Everybody lies... That is a truism even though some people might claim they never do. I, on the other hand, think they are lying, because you just do. Little white lies to protect yourself or someone else or you do it to keep some dark secrets from surfacing.

Keeping secrets in a big city is a lot easier than in a village or a small island, but some do keep hidden for a very long time. And when those liars come clean, it's devastating for their entourage.

Sometimes you want to escape from this suffocating place where everybody knows (almost) all your business, but when you have the chance to do so, that's when you realize how much you would miss it when you are gone. Shall you stay or shall you go...?

A beautiful story that opens with a shocking event, but that's not the only thing that is going on. Love, denial, heartbreak and friendship are only a few of the emotions that the author used to enthrall her readers. 5 stars.

Thank you, Emily Cavanagh and Bookouture

This book just didn't gel with me at all. I will always give a book until 50% before I decide it's not for me. I read to 70% and felt it just wasn't going anywhere. Incredibly slow paced and I also found it quite repetitive, with characters keep going over old ground and telling the reader things they've already told us - several times.

I carried on to find out who murdered the girl on the beach. That took me to 90% of the way through and so I thought I might as well finish it. Maybe it was told from too many points of view I don't know but I just found it far too slow and it just didn't capture my interest.

There is no comfort in the truth.

Everybody Lies by Emily Cavanaugh is a page-turner psychological thriller exploring complex human relationships.

A young woman was killed on a freezing beach in Great Rock Island. She was not a local, but she had worked there in a restaurant during the previous summer.

Several characters were seen talking to her, and many had motives to have killed her.

Meanwhile, two friends struggled with their relationships. The first one on the verge of divorce, the second one, a long time divorcee, struggling with her current relationship, and unable to let the past go.

Nothing was as it seemed, and everyone had something to hide.

The narrative was exciting, and I was hooked from the first page.

I liked how messed up and flawed all characters were. Not even one was completely faultless or innocent. Well, Daisy, maybe.

My favorite character was Ian, a puzzle from the very start. Evvy also was a favorite because she was so flawed but so unapologetic. Caroline was so annoyingly indecisive and passive. Her son Connor an apparent reflex of his parents' messed up relationship.

I loved this mix-and-match of personalities.

The setting is a freezing island, and it suited so well the general mood of the story.

Everybody Lies is a page-turner psychological thriller with complex characters and an exciting plot.

Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

*This review will be posted on https://lureviewsbooks.com on 10/16/2020 as part of the book's blog tour*

Told from several points of view, Everybody Lies is a story of secrets, lies, drug addiction, domestic abuse, murder and marriage breakdown. Caroline and Evvy struggle with their relationships with their partners and their children. The murder of a young woman turns out to be the pivotal moment in all their lives.

Everybody Lies by Emily Cavanagh is told from three women's POV who live on Great Rock island. Great Rock is a magnet for summer tourists and dead (pardon the pun) during the winter months. When a woman who worked on the island in the summertime is found dead on the beach, everyone in this small, close knit community is pointing fingers.

Caroline is married to the island's police chief who has recently moved out of the family home. Her son rarely comes around and he looks more and more lost each time she sees him. She is shocked by the murder especially when she learns the dead woman worked with her son.

Evvy is Caroline's best friend. More like family really. Her boyfriend has been arrested for the murder but she knows he is innocent. She is trying to keep her head above water with her business, being a friend for Caroline, keeping up with her collage-age daughter and worrying about what will happen to her boyfriend.

Evvy's daughter Daisy loves Caroline like a second mom. She sometimes dates Caroline's son, Connor, and she sees he is going downhill fast. This murder has everyone in this small town shaken up. Daisy is doing her best to figure out her feelings for Connor and find a way off the island.

Everybody Lies is a page turner with a twist ending. As a reader, I knew not everything was as it seemed on the surface, but the ending made me sad for so many of the characters. These people were well-written and came to life for me. I was rooting for their happiness - Caroline's marriage, Evvy's love problems and Daisy's dreams of going to college. This book was very good and I didn't want to put it down.

