Synopsis: Louise drinks, and when I say that, I mean Louise drinks A LOT especially when her American friend April is around. April swings by Louise’s house to hangout and have some drinks; that’s all Louise remembers anyways. So you can imagine her shock when she finds a man next to her in bed when her husband is away on a business trip. Then you can really imagine her surprise that he’s been stabbed to death and has been laying next to her all night. Louise is frantic (also maybe still a bit drunk), and she doesn’t know what to do. She panics. So she decides to clean up her house and move the body outside then call the police. Detectives Sheens and his team get the call. As they delve deeper into Louise’s, the victims, April’s, and Louise’s husbands lives they start to uncover more and more mysteries and some secrets that they wanted to stay hidden.

My thoughts : I really enjoyed this book! Since I read Gytha’s first book in late 2020, then her second one, I was so psyched to read this. Okay, at the first, I was a little confused by Louise’s actions and the footprints in the snow never really added up for me but I was so intrigued by this book and the good WAY outweighs the little confusion I had. I could honestly never figure out who committed the murder. Then when you think everything is all wrapped up you go for just get another plot twist. Honestly amazing. I loved the characters, especially the ending with April. Also shoutout to @gythalodge for including the LGBTQ+ community in her book! Go give her a follow!!

Always love Gytha's book, Jonah is such a great character. This book is no exception and I'm super excited for book 4 now!

.Lie Beside Me is the third book in the DCI Jonah Sheens series. I have read and enjoyed the previous books and all the recurring characters are strongly written and likeable. I don't think you need to have read the previous books to enjoy this one as there is enough information to pickup the personal backstories of the police department.
I really enjoyed this book, the beginning pulled me in immediately and there were so many twists and turns throughout the story that I did not work out the ending. The ending was fantastic, I really did not see it coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Michael Joseph UK, for the ARC.

This is the third book in the DCI Jonah Sheen series. It has a great opening which really draws the reader in - Louise Reakes wakes up in bed in the early hours with a raging hangover; she has no idea what she did the previous evening but finds a stranger lying beside her and the bed soaked through with blood.
DCI Jonah Sheen and his team are called out to Louise's house where she has apparently discovered the body of a young man on her snow-covered front lawn with an ornate knife beside him. He'd been stabbed. Was
drunk Louise really capable of killing someone?

The story alternates been the crime investigation and narrative in the form of a letter Louise is writing to her husband Niall, from which we gradually learn how a shy, teetotal Louise ended up as drunk Louise, totally influenced by her American friend April. She's also obsessed with the idea that her husband Niall wants his ex-wife Dina back. All three of the main characters surrounding Louise have some connection with the pharmaceutical industry - April knows both Niall and Dina.

As the investigation into the murder gathers pace the team's biggest stumbling block is the fact that Louise can't recall the previous evening - except that she and April had been drinking at her house, but gradually some memories begin to surface.

There are twists and revelations - the murdered man was described as being gentle, caring and kind - but was he really?

This is quite a convoluted plot with lots of characters but I found it to be rather too lengthy as well as April's demeanour being very OTT. The whole investigation became a bit of a drudge after the promising start but ended frenetically at a totally different pace.

Nevertheless, the reader gets to follow through on the trials and tribulations of Jonah's and his team's relationships

Yikes!! There were so many twists in this book I feel like a knot! What a brilliant read!

Louise Reakes could not have had a worse start to her day. When she opens her eyes she finds a dead man next to her in her bed and he is NOT her husband. What the heck was drunk Louise up to? She was drinking with her bestie April and has no recollection of the night. To make things worse she tampers with the scene because she is petrified of her husband finding out.
A very well written psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat and will definitely have you rethinking that second or third glass of wine!

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House and Michael Joseph for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Lie beside me by Gytha Lodge.

Louise wakes up to find the man beside her is dead, worse still he's not her husband! The premise of the book is to find out who he is, why he's in Louise's bed and who killed him, the problem is Louise can't remember anything about the night before due to her poor relationship with alcohol. Having to rely on piecemeal truths from all parties and the small nuggets of memory that come back to Louise the Police have to find out who killed Alex.

