Another gem from Barbara Copperthwaite. "The Last Secret" was enthralling which prompted me to read this one. Melanie and Jacob Oak discover their teenage daughter Beth is missing. I felt deep compassion for the blameless Melanie at this early stage. Try as I might I could not like Melanie. Not a nice person. She was so shallow, needy, pathetic and had no dignity. She was arrogant enough to think she was better than the police. Even making allowances for her situation she was a pain in the neck. Adults behaving badly. I'm no advocate of drugs but a temporary course of happy pills might have been preferable to double vodka's! However I did think these character traits were intentional to progress the plot well. She upset everyone, suspected everyone and challenged them in her quest to make clumsy attempts at detective work. The villagers were a motley crew and I found myself jumping from suspect to suspect. They all seemed to have compelling motives or sly characters. Loved it. A dynamic ending. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture. I shall post this on Amazon and my blog.

If you enjoy the kind of pychological thriller which will draw you in fromthe very beginning, laying a foundation of mystery and intrigue, building layer upon layer of mystery and slow building tension and discovery and infused at just the right moments  with a startling revelation or heart-stopping, perhaps every heart-breaking, pause, then Her Last Secret may well be the book for you.

Called to the scene of a possible shooting on Christmas day Chief Inspector Paul Ogundele could not possibly be prepared for what he will find when entering the Thomas's home. As a reader you are not privy to the full information straight away, and it is this small fact, this rather important omission, which guarantees that you will want to keep reading, so uncover, just as the police will, what has occured on that fateful morning.

Much of the book is based around the days leading up to Christmas day, in setting the scene for what the police have yet to discover, the whole book taking place over a period of just eight days. In that time, Barbara Copperthwaite sets out to paint a picture of a family, of their highs and their lows, and to capture the imagination of the reader. Oh and what a magnificent job she does. This is no ordinary family and this is no idyllic setting, no matter what the neighbours may believe. For like every family, the Thomas's are suffer more than their share of problems. On one hand you have teh teenage anger directed from duaghter Ruby toward her parents. In the other you have little 'Mouse', Ruby's younger sister, Amber, a child so quiet, so introverted that it is easy to forget she is there.

And then you have the parents. Ben and Dominique. Outwardly perfect. Inwardly both nursing their own demons. Dominque is paranoid, nervous, Ben overbearing and cock-sure. Neither makes a particularly sympathetic protagonist. Barbara Copperthwaite has done a superb job here of keeping them on just the wrong side of likeable, their character flaws irking somewhat, although Ben's are far more obvious and probably unforgivable than Dom's. Even Ruby is hard to like initially but as you learn more about what is driving her, what is tormenting her, the sympathy begins to build. If there is a true victim in this story, other than Amber, then it is Ruby.

I don't want to go too far into the story or the plot as I feel it may give away potential spoilers and I truly believe this is a book you need to read for yourselves, that the slow reveal, the gradual build of the story, is the true value of the book. With each page turn, I could sense I was taking a step closer to the inevitable. Yet, while the conclusion of the story had been served to the reader from the start, the path which led us there was still full of twists and turns, peppered with half truths and misdirection. 

I love the way in which the characters have been developed throughout the book. The author has a real knack for creating belieavable protagonists and then pushing them to their absolute limits. Each of the main players in this book goes on a tumultuous journey, is forced to a point of self realisation with tragic consequences. There is one really moving scene at the end of the book, where one character makes the ultimate sacrifice for one they love which is both moving and heartbreaking, a sad but poingnant moment on which to end the story. And yet... there is one more moment, one last turn of the screw and one last confession to be heard. It is quite simply, fabulous.

As well as being great entertainment, the book does contain a serious message too. Touching upon the darker side of the internet and cyber-bullying, the story may well resonate with many teenagers and young adults, even some parents who may have seen their children suffer. Noticing a change in someones persona, not stopping to really consider why... Well, maybe, just maybe, this book will finally make you stop and think. Laughter is a more socially aceeptable way to hide tears, and anger a way to conceal fear. And sometimes, behind them both lurks the darkest secret of them all.

