Kat and her husband have recently moved away from their friends and neighbours but returns for the funeral of her friend Shea Walker who died alone and Kat thinks there is more to her death than just an accidental drowning in a bath. This book takes in the complex relationships between friends, neighbours, spouses, infidelity and lust, moving backwards and forwards through time as the author expertly spins the story. A wonderful tale that had me guessing til the end as to what had happened. A pleasure to read.

Not as much mystery as the unfolding of relationships among several women friends. A few stretches of credibility but the feelings, understandings & misunderstandings along the way rang true and authentic.
We all think we know and what the 'real' scandal is, choose to react based on false assumptions with a variety of outcomes- some tragic.
Nice to read,, characters we may all recognize, behaviors we all share.

*** Actually 4.5 stars **** Just spent a rainy Saturday afternoon totally engrossed in this book.

Shea Walker, an outgoing suburban mom, has been found dead in a bathtub in a B&B, her death rocking her circle of close female friends. Was it suicide? An accident? Or even something more sinister. Should they have known something was wrong?

Her friend, Kat, starts asking questions, mainly to assuage her guilt for not being around. But appearances aren't what they seem. Uncovering a web of lies and secrets, she begins to question how well she knew her friends. And who is telling her the truth.

Excellent thiller. recommended!

We need a new term for books which portray the life changes women experience when they become femmes d'un certain âge, woman of a certain age, and their children have left home, their careers have soared or crashed, and their love-lives have succeeded or failed. If novels about young women are called “coming of age” novels, perhaps we can refer to later transitions in women’s lives as the “coming of wisdom.”

Depth of Lies, by E.C. Diskin, features one group of longtime suburban neighbors and friends who have shared a variety of experiences; childbirth and child raising; work, financial difficulties, unfaithful husbands and divorce. These events have allowed them to acquire of depth of knowledge which will be tested as they face the one of the greatest challenges of their lives.

Shea Walker, one of their friends and the titular leader of the group, is found dead with a stomach full of pain-killers and alcohol.

This discovery shatters the close suburban circle, and begs the question, how well did they really know one another?

Determined to answer the questions surrounding her death, long-time friend Kate Burns follows the path Shea walked the last few months she was alive. That secret path leads Kate to discover unsavory secrets about all of the friends, and one secret that might have been better left alone.
Fast paced, relatable, contemporary mystery with satisfying conclusion.

Three out of five stars.

Depth of Lies is perfectly titled! It is the perfect suspense mystery who-dunnit! My favorite type of book! Thank you to Melissa for recommending it!

A group of women who have been best friends for years! I felt like they could have all been in my own circle of girlfriends. Housewives meets Angela from Murder She Wrote with Kat playing the role of leading detective!

Shea is the loving friend and mom who is found dead in a hotel bathroom under suspicious circumstances. Kat is her BFF with detective instincts and is determined to get to the bottom of Shea's demise! It was ruled a suicide, but Kat is not buying it! The other women in the circle are also not convinced Shea would take her own life.
Written in past/present with a few different viewpoints from some of the characters. I was changing my mind alongside Kat as she ponders and digs to reveal what happened to her beloved friend!

Who is lying? Who has a motive? Who can be trusted? Who is having an affair? Why was Shea calling? So many questions, so many lies...

Before I even begin my interview, I need to say how much I absolutely looove that cover! I mean, LOOK AT IT IT’S SO PERFECT AND ON POINT.

Okay, moving on… I read Depth of Lies at the beach in just a few hours but to be honest I barely remember more than a couple of names because this book has a plethora of characters and not all of them contribute to the story equally. The book starts with Shea’s death and her closest friends attending a memorial. One of them, Kat is guilt-ridden because Shea called her before she died but Kat didn’t answer the phone.

The story introduces a group of women, all friends of Shea as they come together to mourn their friend but they also wonder how she could ever take her own life since – as we see from the flashbacks – she was extremely friendly and so put together. Shea went from being a seemingly perfect real estate 50-something mom to a dead woman in a bathtub with more than enough pills and alcohol in her system.

