I received Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant (Remember Me This Way) from The Reading Room, started reading and didn’t stop. Here’s the blurb:
“I suppose what I am saying is, how much do we collude in our own destruction? How much of this nightmare is on me?
You can hate and rail.
You can kick out in protest.
You can do foolish and desperate things, but maybe sometimes you just have to hold up a hand and take the blame.”
Breathless.
Claustrophobic.
Unsettling.
Impossible to put down.
There are shades of The Talented Mr Ripley in this dark thriller about a man who is not who or what he seems – a man who digs himself deeper and deeper with his lies and waits too long for the truth-telling window to open. The novel is a twisty read, with plenty to mull over as you wonder who else is hiding behind a façade or clever words. The characters are well drawn, if not overly likeable; the secondary characters are often entitled and adept at playing their own mind games. Main character Paul is self-obsessed, arrogant and manipulative, but is he as clever as he thinks he is? His growing confusion and sense that he is being swept up in something bigger than him, mirrors the reader’s response.
A great read – if you like your psychological thrillers tense and dark, this one is hard to put down.
Available from good bookstores. My copy was courtesy of The Reading Room via Hachette.
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television