As expected from the title Everybody Lies there’s a lot of lies / secrets within this story. Some small, some larger but all causing pain and havoc!

I wouldn’t consider this a thriller as it had no thrills! It’s a sad, dark tale of small island living but it’s wonderful! The pain of the story and the secrets is perfectly told and will definitely stir emotions!

Again I wouldn’t consider this a thriller but it’s a great read for cold winter nights in front of a roaring fire!

Everybody lies is the story of two families in an island off the Atlantic, where everyone knows about others and what’s going on in their lives. The story is told in multiple POV of the women with differing opinions and beliefs. The older women are weaker and more dependent on men. And finally they get the courage to face life alone. The story meanders around the characters with no moving forward and just jumps to the conclusion. There is no difference in the personality of the two mothers though they grew up in different places and backgrounds. This is more of a women’s fiction. Because of the pace I could finish it fast. An okay book.

Set on an island off of the Atlantic coast, this story is told from three different perspectives: Evvy, who has spent her entire life on the island, her daughter Daisy, and her best friend Caroline. It's the island's off-season, when a dead woman's body is discovered -- a woman, who had worked on the island the previous summer. There are many secrets and motives in this small, tight-knit community, where suspicions are high.

The characters are very dynamic and well-developed. While some of the secret-keeping is frustrating, with the closely intertwined community and small-town gossip, it's easy to see why a lot of the characters aren't very forthcoming, especially about the night of the woman's murder.

I really enjoyed the story from the different perspectives -- each had their own dramas playing out, amid the overarching drama of the murder. Each of their situations and experiences were well-developed and I felt like I was on the icy-island along with them. This was a page-turner for me, especially toward the end; an end that I did not see coming.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this book!

Set on an island where everyone knows everyone’s business. It’s cold and empty in the winter, except during the winter festival. A young woman is found dead, strangled. She had worked in a restaurant during the summer. Who killed her and why?

The island has as many secrets as it has inhabitants. The book is told from several perspectives. Two women, best friends, with one child each, and problems with the men in their lives. The youngsters in the family are adults, barely, and are struggling to find their way in life. Drugs are a big problem on the island, and turns out it has taken over more lives, and many unexpected people are involved in the business.

In this book it really works that the story is told from several perspectives. They are all so human, flawed, trying to keep it together, trying to survive. Everyone has a secret or two, and it’s not easy to keep them from others on the island. My favourite in the book is Daisy, one of the young adults. She has not had an easy life, losing her sister at a young age. Working with her mother, barely getting by, having a codependent relationship with a young man she’s known her whole life, trying to help him, because she knows his in trouble. And she’s looking for an escape route. She’s looking for a way out.

This is a slow suspense page-turner that hooked me on the first page. I usually prefer more action, police procedure, or psychological thrillers, but this book grabbed me with the pace of slow moving island life in the winter. There are so many layers to every character, and the layers peel off like an onion you are treating with a knife. I think this book would work really well as a TV series. It has all the possibilities of hooking a large audience.

I read it in two sittings, because I wanted to know whodunnit and what would happen to the main characters. There was a twist at the end, but I had already figured it out, the whodunnit part, by then. I think the author has captured the human mind, our way of thinking, protecting, excusing, forgiving, as well as questioning the choices we’ve made.

I mostly enjoyed this book and was surprised by the ending but I have one criticism. Why where the women in the story so weak? I really felt like shouting out to them! I don't know many women who behave like they did, especially over men. It was a decent enough read but not as thrilling as others in this genre.

The setting of the book is a small island on the East coast. It primarily involves two families that have been friends for years. A girl is killed on the island and the father of one of the families is the chief of police. He questions everyone, including the long term boyfriend of the other family’s mom. As the story unfolds, the lies keep coming.

This story has a lot of character, each family has two parents and one child and there is an ex husband also. Everyone but the ex has a chance to tell a portion of the story. I love books that are told by more than one character because you find out so much more about the characters but I feel this book had too many viewpoints. I had to check who’s chapter I was reading more than once.

Despite this difficultly I enjoyed the book. It spoke of a families love for themselves and their friends.