What I liked about this book was the flashback, as much as I generally hate them, seeing Shea’s life was so fascinating. She really was an interesting woman leading a mediocre life but so lively and adorable. Slowly unrevealing her life, her marriage and her relationship with her tight group of friends really justified the title. It made me question their friendships – I mean, Kat is a self-proclaimed best friend and yet she didn’t know Shea’s secrets and what she really went through, which of course made me question their friendship.

The book circled around the characters and the potential of Shea’s death being a murder and not suicide giving them all a slight chance of being the killer – each in a twisted way could have killed Shea, talk about true friendships right there. I just wanted to read as fast as I could to see if my speculations were true. They were not.

I enjoyed reading it and getting my answers but the book twisted the facts so much and it made everyone look a certain amount of guilty that I didn’t even trust the narration at times. I liked the characters – those few I could name because there were a lot of them and not all relevant to the story. Shea was so easy to connect to, even if she was 50-something, and I genuinely felt bad for her, or for the people she surrounded herself with, I just didn’t like them at all and I don’t see how she could have considered them her friends either, what a weird bunch of people. If you enjoy a good crime mystery then this one was really on point, this is my first book by the author, I enjoyed the writing a lot and I’d definitely read another book in the future.

Six friends, several marriages, one death. How are these all connected? The novel opens with Shea's drowning death in a bathtub. Was it suicide or murder? Kat and her other closest female friends are convinced she was not depressed and set out to find out the truth. Alternating between present and past, the book explores the friendships, secret alliances, and cracks in marriages that reveal the discrepancies between appearance and reality. When the truth is finally discovered at the end, it is a surprise to everyone. Do we ever really know the people we are closest to or do we all have secrets?

Great mystery thriller with a strong plot and enthralling characters. A very exciting read. A real page turner.

Many thanks to E C Diskin and Netgalley for a copy of this book. I voluntarily read it and agreed to leave an unbiased review.

This book was a good book, it kept me interested and guessing. The only thing that bothered me is one of the main characters, Kat, was annoying. Shea and her past balanced Kat out though.

Looks like I'm in the minority with all the positive reviews for this book, but it was tedious for me to get through. I wanted to quit at around 50% but felt like I had to finish since Netgalley and the publisher were kind enough to provide me with an ARC. I did indeed finish the book but it felt like a chore and I often put it off while I was reading other books. Not a good sign.

Why was this book so challenging for me to get through? I think the main problem was that I didn't connect with any of the characters. All of the friends - Kat, Dee, Evelyn, Tori, Lina, Shea, etc - were one big blur to me. Yes, I could tell them apart by what was happening in the plot but I didn't have any sense of who they were other than what the author told me (instead of showed me). And why so many of these supporting characters? Seemed like quantity over quality. I wish the author had a smaller cast of characters and went deeper with them instead of a shallow overview of so many. The development felt spread very thin.
The plot also felt muddled with a bunch of individual personal and marriage drama mixed in with a potential murder. I didn't care about any of the drama, because again, I didn't care about any of the characters.
I was going to give this book one star at 50% but I'm giving it two stars now because it picked up during the climax/ending. I definitely didn't see the twist coming which was nice, but it wasn't enough to make up for the drag of the first 75% of the book.

A mystery so full of twists and turns it is hard to keep up. A woman dies because of a lie and lack of communication between husbands and wives. A very well written story that has believable characters and situations.

Wow, what a ride!! My first read by E.C. Diskin and it definitely will not be my last.

Depth of Lies... where do I start?! How well do you really think you know your friends and loved ones?

The first chapter starts off with a bullet to your gun. We are introduced to Shea.. who is dead...very dead. Is it suicide? Is it an accident? Was she murdered?

This is a character driven novel at ITS BEST. Kat, one of Shea's many friends is trying to understand what happened to this beautiful woman and her life? Can I just say, I LOVED the dynamic of every friend in Shea's life. The author did an amazing job on the character development! AND damn... it was like I had whiplash. Going back and forth trying to figure out what truly happened to Shea.

The drama and mystery felt like I was stepping on a red carpet. I could NOT put this book down!! If you are looking for a mystery that keeps you on your toes this is definitely for you! I am excited to see more from this author. I will be looking at other books that the author has published.

Overall 4.5 stars for me :). Thank you to Netgalley for read now opportunity on this one.

