Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent
Genre; Crime
The last people who expect to be meeting with a drug-addicted prostitute are a respected judge and his reclusive wife. And they certainly don’t plan to kill her and bury her in their exquisite suburban garden.
Yet Andrew and Lydia Fitzsimons find themselves in this unfortunate situation.
While Lydia does all she can to protect their innocent son Laurence and their social standing, her husband begins to falls apart.
But Laurence is not as naïve as Lydia thinks. And his obsession with the dead girl’s family may be the undoing of his own.
My thoughts:
I loved Liz’s debut, Unravelling Oliver, which you can read my raving review of, Here and I wondered if she was going to be able to follow-up such a fantastic debut. I needn’t have worried.
I needn’t have worried.
Lying in Wait is an assured and equally mesmerising novel. There is a belter of a first line…
My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.
It drags you kicking and screaming straight into the story, wanting to know what happened, doesn’t it? Who is this woman who is talking in such a cold manner about Annie Doyle being killed? Why did the husband kill her and who is Annie Doyle, why did she deserve to die?
It’s all answered through three very strong narratives. The wife, Lydia, her son Laurence and Annie’s sister, Karen.
And with three narratives, you have to make sure that each person has their own voice. They are distinct in their own right, and Nugent does this with ease. Lydia is cold and manipulative, Laurence, we see grow from a child to a man within the confines of this cold upbringing and Karen we watch search for her missing sister, her twin sister and we watch as she refuses to let it go even as the years drag on.
This story twists in quite a dramatic way and I was left shocked. But the writing is beautiful and it is handled brilliantly and is all done in keeping with character traits. It is yet another corking book from Liz Nugent who is now an author who is fast becoming a name I must read whether I’ve read the blurb on the back or not.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my copy.
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