Told from three perspectives, the current Louise and her husband Niall, the police and a letter written by Louise to her husband explaining the last 5 years of their lives. This works well as we get snippets of the past filling in details, and the police's struggle to narrow suspects when little evidence is found. The characters are interesting too, Louise refers to her self as two people, drunk Louise and sober Louise somehow exonerating her self from her behaviour when drunk. April, Louise's best friend who encourages the drinking but why? Hanson the DS involved in the case who has stalking issues of her own, knowing the danger she has to be in before the police can actually do anything for her.

I enjoyed the story as a police drama and as an unreliable witness thriller and would definitely read more in the series. Overall, an easy to read story with interesting characters and a clever plotline. 4*
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK

Oh wow, another great book. So many plot twists, had me and the detectives guessing. Highly recommended 👌

This is a great read.
Louise wakes up next to a man she doesn’t recognise and realises the bed is covered in blood. She then takes a closer look at him and realises he’s dead.
This is where the nightmare begins for Louise as she can’t remember anything about the night before.
She calls the Police and they are quite clearly suspicious of the situation and Louise’s husband immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion.
I can’t say much more as I don’t want to spoil it but there’s plenty of mystery and suspense to keep you gripped with this book.
The only downside was the quick changing perspectives from paragraph to paragraph, which at times was a bit confusing.
Overall this is a great read.
Thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I’m afraid this is going to be a damned by faint praise review for me. I found the book an easy enough read if you don’t count the number of times I forgot who one of the many characters was with some detailed and I assume accurate police procedures described. However the story had too many plausible parts of the plot to really captivate me.

When Louise wakes up with a dead man in her bed that isn’t her husband, what does she do?
When Jonah Sheens and the team get involved to discover what happened that night and what did Louise do?
I struggled with this one a little as it seemed to be really drawn out in places with some of the characters.
I do like the backstories with the police officers and seeing how they change over each book. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Really disappointed with this one. It started so well, and I was immediately engrossed in the story. But the longer it went on, the more I lost interest.
It felt far too long. I didn't relate to the characters.
It's one of those thrillers that actually doesn't feel much like a thriller - but more like a drama.
Also not a fan of the 'last-minute-twist' - where you think you know the ending, but then in the last few pages its yet again another twist. Not a fan!

Lie Beside Me is book number 3 in the DCI Jonah Sheen series and is the first one I have read but I will definitely be going back to read the others. Whilst this is part of a series I did feel it was standalone and can still be enjoyed for the solid crime thriller that it is!

The story splits between the narrative of the police unit as they investigate the crime and the suspect Louise as she writes a letter directly to her husband detailing moments that have happened in the past and how she got to this point. With her struggle with alcohol the information she gives in these letters will be questioned. I know there were a few times where I was unsure if this account she was giving was entirely the truth.

The team run by DCI Jonah Sheen were all well developed characters that I instantly warmed too, yet the main focus was on DC Hanson who alongside working on this crime is also having to deal with her ex-boyfriend and his manipulative behaviour. There were definitely similarities between both Hanson and Louise, both learning to take some control back.

The story is built around this one crime which has many secrets and layers which are unraveled slowly throughout the book, giving the reader the twists and turns that are fully expected from a good thriller. The author leads you into a false sense of security and just as you think it has all been resolved she shocks you with a final twist that was perfectly executed!

Overall this was a great police procedural, multi-layered crime thriller with an interesting plot and plenty of twists. I would definitely recommend to those who are a fan of this genre!

Have you ever woken up with a stinker of a hangover and wonder what you've done wrong this time? Louise has. Her head is aching, her mouth is dry and her memory is more than a little hazy. But she has a feeling that she's messed up yet again. As she rolls over towards her husband, she sees it isn't her husband lying beside her - and the man she's lying next to is dead.

As Louise tries to remember what happened, Detective Jonah Sheens and his team have her as their prime suspect. But Louise isn't the only one hiding something...

