On a holiday abroad with her family and her adoring fiance, Jed, Emily couldn’t be happier. Life feels perfect. But overnight, the idyllic trip turns into a waking nightmare when one of the group is found dead in what appears to be a horrific accident.
The devastated party returns to London to cope with their loss while trying to resume their normal lives. But new revelations shed a shocking light on the holiday tragedy and set Emily on a perilous journey to discover the truth about what happened. Soon a terrifying series of threats and lies brings her face to face with the dark truths at the heart of her family – and into life threatening danger…
I received this book from the publishers for an open and honest review.
The summer holidays are great for kicking back in the sun and getting lost in a good old crime thriller. I particularly like Sophie Mckenzie’s writing style as her thrillers are always character driven as opposed to focused on police enquiries and forensic evidence, which I often find can take away from the excitement of the plot. Here We Lie begins with a family holiday abroad and Sophie Mckenzie introduces the reader to a lot of characters very quickly. I often find this quite confusing and hard to remember who everyone is but as the story moved forward I was able to follow all the characters and their relationships to one another (some of which formed part of Sophie Mckenzie’s shocking twists and turns).
Here We Lie moves back and forth in time between the present day and the early 1990s when the protagonist Emily’s parents died in a car crash. Brought up by her sister Rose and looking for a father figure, Emily is happily engaged to an older man, Jed, and couldn’t be happier. He has two children, Dee Dee and Lish, from a previous relationship and the four decide to embark on a family holiday with relatives from both sides. It is on this holiday that a terrible tragedy occurs and young Dee Dee is found dead in her bed with an innocent headache sachet lying next to her. But when police investigations discover remnants of illegal, lethal drugs in the sachet, the family’s world is turned upside down. Who murdered Dee Dee and why? Where did the illegal drugs come from and who put them there?
Alongside flashbacks to the past, Sophie Mckenzie drops in extracts from Dee Dee’s diary, written before the accident. This is a favourite writing technique of mine as it allows the reader into the victim’s mind to discover secrets the other characters are oblivious to. It is in these diary entries that we discover Dee Dee saw something shocking before she died. Something between some of the family members that they didn’t want her to see. But what did she see that was so shocking and what part did it have to play in her death?
This thriller is a real page turner that explores the frightening perils that lurk in human relationships. ‘Here We Lie’ poses the ultimate question – can we trust those closest to us?
Rating 4.5/5