Thank you for the advance copy. I have been a fan of Croft and have again not been disappointed. I felt the quick alternating chapters kept my interest, and was a slow but good build to the story. I didn’t see some twists, though knew that Allison wasn’t what she seemed. I felt this was a solid, well written book, and am looking forward to her next one!

Wow. I did not see that ending coming! Kathryn Croft’s Silent Lies starts off as a somewhat unsuspecting thriller; there are characters who make slightly poor choices, but no one seems capable of the murder (or murders?!).

The book begins with a funeral. Mother and child are mourning the death of their dearly beloved husband and father. We quickly learn that the mother, Mia, lost her university professor husband to what is believed to be a murder suicide. The running theory is that her husband, Zach, committed suicide after killing his college student and lover, Josie.

The second narrator is Josie, Zach’s supposed college-aged lover. The book tacks back and forth between Mia and Josie’s stories. You start to sympathize with both of the narrators, both leading you to form different, and sometimes contradictory, opinions of up to the two narrators, Mia and Josie. You develop feelings for both of them despite the years separating them and the man in between them.

Josie has led a hard life. She was raised by a teenage mother who really didn’t want her. As a result, Josie was beat, starved, and taunted by her mother, Liz, to the point that she nearly died by her mother’s boyfriend’s hands (while her mother stood by watching).

I won’t spoil this book for future readers, but I would encourage readers to think about Mia’s motivations for telling her story. I tended to sympathize more with Mia, but then I started to question why she was telling me her story and the narrative conventions upon which she was relying. I’d also encourage the reader to think about Josie’s story as well. Why is she sharing it?

I really loved the shocker of an ending, and how it wrapped up so neatly.

Thank you to the author, Kathryn Croft, the publisher, Bookouture (one of my favorites!), and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of Silent Lies.

Mia’s husband, Zach, committed suicide five years ago on the same night one of his students vanishes. Now, there's a woman telling her her husband did not commit suicide. This book starts off strong with a good premise. It alternates in POV between present day Mia and the student, Josie, from five years ago. Unfortunately, I had trouble relating to either Mia or Josie. Mia seems to be stringing her new boyfriend along and I couldn't buy it was because she couldn't trust any men nowadays. Josie has a problematic relationship with her mother and is developing a crush on Zach.

This is one of those books when you have no idea who to trust. There is even a question of whether the characters are being honest with themselves. Several of the characters seem caricatures rather than fleshed out beings, for example, Josie’s mother. And I found a lot of what people did to just not make sense. There were times Mia reminded me of those gals in horror movies, always making what appears to be a stupid choice. As advertised, the ending is unexpected. Unfortunately, it also didn't really ring true. Too many leaps of faith required.

My thanks to netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of this book.

"What a tangled web we have woven" is the exact mantra of this book!
Woah! Who would have ever thought!
This is a suspenseful and intriguing read that will have you up late at night.
I loved it!

If you enjoy reading about female characters who are totally consumed by angst, paranoia and self-doubt, do not - repeat, do NOT miss this book. Not only is there one such character here, but three - and until the end, it's virtually impossible to tell who's telling the truth. It's a story with a past that began five years prior to the present day, when Mia Hamilton has finally come to grips - almost - with her husband Zach's suicide. He died on the same day that Josie, one of his university students, disappeared (he was a professor); the claim was that he and his student were having an affair that somehow went awry. The unfortunate result, it appears, is that he murdered her and took his own life in remorse.

Despite a few misgivings, Mia never believed Zach was a murderer; and now, she's getting by at their London home with help from their young daughter, Freya, her close personal boyfriend Will and Zach's ever-loving parents, who live nearby. She's undergone training as a personal counselor, seeing clients in her home office, and her life after Zach is back on a track toward normalcy. That changes, though, when a young woman named Alison seeks her out and makes an appointment. Clearly, Alison is seriously disturbed, but she makes a claim that chills Mia to the core: She knew both Josie and Zach, and more to the point, she insists Zach did not kill himself. That said, she abruptly runs off, leaving Mia to deal with the fallout and start questioning Zach's death, and just about everything else she's come to believe in, all over again.

But can what Alison says and does be trusted? Just as Mia begins to think she's the real deal, something happens that make her think she's delusional. As Mia tries to separate fact from fiction, what really happened back then is revealed to readers through flashback chapters narrated by Josie, the student supposedly murdered by Zach (I've grown weary of this technique, in all honestly, but the author does it very well). After a number of twists and turns, everything comes together in a surprising end.

