Even though it feels like it took me FOREVER to finish this book, I rather enjoyed it. It was clever with good characterization as well as a compelling plot. It was not as fast-paced as I had expected it would be, but never boring either. I am a fan of mystery books (or books in general) that are really about the characters and the way their story weaves into the plot as a whole, which very much was the case in this one. It reminded me a little of Jane Casey's books, both in terms of the style and the story. So if you, like me, are a fan of her books or Tana French or Nicci French, you should give this one a try. I can see it becoming a series and I will definitely keep and eye on this author in the future!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I tried and tried so many times to continue with this book but I just couldnt. I started the book in September and I am still less than half way through so I have to give up. I am really sorry.

Awesome story. Can’t wait to read more from this author!!!

What do you do if you think your father may have murdered a seventeen-year-old girl? For Cat Kinsella, the answer is to cut herself off from her family and join the police force.

At the tender age of eight Cat is on holiday with her family in Ireland when a local girl goes missing. Convinced her father had something to do with the disappearance she tries her best to destroy her relationship with him. Eighteen years later though, a body turns up in London a stone's throw away from the pub Cat and her family lived in. The body is initially identified as Alice Lapaine but after appeals to the public, it becomes apparent that it is actually Maryanne Doyle, the girl who vanished. Just how did she end up in London and where has she been all this time?

Cat, part of the team investigating the murder, knows she should come clean about knowing the victim but desperately wants to know if her father is capable of murder or if maybe she has misjudged him all these years. Still reeling from her involvement in a previous case Cat's boss wants her involvement to be minimal but naturally, she ends up in the thick of it, risking her relationship with her sister who won't hear a bad word about their father.

For a debut novel, Sweet Little Lies is superb. The story is told both in the present in London and in Ireland eighteen years ago. The difference between the two Cats is considerable, whilst the younger Cat is confident, outgoing and safe in her relationship with her father, adult Cat is rather bitter, secretive and struggling with the fact that she may have got everything wrong. Not wanting to admit this she plunges deeper into the case, risking her career for wanting to prove a point.

Cats Frears has written a fantastic first novel, the writing kept me hooked from start to finish and unable to put the book down until I'd read the last word. The majority of the plot takes place either in the police station or with her colleagues, apart from the chapters involving her family (their Christmas celebration was spot on for a family who obviously don't get on very well) but this adds to the story. It was great to see the connections between Cat and her fellow officers, especially Steele, her boss who was taking a greater interest in Cat's mental health than she would have liked, and Parnell, an older male officer who was the acting boss on the case as well. Given her troubles with her father it was interesting to see her closeness with Parnell, the almost father-daughter relationship they were developing.

The best thing about Sweet Little Lies though? The plot. I had no idea where the story was going or who the guilty party was or what the reason for the murder was. You think you've worked it out and then the story zoomed in another direction. Was it the husband who had no idea who she really was? Was it the 'moron' brother who has grown up to be anything but moronic? Is it connected to Ireland or has Maryanne somehow managed to get involved in something completely unconnected, something that got her killed? All I can say is you probably won't work it out, not until the last few pages when you'll suddenly realize what's going on and want to know how did you miss the clues pointing to the culprit? It's something that Parnell himself was trying to work out when someone's identity was revealed so you won't be alone!

I thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel, it's easy to see how it won the Search For A Bestseller competition and I really hope this isn't the last we're going to see of Cat and Parnell as I loved getting to know them. If you like police procedural stories with a twist then Sweet Little Lies is worth a read.

Detective Cat Kinsella is a detective who's been called out to investigate the murder of a young woman. She's been identified as one woman, but soon they prove that she is actually a woman named Maryanne Doyle. Maryanne ha been missing 18 years .... and all these years Cat has thought her father had killed the then 17 year old teenager.

Cat has never told another person about her belief and now her job may be on the line if she discloses what she knows. What happens with the investigation becomes rather convoluted with seemingly anyone and everyone questioned telling lies and convering up...something.

So who was Maryanne Doyle and how did she wind up stabbed to death?

The story is told in two time lines. One is, of course, in the present, with Cat dealing not only with the investigation but also with family issues. These issues mainly have to do with what Cat has always believed about her father. Every few chapters, Cat re-visits when she and Maryanne were teenagers and what led up to her disappearance.

