While it took me way longer to get to Lie With Me than was originally the plan (my apologies to the publisher and author!), Sabine Durrant nonetheless provided me with a delightfully twisty ride in which I got to absolutely despise a main character. Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Once again, my sincere apologies for the long delay.

Durrant most definitely got some inspiration from Nabokov's Lolita, to which she also references early on in the book. While the inspiration is not really on the subject level, it is very much apparent, in a good way, in the writing and approach. Lolita's narrator is a despicable person, writing from jail, trying to explain to himself and the reader why he is innocent of the horrible things he has definitely done. In Lie With Me we are dealing with a narrator who is well and truly a sucky man. He is not technically a criminal, but he moves through life like a dismissive bulldozer, focused on who he can use and how he can keep up a facade. Bubbling away inside of him is anger about class and privilege, but he is so annoying the reader doesn't really want to give him any leeway. While, as I said, the subject matter is slightly different, the way in which Durrant picks up Nabokov's writing and approach and pours it into a thriller shape was delightful. Getting closer to the end and seeing the web tighten around him feels oddly delightful, even if the question of guilt remains clouded. Durrant trusts the reader quite a bit here, to pick up on what she's doing and appreciate its impact. In my case, this was wholly successful.

Paul Morris is a writer, except that ever since his first book made him a mild celebrity at 23, he hasn't really produced anything of worth. Thanks to a lot of put-on charm, handouts from friends, and a disinterest in anything that doesn't benefit him, Paul has been able to continue to project the image of a literary man about town. This is quickly coming to an end, however, and now he's living with his mum again. But there is a chance at something else in the form of Alice, a friend of a college friend. She could be the answer to most of his issues, if he can just manage to wriggle his way into her and her children's lives. An invite to their Greece summer holiday seems to perfect chance to clinch the deal, except that there is a lot more going on, including a 10-year cold case about the disappearance of a young girl, during which they were all, coincidentally, also on the island. While Lie With Me is told mostly chronologically, we start with a short glimpse onto where Paul is now, how this entire situation potentially ends, but Durrant manages to maintain the tension between "what did he do", "did he do anything", and "what actually happened".

Lie With Me is not just told from Paul's perspective, it is formulated as his written down explanation of how it all went down. As such, his voice is very strong throughout and I very much enjoyed disliking him. He sucks, from the first page onward, and he doesn't really improve upon closer acquaintance. I have to give Sabine Durrant serious props for managing to write a character that sucks but that I nonetheless enjoy reading about. Paul is surrounded by a cast of characters who all seem to have their own things going on, secrets to hide, and weaknesses to explore. I enjoyed the relationships that get built up and explored there and how Durrant always plays with how Paul presents a situation and how it probably was. It makes for a very interesting reading experience. While I saw the twist coming after about half the book, I think this was kind of intentional. It was really fun to see how the walls kind of close in on Paul and how more and more avenues and explanations and excuses become worthless. I will definitely be reading more thrillers by Sabine Durrant!

Lie With Me is a delightfully twisty thriller full of (mostly) despicable characters. While the twists are, in a sense, predictable, they remain delightful due to the great writing.

A twisty and tense thriller of a book that was extremely hard to put down.

Great cast of characters and a brilliant ending

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for supplying me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I admit I'd had this on my Kindle for a while, pushing it back to be read another day. I was put off with the opening chapter, something just stopped me from wanting to read any further. However after reading other reviews, I felt like it must be worth persevering with. Looking back, I couldn't see what I actually found such hard-going on my initial reading.

This turned in the fantastic read that other reviewers have been raving about!

Not being familiar with Sabine Durrant's work, I wasn't sure what to expect and where she would take this story. She cleverly weaves this tale of deception, as the title suggests, until we are not sure who who are the good guys in the story. Several times I found myself rooting for the character I previously hated. This was nothing if not an emotive book.

I can't wait to read more of this writer's work!

Without doubt one of the best psychological thrillers I have read in a very long time. I couldn't put this book down. Amazing !