The Darkest Lies is a very cleverly-written novel, following a mother's quest to find out exactly what happened to her daughter, after she is found beaten and left for dead. What follows is a lot of secrets and a village full of people who all seem to have something to hide. Mother turns detective to try and uncover exactly what has happened.

I found this book to be gripping from the start, with Copperthwaite's writing so brilliant cleverly that she built up the intrigue and made me suspicious of anyone and everyone. I was kept guessing until the big twist came, and was pleased to find that it was certainly NOT what I had predicted. The only thing that let this book down is the fact that things seemed to go a little TOO far-fetched after the twist. Had it been left at the first major twist, it would have been a great ending, but with further twists it just seemed a little over the top. However, for fans of psychological thrillers I would highly recommend this, as long as you can deal with a plot that in places seems a little far-fetched.

Well, from one standout to the next, and boy was this a standout! Again, this will very likely figure in my ‘best of’ at the end of the year, as it was a book that stayed with me long after I’d moved on.

“The cry for help is ragged and desperate, the voice hitching. There is no one to hear it. A moon hangs so fat it oozes an aura into the sky that almost blots out the stars surrounding it. It looks down on land as flat as an open palm, and as unforgiving as a clenched fist, and gives no answer to the screams of fear and rage that float up to it… ‘Help me! Please! Help!’ There is no one to catch the words. No one, except a lone figure, turning, walking away towards lights int he far off distance.”

And so it starts. The book really begins with Beth, a young teen who’s obviously planned to do something that she hasn’t let her parents in on, as she leaves with her mother to sleep over at her friend’s house. This book thrusts you into every parent’s nightmare, made vivid by the last things, those little everyday occurances that just had to happen before she left-her dad barely said goodbye to her as he was watching tv, her mum doesn’t walk her to her friends door. This is something I always always think of, that the little things that you take for granted, in this case, that her father obviously didn’t think to say a proper goodbye, because little did he know it was going to be a night unlike any other he’d experienced, and then the if only her mother had seen her into her friend’s house.

It is the finer details of this book that keep you hooked, as they search for Beth, then find her, as you sit by her hospital bed, wondering can she hear anything, will she wake up, then as you stand on the doorstep of a house with her mother pleading for someone to tell you they can help you find the attacker or wonder if people you thought were so close to you can even be trusted. I have to admit I struggled with Melanie, the mother, feeling for her so much, but not really liking her as a person. This was especially hammered home as I loved her daughter, Beth, so much.

Some of the chapters were from the point of view of an unknown person, and I have to admit some of it made for slightly violent reading. These, coupled with the unfolding of Beth’s story were real game-changers for me, I was nervous and preparing myself to find out how this had happened to poor, innocent Beth, who was too young to know better. I knew what the end result was, of course, but still willed her to not go where she was headed. Meanwhile I was watching Mel and couldn’t figure out if her deductions were correct because, of course, she was unravelling. The pacing in this was up and down a bit, obviously we had the emotional side of Melanie and Jacob, which was honed in on a lot, to be fair, and some of the people who want a bang bang bang book might have a problem with it, but I was very emotionally invested, so it didn’t matter.

In terms of the whodunnit part- the fact that you had a village of people to look at, and worry about, was excellent, and I was shocked by the gang mentality that sprung up against the people they suspected. The part of the book that held me, though, was when what was to happen, happened, and we heard Beth’s thoughts. I have to say I have not cried like this over a book in some time. I sobbed my heart out for both her and her mum, and it sprang into my head a few times after I’d finished.

