The Darkest Lies by Barbara Copperthwaite #BlogTour @bookouture

I’m absolutely delighted to be on the Blog Tour today for The Darkest Lies which is the Barbara Copperthwaites first book for her new publisher Bookouture. And today I’m sharing my stop with the lovely Sarah Hardy at By The Letter Book Reviews and you can check her review out HERE

About this book…

A mother desperate for the truth. A daughter hiding a terrible secret.

Melanie Oak appeared to have the perfect life. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Jacob, the couple live with their beautiful, loving, teenage daughter, Beth, in a pretty village.

Nothing can shake her happiness – until the day that Beth goes missing and is discovered beaten almost to the point of death, her broken body lying in a freezing creek on the marshes near their home.

Consumed with grief, Melanie is determined to find her daughter’s attacker. Someone in the village must have seen something. Why won’t they talk?

As Melanie tries to piece together what happened to Beth, she discovers that her innocent teenager has been harbouring some dark secrets of her own. The truth may lie closer to home and put Melanie’s life in terrible danger…

My review…

I’m a huge fan of Barbara Copperthwaites previous books, especially Flowers For The Dead, so I was delighted when she signed with the publisher Bookouture and I have been waiting patiently for her first book with them. Thankfully, I have been rewarded for my patience with The Darkest Lies- a darkly addictive and creepy page turner that had me on the edge of my seat. And it came with one of the most perfect covers I have seen this year so far!

I have always loved thrillers that centre around family dilemmas but The Darkest Lies took my emotions and wrung them dry very quickly indeed! I connected straight away with the character of Melanie when her daughter Beth goes missing. So from the very start I became immersed in her search for first her daughter and then her daughter’s attacker. I think it was the way that she spoke to Beth as if she was right there beside her, trying to keep their relationship and memories alive whilst realising that the daughter she though she knew had been keeping secrets from her. By using that style of narrative, Barbara absolutely nailed it with her portrayal of a grief stricken mother trying to reconcile the daughter she knew with the teenage girl who has started to lead her own life away from her family’s influences. It can be a difficult time for parents when their little girls are so desperate to grow up that the acceptance of their peers becomes more important to them than their parents. But they need to test their wings before they fly and sometimes this involves secrets, lies and putting themselves into situations without thinking about the dangers they could face. Whilst reading this, the fears I went through as a parent to 3 teenage girls all came flooding back, remembering the nights lying awake and unable to sleep until they were all safely tucked up in my nest once more.

This was so beautifully written, realistically full of emotion but with an unexpected darkness and a fascinating twist to the tale! The last few chapters were breathtakingly shocking with developments I hadn’t been expecting and the final pages were absolutely brilliant, leaving me with goosebumps!

I can highly recommend The Darkest Lies for an engrossing, tension filled thriller that will tug at your heartstrings and leave you emotionally drained. I loved every minute of it.

Many thanks to Kim Nash at Bookouture for my advanced review copy of The Darkest Lies: A gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twist which is available to purchase now from Amazon UK

Meet the author…

The people behind the crime, from the perpetrator to the victim and beyond, are what intrigue Barbara Copperthwaite.

She was raised by the sea and in the countryside, where she became a lover of both nature and the written word – the latter leading to a successful career as a journalist. For over twenty years people have kindly and bravely shared with her their real experiences of being victims of crime. Now, through fiction, Barbara continues to explore the emotional repercussions.

www.barbaracopperthwaite.com

www.facebook.com/AuthorBarbaraCopperthwaite/

 

www.twitter.com/BCopperthwait

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