The story premise is very good. A lot of comparison between London and Ireland kept the pacing a little unbalanced, but in a good way. The characters are all written with a deft hand. This is a debut novel and I can only hope we see more of this author.

Many thanks to the author / Bonnier Zaffre - Zaffre / Netgalley for the digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Solid police procedural with an interesting protagonist. DS Cat Kinsella is torn between wanting to protect her father from implication in a recent murder and finding it the truth. She suspects that her father was linked to the past disappearance of a young woman and it colors her whole relationship with him but when their relationship starts to interfere with her job as a police officer, things get messy. Good who-dun-it that will keep you turning pages far too late into the night.

3.5 ⭐️. This started off with a bang and was well on its way to being a 4 or even 5 star read until about 2/3 of the way through. It's a gripping premise and the characterization is strong but it just fizzled for me after such a build up. The protagonist is a young detective with father issues who is involved in solving a murder that has connections with her own troubled childhood. Unfortunately, I was able to solve the crime with about 35% of the book to go and I feel that the story could have been wrapped up in way less than 480 pages.

Sweet Little Lies was one of my highly anticipated summer reads, and I’m happy to report that it did not disappoint!

Based on the blurb I read for this novel, I went into it expecting a psychological thriller, and like many of my fellow bloggers, I was surprised to find Sweet Little Lies is actually a police procedural which contains a strong mystery rather than fast-paced thrills. A lot of police procedurals these days can be classed as crime thrillers too, but I found Sweet Little Lies to be of a slower pace than you’d find in a thriller and for the story Frear has plotted, it worked really well.

Cat, this books main protagonist, works for the police and her and the team are called to investigate the death of Alice Lapaine; Cat has a strained relationship with her father and fears he was involved in this murder and she harbours thoughts that he was also involved in the disappearance of Maryanne in 1998. While this is a police procedural by nature, the focus here really was on family ties, particularly between Cat and her father, and how fragile of a thing trust really is. This slower pace adopted by Frear really allowed her to lay bare Cats thoughts regarding her father and his possible involvement in the case. As the reader, you get to know Cat really well, flaws and all, and this pulls you into the story and allows the slower pace to create this simmering feeling because, like Cat, you’re not sure if her father is guilty of everything or nothing.

I really liked the characterisation in this novel; I found Cat to be a likeable character but I also found the rest of the police force to be likeable too. There was no one colleague constantly trying to belittle Cat throughout the book, this gave me no real character to hate – no one’s downfall for me to prey on, so Cat’s likeability was essential for me to feel invested in the story. Frear did a brilliant job showcasing the family dynamics, not just between Cat and her father, but also between her and her siblings too.

I thought this was an extremely well-rounded novel, great characters and a great plot! I couldn’t figure the mystery out and until it was revealed, I couldn’t even hazard a guess to how the characters factored in the events that occurred. Though this isn’t a thrilling and chilling read, it was certainly a dark story, one that got darker as the reveal came. Nothing felt forced in this novel for me, and I think everything came together perfectly to create a brilliant debut novel from Frear.

I look forward to reading more from her and have absolutely no reservation recommending this book for those that enjoy a slower paced police procedural, with family ties, trust and secrets at it’s core.

Cat Kinsella is a police detective at the Met and is investigating a case of a dead woman Alice whose body is found not far away from her dad’s pub .Cat and her dad have a difficult relationship as she believed he has something to do with her friend Maryanne ‘s disappearance in 1998. When a connection is found between Alice and Maryanne Cat is determined to get to the root of both the cases.

The story goes back and forth between the past and the present narrated by Cat’s perspective. The characters were flawed and the book did have some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming . A police procedural more than a suspense novel with lots of personal and professional conflict for the protagonist. My only complaint was the book seemed little too slow for me and so couldn’t get into it. 3 stars for me

Many thanks to Bonnier Zaffre& NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

This and more reviews at https://chloesbooksblog.wordpress.com/

This is one of the best books I've read in a while!

Cat Kinsella became a detective because she thought her dad had something to do with a girl disappearing when she was a child. Her whole life since is defined by this secret and now it looks like everything she thought she knew is not as it seemed.

Her whole life since she punished her father for something he didn't do (although there was a lot of shit he did do), she idolized her dead mother and has a very strained relationship with her elder sister. But know she is going to find out what really happened to Maryanne Doyle.

This book is very well written with believable characters and a nice cast of police personal who will hopefully get another showing up in a following book.