I’m split down the centre on the ending, it could have gone either way for me, as in the book could have finished earlier and I’d still have been satisfied, but then the ending that was given sent a bit of a chill so, in the end I was happy out(when the book continued on after the place I expected it to end there was a bit of a ‘what’s going on, why aren’t we finished here?’ but I was jumping the gun. All in all another excellent book that, again (and you’ll be hearing this a lot in the next while as I’ve been extremely lucky book-wise), I’d be very shocked if it didn’t end up in my end of year ‘best of’s.’ Most definitely recommended for exquisite beautiful, emotionally charged writing and settings, tension and chills. Definitely looking forward to the next by Ms. Copperthwaite, Her Last Secret, which, luckily enough, is on my Kindle right now (you can pre-order it here now). Thanks so much to Netgalley and of course the excellent Bookouture for the book in return for an honest review.

Rating: 4.5/5

The themes are what makes The Darkest Lies so compelling. Barbara Copperthwaite forces the reader to contemplate how far they would go to protect their own loved ones and she tugs at the very foundations of loyalty and lawlessness so that the edges of what is right and what is wrong become blurred.

I liked the gradual uncovering of the truth from Beth’s perspective alongside the first person story from Melanie, and the way in which she directs her voice towards Beth is touching and realistic. I did feel that a few of Melanie’s actions were unlikely and she should have dealt with the police and her suspicions differently, but at the same time, hers is such a desperate and emotional portrayal of grief that who can say how she might have behaved.

This is the first book I’ve read from this author and I really enjoyed it.
I got hooked in pretty quickly as Beth went missing. A parent’s worst nightmare come true.
I liked the way it was told from Melanie and Beth’s point of view, and also from an unknown narrator.
It is a suspenseful read. How Melanie slowly unravelled was hard to read.
It got under my skin as I tried to work out how people could be involved. The twist sure got me, and I never guessed along the way.
Thoroughly recommended by me.
I loved the cover, very appealing.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the first book I have read by Barbara but will not be the last. A fabulous example of a psychological thriller with twists that keep you guessing. A book that is well written, with short easy to read chapters. I would highly recommend.

OVERVIEW:

It took all of my strength to keep reading this book. I got bored just as short way through, thrown off by the 2nd person POV and the fact that the plot was not very interesting, but I kept reading, something which I’m fairly glad of. The last 20% of the book was incredible, and bumped my rating up a star. The first 80%, however, didn’t hold my interest at all.

The basic concept is that a young teenager, Beth, goes missing, and the book is told from the perspective of the mother telling the story of her DIY detective work to her daughter. There were also perspectives from Beth (from the night she goes missing) and a mysterious individual mixed in.

Bottom line is that nothing in this book got me super attached. The plotline wasn’t intriguing, I hated Melanie (the MC, aka Beth’s mother), her partner in solving crime seemed like the biggest stock character I’ve ever met, and all of the “villagers” had 0 dimension. They were all flat. The only one I liked is the husband, and I felt like even he did a thing that didn’t seem to fit with the rest of his character ,at all.

Luckily the ending was good. Well, one of the endings. The major storyline that everything was working towards fell flat for me, but in the last 20% Copperthwaite had a side story line that she had been progressing and made it the center stage, and for me THAT was the only intriguing part of the novel.

CHARACTERS:

Beth is the girl who goes missing. You really only hear about her from her mother’s POV, and occasionally from her own, but she’s a dynamic, interesting girl, and I liked her and wished the best for her. That’s probably the only reason I didn’t DNF. I HAD to know what happened to Beth.

Melanie, the MC, is Beth’s mother, but she just MAKES ME SO MAD I CAN’T EXPLAIN. She’s not that good of a person, although she thinks she is, and she’s super self absorbed and can’t see the world around her. It was painful, and I found myself looking forward to the short, one page segments that were not from her point of view just so that I didn’t have to listen to the whining drunk anymore.

Glenn, her partner in solving the crime, is a figure from her childhood who she was not exceptionally close with, but happens to waltz into her life and “just want to help”. Mel bought it. So he’s around for the entire novel, and despite this fact, he has ZERO DIMENSION. I don’t understand how I can read a whole book with him at center stage and still not really KNOW him aside from the one central fact (it’s a spoiler so I won’t say). It’s weird.

