Those Who Lie by Diane Jeffrey was most certainly a book that didn’t disappoint me in the slightest. Upon picking it up, when I previously hadn’t heard too much about it, I wasn't too sure what to expect but it delivered great things from the very first page. From beginning to end it proved to be an intense, immense and intriguing psychological thriller that was full of many twists, turns and surprises.
The book wastes absolutely no time in throwing the reader straight into the middle of the drama, when we meet Emily Klein who wakes up in a hospital bed with two police officers by her side, no friends or family present and absolutely no recollection of how she ended up there. Not long after waking up, Emily learns that she has been involved in a car accident, that she was driving, that her husband was in the car with her and that he didn’t survive. The problem is that Emily can’t seem to remember too much about what happened in those moments immediately prior to the accident and, as we see her try to come to terms with her loss and recover from her injuries strange things start to happen…things that leave Emily and those around her questioning her sanity.
Diane Jeffrey has done a fabulous job at creating every single one of the characters that we meet throughout Those Who Lie with Emily being just one of them. They were all fantastically developed with stories and secrets of their own which made them seem like very real people, something which really helped me to become fully immersed in and engaged with the story I was reading. I found that Emily in particular was a wonderful lead character, one who was complex and had clearly experienced far too much negativity in her life and one who my heart really did go out to even though I sometimes struggled to understand her actions. All I wanted to do was figure out what was happening to Emily and why.
With chapters alternating between both the past and present, I really appreciated the fact that the story was told to us in this way as it really helped to form the bigger picture and understand so much more about each of the characters and their backgrounds. Throughout the entirety of the book, Diane expertly builds the tension throwing revelation after revelation our way all of which I found were truly impossible to predict. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the ending came along which was breathtaking, unexpected and saw this novel become a very worthy five-star read in my eyes.
An atmospheric, powerful and engaging read, Those Who Lie is a psychological thriller that any fan of the genre simply must read. It is a fabulous debut novel and one that has left me thoroughly looking forward to reading more great things by Diane in the future when I’m sure we’ll be in for a treat.
