I was excited to be given the opportunity to read Nicci and Sean's latest novel ahead of publication. By the end that bubble of excitement sadly ran out of air. It all seemed a little larger than life. At no point did Neve seem appropriately upset about Sean's sudden and violent death, a man she professed to have loved. Can someone in all honesty clear away the total evidence of a savage murder so the police cannot find anything linking the murder site to the murderer? I truly believe not. The victims blood was everywhere and with forensics today being able to identify the tiniest amount perhaps innocently splashed into the crevice of a floorboard, the police would have been a lot hotter in solving this murder. The story itself was nice enough but never quite reached the " I can't put it down" description of so much fiction these days. I have loved all books from the Nicci French partnership, more recently the Frieda Klein ones, but sadly The Lying Room (where was this anyway, was it Sean's flat, I'm not sure?) was a disappointment only because of the successful history of this top writing duo. If this had been a debut novel it would have received more praise. Sorry.

A stand-alone psychological thriller, this is a twisty book which is very difficult to put down. Neve has a wide range of friends and a close family who have emerged from a long and difficult period dealing with the issues of their daughter. When she discovers the body of somebody close to her who has been murdered,, Neve decides to clear her tracks and disappear from the scene, thus setting a wh0le drama into action. I found this book engrossing and read on to see how it was all going to turn out. Shall be looking for more novels by Nicki French.

This is very much a subjective review and will in all probability not reflect the thoughts and opinions of other readers or prospective readers.
It was always going to be a very hard act to follow - the nothing short of superb Fred Klein novels for an eight day week! I loved every minute of all 8 books.
The hero/heroine/main character of The Lying Room is probably the inverse of Frieda but nevertheless is another brilliant characterisation. I did feel (may have been because I knew it was the same team) that the Lying Room, like the Frieda Klein novels, is full of quirky friends and family each with differing problems and Neve, like Frieda, is at the centre of it all.
The main policeman reminded me throughout the book of a very well known American TV detective of the seventies (although the latter was the only one to possess a grubby beige raincoat), At the end of each meeting with Neve (the main character) I expected the policeman to stop at the door, turn around and ask the killer question that opens up the case - didn't happen!
I felt the book, like the proverbial football game, was a game/book of two halves. The first half was on the slow side and did not match the pace of the Frieda Klein novels BUT the second half was definitely worth the wait and I always regretted closing the book when some other task beckoned.
From the outset you know who has been murdered, where and that Neve is not the culprit. You are then presented with a motley collection of characters and from these you try and pick out which one and why. I loved the twist following Neve's return to the crime scene to find the murder weapon and her possession have disappeared. Well at least it was a twist for me!
The revealing of the murderer occurs a good few pages before the end so you are left wondering if Neve's actions will become police knowledge. The last chapter is an excellent finish and goes back to the events many years before from which the murder and subsequent events were the result.
I couldn't quite give this 5 stars but 4.5 rounded down!

To her friends and colleagues, Neve is a 40-something successful woman with a good career, great friends and a loving family. Scratch the surface and she has had a difficult few years with her teenage daughter Mabel, there is a growing distance between herself and her husband Fletcher and has started an exhilarating affair with her new boss. When she arrives at his flat for a quickie, she is horrified to discover him murdered. Panicking that her affair will be discovered she sets about wiping all traces of herself from his life. What follows is a game of cat and mouse, with the police trying to discover who killed Saul and what the motive was whilst Neve frantically tries to keep herself and her family out of the investigation and work out who would have killed her lover. As the plot progresses it is clear that Neve isn't the only one with secrets, and there are further revelations of infidelity, resentment, huge debt and depression. This means that the net of suspicion is cast far and wide and there are plenty of people with motive to have either killed Saul or wanted to destroy Neve.
Whilst I did enjoy the book, it isn't one of Nicci French's best. There were also two things that, for me, felt disappointing. Firstly the character of Mabel. She is presented as a "troubled teen" but there was no real development of this, and because she is fairly pivotal to a lot of Neve's decisions their relationship needed a little more depth. The killer; when all the other characters in Neve's life are discovered to all have secrets in foibles that make them more complex and three dimensional, the actual killer and the motive seemed plucked from thin air. Again, there was no real development of the character .

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

When Neve's married life and bringing up three children turn from a bed of roses into just the thorny reality side of life she seeks the comfort of her boss and begins an affair with him. When she receives a text asking her to go to him at a flat he owns she takes off to meet him there. When she gets there her lover has been murdered and the first thing on her mind is to cover up any involvement with him.
With all traces of her removed, she goes home only to waken in the night knowing that she has left her bracelet there, which she took off when cleaning. She returns to the flat to find things aren't as she had left them. someone has been there and taken her bracelet. Could it be the killer?
I really liked Detective Inspector Hitching, who reminded me of Columbo from years ago, always thinking of just one more question and leaving his suspects with a little to think about. Neve weaves a web of deceit with her answers but begins to look at her colleagues and family in a different light.
This is a steady story that unrolls its clues a little by little, leading me at times down the wrong path altogether. Neve for me wasn't a character that I took to as she seemed to play whatever role people thought she should be, but a fascinating story that I had to find out who the killer was and why, but I was totally off the mark.
I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly

The Lying Room was fantastic. I guessed early on what I thought was happening and was thrilled when I guessed correctly... only to find out right before the end that I was of course, completely wrong.
Neve Connelly is having an affair, one morning she goes to her lover’s flat and finds him dead in the kitchen with his head caved in. Does she call the police? No, she absolutely does not, she cleans the flat, removes all trace of her presence and goes to work. In the following days a complex series of events unfolds, causing Neve some serious distress. I loved it, the characters were nuanced and clear; they have real problems. A very very hood thriller.