I would hope that if something happened to me I would have a Kat. True friendship stands the test of time through life and through death. I was not sure when I started reading this what exactly happened to Shea; murder or suicide. This book had me questioning everything. Thank you NetGalley and EC Diskin for allowing to read and review this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley to read and review. The below is my honest, unbiased opinion. Thank you, E.C. Diskin, the publisher, and NetGalley, for allowing me to review.

DEPTH OF LIES follows Kat Burrows as she investigates the death of her close friend and neighbor, Shea Walker, a happy, easygoing mom, who is said to have committed suicide. Kat doesn't believe that the woman she's known for so many years could have ended her own life, so she sets out to uncover the truth, discovering a "web of thwarted desire, shameful secrets, and shocking betrayals."

DEPTH OF LIES was such a fantastic thriller. I simply couldn't put it down. The writing was captivating, the twists and turns kept me hanging onto every page, and just when I think I've figured everything out, Diskin threw in a curve ball. The cover, the title (an excellent choice, by the way!), the synopsis, the blurb... all of it was truly fantastic. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a story line as much as I've enjoyed this one; I can't recommend this book enough!

Depth of Lies was a fantastic read. These women were all so very different. They were moms, wives, but they all were all the best of friends. And even though they had all moved away from each other one by one, they stayed in touch. And when Shea drowned, they came together once again, but her death didn’t make sense to them. Shea’s life on the outside seemed perfect, but it wasn’t. From what it seemed none of their lives were. They all had their own secrets. And this story takes us through their secrets and they affect each of them, and learning what their friendships endured.

There are quite a few women in this, so I’m going to mention just a couple, Kat and Shea. Kat, is our the main person that tells the story itself. She was a strong woman, she loved Shea too. But she had her own issues within her life and marriage, but she put everything aside to find out what happened to her friend. Some of the other woman in their little group got angry with her for trying to stir up things, but she had to know what really happened to Shea. This is the kind of friend I would want to have in my corner, if there was any question in my death that’s for sure. I really liked Kat and determination and her loyalty. Shea was a great woman too. But she carried her own secrets. She tried to make everyone around her happy, at the expense of her own happiness. I felt for her. There are so many characters that played parts in this and I wish I could tell about all of them, but we would be here forever. It is really a great cast of characters too.

Anyway, onto the mystery. This will keep you guessing from chapter to chapter and I thought was pretty awesome. The chapters, went back and forth from the Shea’s past memories to Kat’s present
day events, which was nice to get some of what led up to Shea’s death. And once I got it all figured out, then another clue would be thrown in there from someone’s memory and then I had to go back and second guess who I though might have killed Shea. Or maybe it really was an accident. I just couldn’t make up my mind and that to me, makes for a great mystery. It wasn’t till the end that it all came together and it was all revealed and I was kinda shocked. I had it all wrong! I love when that happens… Fans of a good thriller and mysteries will enjoy this one for sure.

Genre - Mystery Suspense
Pages - 290

I was provided a copy of “Depth of Lies” by E.C. Diskin via NetGalley from the author. This is her third novel and my first read by this author. I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this read considering it’s not usually the type of book I would read. While I felt this book was geared more toward a female audience, (that's just my opinion) it held my attention and I was finding myself changing my mind about who, why or what was the cause of Shea’s demise from the first mention of her death to the last chapters which ends with an exciting and surprising conclusion. The story is written in the past and the present, so we get a few different stories and different viewpoints from the various characters in the story line. So, depending on who you believe or trust in the narrative you will find that you will change your mind and opinion from one chapter to the next. For some reason while reading this book I had the feeling of Housewives of Ohio gone crazy...and it get even crazier when they get to Lake Erie. As one reviewer wrote about a book they were reviewing “ the words, the story, and the characters need to sing in harmony with a clear melody”, and by that standard this book was on the money. The character were well developed and interesting. The story had an interesting and well thought out twist to the usual murder mystery format. A very entertaining and riveting read.

