You have to be a very good writer to keep your reader on tenterhooks, wondering what on earth is going on and what the point of this story is for several chapters. Fortunately Imran Mahmood is just that and he really pulls it off in this book which will keep you guessing all the way.

All I Said Was True shifts between the aftermath of a woman’s murder and the time before that event as we hear from Layla, being questioned for Amy Blahn’s murder, but clearly not telling all she knows. Her situation looks grim, the evidence all points to her guilt. Layla is a civil lawyer. She was arrested, on the rooftop of her husband’s workplace with a dead woman in her arms and no-one else around but she insists she is innocent.

This is a dual timeline story, split between Then, which is six weeks before the live police interview, and Now. Layla is the most unreliable of narrators, pointing the police to a mysterious man whose name she barely knows ; offering them only the suggestion that if they find Michael, they’ll find out everything they need to know.

It’s a risky strategy for a woman being questioned under caution for murder and Layla’s story is, to say the least, a bit fantastical. How much, if any, is true, is difficult to determine and what it all adds up to is really fuzzy. Imran Mahmood is an expert at building up those really knotty string puzzles where it’s almost impossible to find the one string that offers the clue to unravelling the whole and you end up down many wrong turnings before you are even close to unravelling the whole.

Layla in chapters interleaved with the interview chapters, takes us back some 6 weeks before the murder to show us what happened and how it was she ended up cradling Amy Blahn’s dead body.

Fortunately Mahmood can really pull this off; his writing is sharp and beautifully constructed. When, quite far into the book, the rationale for all this becomes clear, it is a delight to know that the reader’s perseverance has been rewarded by a clear and logical explanation of what has transpired.

Layla is an enigma. Clearly not disclosing the truth, yet maintaining her innocence. Pointing to a perpetrator whose full name she does not know. She is obfuscating, but why is unclear. Whatever the reasons, she seems only to be succeeding in making herself look more desperate and by omission, guilty. As she tries to explain the concept of Free Will to the Police she succeeds only in making it look as if she’s trying to establish a mental health defence.

As we learn more about Layla and her background, it’s possible to understand how she found herself in this position. But the mysterious Michael remains an enigma and while you can speculate about what exactly is going on, this is not one you’re solve early on.

Verdict: This beautifully constructed, clever plot and it really delivers on suspense. I was guessing and second guessing myself all the way along. This was such a propulsive book for me I read it in one sitting, eschewing everything else so that I could find out what was going on. For me, that’s the mark of a real page-turner and this one has it all. It is unpredictable, intriguing, suspenseful and highly enjoyable.

This book kept me on my toes, was Michael an angel?? was her dad a ghost?? it was a real page turner written by a very clever man - well done and more like this please!

I know from reading Imran Mahmood’s work that I’m going to get a clever and different from the usual type of crime fiction. If anything, this novel is even more complex than the previous book that I read I Know What I Saw. He is better than many authors at the ‘unreliable narrator’ and in this novel that narrator is Layla. It is a long time since I read a novel where I really didn’t know whether she could be relied on.

There are only a handful of characters, none of whom you really see apart from through Layla’s eyes. Because of the way she was I couldn’t work out anything about them, even if they existed. All I can say, just after finishing it was that I had a lot of sympathy for Layla’s lawyer, Peter, and the two police officers who were trying to prove that she was a murderer.

As well as being unreliable I also found her a little unlikeable. Even towards the end, when I started to see what was really happening there was something I wasn’t keen on. A touch brittle, infuriating and obsessive we’re just a few words I could use to describe her. But possibly, like the other characters I just misunderstood her.

I would read this book again, just to see if I feel differently about her and I would definitely watch if it was made into a TV drama.

I was very excited to have the opportunity to read Imran Mahmood's latest novel, All I Said Was True. As a practising barrister, he knows the legal process really well and he has used his knowledge to write a fast paced, compelling story that I found very difficult to put down. Mahmood's plotting is immense. There are secrets and anomalies throughout the story and they make the novel really intriguing.

The chapters in All I Said Was True alternate between "then" and "now" and the chapters in the past gradually bring the reader up to the present day to explain what happened. The tension this creates is brilliant and it really helped me to gain a better understanding of the gravity of Layla's situation.

As what happened is gradually revealed to us, we do not know from the beginning what is actually true. I really wanted to trust Layla but I was never completely sure that I could and this put me on edge until the conclusion was reached.

