BLOG TOUR: The Lying Room by Nicci French @FrenchNicci @WilliamMorrowBooks @TLCBookTours #thelyingroom

Writing duo Nicci French could write a book on how to make a manipulative character likable. That’s the craziest part for me of reading The Lying Room—I completely rooted for everything Neve was doing, only to remember that I probably shouldn’t like her given the circumstances A brilliantly plotted suspense novel with a stunning murderer I never saw coming.

About the Book

It should have been just a mid-life fling. A guilty indiscretion that Neve Connolly could have weathered. An escape from twenty years of routine marriage to her overworked husband, and from her increasingly distant children. But when Neve pays a morning-after visit to her lover, Saul, and finds him brutally murdered, their pied-à-terre still heady with her perfume, all the lies she has so painstakingly stitched together threaten to unravel.

After scrubbing clean every trace of her existence from Saul’s life—and death—Neve believes she can return to normal, shaken but intact. But she can’t get out of her head the one tormenting question: what was she forgetting?

An investigation into the slaying could provide the answer. It’s brought Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Hitching, and Neve’s worst fears, to her door. But with every new lie, every new misdirection to save herself, Neve descends further into the darkness of her betrayal—and into more danger than she ever imagined. Because Hitching isn’t the only one watching Neve. So is a determined killer who’s about to make the next terrifying move in a deadly affair…

Reflection

Wow, Neve is a woman with a lot of secrets! As the book opens, Neve is with her family and receives a text from her boss and lover, Saul. Neve leaves on her bicycle to go meet him, only to discover he has been bashed in the head with a hammer. And thus begins the unraveling of Neve’s life.

Desperate to erase any trace of her affair, lest her husband find out or the police suspect her, Neve deep cleans the apartment. But after she leaves she realizes something she forgot. A clue that she can’t leave for the police to find. In a spiral that quickly becomes out of control, Neve tries harder to double down on her lies and keep everything a secret. And yet, she’s sure there is something she forgot. Some clue.

Neve should be completely unlikable. I though that Nicci French did a fantastic job, though, of showing how affairs like this happen to otherwise good marriages. Neve doesn’t hate her husband Fletcher, nor did she stop loving him. But things are tough with his job, and their oldest daughter is leaving for university, and Fletcher has been distant lately. None of it is an excuse. And yet, something felt so authentic about this affair. It wasn’t as tawdry or salacious as you’d think. It just was.

Now, Neve not only has to hide it, but she has to mourn the loss of another man who she loved. It doesn’t seem fair to feel bad for her, and yet I did. Neve is a complex character, and one that is surprisingly and wickedly brilliant in the worst of circumstances. How she maintains some of the lies is something to behold. Particularly when the sharp-and-dogged Detective Hitching takes the case.

The exchanges between Hitching and Neve were among the best in the entire novel. It was often hard for me to tell who was outsmarting whom. I’m honestly still not sure! A pair that are as intelligent and crafty with manipulation as the other—fascinating to read! When I learned that Nicci French is a writing duo, I actually pondered whether they each wrote a side of the dialogue, and that is why it felt so brilliantly matched.

I don’t want to say much more, because I want you to ride along with Neve on this nightmare unfolding before her eyes. But I will say this—the manipulation, the characters, the scenarios that unfold are all masterful. A top notch thriller!

Thank you to William Morrow books and TLC Book Tours for my copy. Opinions are my own.

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Nicci French is the pseudonym of English wife-and-husband team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. Their acclaimed novels of psychological suspense have sold more than 8 million copies around the world.

Follow them on Facebook and Twitter.