I’m just thrilled to be part of the launch celebrations of The Darkest Lies by Barbara Copperthwaite as I have met her several times and she is utterly lovely. You can meet Barbara too in my interview with her here.

I’m also so pleased finally to have had the time to read one of Barbara’s books. She wrote all about her book anniversary for Flowers for the Dead here and I still haven’t got round to reading it!

Published by Bookouture on 12th May 2017, Barbara’s latest novel The Darkest Lies is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here.

The Darkest Lies

A mother desperate for the truth. A daughter hiding a terrible secret.

Melanie Oak appeared to have the perfect life. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Jacob, the couple live with their beautiful, loving, teenage daughter, Beth, in a pretty village.

Nothing can shake her happiness – until the day that Beth goes missing and is discovered beaten almost to the point of death, her broken body lying in a freezing creek on the marshes near their home.

Consumed with grief, Melanie is determined to find her daughter’s attacker. Someone in the village must have seen something. Why won’t they talk?

As Melanie tries to piece together what happened to Beth, she discovers that her innocent teenager has been harbouring some dark secrets of her own. The truth may lie closer to home and put Melanie’s life in terrible danger…

A completely gripping psychological thriller with a twist you won’t see coming. Fans of The Girl on the Train, The Sister and Before I Let You In will be captivated.

My Review of The Darkest Lies

When Melanie doesn’t see her daughter Beth right to her friend Chloe’s door, she can have no idea of the events that will unfold.

Oh. Come. On. I expect a thriller to have twists and turns, a fast pace and loads of red herrings and Barbara Copperthwaite includes all those ingredients in The Darkest Lies. However, what I certainly don’t expect is to find myself sobbing with shared grief with the characters as I was with Melanie and Jacob. Mostly when I read crime thrillers I’m entertained (and I was – hugely in reading The Darkest Lies) but I’m slightly removed from the action and that seemed to be the pattern here until wham! Barbara Copperthwaite dealt me a body blow of profound emotion. Brilliant writing!

There’s a cracking plot with fast paced short chapters as Melanie desperately tries to discover who has so injured Beth that she lies on life support in hospital. The end of the narrative is heart thumping and exciting, and without spoiling the read, introduces aspects that make the reader think and contemplate their own possible responses to hypothetically similar situations.

The themes are what makes The Darkest Lies so compelling. Barbara Copperthwaite forces the reader to contemplate how far they would go to protect their own loved ones and she tugs at the very foundations of loyalty and lawlessness so that the edges of what is right and what is wrong become blurred.

I liked the gradual uncovering of the truth from Beth’s perspective alongside the first person story from Melanie, and the way in which she directs her voice towards Beth is touching and realistic. I did feel that a few of Melanie’s actions were unlikely and she should have dealt with the police and her suspicions differently, but at the same time, hers is such a desperate and emotional portrayal of grief that who can say how she might have behaved.

However, aside from a really good thriller, what I truly loved about The Darkest Lies was the creation of a claustrophobic Lincolnshire village, as I live in one myself, and the exquisite beauty of some of the prose which reads like the finest poetry in the natural descriptions. This was such evocative writing.

I thought The Darkest Lies was a thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking thriller and really recommend it.

About Barbara Copperthwaite

The people behind the crime, from the perpetrator to the victim and beyond, are what intrigue Barbara Copperthwaite.

She was raised by the sea and in the countryside, where she became a lover of both nature and the written word – the latter leading to a successful career as a journalist. For over twenty years people have kindly and bravely shared with her their real experiences of being victims of crime. Now, through fiction, Barbara continues to explore the emotional repercussions.

You can find out more about Barbara by visiting her website and following her on Twitter. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

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