As usual, Gytha Lodge intrigued me from the very first page using an unreliable narrator (Louise, a binge drinker) writing to her husband (Niall). As the story goes on, a number of potential suspects with a range of motives are introduced and I found myself second guessing myself constantly.

Lodge deliberately - and skilfully - leads the reader down one path only to switch direction. The narrative does this several times so that, even when you think you've figured it out, you are blindsided by another revelation.

I really appreciated the investigation being interweaved with the personal lives of the investigative team. I've been reading this series since book 1 so am pleased to be getting to know the recurring characters better. I feel that, by exploring the lives of the cops as well as the suspects, Gytha Lodge represents real life where investigators have their own "stuff" going on in addition to their work.

'Lie Beside Me' explores powerful themes of addiction and coercive control. It begins strongly, grabbing the reader and refuses to let go. It's an intricately-plotted story that represents police operatives in a more rounded way than most crime fiction.

Lie Beside Me is the third in the DCI Jonah Sheens Southampton based series. I’ve not caught up with this series since She Lies in Wait, the first book, so I read it as if it was a stand-alone and that was not an issue.

Lie Beside Me has a striking opening: Louise Reakes wakes up with a terrible hangover. She feels utterly dreadful, but not quite as dreadful as she feels when she realises that she is in bed with a dead man; he is drenched in blood and she has absolutely no idea who he is. He husband is away at a Pharma conference in Switzerland and isn’t due home until the evening.

Louise is a harp player, married to Niall, but their marriage is not going well. She lacks confidence, feeling inferior to Dina, Niall’s ex and convinced that she can never live up to the sparkling personality that Niall first fell in love with – because that sparkle was entirely alcohol induced.

So she has taken to ensuring that she always sparkles, and that means she’s been drinking way more than ever used to – and certainly more than can ever be good for her. Louise has a new friend, April Dumont, a lively American with a predatory nature when it comes to men. But she’s a real live-wire and just being with her gives Louise confidence. Louise met April at a wedding – the same wedding where she met Niall and so she became what she later refers to as ‘drunk Louise’ that other persona who is funny and flirty and outgoing.

Sadly, the result of this persona is that she sometimes has blackouts – periods of time when she can’t remember where she was or who she was with. So when she finds the dead man in her bed, she panics. (well, you would, wouldn’t you?)

She moves the body and calls the police, all the while dreading what Niall is going to say. This could be the final straw in a rapidly deteriorating relationship. She knows Niall has been seeing his ex-wife, because April has told her so, and she fears she is losing him.

Lodge gives us direct narration from Louise who tells her own story and in writing a letter to Niall, she sets out her own recollection of how she has felt and what has happened to her. Whether or not her account is reliable is something the reader constantly has to second guess. This is interspersed with the police investigation into the death of the dead man, now identified as Alex Plaskett a fitness instructor married to Issa Benhawy.

The police investigation is very much a team effort, with DCI Jonah Sheens steering the investigation but centre stage on this one is DC Juliette Hanson, newly moved from Birmingham to Soton and who has tried and failed to leave behind an abusive boyfriend, Damien. So there is a bit of personality and background to some of the team as they investigate, adding depth and warmth to the storyline and giving extra layers of involvement to the reader.

Gytha Lodge gives us insight into the lives of Louise and Juliette, and there are strong parallels as each woman decides to take a stand and manage their own situations once and for all, whatever the consequences. Both these women have finally had enough of living in the shadows and Lodge gives us a tense and exciting read as she brings them into the light in a twisting and action packed read that really does have you guessing right to the end.

Verdict: With a killer hook and characters you warm to, Gytha Lodge presents a gripping and exciting read. Layered, tense and suspenseful, this is a series I am now putting on my must read list.

A very enjoyable and complex read. A clever plot with interesting characters. I enjoyed the story being told from two perspectives and found Louise a very intriguing character.

Lie Beside Me by Gytha Lodge is an investigation into the darker side of a potential marriage breakdown under the spotlight of alcohol induced blackouts that result in Louise waking up with an unknown dead man in her bed.

