Cover Image: The Lying Room

The Lying Room

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Member Reviews

Neve seems to have the perfect life, good job, loving husband, a family and a good circle of friends. She's the one who everyone depends on. Neve is also secretly having an affair bored of her everyday life and needing a bit of an escape. She goes to meet her lover to find him dead. Not wanting the affair to be uncovered she removes every trace of herself from the scene. With the detective getting closer to discovering the truth Neve also sets out to uncover the murderer to save herself and protect her loved ones.
Wow this book had a lot of twist I never guessed who the killer was which I loved. It was so good constantly guessing and never knowing. Every chapter left you with more questions about the killer and the motive. My first glimpse of Nicci French and I don't think it will be my last.

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Enjoyed the tension and pace of the book, although I did sometimes get annoyed at the choices made by the main character.

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This was the first book I've read from this author and I enjoyed it very much. It was very well written and the characters were well thought out.

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I struggled to get into The Lying Room, I felt the plot was unbelievable and although I tried to persevere I gave up trying to get into it. Sorry not for me.

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My word I hope all the errors in this were corrected before it was put onto shelves...
That said, it was a decent book. Not a great one. My first by Nicci French and I'm not sure if it will be my last. I wasn't gripped, I wasn't on the edge of my seat but I didn't have to force myself through it. Middle of the road thriller. 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.

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I went into this blind. Having forgotten the synopsis since requesting this book.

Once I saw the audiobook on Scribd I decided to listen instead. This is probably why I flew through this. Not needing a break. I managed to finish this within an afternoon.

I wouldn’t really say this was thrilling for me. Average if anything. Despite the fact I enjoyed it throughout. Other than towards the end when things turned darker, majority of the book didn’t feel as dark considering.

Throughout the book I kept jumping between different suspects. So many people had a motive. Any of them could be the murderer. I liked this about the book. The unpredictability of who could have killed the man.

I was surprised by the motive behind the murder. It felt weak. Although I do understand that even small things to can seem bigger to people. Especially with years worth of anger being built up. But I did expect something else.

I will say that I hate pointless cheating. Just to seemingly add some drama that isn’t needed. In this case drama didn’t even happen. It was felt pointless. There’s a few cheaters in this and honestly I understand two of them were needed for the overall story. The others in my opinion could have been left out.

But overall I enjoyed this intriguing book. With the question Do you ever really know someone?

I will probably pick up another book by Nicci French.

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I love Nicci French's Frieda Klein series and so was looking forward to reading one of the writing duo's standalone novels. I'm glad it was this one! Neve Connelly is a married woman having an affair with one of her bosses. She receives a message which she assumes to be from her lover and lets herself into his flat where she finds him dead. What follows is a gripping psychological thriller with lots of twists and turns that direct and misdirect. Highly recommended.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for my ARC.

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The Lying Room was my first psychological thriller by Nicci French and I was very impressed with her addictive style. The story was very clever and twisty and it kept me glued to its pages for hours. I really had no idea how it was going to unfold.

Neve was a very unreliable narrator, she was running on very few sleep and energy and as she tried to save herself and her family, you never knew when she was going to make a mistake and whether it would be the end of her. This made for a very tense and frenetic read.

The characters were very well developed and I enjoyed reading the confrontations between Neve and the inspector the most. Plus, I thought the ending of the story was very well found and satisfactory after such a twisty plot. I am definitely interested in reading more by this author.

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Neve has been married to Fletcher for twenty years. But she's also been having an affair with her boss. She gets a text message to meet him at his Covent Garden flat, but when she gets there, hes dead. His heads been caved in. In a blind panic, she scrubbed a the flat clean to erase any trace of her being there. Going out of her mind with worry, Neve decides to try and find out herself who had murdered Saul.

As the murder is discovered and investigations commence, Neve has to contend with the inscrutable DCI Hitching, who always seems to know more than he’s letting on. Then there’s the murder victim’s wife, delivering potentially loaded comments, and his assistant doing something similar. Meanwhile, a seemingly endless stream of old friends are apparently taking up permanent residence in Neve’s house.

Nicci French is excellent at conveying the feeling of being trapped in a situation at least partly of ones own making; constructing a shaky edifice of often flimsy lies which it seems inevitable will come crashing down at any moment, while having to somehow appear to be functioning normally both in public and in private.

Some of my favourite parts involved Neve versus Inspector Hitching, those portions crackled with tension in a kind of cat and mouse chase with no real indication who might come out on top.

Overall a really great read, not to be missed.

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Neve Connelly feels trapped in her marriage to Fletcher and as any mother of a teenaged daughter can agree living with one is never easy and Mabel seems intent on being difficult. In amongst the mundane life punctuated with frustration Neve has an affair. At first that works until one day he is found

Neve embarks on a affair with a married colleague which seems to give her the excitement and happiness she has been missing. And then the event happens that means that Neve has to protect her family & friends, at any cost.

This was an enjoyable read with lots of intrigue but perhaps stretched me to the limit on believability stakes - yes I know it's fiction but...

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A huge Thank You to The author, The publisher and Netgalley for providing the e-arc in exchange for a unbiased review of these works.

this is everything you want in a psychological thriller, great characters and fantastically written

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.
I have read a few of this authors books, and to be frank, this is not one of the best.
It is enjoyable but I did not find it gripped my imagination.
This is just my personal opinion and I am sure many people will enjoy this book.

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The grammatical errors were horrific. Lord someone please reach them how to use capital letters. This was beyond madness to me!

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had trouble putting this book down. The story grips you from the beginning and doesn't let you go until the last page. Nicci French is on top form in this novel and even their lower form is worth reading. A bonus, for me, was not guessing who the murderer before the authors revealed it. I would thoroughly recommend this book

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I loved this book.
French’s writing was brilliantly descriptive and I loved all the detail about Neve’s family life. It really helped me connect with her character and I felt like I was going through everything with her.
It was rounded off with a culprit I didn’t once suspect.

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"The Lying Room" is a fast-paced and thrilling whodunnit. What really struck me about this book was that it conveys, very accurately, what lying feels, and sounds, like. I couldn't put it down and read long into the night. On a school night!

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I thoroughly enjoyed the Frieda Klein series and was disappointed when it ended, so when a new book appeared with new characters, I was excited and a little anxious to get started.

The lying room has not disappointed me, I jumped straight in, getting to know the new characters and absorbing myself into the story. A great standalone, complex,
Intense and exciting.

Thank you

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Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book by Nicci French I have read and I will look out for more it was a fast paced book with countless twists and turns and I was left guessing until right at the end.

Neve is married and has three children with the eldest Mabel about to head off to university. Tensions at home have risen as there was problems with Mabel and Fletcher her husband has been suffering depression and barely working so Neve was working long hours and had started having an affair with her married boss, Saul.

One morning Neve receives a text message, which she assumes is from Saul to meet up before he goes away for a conference however upon arriving at the flat she finds Saul dead. Instead of calling the police Neve panics about her family finding out about the affair and sets to cover up the crime by throughly cleaning the murder scene.

I wont say much more about the plot some is very far fetched but overall an enjoyable read I would recommend.

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The book is about a married woman, Neve, who’s having an affair with her boss. One day she goes to visit him and finds him dead. Instead of calling the police she decides to clean up the scene to hide her affair. While I was invested at first watching Neve's actions, the story moves really slow with lots of monotonous descriptions. I found this book implausible in the age of CCTV because Neve goes everywhere like she’s invisible. I also thought the supporting characters are distracting with their domestic drama where everyone cheats on everyone. But the most disappointing part for me is when the killer emerges out of nowhere! The last chapter is actually a flashback to explain the killer because there’s no clue whatsoever in the story. This is the first book by these authors so I felt let down but I hope that I will have better luck with their other books.

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Enjoyed the book. I found the plot really good and really enjoyed it. I also found the characters really interesting. Thank you netgalley for the chance to read this in return for a review.

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