. The delicate empathy required to put into words actions and words done and felt by imaginary characters. My heart reached out to her, and I was only a few pages in! Oh, how I love my writers!

Lucy works with her husband. Well, if you know me, you know I have a problem with husbands! His behavior towards his hard-working and sensible wife outraged me. I was not surprised to be the silent witness of his manipulation. Well-aware of her past, Dan throws Lucy back into her memories, for better or for worse…

Her past… Those chapters were extremely unsettling. I wanted to hug little Lucy and never let go, and yet… Something happened to young Lucy. Something happened to her younger brother, who was never seen again after a mysterious night. A first, the two timelines felt safely parallel, one explaining in part Lucy’s issues. But then Gilly Macmillan skillfully began to whisk the mix of past and present. Slowly at first, letting it all simmer gently. As the timelines blurred and blended together, I felt the tension ratchet up. When Lucy’s husband disappeared, bubbles surfaced. Secrets he had been hiding triggered Lucy’s memory. If I had deemed her fragile at the beginning, this event sent her down a dark spiral. The shift is so beautifully executed that the more unreliable I found Lucy to be, the tighter I clung to her in an attempt to save her. My connection to her deepened as she fell deeper and deeper into a scary pit that sounded a lot like a book plot… See what Gilly MacMillan did? She put a book in a book. Not just that. She put her love into her main character, but she also poured all the poison she could find, in Lucy’s life! Everything felt so real I surprised myself hugging my dog a little tighter, as if I needed a lifeline to my reality.

To Tell You The Truth reads like a dream. Or rather, a nightmare. An exceptionally disturbing thriller I loved sinking my teeth into and let go with regret. Everything about it gave me the chills. To dive so deep into a woman’s psyche and feel reality slip your fingers is dizzying in the most addictive way. There is a reason we don’t always go look for the truth… Until we are ready to tell it.

This was a goodish read although the ending was a disappointment tbh and felt quite rushed , I wasn’t overly keen on the whole imaginary friend thing either,I would definitely read another book by this author though

Gilly Macmillan never fails to write a brilliant plot. Unique storyline which keep me reading till the last turn of the page. There is so many twists and turns iLucy brother vanished without a trace leaving Lucy to invent Eliza. To help her through. Eliza is ever present in. Lucy’s life through her best selling stories. Lucy is suddenly thrown back into a world of rumour and speculation. A real page turner

To tell you the truth is a novel that will keep you guessing right to the end at who killed Lucy's husband, It is written between two time frames the past and the present, in the present it's about Lucy Harper, a best selling author, but she has a secret, a secret she has kept hidden for 30 years, she hasn't always been Lucy Harper she was born Lucy Bewley and 30 years before she lost her brother Teddy in the woods and he was never found, this secret has haunted her all her life as she claimed not to know what happened to him, but everyone including her parents and the police thought she was hiding something and the only person who knows her story is her husband Dan, whom she trusts with everything but Dan has started acting strange and impulsive and when he buys them a mansion without telling her on the edge of the woods where tragically she lost her brother all those years before her carefully constructed life begins unravelling,
This is a good who done it that will keep you guessing, and I shall look out for more from this author.