That ending was not, however, all that satisfying. I'm not totally sure why, except perhaps that I never really related to any of the three women (hey, that's just me, but I prefer my female characters to be strong and mentally stable, I guess). Still another reason is that I guessed wrong - make that WAY wrong - so maybe my let-down is just a touch of sour grapes to compensate for being fooled. The bottom line is that this is a well-written, easy-to-read book that I really didn't want to put down. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review.

Another good thriller by this author. One to keep an eye out on!

This one had all the ingredients of a great story... intriguing plot, great writing and cliffhangers that made me want to read a tad more. But just like a cake baking in the oven, growing beautifully, whilst you salivate in anticipation for the perfect mouthful of cake, it can disappointingly still end up falling flat right at the end.

Five years after Zach commits suicide at the same time his student, Josie, disappears, Mia ( Zach's wife) receives disturbing news from Alison, Josie's former roommate, when she proclaims 'Your husband didn't kill himself.'

With such an intriguing opening, I dove right in, enjoying the ride with every page turned.

The story alternates between the perspective of Mia and Josie, with many chapters ending with a teaser, leaving you desperate to find out more.

I was thoroughly entertained by this great story but alas, that ending ... Although I didn't see it coming and granted, it was shocking, it was sadly a huge let down, as it deviated too drastically from the path the author painstakingly led us down throughout the entire book.

Also, the author did such a great job of filling the reader's mind with questions throughout the novel, however some of the answers provided didn't make sense or were too vague to offer a satisfactory explanation, leaving me confused and agitated.

I am getting rather frustrated with book endings that boast a jaw dropping twist, yet they don't make sense in relation to the entire build up of that story. Shocking your reader to the point of frustration should not be the end goal. The result being a very disgruntled customer...can you tell?

Such a pity, as I was really enjoying this one until it flopped right at the end.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Bookouture and Kathryn Croft for the opportunity to read Silent Lies in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the fourth book I've read by Kathryn Croft though she'd (also) written two books before I discovered The Girl With No Past in 2015.

The last four have been released in pretty quick succession over the past couple of years, which keeps me happy, as Croft authors the kinds  of psychological thrillers that are my reading bread and butter. 
This book opens just as Mia is about to meet the client who blows the life she's managed to piece together, apart. She realises pretty quickly her new 'client' isn't who she says she is and is determined to get to the bottom of the events of five years earlier once and for all.

She decides, however... not to tell her new partner Will or anyone that she's looking into the past and unsurprisingly she realises too late that she's in too deep.

This book unfolds in the present, from Mia’s point of view and the past (from Josie’s point of view). Mia's very likeable, though somewhat dogged in her pursuit of answers. 

Josie is less likeable. Initially anyway. We soon learn she's come from a difficult background and had to battle to get where she is. She doesn't believe she belongs at University and struggles with confidence. Mia's husband Zach offers Josie support when she most needs it, but it's obvious there's an attraction between the teacher and student.

And then there's Alison. Mia's new client and - we learn - Josie's former roommate. The pair did not get on AT ALL and their relationship doomed from day one by their prickly behaviour towards one another.

In the present Mia's a little suspicious that Alison has ended up married to a colleague of Zach's and when Alison appears frightened of her husband Mia steps in. 

Croft's books are always pretty twisty and this is no different. We're left guessing for quite a while and there are a few surprises thrown in towards the end.

Given what we later learn about all of the players I was left wondering if there were any hints I missed along the way.

And then there's the slightly open-ended ending, which is interesting because readers are left to ponder if justice has been served in any way and if we'd prefer things end differently. Cos it's implied things may well change. 

3.5 stars

Mia Hamilton's husband Zach was a university teacher. Five years ago Zach committed suicide the same night one of his students, Josie Carpenter, went missing. Zach's daughter, Mia, was just two years old. Now Mia has a new man in her life, her boyfriend Will, and she has finally found happiness. That is until one day when a stranger, Alison, tells Mia that her husband did not kill himself. Mia soon finds out that Alison has her own agenda for exposing the details of Zach's death. Can Mia believe anything Alison tells her?