The husband, Jacob? (I think, we’ll go with it), was my favorite character, but the author made him do something so completely out of character with everything else we saw that he started to feel fake as well.

PLOT:

The plot was very, very slow. This 433 page book could have easily been condensed into 200 pages and you would not have lost any of the red herrings, dramatic moments, etc, because there was so much WASTED SPACE SPENT DOING NOTHING.

Of course, that changed slightly in the last bit, where there was action, character development, a big reveal, an oh shit moment where you realized what was really going on, and an overall good pace. But that doesn’t happen soon enough.

I know books won’t have action the whole way through, but something needs to be happening, or at least characters being developed, for it to be interesting.

And the whole “why won’t the village talk” thing that propelled the entire plot felt fake and strange to me, their motivation not really that good.

THE BEST:

-Beth
-The Ending
-Laughing at MC’s stupidity and lack of awareness for the world around her

THE WORST:

-Melanie, her stupidity, and her lack of awareness for the world around her
-Slow Plot
-Poor writing style– there was nothing remotely extraordinary about her writing, the whole thing was very simple and told straightforwardly.
-OBVIOUS display of clues– there was never any clue that I looked back on later and was like, ooooh I missed that… It was all shoved aggressively in your face.

DIVERSITY

None. There’s one character who may or may not be gay but that’s all. And he’s in the story for like 5 minutes and accused of hurting Beth.

TRIGGERS:

SPOILERS ABOUND, ALTHOUGH NONE ARE THAT BIG.

A child is brutalized and left to die
Child is raped
Drinking problem to deal with other problems
Drugs abound

SUMMARY:

This book was a 2 star read all the way through, but the ending was 4 or 5 stars, so I adjusted accordingly with a 3. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anybody, but if you already have it, you might as well read it and see where it goes, it wasn’t so bad as to warrant you not reading it at all.

I’d love to know what other people think of the character development, because for me nobody except Beth felt real.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very good exciting read - mostly anyway. I did find it a touch tedious at times but it soon got up to speed again. I had guessed who was the baddie.. although there was a twist to that which had been unexpected.

The Darkest Lies, was a walk through any mom's worst fears and that it took me a bit to get through it was a testament to the emotions it drummed up. This is one I'd recommend though for some mom's may find it a bit hard to get through the beginning. I gave it a 4 out of 5 only because it slowed near the middle of the book but soon, more of the fascinating story unfolded and you're right back into the thick of it.

This is the story of a mother's worst fears becoming reality. She feels her sanity slipping and she questions her one moment of 'loosening the reigns' has led her down a painful path. Trying to do the things that need doing in a town she's always been a part of, she finds she's now not only questioning her own reality but the sincerity of her friends and family. Soon enough she sees villainy in each familiar face and her self destruction seems imminent as she searches for the evil amongst friends.

I want to thank Net Galley for the preview of this book.

Put your seatbelt on and strap yourself in, you are in for a heck of a ride!

This book is told from various points of view, but the main voice you hear is Melanie's. At times, I wanted to shout through the book at her to please stop with what she was doing, and I got rather frustrated with her. Clearly, the author is a very skillful writer, because she provoked a strong reaction in me towards this character :)

Without a doubt, this is is one of the most gripping books I have read this year, with a lot of twists and turns that I didn't see coming. I can't even imagine having my 13 year old daughter go missing, turn up severely injured, and having no clue what to do and who to trust.

Beautifully written book, unequivocal 5 stars from me.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book. Thank you to NetGalley and

This thriller was ok and could have been so much better. Fourteen year old Beth is attacked and now lies in a coma in hospital. Her mother Melanie is our main character, who in my opinion gets totally out of control. She suspects everyone in the normally quiet village of the attack and interferes with the police investigation. She also, without any thought, befriends stranger, Glenn who has returned to the village after years away.

