3.5 stars
I have never read a Shari Lapena book before but I have definitely had this authors' books on my radar so when I heard the synopsis of this book I knew I had to read one.
I absolutely flew through this book in about four hours as I was addicted and needed to know what was going to happen next. I could not put this book down once I started it.
There were a lot of character perspectives through this book but I was never confused and think that the multiple character POVs were really well written as normally it is harder to keep up with as many as this book had.
I really enjoyed getting lost in this story and these characters. A few of the plot twists I did guess but most of the time I did not know what was going to happen next.
I loved that every character in this book had secrets and that we got to learn about them throughout, so you could never really trust any of the characters in this book.
I did really enjoy Everyone Here is Lying and will definitely be picking up some of Shari Lapena's other books.

William Wooler is a well respected doctor and family man but his having an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road from his home.So when he returns home devastated and angry to find his nine year old daughter Avery unexpectedly home from school,William loses his temper.
Hours later the family report Avery missing. Suddenly Stanhope doesn't feel so safe.And William is not the only one on the street who's hiding a lie.As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true,Averys neighbours become increasingly unhinged.
Who took Avery Wooler?
What a read it grips from the start and doesn't let go,there was many different angles to the story but the author writes so well its very easy to stay engaged with the characters and the story throughout.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the ARC.

It’s a picture perfect neighbourhood. Stanhope is the sort of place where you respect your neighbours and they respect you. That is until a parent’s worst nightmare happens and a nine-year-old girl disappears. So far, so disturbing, but what makes it particularly interesting is that Avery had an argument with her father William prior to her going missing. And, losing his temper, William reacts badly. Though it’s no excuse, he’s got a fair set of problems. This is what happens when you’re having an affair… Suddenly, the picket fence suburb doesn’t feel quite safe, with neighbour questioning neighbour and no one feeling entirely comfortable with the people living closest to them. But who is telling the truth and who is fibbing? It’ll take time to unravel the red herrings but this is a very satisfying if uncomfortable read.

Everyone here is lying by Shari Lapena
Publication date 6 July 2023

Shari Lapena has done it again with yet another compulsively readable thriller. I inhaled this one over two nights, as I found it difficult to put down. I needed to know what happened!

The disappearance of Avery, a 9 year old girl, from her home in the safe and respectable neighbourhood of Stanhope, sends shock waves throughout the community.

It's always the parents isn't it? Or is it?
It does not take long for the glare of suspicion to fall upon everyone, and everyone seems to be lying!

Paranoia sets in and the residents soon find themselves questioning what the people they think they know are actually really capable of.

Everyone here is lying fast paced, and a real page turner as the revelations just keep on coming.

I felt like I was there on the street twitching my own curtains! The atmosphere and tension builds, and loved the explosive ending.

Shari is really good at writing unlikeable characters, exploring family dynamics and spinning those Webs of deceit - I was absolutely hooked and suspected everyone at some point!

There are plenty of thrillers out there that are based on a child going missing - but Everyone here is lying has a really fresh take on this subject that I throughly enjoyed.

Who took Avery? What really happened?


Thank you to Random House UK and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Avery goes missing after an argument with her dad. Her dad is a well liked a respected doctor and they live in a good neighbourhood. As the search for Avery continues, secrets are revealed and nooone is who the seem. The ending of the book was a little far fetched for me but i enjoyed the plot overall.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

William and Erin are a married couple with two children, Michael and Avery. William is a doctor at the local hospital, has a good reputation, but he’s also living a lie, as he’s having an affair. Until the woman he’s having an affair with abruptly ends. William goes home, devastated by the end of his affair, where he discovers his daughter at home, when she should be at school. They argue, and suddenly, she is declared missing. And it transpires, in the small town they live, that everyone is lying.

This was another good, solid read from this author. When you pick up a book by this author you know you’re going to be filled with mystery, crime, and characters who are deceitful. And this book is no different. The characters were all flawed and wasn’t all that pleasant, but this made the story stronger. There were lots of red herrings chucked in also, ensuring the mystery stayed chapter after chapter. I would recommend.

I'm actually a fan of Shari Lapena's books, when I got back into reading I really enjoyed her fast, easy flowing books like A Couple Next Door and The End Of Her. I read all of her new release books hopefully but sorry to say it's been a while since one has really hit the spot for me.