There are plenty of twists as this story unfolds. There is two main points of view in this storyline, Alison's fron five years ago and Mia's is told in the present. The characters are mostly untrustworthy. I can honestly say I never saw the twist coming. The book is well written , full of secrets and lies, covers mental illness and obsession.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Kathryn Croft for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Silent Lies is a book that relies on the shocking nature of its twists and the power of its suspense, and for me, it really failed in both of these aspects. The ending was predictable and came as no surprise, and I didn’t feel any of the other aspects of the story’s impacts because the characters failed to come across as real people.
The novel is filled with characters who are cartoonish stereotypes of people who you are only likely to come across on the British morning chat-show Jeremy Kyle (the UK’s version of America’s Jerry Springer) - sure, the people on the show are real, but their lives are set apart from the everyday part of the population for being so incredibly ridiculous. It even references the show at one point, and I believe, in some part deep-down inside of her, Kathryn Croft must have realised the soap-opera she was unwittingly creating.
We have the university lecture who falls head over heels in love with his student after talking to her twice (god only knows why), the student-in-question with the tragic past and the power to make every girl she comes into contact with instantly despise her, her creepy roommate who I can’t even begin to explain because ugh-, and the professors wife, five years later, who just wants to put everything behind her.
The focus on these characters, most of whom were incredibly unlikeable and honestly rather annoying, made it painful to keep turning the page. The addictive nature of this genre was lost in its clunky and unwelcoming plot and characters’ fates that I really couldn’t care less about. And, whereas a book of this nature normally only takes me a few hours to zip through, it look me several days to wade through Silent Lies’ 309 pages.

3.5 stars
I was hooked from the start but disappointed and let down by the ending which was so predictable.

I am a huge fan of this writer and have read all her books which have been fantastic and never disappoint. This one is another great read. It's an emotional rollercoaster. It begins with the funeral of Zach who is Mia's husband. It is thought he's committed suicide in strange and mysterious circumstances. Five years down the line Mia having pulled her life back on track with her daughter Freya the past returns to haunt her. There's a diversity of characters. Mia is seemingly strong, confident and capable and was apparently happily married. The story swerves off to Zach's students. Alison is clearly spiteful and unstable. She dislikes her University room mate with an unhealthy obsession. Josie Carpenter, her room mate is a lonely, insecure girl but she can be assertive when required. Her abusive background may have made her stronger but it has also damaged her. There are snatches of obscure information leaked as the story progresses and the tension mounts until the massive explosive ending. Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture. I shall post this review to amazon.co.uk, GoodReads and my blog after publication.

Oh my goodness!!! I'm left utterly shocked and speechless, what a brilliant, addictive read Silent Lies was, the storyline was amazing and I know that I will not be able to switch off from this book, absolutely brilliant!!

Yet another excellent psychological thriller from the queen of this genre Kathryn Croft.Mia and her daughter Freya are left distraught when husband and father Zach is found dead after apparently committing suicide,but 5 years later Alison arrives and turns Mia's life upside down with accusations that Zach did not kill himself.With Mia now in a happy relationship with Will she finds herself looking back to what Zach was up to with Josie one of his students 5 years ago and the secrets and lies which were told back then.The story is full of twists and turns and had me gripped to the very end,once again Kathryn Croft has delivered an outstanding thriller.A superb 5 star read

Five years ago Mia Hamilton’s husband took his own life in the apartment of a student of his that also went missing that very night. There was blood at the scene but the girl or her body had never been recovered so rumors swirled that Mia’s husband had done something to the girl and then felt guilty thus taking his own life in his grief. This left Mia alone to raise their young daughter with plenty of questions of just what could have really happened that night.

Now Mia has begun to heal and put the past behind her but suddenly a woman walks into her life that claims to have known her husband and details of that night. Alison also says she is now afraid of her own husband who had been a colleague of Mia’s husband so Mia can’t help but want to help out Alison along with hoping to get to the truth of just what had happened. But it’s quickly clear that Mia should be wary of Alison and her motives and she wonders if she’ll be able to trust anything Alison says.

Silent Lies by Kathryn Croft is a psychological thriller with plenty of twists and turns along the way as the secrets unfold. The story is told from the two main view points of Mia in the current time and then Josie from five years before to learn of just what happened to her to lead to her disappearance and Mia’s husband’s suicide. The alternating voices along with timelines were very easy to follow along with both leading the reader to the conclusion.

I had actually read a couple of other books from Kathryn Croft before so I already knew that I would completely enjoy her writing style and would be in for a good story. As usual I just didn’t know who in here to trust and just what I would find at the end but completely enjoyed the ride along the way. I did guess a slight bit of the outcome this time but there were still some other surprises in store. In the end this would be one that I’d definitely recommend checking out.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I'm a huge fan of Kathryn Croft and loved this one as well! As a retired English teacher, I also love books in any kind of school setting and this one involves University professor, Zach who has a happy marriage to Mia and a lovely daughter Freya when he unexpectedly commits suicide after supposedly sleeping with one of his students and perhaps killing her. Fast forward five years when the book begins and a new client, Alison appears on Mia's doorstep to claim Zack didn't kill himself as everyone believes. And so begins the journey to the truth. Alternating points of view from the present with Mia digging for the truth, and the past with Josie--Alison's flatmate and Zach's "love interest"--Croft weaves an intricate and poignant portrayal of deception and lies. Who is telling the truth and where is Josie's body? Clearly a page turner that will keep you up at night!