Melanie is married to Jacob, her childhood sweetheart. Together they have a teenage daughter, Beth. One day, Beth disappears and is beaten almost to death. As Melanie is trying to find out what happened to Beth, she discovers that Beth has been keeping a number of secrets and is not as sweet and innocent as Melanie thought.

The book was really long. The beginning and end were fast-paced and grabbed the reader's interest, but the middle was often slow and seemed to lose focus occasionally. I didn't really like the point of view as Beth's part is in third person, the mother's portion is in first person, and the killer's thoughts are italicized. I didn't like the way the book jumps around according to who is telling the story. Overall, it was a decent book, though.


The author has an unusual way of telling her story, the part with the mother is told in the first person, as is the part featuring the killer's thoughts (which are always presented in italic). The part of the book featuring the victim--Beth--is told in third person.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ecopy of this book.
I skipped around reading this book, because of it's content- child abuse and murder. I should have not gotten this book since I do not like ready this type of book.

he Oaks were a happy family. Teenage Beth still seemed to enjoy their company and all seemed well until the night she went to stay overnight with her best friend Chloe. Mel saw her heading for Chloe's door little realising that it would be the last time their family would be the way they had been. Beth is found floating in the mere, practically dead. Mel is determined to find out what happened. This is a small village- somebody must know what happened!

In attempts to bring Beth's attacker to justice Mel alienates nearly everyone apart from Glenn- an old school friend. The story is told through Mel's imagined conversations with Beth and Bet herself.

There are lots of surprises in this book. All through I was sure I knew what was going on- I did almost but I had no idea of the twist. Throughout I became more and more irritated with Mel, which is why I didn't give this five stars. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for giving me chance to read & review it

This book was all I hoped for and more. I highly recommend this book to everyone. Loved the writing, loved the characters and loved the story.

Unfortunately this wasn't my favorite crime drama book I read this week. It's good for what it is but in my opinion the concept about finding a murdered daughter and all that is a bit bland and overdone. A good execution of a completely new and original crime novel is difficult to come by these days.

I sort of liked this one. A decent enough plot but a shame that the identity of the perpetrator was made so obvious early on. There was a lot of unnecessary dialogue from the main character, so much so that I nearly didn't bother finishing it. .

This is my second read of a child going missing in about two weeks. Its a bit nightmarish.
There is no parent who hasn't done what Melanie Oak did. Just a few metres away from a friends house, her daughter Beth insisted that she can walk alone. Despite a few misgivings Melanie gives in to what would be her dismay and anger with herself for life.

Thinking that Beth is at her friend's house Melanie and her husband have a quiet evening. Jacob goes out to meet a friend to share a spiff and they relax at home. The next day Melanie rings the neighbour to find out what time Beth will return to find out that Beth never turned up. This starts the spiral into the actual story of what went wrong.

Beth was hiding secrets. She was a perfectly normal teenager who had a good relationship with her parents, her teachers, her friends in school. She just was a teenager and she had secrets that she did not want others knowing. Unraveling the last few hours of her life, unraveled an entire village's secrets and this lots of people did not want done. It led to very ugly incidents and it also led to Melanie feeling so very alone. She felt that her husband, the police, the neighbours were all embarrassed by her violent feelings about the slowness and apathy of the investigation and that she had to take it upon herself to uncover what she felt was suspicions about the various villagers. Some of her suppositions did have a valid base, some were baseless but she did put a lot of people's backs up as a result, including that of her husband in the process.

This was an emotional read. You felt for the hopelessness of Melanie. What would one do in such similar circumstances. It also makes one think that we never actually know what teenagers get upto! we should not kid ourselves that we do.

Goodreads and Amazon review up on 11/7/2017. Review on my blog would appear on 9/10/2017

The Darkest Lies is a deep and disturbing tale set in a remote rural community. Melanie's teenage daughter is savagely attacked one night, and she embarks on an investigation that puts her own life in peril. Her neighbours come under suspicion and it seems everyone is telling lies even her own husband. Claustrophobic and told from three viewpoints, it is a slow but moving read.