All I Said Was True is a title that just screams liar to me and the saying “the lady doth protest too much, methinks” quickly sprang to mind. Especially when the narrator Layla was so unreliable or is she cleverly making you think just that? After all this book is as much about fate, free will and choices as it is a murder. However is free will just an illusion too like the possibility of Michael?

As a lawyer she knows that the police only have so long before they have to charge or release her and in a then and now narrative we have her police interview and the events leading up to the rooftop murder.

This cleverly woven tale had my mind caving in on itself with backstories, betrayals, the idea of more than one truth, predestination vs free will and it’s ingenuity of blurring her erratic behaviour with her unreliable narration. It makes you question everything and everyone.

Picking apart her story along with police you will wonder if Michael is a figment of her imagination or if there is more at play here. Is she just a pawn in a game of chess with no idea who is actually playing or is she the grand master?

While there were many times I did have to suspend disbelief and shake my head at Layla’s responses this had so much more going on than I was first led to believe. Some well placed twists and a clever plot will always suck me in but Layla was too much even for me sometimes and I love an unreliable.

All I Said Was True did however take me down a rabbit hole and had me internalising my own life and what led me here. Was it fate or my own choices?

The title of the book indicates the main theme in the story, and that is truth and its many layers. From assumptions and interpretations to perceptions, time and place, this tale of a woman accused of a murder she says she did not commit also considers how individual truth is created from memories and fabrications.

The story is simple enough: a woman is found on a rooftop with a dead woman, who has been stabbed. Nobody else is there but she claims a man killed her and then ran away. There is no evidence of this man ever having been there - or anywhere else. The police then have to find out whether she is telling the truth although the circumstantial evidence strongly points at her.

The book is from the accused point of view and starts in the interview room at the police station. The chapters alternate between 'Then' and 'Now' as the events and the questioning draw together. In her own search for truth she has to come to terms with betrayal from both her parents, husband, friend and colleague. It is a well written tale with sensory and almost mystical details that certainly make this unlike the run-of-the-mill police procedural novel.

A clever and unique work, unpredictable and profound, worthy of reading.

I really didn't get on with this author's debut book. His second was better for me but we appear to now be going backwards with his third and I think it's time we went our separate ways as reader and author...
The story he tells herein is good but it is the execution that I found annoying to say the least. Every couple of pages we went back or forward - Now and Then - with most of the proceeding chapters ending on a cliffhanger of sorts. We did this so frequently that I really never got chance to stay in a timeline enough to establish what was really happening. So a lot of the information just didn't stick. In fact, when we went back to the previous timeline to pick up the cliffhanger, I had actually forgotten what it was in the first place and it was only a few minutes since I read it.
Suffice to say I started not to care but I was determined to get to the end of the book. Just in case it got better for me as the story progressed. It did, as I did manage to get through it, but I wasn't that fussed when I did get to the end.
It's no doubt that this author can spin a great yarn and create cracking characters. Just that his delivery doesn't fit with me. So yeah, I think sadly we are not compatible. But that's ok as there are many more readers out there for Mr Mahmood, as there are authors for me. All part of life's rich tapestry... And I do wish him all the best in his future books, no hard feelings...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

My first book by this author and I did enjoy it,full of suspense and legal drama it kept my attention throughout,I did find it a bit confusing at times with so many characters and timeline changes but it was worth getting it straight in my mind and then carrying on,will definitely read more from this author

Having enjoyed the authors last book I was looking forward to reading this. The book is told by an unreliable narrator, something I’m not a massive fan of, but this author is a master of this form. In alternate chapters the story switches between the present, where Layla is being questioned by the police, and the past leading up to the murder and where she first ‘meets’ Michael. This isn’t fast paced, but slow and complex gradually unwrapping the story layer by layer - initially I couldn’t decide if we were dealing with mental illness, the paranormal or if it was real.

Briefly, Layla Mahoney is arrested after she is found on the roof terrace of a building holding the body of Amy Blahn but when questioned she keeps repeating that it was Michael. However, Michael doesn’t seem to exist…

Lalya is a really difficult character to like and I just didn’t know what to believe as she recounted her story. Fact or fiction? I had no idea. Every time I thought I had figured out what was going on another spanner was thrust dramatically into the works. This isn’t an easy read but it’s worth bearing with it everything just suddenly drops into place. Clever. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another fascinating tale from the excellent Imran Mahmood. Well written and cleverly plotted, even though credulity is stretched a little at times, this novel excels when it is dealing with the legal side of the story, as one would expect.

