Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh @claremackint0sh @BerkleyPub #bookreview #thriller

Posted on March 11, 2018 by

40 Comments

Title: Let Me Lie

Author: Clare Mackintosh

Publisher: Berkley

Publication Date: March 13, 2018

Page Count: 395

My rating:  3 1/2 stars

About the book:

The stunning new novel from Clare Mackintosh, the international bestselling author of I Let You Go and I See You.

The police say it was suicide.
Anna says it was murder.
They’re both wrong.

Last year, Tom and Caroline Johnson chose to end their lives, one seemingly unable to live without the other. Their daughter, Anna, is struggling to come to terms with her parents’ deaths, unwilling to accept the verdict of suicide.

Now with a baby herself, Anna feels her mother’s absence keenly and is determined to find out what really happened to her parents. But as she digs up the past, someone is trying to stop her.

Sometimes it’s safer to let things lie….

my-review_43_orig - Edited

Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh is a psychological thriller that was a bit of a slow burn read. The story is told between alternating the point of view between a pair of main characters and then an unknown person involved.

Anna is a new mother that is still struggling with the loss of both of her parents just a year before. Anna’s father had been seen just before he apparently jumped to his death and then shortly after Anna’s mother seems to have done the same thing weighted down with the grief of the loss of her husband.

But Anna has never been convinced that her parents were suicidal and on the anniversary of her mother’s death she receives a note questioning that fact. Turning the note over to Murray who is a retired detective he begins to investigate thinking that the couple just may have been murdered instead.

Having read I See You by Clare Mackintosh and loving it I was extremely excited to pick up a copy of Let Me Lie and while I enjoyed this one too perhaps I was expecting a bit too much from it. For starters this one seemed to be a really slow moving story that didn’t quite ooze with excitement to me as it slowly unfolded. Of course I do have a tendency to be a tad impatient at times too but that stands out even more when events aren’t grasping me quite the way I like them too while reading.

But on the plus side for this one that left me rating the book at 3.5 stars I really did enjoy the twists the author wove into the story. Some things just weren’t what I was thinking they were which is always a nice surprise and then I did enjoy the ending of the book and how the entire story unfolded. So while not a perfect rating this time around I will definitely look out for more from this author in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author: 

Clare Mackintosh spent twelve years in the police force, including time on CID, and as a public order commander. She left the police in 2011 to work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant and is the founder of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival. She now writes full time and lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.

Clare’s debut novel, I Let You Go, was a Sunday Times bestseller and the fastest-selling title by a new crime writer in 2015. It was selected for both the Richard and Judy Book Club (and was the winning title of the readers’ vote for the summer 2015 selection) and for ITV’s Loose Women’s Loose Books. It is a New York Times bestseller, with translation rights sold to more than 30 countries.

Her second psychological thriller, I See You, was a number 1 Sunday Times bestseller and Audible’s best selling psychological thriller in 2016. Translation rights have been sold to almost 30 countries.

Clare is the patron of the Silver Star Society, an Oxford-based charity which supports the work carried out in the John Radcliffe Hospital’s Silver Star unit, providing special care for mothers with medical complications during pregnancy.

For more information visit Clare’s website http://www.claremackintosh.com or find her at http://www.facebook.com/ClareMackWrites or on Twitter @ClareMackint0sh #ILetYouGo #ISeeYou

Category: Book Reviews

40 Comments on “Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh @claremackint0sh @BerkleyPub #bookreview #thriller”

    • Thanks, while it wasn’t my favorite from her I could still find things to like about this one proving she’s definitely a good author. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  3. Hey Carrie, I didn’t like her I see you, though I liked her I let you go. I have this book in my TBR list. Let’s see when I get the chance to read.
    Why are most books slow to start. I am getting that with most books in 2018

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Sorry for taking so long to reply Shalini, I found a few comments from you in my spam folder only after someone else warned me again mine had gone there on their site. Really need to learn to check more often since WordPress has that nasty habit.

      But yes, I know what you mean, I have such low tolerance for a slow pace that I wish I didn’t keep finding book that take so long to build up and get going.

      Liked by 1 person

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      • That’s fine Carrie. I think WP plays games. I check my spam folder once a day.
        I am again reading a slow weird paced book the choice by Jake Cross. I wonder what’s happening to thrillers. They are not thrilling, they have become boring…. Yawnnn

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        • I just did a review on a romantic suspense that felt the same, not suspenseful but more leading the reader right to the end, give me some kind of twist please!

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          • What’s happening to the literary world. On one hand we have bullying by authors and followers on Facebook leading to a person attempting suicide. And on the other, we have no good books coming up.
            What’s with the slow start books? A thriller should thrill from the get-go

            Liked by 1 person

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            • I hadn’t heard of a suicide attempt, that’s terrible. I have unfortunately heard plenty of bullying on both sides. Sadly we are in the day and age where hiding behind a computer and making someone feel bad seems to be the in thing to do it just surprises me that there are authors out there that take it that far since every author will have their share of the negative, even the biggest out there.

