Book Review - The Lies You Told by Harriet Tyce

Title: The Lies You Told
Author: Harriet Tyce
Genre: Thriller
Published: 2020
 
Description: Sadie loves her daughter and will do anything to keep her safe. She can’t tell her why they had to leave home so quickly, or why Robin’s father won’t be coming with them to London. She can’t tell her why she hates being back in her dead mother’s house, with its ivy-covered walls and its poisonous memories. As she can’t tell her the truth about the school Robin’s set to start at, a school that doesn’t welcome newcomers. Sadie just wants to get their lives back on track. But even lies with the best intentions can have deadly consequences…
 
Review: I went in expecting not much, just a standard thriller. And the synopsis makes you feel like it is. But there is so much more to this thriller and it really pleasantly surprised me. I could not put this book down.
 
Sadie left the U.S. with her daughter Robin, leaving her husband. She is moving into her dead mother’s house. She can’t tell Robin why they left and what really happened at the house she grew up in. Robin goes to a new school, which is also Sadie’s old school. She hated it there, and so does Robin. What is Sadie not telling? And what is going on with her ex-husband? Or at Robin’s school?
 
This is a thriller, dealing with rich people, competition, new beginnings, old memories, but most of all, lots of lies being told. Hence the title. The story is told pretty straightforward, but there are some chapters that are a bit different. The seem like diary entries, but it’s not really clear who they were written by.
 
Besides the main plot, of Sadie trying to make a life for her and Robin. And Robin trying to fit in with the kids in school, with Sadie trying her best to fit it with the moms. There is a side plot of Sadie getting back to work as a barrister. Her friend Zora gets her working on a case of a man who is being accused of having inappropriate relations with a student. This side pot deviates from the main storyline and even though this was also interesting. I feels like they are supposed to be two separate books. I wouldn’t mind to have read this as a separate story. You lose the focus when the story switches to this subplot.
 
The eventual conclusion is something I did predict, but only when I was already very close to the end. Because it’s not on-you-nose obvious. It’s a clever twist.
 
With that subplot being my only negative, I had a really good time with “The Lies You Told”. It’s a very solid thriller, with a good pace and it was a real page turned.
 
Rating: 4,5/ 5