I've enjoyed Imran Mahmood's previous books so was excited about this one!
I enjoyed this book, but I did find it confusing at times.
I was unsure where the book was going, and there was a lot of characters and a lot of back and forth with different timelines so if i wasn't fully paying attention it would be easy to get lost.

This wasn't my fav Mahmood book, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

I’m a big fan of this authors books, so I was very excited to read this one. So my rating pains me 🥲

Layla a solicitor has been arrested after being found on a high rise roof top cradling the body of Amy. All Layla will say is find Michael to find what they need to know.

It flips between a split time line, in alternating chapters. It’s unusual and quirky, hats off for ingenuity on the plot. It’s slow paced, the main character isn’t at all likeable, she comes across as highly unreliable.

I’m gutted to say that I found this one of the most frustrating books I’ve read in ages. I’m not a fan of unreliable narrators, everyone and everything is unreliable, the author really pushed the boundaries with Layla. If you enjoy the extreme unreliable narrator trope you will probably love it. Unfortunately this one wasn’t a hit for me. I look forward to the next one.

I never repeat the blurb. This is the first of this author's books which I have read and I did find it a little too disjointed for me, too much back and forth occurring too frequently, which stopped the flow of the narrative from being as smooth as would have suited it more.

I'm just going to call it. Imran Mahmood is the king of the unreliable narrator. Whether it is down to his career experience - and I have no idea which side of the law he practices - but be it corporate or criminal law, he has no doubt come across more than the occasional character who chooses to stretch the truth to suit their own ends. Wherever his inspiration is drawn from, he excels are giving us characters whose word we cannot necessarily trust and yet we find ourselves strangely drawn to anyway, compelled by their plight and intrigued by their story. That is certainly true of the protagonist of All I Said Was True, Layla who, in spite of the absolute certainty dictated by the title of this book, skirts around which portions of the 'truth' she is willing to disclose. It makes for one heck of a mystery and one hell of a story, in a book which kept me absolutely gripped and allowed my to consume it's secrets within just one day. 

When we meet Layla, it's fair to say that she is in somewhat of a predicament. Arrested on suspicion of murder. There is no doubt she was found with the victim - she was the person who called the police after all. But she claims not to know the woman who died in her arms, and has no plausible explanation as to how she came to be in the same place at the same time, other than to bid the police to find the mysterious 'Michael', a man whose information she cannot give them but who she claims to be the key to the whole case. You can tell from the very start that Layla is lying by omission, but just why and why she will not help plead her own case more successfully remains to be seen.

Imran Mahmood has a talent for creating characters who you may not always trust but who I find myself instinctively drawn to. Layla is far from perfect, and whilst there are elements of her character which do make her appear to be a victim, I also felt that there was far more to her than meets the eye. Bored by her work, struggling through a rocky patch both personally and professionally, meeting the strange and ever present Michael certainly changes her life, and not necessarily for the better. He, in himself, is a strange personality, hard to get a reading on, but someone whose motives I never entirely trusted. Whether my misgivings proved founded or not you would need to read to find out, but nothing about this whole messy story is as simple as it seems. Corporate misdeeds, personal indiscretions and the whole plethora of misgivings, mistrust and misunderstandings have the tension and the mystery flying off the charts.

Did I always understand Layla's actions? Not in the slightest. I had no clue as to why she didn't do more to defend herself, to help the police, given her constant protestations of innocence. But as the story unfolds, told through a series of flashback scenes and scenes which are set during Layla's prolonged detention and formal interview, things started to become clearer. Sort of. For whilst Imran Mahmood provided an explanation for certain aspects of the case, he muddied the waters in others, bringing Layla's strange an increasingly irrational behaviour to the forefront of our attention. And given certain aspects of Layla's home life, you'd be forgiven for thinking there may just be an element of truth to the police's assertions.

