The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain [Book review]

Publish date 13th May 2021

Firstly I would like to thank Jo Spain and Quercus books for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this fabulous book as part of this blog tour. I was lucky enough to be sent a physical ARC which I will never part with! This has no way influenced my review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

So to begin with I just need to say WOW! What a story. This book started so strong, that first chapter was extremely emotional and hooked me in straight away. I didn't want to put it down.

Let's find out what the book is about....

Blurb

He jumped to his death in front of witnesses. Now his wife is charged with murder.

Five years ago, Erin Kennedy moved to New York following a family tragedy. She now lives happily with her detective husband in the scenic seaside town of Newport, Long Island. When Erin answers the door to Danny's police colleagues one morning, it's the start of an ordinary day. But behind her, Danny walks to the window of their fourth-floor apartment and jumps to his death.

Eighteen months later, Erin is in court, charged with her husband's murder. Over that year and a half, Erin has learned things about Danny she could never have imagined. She thought he was perfect. She thought their life was perfect.

But it was all built on the perfect lie.

My thoughts

I was so intrigued by this story from the blurb. I couldn't understand how after watching her husband jump to his death with witnesses that she could then become charged with his murder. It was an extremely clever story and every time I thought I knew what might have happened it changed the rules again. I felt all the pain that Erin felt in the beginning, and her dismay finding out things about her husband that made her question who he was. The writing was done so well that I had empathy with her and her grief and anger was fully believable.

The story is told via three different timelines and from two characters point of views, Then, Now and another timeline at Harvard that helped to pepper the story with clues and teasers about the different characters and the reasons that had led up to the day Danny jumped. The different timelines initially had me a little confused but as I read more and they delved deeper into the story, they began to weave together and helped me to understand what was happening.

There were some great side characters within the story, not all of them were likeable, they surround Erin with love support as well as suspicion and danger. Not everyone is as they seem and this added to the suspense of the story, we as a reader as well as Erin are never quite sure who is on her side and who to trust.

I was gripped to the very end of this book, it was un-put-down-able and I highly recommend it if you are a fan of twisty thrillers that leave you guessing. Every time I thought I had it pegged I realised I was wrong and there was a fabulous twist at the end that I didn't see coming. My only criticism is it ended too quickly! I would have liked to see an end for one particular character, maybe there could be a short novella??

Have I tempted you to read this book? Or have you read it already? If so let me know in the comments!

I am off to hunt for some more Jo Spain books now, she is definitely an author I would like on my book shelves!