Thank you @harperbooks #partner for the gifted eARC.

Yay! Yay! Yay! This was such a great crime thriller and police procedural! This ultimately follows our main character Emilia who is a writer wrapping up the last book in her “Miranda Moody” detective series. She came up with the ending for it in an unconventional way and now…she regrets it. Shockingly she discovers that someone is copying incidents that she’s written in her past books. And all hell breaks loose when details emerge from her unreleased book! There are only so many people in her small circle that know that information. 😳 So just who is behind this or is it sheer coincidence?

Although several of Claire’s books are on my TBR list this was the first I had read and it made me even more excited to read her others! This characters and the happenings were layered perfectly together. This book felt so real, like maybe something you’d see on a crime show which I think made it even more scary! Claire does a great job building tension and suspense while peppering in some stressful scenes (my fav!) This one was addicting, entertaining, and a thrilling rollercoaster! I simply loved it and will definitely be back for more!

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. Based on the synopsis, it had the potential to be a fantastic read. But 1/3 of the way through and the biggest mystery is who showed up on the Ring camera? Next.

Have you read anything by Clarie Douglas? She is a very good author and whenever I see a new book from her, I try to get it. Her latest is The Woman Who Lied.

I liked the premise of the main character being an author whose detective novels are starting to come to life. How creepy, right? It was a great story, written well and I can’t wait to see what Claire writes next.

Emilia Ward lives in suburban London with her husband, their young son, and a teenager from her first marriage. Emilia is an ordinary mom — and she’s also the bestselling author of the Miranda Moody detective novels.

But when writing her tenth — and most difficult — book, life takes a disturbing turn: an incident mimicking the plot of one of her novels occurs in real life. Just an unsettling coincidence, right?

Until it happens again. And again.

Then someone she knows dies in the same way as a victim in the book she’s currently writing.

Why is someone doing this?

What do they want?

How could they possibly know what she’s thinking — and writing?

Is Emilia and her family next?

This book kept me up well past my bedtime. I loved how twisty it was, and the structure was really fun and engaging as well! I will definitely be picking up Claire Douglas again.

Claire Douglas belongs up there at the top of the greatest! Her books have you guessing constantly and her tension is palpable. This was her best to date! If she writes it, I will read it!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book was a slow start for me, but I ended up really enjoying it. Several unexpected turns and the letter at the end was perfection!!

DNF at 38%

I really enjoyed Douglas' The Couple at No. 9 when I picked it up last year and the synopsis for The Woman Who Lied led me to believe that I would love this even more! I mean, come on - it's an author trying to figure out who is recreating the plots of her mystery series after she decides to kill off her main character. That is right up my alley!

Unfortunately, the characters and the writing in this one just did not do it for me. Our main character Emilia is super dull and all of the other characters felt immensely one-dimensional. The lack of depth in the characters might have been forgiven if the plot had any tension in it, but we don't get much insight into Emilia's mind and therefore, I have nothing to grab onto in terms of her fear and terror. The book-within-a-book sections were honestly my favorite part, but I don't care enough about it to make me want to push through to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Paperbacks for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Great premise: Emilia Ward, the author of a popular mystery series, had just sent her latest (and tenth) book to her publisher for review when she begins to to be plagued with weird pranks that mirror events occurring in her series. She becomes more and more concerned for her own safety — and her life — as the pranks increase. Her fear and concern escalate exponentially when events occur that mirror those in her latest and yet unpublished book, a work which only a handful of people have had access to and in which she has killed off her main character. This is a very well-written thriller with interesting characters and plenty of twists and turns that keep the reader on a roller coaster ride. All in all, a very good read!

THE WOMAN WHO LIED was a twisty, suspenseful read with a really interesting premise. It drew me in right from the start, and was well written throughout. It was a little slower than the typical thriller and that did drag the story on at times; however, it was overall enjoyable and would not hesitate to read another one from Claire Douglas.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Paperbacks for the opportunity to read and review THE WOMAN WHO LIED.

Emilia Ward is an ordinary mom living happily in suburban London with her husband and two children - a teenager from her first marriage, a little boy from her second. She also happens to be the bestselling author of the Miranda Moody detective novels. As Emilia embarks on her tenth novel, life takes a disturbing turn: an incident straight out of the plot of one of her novels occurs in real life. Just an unsettling coincidence, she thinks. Until it happens again - and again. Then someone she knows dies in the same way as a victim in the book she's currently writing . . .

Claire Douglas knows how to write a suspenseful thriller. This book sucks you in from the start with a great story line and a set of interesting characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Paperbacks for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Emilia Ward is a best selling mystery author. When she hits a dry spell, a well meaning friend offers her a tantalizing story line.
Disturbing with dark secrets and red herrings, especially when real life mocks Emilia’s books.
Great characters and a well crafted story made this an unexpected book. Thank you Netgalley and and Harper Perennial for an early copy. This review is my honest opinion.

This book is fantastic! The plot twists and the plotting !! I couldn't read it fast enough. I was hooked from the beginning and didn't want it to end. This is one of the murder mystery books for the summer! Love love loved it!

This book was awesome! I have read her books before but this one was awesome. It had everything imageable.
Suspense, and mystery ! It was a great!

I couldn't put it down. It had me turning pages so fast and it had my attention thru the whole book. Amazing read.

Great book! I would highly recommend it!