I really enjoyed this book, the back and forth and the subterfuge of it all. It's packed with suspense and mystery, a slow growing tension which peaks are key points throughout the narrative only to wane a touch as the author builds towards a dramatic and completely unexpected ending. Unexpected but not unwelcome. I had an inkling about aspects of the big reveals early on in the book, but not in a way that spoiled my enjoyment of it, and with pitch perfect pacing, I absolutely tore through the story in no time.

Another absolute belter of a story from an author who never fails to surprise and entertain. Tense, with a complex narrative that twists and turns with the same chaotic precision as spaghetti junction, and characters who you can never truly trust, fans of the author are sure to love All I Said Was True. An easy and most definite recommendation.

This is my second book from Imran Mahmood, after reading “I Know What I Saw” last year and really enjoying it. I found this book to be of a similar style so I did enjoy it. I loved the dual timelines leading up to the murder of Amy Blahn leaving us guessing what really happened on that rooftop. It is a dark and mysterious thriller which keeps you gripped to find out the truth. I did not guess the murderer and was surprised when that was revealed, however I wasn’t blown away as I would have liked to have been. I also felt that this was a little slow and dragged in places. This book definitely has unlikeable characters and that can taint some people’s view of the book but I found that it added to the mystery and darkness surrounding the storyline. However, I did find some parts to be confusing and almost irrelevant at times, almost like the author was trying to make this over-complicated. Overall, another enjoyable thriller from this author.

"All I Said Was True" by Imran Mahmood is the first of his books that I have read. I did watch though "You Don't Know Me", and based on that experience, this book didn't disappoint. I must admit there were times when I had rein my imagination in as some of the plotlines could have gone a little over-the-top: does Michael even exist, is this one giant cover up by the chemical industry? However, looking at the book, more realistically, it was clever the way found out the answers to the questions the police were asking Layla during the investigation (that made her look very guilty), through the plot narrative "Then" and "Now". There were a few niggling things that I need to sort out in my own brain about the plot (maybe a good reason to read it again) but this won't affect my rating.

The first Imran Mahmood book I've read is a twisty page turner with unreliable narrator Layla, who held Amy Blahn as she died on a rooftop. But when Layla is questioned by the police, her story doesn't quite add up. This is pretty original, but in the end I wasn't convinced - my belief was stretched a bit too much. Very clever, but I never quite invested in the characters.

Phew what a crazy ride this is.
This book bounces between the past and present.
Leyla has been arrested after she is found on a rooftop, holding a dead woman in her arms, a knife belonging to her husband in her chest.
The events leading up to that point are slowly uncovered both by the police questioning and Layla's own recollections as they happened.
The problem is these two narratives don't align. Layla insists someone called Michael is the one who committed the murder but the police cannot find any trace of him.
At the basis of the story is a chemical compound that is potentially dangerous and deadly.
I had no clue, absolutely zero, what the truth was. The narrative from Layla was believable and seemed to be perfectly reasonable but as the questioning goes on, Laylas behaviour starts to seem more unhinged and you wonder if the police do have something.
The conclusion is brilliant, there are a few shocks that completely took me by surprise and the action didn't stop until the very last page.
The characters were likeable enough, and you could understand their motivations. There is depth with issues of family, race, feeling welcome by loved ones and a country. It all adds a great depth to them.
Another cracking read from the genius mind of Imran Mahmood.

A must read for fans of legal thrillers. A brilliant, twisty and realistic search for the truth by one of the best legal writers out there. A fantastic, fast paced race to the truth. Highly recommended xx

This is the third book I have read by author Imran Mahmood and I have to say I have really enjoyed all three. The author has worked on the criminal bar in London for over 20 years and together with his skills as a writer he produces legal thrillers that have more than a touch of realism.

Amy Blahn was murdered and her body discovered on a London office rooftop. Layla Mahoney held Amy as died in her arms. The police arrest Amy who offers little defence other than saying ‘It was Michael. Find Michael and you’ll find out everything you need to know.’
The problem the police face is that there is no evidence Michael ever existed and they face a race against the clock to find either Michael or charge Layla with Amy’s murder.
Layla is a lawyer so is fully aware of the predicament the police face and knows that they only have forty eight hours in which to charge her or let her go. Layla pleads with the police to find Michael but as the interviews progress more facts come to light that threaten to expose Layla.

This is a real page turner told in a past and present format featuring the police interrogations of Layla as well as the build up to the murder itself. Well written novel that had me already looking forward to the authors next novel.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for supplying a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.