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              • I agree, books are individualistic. I try to be nice (I am not as nice as you are 😉😉) but sometimes some books feel as if they are stretching the truth a bit too much. And I have given low ratings and been blasted for it by the author and friends

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                • Haha thanks, I try to just state what I don’t like and move on if they are below 3 stars and hopefully that’s what has kept the negative away…. or maybe no one actually reads my reviews and I’m talking to myself a lot, who knows..LOL

                  Seriously though I haven’t had too much backlash on any of mine and if I did I’d probably just ignore them.

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                  • I had messages on this blog, so I explained to the author and her friend, why I don’t like medical facts twisted so much. Well the author understood (I think) her friend kept blasting me, till I put her messages in spam… Hehehe

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                    • Since fiction is all a matter of taste I don’t understand when people can’t move on from disagreements. Sure maybe others like what she wrote but that doesn’t mean you had to and as they say, any publicity is good publicity, someone else may pick up a book just to see if they agree with you. Nice way to handle a bad situation though. 🙂

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • True that. I like this sentence of yours. Any publicity is good publicity, someone else may pick the book to see if they agree — very true. I wish people would understand. We also want to give 5 stars to every book. But alas…

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • If I saw an author arguing or attacking the reviewer however my curiosity would fly right out the window. In that case they would be doing more to hurt their sales that the bad review ever could.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • I agree…. The best or worst part was, only 2 people liked my review and one was the author. Hahaha… Yet I was blasted.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • Yep, showing her stupidity then since she would only be bringing attention to something others might not have noticed. Key to the whole review thing… “honest” reviews, that doesn’t bring all sunshine and roses.

                      Like

                    • Very true, but since then I have tempered my words. I am critical but a polite critical. Words hurt, so maybe I should not have been so sarcastic…. Well, some books with weird medical facts especially based on child conception just get to me…

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • What I try to do is just remember to state the facts like “this one just had too many weird medical facts that I couldn’t get past so it wasn’t for me.” So then my eye rolling doesn’t come across in my review so that might help me ward off the arguments when I put things that way. Although I admit to the occasional rant still happening even when I try to tone it back. LOL

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                    • Hahaha I will remember that. I told ya – I have read your reviews, you are very polite. Learnt a lot from your reviews to temper my rants hehe

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • Thanks, I appreciate you saying so. I figure though that people need to know the bad as much as the good so I won’t quit writing the lower ones even if they aren’t any fun to do but keep it as nice as I can since I know it wasn’t easy for any author to get a book out there and someone somewhere will still like it even when I don’t.

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                    • I get what you are saying, and I understand it too. But sometimes I have so many expectations from an author, so I feel let down when they write stupid facts.
                      In fact after reading your reviews, I have realised I could say the same thing in a better way. Well… I am learning

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • I struggle with the dilemma that if reading fiction then technically none of it is “true” so then maybe they can create whatever facts they feel necessary to expand their own book and the other side of me that reads something and thinks oh come on even I know that is stupid and wouldn’t happen. I guess it’s a fine line for an author to walk though which is why a lot of them do tons and tons of research before touching certain topics and then apologize in a note to readers if they mess up their facts.

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                    • I like when they do research but if a character with no medical training, suddenly does a delicate procedure, I don’t see that as fiction. It is too far fetched. I had a math tutor, doing medical procedure, so I was blown away…with disbelief

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                    • I think we all have those moments that it’s just too hard to suspend your disbelief and enjoy what else happens in the book. I just had my own long rant the other day on how I didn’t ever see any of it happening so the rest of the book went downhill for me. For you that seems to be anything medical which might not even jump out at me, although I can’t recall anything even close happening in books lately to know for sure.

                      Like

                    • Lately, it has just been those slow start books, which don’t seem to go anywhere but downhill… We need good thrillers…

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • Another reason I switch around genres so much, at least then I have a good chance to find something to really captivate me and keep from burning out on any one thing. If my thriller is slow and boring then hopefully the fantasy or romance is more engaging. 🙂

                      Like

                    • I do that too… I was a reading a cute book, wanted a great thriller as all have been disappointing in this year. But alas… Nothing seems interesting

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • The Wife Between Us is one that’s super twisty you might like that one better than the ones you’ve read recently. 🙂

                      Like

                    • For instance really… This Is How It Ends… you don’t know how hard it was to not say this one was the most boring book I’d read in quite awhile, pick it up at your own risk.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • Yep, that’s a good way to put I nearly tossed this across the room I hated it so bad! See… I can read through the niceness. 🙂

                      Liked by 1 person

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