Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant

About this book…

The truth is, we all tell lies… take a deep breath and get ready for the most twisty, tense and unsettling book of the summer.

It starts with a lie. The kind we’ve all told – to a former acquaintance we can’t quite place but still, for some reason, feel the need to impress. The story of our life, embellished for the benefit of the happily married lawyer with the kids and the lovely home.

And the next thing you know, you’re having dinner at their house, and accepting an invitation to join them on holiday – swept up in their perfect life, the kind you always dreamed of…

Which turns out to be less than perfect. But by the time you’re trapped and sweating in the relentless Greek sun, burning to escape the tension all around you – by the time you start to realise that, however painful the truth might be, it’s the lies that cause the real damage…

… well, by then, it could just be too late.

 

My review…

Oh my oh my! Looks like this is going to be another “Marmite” book that you will either love or dislike intensely. But I have to say that having read and liked Sabine Durrant’s previous books, this is my favourite by far-I absolutely bloody loved it!!!!!! It just had everything that I want in a book, horrible people, dysfunctional families, death, suspense and all set in my most favourite place in the world…Greece. If I’d been able to, I would have been laying on my sunlounger with a large Mythos and a plate of olives to get the full effect but a rainy summer’s day in Cheshire gave me just as much of an excuse to curl up and read this in one sitting.

Paul Morris is our narrator here and he isn’t a very nice person. Having had one major literary success in his early twenties, he is still dining out on it now aged 42. He is one of those men who makes women feel uncomfortable, the way he talks about women (and girls) is just creepy and some of the things he did or said just made my skin crawl! A chance meeting with an old friend from university leads him to meet Alice, a widow, who invites him to holiday with her and extended family and friends on a Greek Island. Paul seems to have no qualms about using people to satisfy his own needs (sex, money, a place to live) so this holiday seems heaven sent but it is far from the relaxing break he was expecting.

I love being surprised and this book did that from start to finish. I also love a dark and brooding hero but Paul was the most vile character and everything he did just wound me up. It was cringe worthy the way he acted around women especially. Although, truthfully, none of these people were the sort of people I would warm to and so it takes a lot of skilful writing to make us care about what happens to them! I loved the theme of Lies used throughout, the quotes and the double entendres especially once the entire group move out to Greece. And I can’t think of anywhere better to have set this domestic noir than in the beautiful Greek countryside, I could almost feel the heat generated by the hot Greek sunshine and hear the sounds of donkeys and dogs and buzzing mosquitoes!

It took me quite a long time to work out where this was going, I was having too much fun grimacing at Paul’s behaviour but when the finale did roll around it was just so satisfying, perfectly handled and rounded off the plot nicely. I really did just love it from start to finish.

I received an advanced copy from Veronique at Hodder so thank you and this is my unbiased review.

Lie With Me is out in e-book on 5th July and hardback on 28th July and can be preordered here at Amazon UK