Enjoyed the book, but found it hard to concentrate at the beginning. I feel like a lot of nothing was happening before we got to the main mystery! Was happy with the way a wrapped up and was engaged more into the book at the end.

So this one had many "The Woman Who Lied" but I thought Douglas did a great job giving us a main story, with another story, and a story within that. I think some readers may get confused, but I followed the threads we got and changed my mind a few times about who the "bad guy" was here and thought the ending was really cool and definitely I can see this one being a potential thriller of the summer. The main reason why I gave this 4.5 stars and rounded to 5 stars though is that the book purposely leaves out information if you wanted to even figure out who could have done it and why. All of a sudden we get some reveals and you get, oh this is why so and so is the bad guy. I always think that's a bit of a cheat in mystery and thriller books.

"The Woman Who Lied" follows a bestselling mystery novelist named Emilia Ward. Emilia has a detective series that has done quite well, but she's now thinking about killing off her main character and doing something else. But when someone starts stalking Emilia and her family, it appears that person has read her not released new novel and is incorporating aspects of it into her real life. Emilia starts to wonder who could be the person doing this, and most important why.

The book follows Emilia mostly and we learn she's in her second marriage, and quite happy, though still has ties to her first husband because of the daughter they share. You quickly find out they talk, but neither of the new spouses like it for various reasons.

Emilia has a jet-setting best friend and a new friend in the police force. When the incidents starts, she leans on them, but quickly wonders if they, her family or her ex could be behind things.

The book provides excerpts from Emilia's novel, but we also follow around another Detective Inspector (DI) too.

The plot was interesting and I liked the flow. I honestly didn't put this one down until I finished it. But as I said above, I called BS on the final reveal because it was things that the readers were not privy to.

Still as a I said, a solid thriller/mystery I thought. I would love to read Douglas again in the future.

Seriously?

You had me at Claire Douglas. ,

“Hey kor, it’s ok if you don’t get approved, you have a ton of books, you can wait”

No I couldn’t! I didn’t want to! I love Douglas!

The Woman Who Lied

Hmmm.. this is wasn’t I expected . I like thrillers, suspense, I suppose “popcorn thrillers” but this was none of the above . More like thrills, shrills, twists and what goes bump in the night?

This book right here exceeded all expectations and quite literally BLEW my mind !

The dishes went unwashed, the laundry remained unfolded and dinner never made it to the table! As my very large husband consumed his ubereats, I was digging my heels deeper and deeper into my book.

There was not one pause. I devoured this book.

We have ourselves a bestseller right here.

The Woman Who Lied, releases July 30th and I promise it’s worth the wait!!!

Check out this teaser :

Emilia Ward is just an ordinary mum living happily in suburban London with her husband and two children - a teenager from her first marriage, a little boy from her second. She also happens to be the bestselling author of the Miranda Moody detective novels.

But when Emilia embarks on her tenth novel, life takes a disturbing turn: an incident straight out of the plot of one of her novels occurs in real life. Just an unsettling coincidence, she thinks.

Until it happens again - and again.

Then someone she knows dies in the same way as a victim in the book she's currently writing . . .

Why is someone doing this?
How do they know what she is writing?
And what if Emilia and her family are next?

Emilia Ward. Mother. Wife. Bestselling author.

After finishing the 10th book of her Miranda Moody series, Emilia has a few scary incidents that resemble events in her book. And then...a friend dies, exactly like a character in her newest book. How are these things happening...when the books hasn't been published yet?

I love the premise of this book from Claire Douglas. All of the characters are well-developed and rich with details. As expected, the story has the twists and turns and the final reveal might just knock your socks off. The pacing is a bit slow, but does make for a more rich story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Well, it's official: Claire Douglas is my favorite author in this genre. Not only the characters, the elements, and the plot are well constructed, but also each chapter is so captivating that you can't put the book down at any point. And even though at one point I thought I knew what was going on... well, not at all. She definitely knows how to intricate a plot and mess with your head. If you like this genre, you definitely need to read this book because you won't regret it at all.
Big congratulations to Claire on another successful master piece (can't wait to read the next one). And thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for sending me this wonderful book.

The plot for this book was so fun! An author who experiences creepy things that happen in her books. I had such high hopes for this book, however, the first 60% was a bit slow and dragging for me.

I did guess one of the twists, but I didn’t see the rest of it coming. All the characters in the book are questionable. Any of them could be doing messed up things to Emilia. They all had jealousy in their mind.

There were a lot of characters throughout the book, however, they weren’t hard to keep straight.

The build up to the big twist was great, but the actual twist was mediocre at best. I felt like it was rushed. It did give me a bit of anxiety, but it was over so quick.

You get all the answers you need by the end of the book. At first, I thought the author was going to leave me hanging but she didn’t, thank goodness.

This was my first Claire Douglas book, but it won’t be my last!

Thank you to negalley for the early access, this book comes out July 30th to the US, but has been out in the UK since last year!

What do you do when something from your imagination seems to be happening in real life? Well yes, you might think yourself mad, or like Emilia, you decide there is something evil afoot and you use your little grey cells to figure it out, as you cant trust anyone anymore. Full of plenty of red herrings, this book is a roller coaster as first one potential suspect is dismissed, only to have another take their place. It will definitely keep you guessing til the end, and definitely one we recommend for those who love a well crafted mystery!