Terrific read, I loved every minute of it.

**Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was great for a debut author. If this is the way Caz starts out, I can't wait to see what books come out in the future. In this one, we follow Cat who is a new inspector. Turns out her newest case will bring her closer to home than she's comfortable with. When she was a young girl, Maryanne Doyle went missing and she always thought maybe Cat's dad had been involved somehow. Years later another body turns up close to where her dad works. So Cat begins thinking about Maryanne and how involved her dad just might have been. This is definitely a police procedural at its finest. Cat is a character that is easy to follow. She has her faults--tells quite a few lies--, but you want to hope for the best for her. This is a great mystery that unravels slowly but has a satisfying end.

Sorry this book was not needed for read and review only a feature for my blog post. It would be at least another 10 weeks before I could read and review this book and post again as fully booked. I only do read and review on my blog not feature and q and a only.

i have to admit that i really struggled with this book. the story sounded great and the sort of thing that i usually get into. but i really couldn't with this one. thank you to Netgalley and Bonnier Zaffer for a copy of this book to read and review

Love the twists in the book and the struggle the main character has when the twists are revealed. Good gritty thriller.

I received a copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The writing style was distracting. Frequently it was difficult to determine if the main character was saying something or just thinking it. The author would go back and forth between the characters thoughts and what she was truly says.

For me the story was slow building. The pace picked up in the end with several twists I didn’t see coming.

I enjoyed reading this book. I recommend reading it if you have the time. I would not say it was my favorite psychological thriller or mystery.

This is an incredible debut from a clearly talented author.

I found Sweet Little Lies to be packed full of twists and turns and suspense throughout. It is eloquently written and pacy enough to hold my attention throughout. Caz's writing ability is obvious but what really got my attention was her ability to build well rounded, believable characters. Cat was a brilliant protagonist a very real character-flawed ( human) and interesting. Carrying plenty of emotional baggage from her less than perfect childhood and because we see how it affects her as an adult, she made for a very engaging character.

As we watch her investigate the murder of Alice it becomes more and more obvious that threads bind the disappearance of Maryanne in 1998 to the present day murder here it picks up a pace and we see the past start to unravel once again raising questions about her fathers involvement.

I loved the slow reveal element, hoovered up the crumbs, clues and titbits dropped by the novelist and thoughthhe plot line was right and well executed. The dual narrative really added to the drip feed of information and it's this that keeps you on the edge of your seat through the book . The timeline jumps between 1989 and the present day. This dual narative not only eked out the mystery but also helped relate the two events together and see how they linked. Although complex it never confused me showing the Cazknew her story and was able to tell it succinctly successfully holding the intrigue and mystery and so this novel made for a really compelling read.

An exciting storyline, a well thought out premise and a brilliantly executed debut that has without a doubt put Caz on my radar now.

If you enjoy who dun its with strong, intriguing characters and a strong police element then you will love this book. I would highly recommend as a great read and can't wait to see what CAZ has lined up for us next.

I enjoyed this book. The characters were likable, and the plot moved along at a good pace.

I always enjoy the Richard and Judy book club picks so I was excited to read this debut from the winner of the RICHARD AND JUDY SEARCH FOR A BESTSELLER competition. Among the many stoic male lead-detectives that tend to feature in police procdeurals , the young and morally ambiguous Cat Kinsella was a welcome reprieve. Caz Frear's depiction of her protagonist focused on Cat as a person rather than a detective. which allowed insight into the character beyond that usually found in police narratives. I would recommend the book as a well-executed crossover for fans of both psychological thrillers and police procedurals.

In terms of plot the central mystery was well-handled and the truth about why Alice Lapaine ended up dead, once revealed, was both satisfying and genuinely surprising. I would highly recommend - an enjoyable read.

This is one of those books…. Books that it is difficult to write a review for. While I found the story line interesting, the story itself couldn’t fully pull me in. There was a lot of talk about eating, the Spice Girls and bullying t ex spreading rumors about someone having AIDS. All of this had nothing to do with the story itself. When Maryanne Doyle disappeared in 1998, Cat knows, her dad is telling lies about knowing this girl. I liked the twist and turns and how Alice’s/Maryanne’s life and death is revealed. How Cat ’s dilemma is growing bigger with every new fact she finds out. But something did, that it wasn’t a page turner for me. I had to convince myself to keep reading through some parts of the book. I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre!