This book sounded like a good thriller but left me feeling disappointed. It failed to grip me and I felt like I had read something very similar. Perhaps the next one in the series, if there is one, will be a bit more fast paced and gripping. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC. Reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.

This book gripped me from the beginning but I feel like it lost its way in the middle, however a satisfying conclusion.

Intriguing crime thriller.

To be honest I didn’t know what to expect when I picked this up. I was curious about the concept of 6 friends going camping and someone ending up dead. This is a whodunnit with twists and turns that keep you guessing interspersed with the back story of the victim (a beautiful 14 year old girl at the flush of womanhood), and the thought /detecting process of the police. You get to learn about Aurora and mourn the loss of her innocent life cut short. You also warm to the other characters of the 6 friends, which makes it hard to believe that any of them could be the killer.

I quite liked this, it was a bit slow in the beginning as you start to get to know the characters but it starts to pick up and I found myself racing to the end. The last few pages are quite taut with tension but in a very British way if that makes any sense. Interesting debut, with a great ending. This is more of a 3.5 than a clear 4 but still a pretty good read.

Shocking and sad. This well written account of a revived investigation into the death of a young girl is fiction but feels anything but. Although I had my had my suspicions early on as to who the murderer was, there were so many plot twists that I was kept guessing until the very end.

Oh what a tangled web we weave... And you don't get much more tangled than the mystery contained within this book. 30 years ago, seven teens went camping but, by morning, there were only six of them present. Aurora Jackson was missing. Memories of the remaining friends are sketchy, mainly due to the drink they had imbibed. Well, that and the secrets they decided to keep to save them from getting into more trouble. But someone is keeping bigger secrets and these secrets have been hidden ever since. Until, that is, the day that Aurora's body is discovered. Enter one Jonah Sheen and his team to investigate. He is old enough to remember the case first hand, in fact he even went to school with the teens involved. Who better placed to cut through the noise, examine the new evidence and work out exactly what happened on that night, thirty years ago.
Oooo, this was a bit juicy. All those secrets and hidden agendas that had to be stripped away to get to the truth. As every extra tidbit of information was uncovered, more of the big picture was exposed until, eventually, the whole shocking truth was laid bare. And it was shocking! So shocking that I didn't see it coming until it was revealed, which made for a pleasant change these days.
When I started this book I didn't know that it was a series opener and, as I was reading I wondered if it would be as the author has gone the extra mile with characterisation. More than you'd expect in just a stand alone. Not that this overshadowed the story being told, not at all, just more fleshed out and hints of extra, still hidden, to discover next time around.
It's more a slow burner than fast and frenetic but that's only to be expected when dealing with a cold case, especially one decades old. The action is mostly in the past and has to be drip fed in. Revealing too much too early would ruin the suspense that bubbled up throughout. It's more character than plot driven so would suit those readers who prefer this style.
All in all, a good solid read that kept my attention nicely along the way and piqued my interest in the characters and author enough to make me keep an eye out for the next in series. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

BOOK REVIEW

What a darn good read this book was. If you want a , taut, twisty compulsive book this is for you. The author embroiders two different timelines together effortlessly throughout the book. You don't need the chapter headings to confirm which era you are in as the flow is just wonderful. I was hooked from the first page and a prisoner of the pages till its last word. If I closed my eyes while reading I was picturing Aurora just laying there waiting to be found, and that image lingered long after I read the last word. A book that the further in you fall you still have no idea where it's going to take you, but you don't care you just want to keep reading. Thrilling, powerful, descriptive, haunting it will leave you with a sense of satisfaction that you just read a noteworthy book.

STAR RATING 4

This book opens with the discovery of a body in a secluded woodland spot. It turns out to be the body of a young girl, Aurora Jackson, who had gone missing 30 years before after a party with a group of friends. The group were all questioned closely at the time, but Aurora was never found. Now, decades later, the past is dug up, old secrets are exposed, and people who have known one another their entire lives are left suspecting their closest friends.

The pace is quick, the plot moves well, and the characters are believable. A convincing portrait of friendship and the ways in which we all hide parts of the truth.

This was an excellent crime story - weaving in the present day police investigation with the events of 30 years ago and arriving at a thrilling climax. I didn't work out who the murderer was and thoroughly enjoyed the reveal at the end. Highly recommended.

A fast-paced and thrilling story that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

When 14 year old Aurora goes missing following a camping trip, her friends are suspects. But with no evidence and no body the case goes cold. Many years later the body of Aurora is found and the case is re-opened. What becomes clear is that the only people able to commit this crime were those with her the night of her disappearance and so the case is opened again and her friends are once again suspects.

A really suspenseful piece that really kept me guessing - i'm thoroughly glad I got to read this great page turner!

An enjoyable read even if the subject is not. All of the characters tell lies and it is the unravelling of these that makes the story. Who and what do you believe. Lots of twists and turns.

Ok, first off, I love the title. It sounds so ominous and creepy. It got my attention instantly.

She Lies In Wait tells the story of a 30 year old murder. A holidaying family find a human skeleton in the woods and DCI Sheens knows immediately that it belongs to Aurora Jackson. Back in 1983, he was a young cop and seven teens went out to have a party. When they woke up the next morning, Aurora was gone and never found…until now.

The premise definitely intrigued me and I love the idea of a decades old murder. It’s harder to solve but doable. The evidence is long gone or severely compromised or degraded by time. How do you find who killed Aurora all those years ago?

At first, I wasn’t sold. I read the prologue and then abandoned it. Clearly, at the time, I wasn’t in the mood because when I next went to it, I was hooked. We encounter our protagonist, DCI Jonah Sheens who is pulled away from his time off with a grisly encounter in the woods. From there we meet his team, who I hope we see more of. They’re an interesting, varied group and there’s definitely more to them. But as this is the first in the series, I’ll forgive the focus on Jonah.

The time in the present is mixed in with flashbacks to the past. Not only featuring Aurora, but the other teens as well – Aurora’s sister, Topaz, and her group of friends. I really liked this. I’m sure some people find the cuts between past and present jarring but I found this horrifying and compelling. It lets us get to know our victim and grow to like her. Aurora is a sweet girl, kind and naive, dreamy. She gets invited along to this party where she is so out of her depth with the obvious drugs, drinking and sex. Unnerved, she takes her sleeping bag into the woods, away from the group. The next morning it’s cold and empty, Aurora long gone. Seeing the past events play out and knowing that they end so badly and gruesomely for Aurora is horrifying. As we got further in, I read those pages with a strange anticipation. Was it an accident? How long before Aurora meets her end? Who killed this sweet kid and escaped justice for thirty years?

Obviously, DCI Sheens pulls in the original group, all now successful adults. Finding the body brings them all back. They cling together as they did back then, sure that none of them is a killer. But surely one of them is lying?

I will definitely be picking up the next DCI Sheen book as this one has me interested in him and his team. Recently I’ve been so disappointed when I’ve picked up thrillers, as I’ve either not found any tension or I’ve been seriously let down at the ending! But this kept the pace all the way through and I’ll have to read it again soon so I can spot all of the threads weaving together for the conclusion.

4.5 stars

This was a cracker, and I really enjoyed reading it.There was more to this story than I was expecting, I liked the story being told in the past and present and from different points of view.The story revolved around a bunch of teenagers on a party/camping night out that ended in tragedy,and the question was what happened and who did what,and I had no clue.As the book unfolded we got to know more about the characters, and came to where they were in the present time.I also liked the fact that the police team were very much a part of the book and their dynamics added to the story.I really had no idea who did what and enjoyed it all the more for that.Definately a 5 star read from me,thanks to netgalley and the Publishers for an ARC.

Great story with plenty of twists and turns. A young girl went missing 30 years ago and was never found. A body is uncovered and the investigation begins into her friends who were with her at the time. The story is told in the past and the present. Great characters and an interesting dimension that the officer in charge actually knew her from his school days. Really recommend this.

'She Lies in wait' Is a police procedure mystery: the first in the series featuring DCI Jonah Sheens.
It explores the cold case of thirty years missing school girl Aurora Jackson who vanished back in 1983 while camping out with her sister and school friends.
So this one is rather close to home for Jonah as though he is not close friends and slightly older than the suspects he did attend school with them all back in the day.
When human remains are found not far from the original campsite that of course turn out to be our missing schoolgirl this cold case is now once again thrust into the current spotlight and DCI Jonah Sheens is determined to crack the case wide and with a very narrow pool of suspects to choose from the net here is certainly poised to catch a killer.
Told in a then and now timeframe this jumps seamlessly from past to present weaving a web of intrigue and mystery.
Told from multiple POV's the then is mainly our victim's job to narrate and residing in Aurora's head I really did feel incredibly close to her and even felt that I got to know and understand her mindset and temperament slightly.
It also made me feel so incredibly sad as I also had a window into her eventual tragic fate at the hands of her unknown assailant.
It assisted me in seeing her as a flesh and blood person: an individual not just as a murder victim.
The now I found to be mostly DCI Jonah Sheens and DC Hanson: There was also one instance each of all six potential murderer's thoughts which was a nice touch as it helped to showcase each character and brought them to the forefront for scrutiny.
Conner, Benners, Brett, Coralie, JoJo and Topaz and through briefly each got their own moment in that spotlight: there were also some red herrings thrown in for good measure also.
So initially there was an unintentional intricate web of misdirection and conspiracy of silence adopted by the teenagers back in eighty-three.
They were scared of getting into trouble as they had been drinking, taking drugs and hooking up with one another because of this, they omitted a lot effectively rewriting the entire script and unintentionally sabotaging the investigation into Aurora's disappearance.
So even though the suspect pool was a tad sparse I still was actually stumped at who our predator could be and even when past collides to meet present I was still in the dark scratching my head in mystification.
I am a huge Silent witness and Vera fan and can usually deduce or make an educated guess to who is responsible: here I had nada: if I had to make an overall prediction it would have been a definite stab in the dark from me.
The quality of writing here is superb and I was engrossed from start to finish I really enjoyed myself and read this in one sitting.
I voluntary reviewed an Arc of She Lies in Wait (DCI Jonah Sheens, #1).
All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

AMAZING book!! I cannot recommend this enough. Anyone who likes a thriller is going to love this - I finished it almost in one sitting!

The storylines interconnect throughout, you engage with the characters but never really fully trust them, and it has a shocking ending! Perfectly set up the police department for a second book too.

After a few false starts to get into this it then became one that kept me up at night unable to stop the pages turning! A very compelling mystery, a strong sense of place and, on the whole, convincing characters though I would have liked some of them to have been explored in a bit more depth. An extremely promising debut that's perfect for thriller fans...I'll be keen to read what Gytha Lodge does next...

This book really grew on me. At first I thought it was okay, nothing special but entertaining. But after a while I found myself deeply enjoying it and I couldn't stop reading it until I had finished it (it took me only two days).
I think Gytha Lodge's style is extremely addicting. She constructed the story well and the pace was really good. There weren't boring parts, and each of them added something to the story or the characters. While the reveal wasn't extremely shocking, there were still many different leads and new discoveries through the story which kept me guessing and turning the pages.
As for the characters, the friends weren't as interesting as they could have been, but I grew to really like Jojo. I quite liked Jonah Sheens, the detective, and I liked his whole team even more. They were all likeable and they worked well together. I really wouldn't mind reading more about them. Juliette's personal situation was especially interesting.
Not extremely original or groundbreaking, but a really good thriller overall.

I found She Lies In Wait quite slow to start, I thought the writing a little ropey round the first few chapters and I thought about giving up but I decided to stick with it a little longer and I'm glad I did!

After a few dodgy chapters the author seemed to really get into her groove and I totally became invested in finding out what really happened that night at the campsite!

I wasn't particularly fond of any of the characters except for DCI Jonah Sheen's who was fairly likeable. I know this will seem silly but two of the main characters names (Aurora & Topaz) bugged the life out of me, once I realised they were need so because they're parents were hippies it kinda made sense but still a tad irksome 🙄

This was definitely a page turner with plenty happening to keep you guessing the culprit right up until the end, a good solid debut from the author, I'd definitely check out her future work

This was an absorbing police procedural, murder mystery. A body of a teenager is found 30 years after she went missing. She was part of a group of teenagers who were camping.. Which of them killed her and is it possible 30 years later to find the perpetrator? The detail is amazing and the conclusion almost unexpected in this enthralling cold case story.

The book begins with a strong premise: 30 years a group of friends goes camping and by morning the youngest of them is missing. 30 years later, the body of 14-year-old Aurora is discovered in a location that only the 'friends' knew about. Which of them murdered it? What have they been hiding all this time?

DCI Jonah Sheens, who'd just started out as a copy when the case first happened, investigates, finding gaps in the original stories, and new information that casts everything in new light...

This was an enjoyable if not exceptional read for me. I've read a fair few UK police procedurals in the last year and I do think they struggle to have a really unique voice.

I did like the fact that the police were depicted as competent and thorough. New female recruit Hanson was an interesting character who I'd like to see more of (more than Jonah, who was fine but on finishing the book I can't remember much about him). Unlike some reviewers I didn't have a clear 'they definitely did it' moment during the reading and I enjoyed seeing the police work push along the investigation.

I'm not sure the book was quite as dramatic as the intriguing premise suggested, but I would probably buy another in this series.