Everyone Here Is Lying is a surburban noir, every parent's worse nightmare, a missing child.

Nine-year-old Avery's disappearance places the spotlight and the strain firmly on the neighbourhood. Affairs, secrets, lies, rumours, unhappy marriages all there waiting to be uncovered.

There are plenty of characters, I'd recommend making a list of who's who and their relationships.

It's cleverly structured with a lot of neighbourhood strife and marital tensions in the foreground while the hunt for the missing child ticks along. Everyone's got an opinion, and most have got secrets or grudges.

Hardcore Shari Lapena fans will no doubt love it, but I found it a bit slow and circuitous. There are several clever reveals and surprises providing notable peaks in tension in what was otherwise rather mild.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK

When 9 year old Avery goes missing from her small community, everyone is under suspicion.
It seems that most people on the street where she lived have secrets, including Avery’s father.
This book had a good premise and I was hooked from the start, however the part where we discover what had happened to Avery just didn’t sit right with me and the book kinda went downhill after that. I usually really enjoy her books, I loved Not a Happy Family, but this one not so much.

#EveryoneHereIsLying. #NetGalley

A shocking thriller that exposes family harmony and betrayal and loss. Lots of twists and turns. It kept me guessing right to the end!

Firstly, thank you to Netgallery, Random House books and Shari Lapena for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Shari Lapena has done it again she is the queen of thrillers! I’ve read all her books so I was ecstatic about getting my hands on her latest one! This book totally gripped me from the first page to the last, suspicious of everyone and everything. A tense, faced paced thriller that will keep you up at night.

The twists and turns throughout the book I was left thinking about it for days after. Shari Lapena definitely should be on everyones shelf!

2.5 stars rounded up.

Avery is 9yrs old and she's gone missing.....vanished without a trace. Everybody is a suspect and seemingly everybody has something to hide......

Everyone Here is Lying has a few POV's.....Avery's mom, Erin, her dad, a respected doctor, William....his mistress, Nora....and then quite a few of the neighbours.

There were some really uncomfortable moments for me in this book.....Avery's father was quite abusive towards her and he seemingly justified his behaviour, because she was 'difficult'. The author has the opportunity to explore this father/daughter dynamic, but I feel a lot of it is glossed over or just a superficial dive into why she is the way she is and he is the way he is. William is also having an affair and again, we are led to believe this affair is so passionate, but we really don't get into much of the how, why, etc.

I felt the sentences and the way this book was written was so simple... She had coffee. She went for a walk. (I'm improvising here, but this is the gist of it for me).....short and simple....and that's quite the whole feeling for me about this book. Very simple, stop and start.....not enough depth.

It was a quick read, but I just didn't feel there was enough depth, suspense or tension. Perhaps readers who are new to 'thrillers' will enjoy this domestic drama a bit more than I did.

An entertaining read with plenty of intrigue.

I enjoyed this book and found it very easy reading. From chapter 1 everything starts to go wrong and the lies begin to build and the introduction and handling of multiple characters is where Shari Lapena shines.

All of her characters are well constructed and believable albeit Avery, the central character was extremely complex. I do t feel that her character, out of everybody’s was truly explored to its full potential. And by the time she is given the full limelight it’s a quite shut case and BAMM the book is over!

I think there’ll be a mixed bag of opinions surrounding this book. There will be lost that just love an easy, not too challenging read that’s well written with plenty of twists and character subplots. Then there’ll be others who are a bit disappointed that the main storyline wasn’t explored as much as it could’ve been whilst affairs and teen dramas took centre stage.

As I mentioned above, I did enjoy it but i felt like there was a bigger better story just out of reach. The biggest upset for me was where in just one sentence Lapena had pretty much told you the ‘big reveal’. From that point on I felt like I was just waiting for everyone else to catch up with my discovery.

Good read, perfect for taking on holiday, not her best but then they can’t all be 5 stars can they?

Thank to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Avery is a child that has been labelled as 'difficult' and she is thrown out of an after school activity early. She's meant to wait for her brother but leaves without him and goes missing. The narrative switches between her parents and other people in the neighbourhood that might be involved. It's quite a twisty book and I found it unpredictable and a quick read.

William Wooler has a different family life, when his secret girlfriend breaks up with him he takes his anger out on his nine year old daughter Avery, but then she goes missing and all eyes are on William.