I totally enjoyed the perspectives of Evvy, Caroline and Daisy. The story was told through two friends and Evvy’s grown up daughter, Daisy. The book starts with a brilliant hook. A young woman is walking along a beach at night and I felt my skin prickle when she discovered that she wasn’t alone. It had me screaming in my head, ‘run, turn back...’

This is a story packed with family drama and it keeps on coming right up until the end. I couldn’t have easily predicted the shocking ending. I really thought I had it sussed but there were so many secrets, and my views on who was suspect bounced here, there, and everywhere.

The ‘Great Rock’ island setting in the bleak winter months was a fantastic backdrop for the murder. The island had a claustrophobic feel to it and the characters built on that theme through their circumstances, their different experiences and levels of loneliness, and the oncoming storm.

I think anyone who enjoys a well written mystery with bags of exciting drama, relatable characters and a fantastic setting will love ‘Everybody Lies.’ I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fab read!

Ripples Of Shock And Anguish.....
When a body is discovered on a beach ripples of shock and anguish are felt throughout a small community and opens up secrets that some would prefer to have kept covered. Emotional drama with sensitive and potentially harrowing themes. A tense, well written and compelling read.

Scenic mysterious desolate. The book sitting here contributes to the mystery. It’s actually part mystery part psychological thriller and I really loved it.

This was a great book! Lots of great twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end. Well done!

A girls body is found on the beach of Great Rock Island, a small island off the coast of Mass, USA, near Boston.
The girl Layla is not an islander but someone who came for the holiday season but keeps coming back.
The story is told from the perspective of Caroline, Evvy and Daisy.
Caroline is married to Jack, local cop and mother to Connor. Caroline and Jack have split up and Connor has moved out.
Evvy is her best friend and mother to Daisy. Evvy and her husband Cyrus split up after the death of their other daughter and she lives with Ian.
Daisy is in an on/off relationship with Connor.
This is a story about 3 strong women and their relationships, with each other and those around them. It is an honest look at the problems in their lives and how they got there and is told in a sensitive yet blunt way, if that makes sense.
It really sows the differences between the haves and the have nots/ small town America and the big cities.
The ending was not what I expected or wanted but somehow seemed right.
A challenging and enjoyable read that I would recommend.
Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for allowing me to read this ahead of publication in return for a fair review.
4.5 Stars ⭐️

Shockwaves are sent through the community when the body of a dead girl is found on the beach. When the identity of the dead girl is revealed the community is shocked to its core. The girl had spent the previous summer working on the island. When Evvy’s partner Ian is accused of murder, she realises just how many secrets everyone has been keeping. In the end secrets always have a way of coming back to haunt you.


A Heartbreaking, unforgettable and captivating story told through the eyes of three strong women. Once I started reading this book I just couldn’t put it down because I needed to know the truth. I wish I never finished the book because the ending was such a shocking twist. It actually was a great ending, but I really liked that character for some reason so I was a bit sad. I just believe that there were worse characters that deserved that fate.

Please be aware that there are themes of violence including domestic violence, drugs and murder.

I would definitely recommend this book because it really is an amazing book.

I received an advanced review copy for free, and this is my honest opinion.

Everybody Lies by Emily Cavanagh is a gripping mystery. The storyline had a strong message about addiction and the shame associated with it and how it touches all lives. The book was well written, and I like the setting and atmosphere. The characters were believable and realistic. It also rings true from the synopsis that secrets can be heartbreaking and tear people and families apart.

#EverybodyLies #NetGalley

In the Summer, Great Rock Island is full of tourists looking for sun and sand, but when winter hits, the island belongs to the year round residents. Evvy is one of those people, she’s lived her whole life on the island and every year is pretty much the same as the one before. But this year, after the holiday makers have departed, a body washes up on the beach. The woman had been a seasonal worker on the island, but summer is long gone. Why would she return in the dead of winter? Then Evvy discovers her partner Ian may have been the last person to see the dead woman. The island rumor mill is running full tilt and as locals begin to point fingers, Evvy realizes she will do anything to protect her daughter