The story is told from the perspective of Mia and Josie and their
connection to Zach who is one of the main characters in the book.
Kathryn Croft is one of my favourite psychological thriller writers and
as expected delivers a stunning twist.

This book took me by surprise, in a really good way. I have gone back and forth in my mind..4 stars are 4.5 so I am rounding up to 4.5 stars

The premise is really interesting. A woman is rebuilding her life after her husband dies causing a scandal. Mia Hamilton and her husband were happily married with a young daughter. Mia thought she had it all and then her husband was found dead in the apartment of one of his students, a young woman with a troubled past named Josie. The student's blood is everywhere but Josie is no where to be found. Investigators believe that her husband had something to do with the missing student, and as a result committed suicide in her flat.

Five years have passed and Josie is still missing. Mia has suffered through the public's outrage and negative opinion of her husband. She has had to cope with the suspicions as to why her husband was even in a students flat while raising her daughter alone. Finally she has found happiness with her boyfriend Will. Then one day a young woman enters Mia's world and tells her, ‘Your husband didn’t kill himself.’ Needless to say this sends Mia on a tailspin. The woman's name is Alison and she begins to tell Mia that she once lived with Josie, that she saw Mia's husband the day he died and that she wants to set the record straight.

Needless to say this book had all the elements to grab my attention. The book is full of secrets, a character with a troubled past, a troubled character, relationship issues, hidden agendas, etc. It had enough juice to keep me reading. I read this entire book pretty much in one sitting. It was a page turner for me. The story is told through both Josie (in the past) and Mia (in the present) points of view. This is brilliant but I also wanted to hear that thoughts of Alison. As the book progresses it becomes clear that there is more to most of the characters than meets the eye. One of the characters presents as being unreliable; but is this person unreliable or is there something more going on. Plus, there are quite a few revelations and twists in this book to keep things interesting. This also helps to keep the reader guessing as characters do not always seem trustworthy and the mystery is not only what really happened the night Zach died and Josie went missing, but who can you trust in this book? I LOVE this. I say it a lot, but I love putting on my super sleuth hat and trying to figure out who did what, who is to blame, etc.

My one BIG complaint: in the kindle description of the book the reader is told there is a "shocking twist" Why, oh Why say this????? I find the beauty in shocking twists is that I do not see them coming. I want to surprised by the twist. The description of this book is inciting enough, you don't need to tease the shock factor. Having said that, I was surprised by the twist. I thought I had a few things figured out, I was wrong.

This was a fun book for me to read. Fun, may not be the right word, but I like when I am not 100% in the know of what is going on in a book. I like being surprised and shocked. I love a good twist and turn here and there as I am reading. I also liked that not everything was quite tided up by the end of the book. This may annoy some readers but I kinda liked it.

I thought the Author did a great job of weaving the past and the present. This really helped set the mood and add to the mystery. As little spinets of information are presented, the suspense builds. The writing was solid and the pacing was great. Nothing dragged in this book. This is a book that can easily be read in one sitting - time permitting,as the story is compelling.

This was my first time reading this Author and it certainly will not be my last.

I received a copy of this book from Bookouture and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for making this book available.

Well... I did not see that coming! So many secrets and lies... I wasn't trusting any of the characters. A fantastic book that hooks you in from the start and leaves you wanting more!! Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for a copy of this book to read and review. I am a fan of Kathryn Crofts books and can't wait to see what she brings out next.

It's the lies that leave the bigger scar, that cause the mistrust.

I really enjoyed this! Solid 3.5 stars. I also cannot believe why I haven't read anything from Croft before but I certainly going to...and some of them are available in KU. Oh the joy!

I like the narration style, I am not fan of going back and forth in time but the format works here perfectly. One chapter from Mia as current day and one chapter from Josie, 5 years ago, adds bit mystery to the story. Having said that it was written simple yet effective free-flowing language. The kind of format I prefer.

I think the end was bit let down for me. As Kathryn herself mentioned in her acknowledgements -

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my sixth psychological thriller, Silent Lies - I really hope you got involved with the characters and were taken by surprise at the end!
Yes, yes we did, and I am relieved we found out truth about Zach's death, but having said that, what happens next? What will happen to Alison, Mia and Josie's lies once they are no longer lies? What would happen with Truth? There are many unanswered questions, open ending to call this as satisfying end but may be it is open for readers to design the ending whatever they like - maybe.

But like I said, Croft shows potential and I would looking into more of her work.