Synopsis (from back cover): “When Shea Walker, a sunny, easygoing mom, is found dead in a bathtub with a stomach full of booze and pills, the shocking discovery shatters the complacency of her comfortable suburban community.
Kat Burrows, Shea’s longtime friend and former neighbor, is hit hardest. How could a woman she thought she knew so well come to such a sordid end? What could lead happy, well-adjusted, responsible Shea to accidentally overdose on alcohol and narcotics? Or, worse, drive her to suicide?
Compelled to uncover the truth of Shea’s final months, Kat delves beneath the orderly surface of her familiar world to discover a web of thwarted desire, shameful secrets, and shocking betrayal that suggests a scarier explanation for what happened to Shea. As her carefully constructed reality begins to crumble, Kat must question every reassuring assumption her life is built upon to solve the mystery…and summon the courage and resourcefulness to survive it.”

Dark , suspense filled novel of friendship, love and obsession. The devastating suicide of the unofficial group leader sends the women in this story into a tailspin, challenging everything they thought they knew and believed. Guilt and shock encourages Kat to delve deeper in to the mystery of Shea's death and the shocking series of events culminates with the discovery of murder. Very well written with excellent plot and character development.

Kat's guilt about abandoning her friend Shea drives her to find out what ended her life. As you follow Kat thought the twists and turns of the plot, you find yourself second guessing whether it is a murder and if so, who did it. It is usually a bit difficult to follow a story that goes back and forth between timelines, but the author has made it seamless in this book. The flashback is in sync with the current timeline, and makes it a very intriguing read. The book holds its secret till the very end.

I was provided a review copy through Netgalley.

Do we really know those we love? This story goes between the past and present to reveal what has happened to Shea. I am not a huge fan of when dates and times are in stories, as it is hard to remember when a previous chapter took place. It is not easy to move around when you reading on a Kindle to double check the event dates.

This starts off with the friends of Shea going away and then all the secrets are revealed. There are so many twists and turns. I started this last night and finished today when I got home from work. The author did a great job making you wonder if Shea committed suicide or if she was murdered. You also have the mystery of who killed her. There were times I thought I figured everything out just to have another kink thrown into the final outcome.

Overall, this is a very fast paced read and I really enjoyed it.

Last year, after having failed miserably with a few audiobooks, I’m talking complete duds, I stumbled across Broken Grace, this author's previous book, and was hooked instantly. Compelling storyline, interesting characters, great narrator and a deliciously dark twist—need I say more? So, you can imagine my level of excitement when I caught a glimpse of the gorgeous Depth of Lies cover and realized it was the very same author that delivered one of my favorite thrillers last year.

The piles upon piles of books that I’ve labeled ‘must read NOW’ and the numerous review copies demanding my attention be damned, nothing was stopping me from diving into this book immediately. Well, let me just tell you, so worth it. What I initially intended to be a few quick chapters before bed, just enough to satisfy my curiosity of what was to come, turned into the “one more chapter” game. You know the one I'm talking about. Most of us have found ourselves caught up in that craziness a time or two, I'm sure. At the end of the day, what’s a few precious hours of sleep sacrificed for an utterly addicting experience though, right? Like I said earlier, totally worth it.

“How well do any of us really know each other?”

Regardless of what we all tell ourselves, we never truly know everything about anyone—be it our confidantes, best friends or even family. Think about it. Chances are, there’s something you’re holding close. Something you wouldn’t dare tell another soul. Something about your life that might shock others if they actually found out about it. That’s the very thing this story explores, the secrets we keep from one another—out of fear, shame or even just pride. Who wants to admit things aren’t as perfect as they might appear to be?

What initially drew me into the story was the sad realization that this seemingly happy 52-year-old woman with friends and family that adored her could end up the victim of such a horrible accident. Wait, was it an accident? What landed Shea in that hotel room alone, in that bathtub, drunk out of her mind, with an empty bottle of pills? The unraveling of the truth is masterful—the guilt eating away at Shea's friends, the festering resentments and the layers of lies and deceit underscoring it all—and compelling beyond belief, all while managing to feel authentic. Believable. Real. This cast feels real.

This is definitely a character driven novel at it’s very core. The majority of the story is told from Kat’s perspective, Shea’s closest friend and neighbor for over 20 years, but we also get to see the last few months of Shea's life through her own eyes. The author successfully strings the reader along with Kat’s amateur detective skills—creating a tense situation and casting doubt in every direction. What’s clear all along, this is a group of friends that anyone would be lucky to have.