I loved the multiple different point of views, it really helped the tie the story together.

All the characters felt fleshed out and well written.

Shari Lapena is one of my go to authors so I was eagerly looking forward to reading her latest offering ‘Everyone here is lying’.

Physician William Wooler works at the local hospital and to most people seems like a typical family man, married with two children. William has been having an affair that has just ended badly and when he arrives back home that same day he is angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school. William loses his temper with her and only hours later her family report her missing.

William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie and witnesses start to come forward with information that may or may not be true,

This is a fast paced novel that twist and turns with some very colourful characters. A real page turner that makes it difficult to put down.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Random House UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Another high octane, high thriller edge of your seat read by Shari. Again really well written, with complex characters. Multiple twist and turns to keep the reader engaged.

"His daughter has a history of telling lies. He does, too, but his wife doesn't know that."

Shari Lapena is one of those authors that whatever book you pick up, you can safely say you know you're going to be entertained for the next few hours.

From the moment we meet our main narrator, Will, I don't exactly like him. He's having an affair, he's short tempered, angry and selfish. But there's also something very human and vulnerable about him - it's clear he's the villain or the victim depending on where you're looking from, and most of the characters we meet are like that. I can't say I liked any of the adult characters at all, but I was intrigued by them. We hear from Nora, who just ended her affair with Will, from Will's Son who was meant to take Avery home, from their neighbours and the police involved - every single person is holding onto something, a little piece of a bigger story - and they're all lying about something.

The story keeps the reader at arms length, leaving us to figure out which lies are the ones we're looking for. It's intense, suffocating and moves slowly through scenes of a normal domestic neighbourhood but feeling like something dark is lurking around the corner. It's manipulative and full of misdirection - but makes sure we know we're being lied to, we see them being told, see everyone as a potential suspect. The mystery is full of rumours, hearsay, lies and confusion - being pushed one way then another, in a quiet, whispering kind of way that makes this so easy to read in one sitting.

There's a few moments that felt weird to me, but I'm fairly certain Lapena added them to show how stereotypes are often used in the justice system rather than her own views, like a young man with Autism being accused, reporting the 'weird' kids or immediately jumping to the conclusion it's someone with priors. The ending I will admit was a total curveball and was wickedly delightful, but I did feel like the hoops we had to jump through to get there didn't quite pay off during the reveal, it being totally out of left-field left me thinking there could've been something else in the build-up aside from all red herrings.

Everyone Here is Lying is an entertaining procedural with the biting electricity of a thriller. Cinematic and dramatic, this is the kind of book you're definitely going to read in one brilliant sitting.

An exciting thriller read with twists that keep you guessing till the end! Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book! I look forward to reading other books by this author. There were so many twists in this book I didn’t see coming. But then again I rarely can figure books out. I would definitely recommend this book!

When William's affair ends suddenly, he returns to his home hoping for some quiet time to process it, but finds his difficult daughter home early. After an argument, William loses his temper with Avery. Hours later, she is declared missing. Does William know anything about it? Or do any if the neighbours? It soon becomes apparent that many people in the neighbourhood are telling lies, and the police must try to find the truth about what has happened to Avery.

A brilliant thriller that keeps you turning the pages and guessing. Great ending. Loved it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

Thanks to Shari and NetGalley for allowing me to read Everyone Here is Lying before the publication date.
This is set in a neighbourhood full of professional families, many of them involved with the local hospital where Dr. William Wooler works.

Life in the Wooler family is a constant battle as they try to placate 9 year old Avery who, we are told, has been diagnosed with ADHD, learning difficulties and behavioural problems, and boy does she have everyone wrapped round her little finger. (Please don’t judge my comments until you have read the book).

On the day she went missing, Avery had been sent out of choir practice for misbehaving but instead of waiting for her long suffering 12 year old brother Michael, she makes her own way home.

The family later report Avery is missing, and the blame machine is quickly fired up and pointed at everyone and anyone who could be held responsible for Avery leaving school unaccompanied.
William does not tell the police that he had been home and met Avery after she had left the school. With no sighting of Avery after she is thought to have left school, resources are diverted to searching the school from top to bottom in case she was still there.

The police interview the neighbours and soon fingers are being pointed and hints given about the behaviour of certain neighbours. This nice neighbourhood seems to be full of families with secrets which they are very keen to keep.