Description

You wake up.
You can't remember what happened.
The man lying next to you is not your husband.
And he's not breathing . . .

The gripping new thriller starring DCI Jonah Sheens, from the author of Richard and Judy pick and Sunday Times bestseller She Lies in Wait

'The latest instalment of the Jonah Sheen series, Lie Beside Me, is the best yet . . . I stayed up till 2am to finish it - brilliantly done' HARRIET TYCE, bestselling author of BLOOD ORANGE

'Filled with twists and turns made to suck you in and prove once again that Gytha Lodge is a master of crime detective stories' 5***** Reader Review

Review

This is my second Gytha Lodge DCI Sheens book, and there is something that draws me into these books. They certainly concentrate on the shadier side of life, and I get drawn into the plot wanting to know how this ends for Louise. Louise thinks that her marriage and her friendship with her best friend is dependent on the more fun, outgoing, wild “Drunk Louise”. It is whilst on a wild night out that her life unravels when she wakes up to find a dead man in bed next to her.

The plot unfolds, we meet her husband Niall, a distinctly unlikeable character, his dependence upon his ex - wife, and the twists and turns that develop suck the reader in. I read this in 4 days, and whilst i dont think this is the strongest book of its type, it continues to suck me in. DCI Sheens is very likable and human, fanciable even as we see him handle the case with diplomacy and intelligence.

I feel that her books are not at the Erin Kelly level of gripping, but all the same are very tense and gripping, with twists that you cannot guess - you know they are coming but not how they will unfold. Worth a read.

Rating ⅘
#LieBesideMe #NetGalley

Gytha Lodge has rapidly become a force to be reckoned with in the crime writing and police procedural world, and Lie Beside Me cements her place as an original and imaginative thinker. She deftly weaves a scintillating story that is wickedly twisty, nail-bitingly tense and full of intense drama and emotion. Characterisation is detailed making the cast engaging and relatable and the plotting is precise and well thought through. I hope she continues to write in this vein as she is one of the most exciting and accomplished talents in the genre at present. Highly recommended.

A complicated murder to unravel.

Louise Reakes has no idea how a dead man ended up in bed with her. Unfortunately, “Drunk Louise”, her other self, was too inebriated to remember what happened the night before when she went out drinking with her new best friend, April Dumont.

DCI Jonah Sheens and his team based in Southampton must use all their powers of detection to find the killer – in the process – they uncover a web of intrigue and corruption.

Another brilliant, complicated murder from Gytha Lodge. She always gives us interesting characters who we automatically assume are “up-to-no-good”. DCI Jonah Sheens and his team are well portrayed and an interesting group to follow. Gytha Lodge is proving to be a formidable author of crime.

Rony

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.

In the words of Bill and Ted…woooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Lie Beside me is book three in the DCI Jonah Sheens series and, I’m gonna say it, THE BEST SO FAR!!

After a heavy night out with her best friend Louise wakes up next to a stranger in her marital bed. A very dead stranger! Now it’s not unusual for her to have gaps in her memory after a night boozing but this..this is extreme amnesia. Obviously she becomes the prime suspect in the man’s murder, her case not helped by the fact that she can’t remember a single thing about the previous night. It is up to Jonah and his team to unpick the intricacies of this mystery and discover the truth.

Once again the author has created a perfect police procedural; it’s not all about Jonah and his musings or tales from the station, Lodge has created a fantastic story full of interesting characters with none of the dryness of the day to day drudge details you sometimes find. Part of this is getting to know the team and catching up with their personal issues but also we hear from Louise herself as she diarises her thoughts and memories as they return to her. I loved the idea of “drunk Louise” becoming a separate entity to sober Louise and how she seems intent on destroying Louise’s life. A stark observation about addiction and the feeling of helplessness every one with an alcohol/substance problem would relate to.

I’m desperate for this series to be televised but until then I’ll wait impatiently for the next in the series. All the stars – go buy it!

Another wonderfully gripping and suspenseful thriller from Gytha Lodge. I was hooked from the start and devoured this book, it's that good. A definite must read.