I struggled to keep up with The Lying Room, too many characters and a busy storyline lost me a little. I also feel it was a bit long and could have reached the conclusion quicker without losing any of the main story. Never isn’t a believable character at all.

2 out of 5 since I finished it....but did I enjoy it? No, not really.

I found this book a bit long winded and hard going!!!!! The story had a few too many characters and I kept loosing track of who was who..... the overall storyline was enjoyable and I did want to know who the killer was but I feel as if I could have found that out in a few hundred pages less. Overall a good read

Absolutely brilliant . As ever from Nikki French , intriguing characters and a fantastic twisting storyline with a brilliant insight into human nature . Highly recommended !

This was really just an okay read for me.
There were too many characters and the story felt way too convoluted, with a lot of information mentioned but never previously explained. It felt a bit as if this were a sequel to a novel I hadn't read, so it made me feel lost for a lot of the reading.
Some of that information was really important to engage in the story and that's probably one reason I never did. Eventually pieces of background are thrown here and there but still not enough for me to be into the story.
There was also a problem with all characters seeming dubious all of the time. I understand that since we're on Neve's POV she was suspicious of everyone but it felt forced. And finally, the revelation of the culprit was a let down.
I think that this novel would greatly benefit from a serious editing. If it were shorter, perhaps the reader could not get so lost or even bored in parts. Also, we needed more backstory in some parts for it to make sense and way less about what was being prepared for meals...

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I hadn't read any of Nicci French's books before but after reading this one I am sure this will be the first of many.

The story is of Neve who seems an ordinary busy Mum, who is having an affair , her lover Saul is murdered but the question is who has murdered him and why?

Throughout the story Neve is petrified that secrets she would like to keep hidden will come out, without giving away spoilers I wondered why Neve did the things she did and why when seemingly if she had just been honest would it have been a lot easier for her to cope with?
She fears that the Detective in charge of the murder case knows a lot more than he is letting on,is the person you may suspect to have commited the crime the right one?

Plenty of things to keep you thinking , a very enjoyable read, Thank you for the opportunity of reading this, highly recommended.

I found this book to be a slow burner, but definitely worth persisting with as halfway through I realised I couldn’t put it down! I thought the murderer was obvious from the start – as usual, I was wrong. A really good read where you end up questioning everyone, especially as there are so many unlikeable characters.

5 Stars from me!

I found The Lying Room to be a highly engaging, fast paced read that I absolutely raced through as I just kept on wanting to know what happened next!

Central character, Neve, is one of those perfect people who everyone adores yet is utterly unassuming and apparently unaware of her magnetism. Friends, colleagues, even strangers are seemingly drawn to this calm, warm, efficient woman who busily spends her life making things right for others.

She treads carefully around the feelings of her husband and her daughter, she keeps a watchful eye on her sons and is the only person who ever notices that the guinea pig hasn't been fed. She buoys up her colleagues at work and his the central pin of a decades long friendship group. She also does all the shopping, endless loads of laundry and cycles everywhere. She and her husband share most other domestic chores and their days and nights revolve around keeping all these plates spinning. So much so that she is susceptible to the attentions of a man who notices her - in a way that she hasn't felt noticed by anyone for a very long time and they begin an affair.

As mentioned in the synopsis, one day she discovers that her lover has been murdered and rather than calling 999 she makes the snap decision to try and cover up any evidence that she was ever in his life.

I really liked the police character, DI Hutchings and felt thoroughly immersed in Neve's world as I read this book. If you ignore the affairs, murders and deceit... it is a pretty enviable life.

Great book, great characters, fast paced and compelling - highly recommended.


Synopsis: In this thrilling standalone from the internationally bestselling author of the Frieda Klein series, a married woman’s affair with her boss spirals into a dangerous game of chess with the police when she discovers he’s been murdered and she clears the crime scene of all evidence.

One little secret between a married woman, her lover, and a killer.

It should have been just a mid-life fling. A guilty indiscretion that Neve Connolly could have weathered. An escape from twenty years of routine marriage to her overworked husband, and from her increasingly distant children. But when Neve pays a morning-after visit to her lover, Saul, and finds him brutally murdered, their pied-à-terre still heady with her perfume, all the lies she has so painstakingly stitched together threaten to unravel.

After scrubbing clean every trace of her existence from Saul’s life—and death—Neve believes she can return to normal, shaken but intact. But she can’t get out of her head the one tormenting question: what was she forgetting?

An investigation into the slaying could provide the answer. It’s brought Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Hitching, and Neve’s worst fears, to her door. But with every new lie, every new misdirection to save herself, Neve descends further into the darkness of her betrayal—and into more danger than she ever imagined. Because Hitching isn’t the only one watching Neve. So is a determined killer who’s about to make the next terrifying move in a deadly affair….

The Lying Room by Nicci French a twisted four-star read. What a twisted web of lies Neve tells, first to her family, her husband, people they know and then the police, but we all know that lying just means you have to keep up and keep a good memory. The deception is well plotted and will keep you interested, what really happened. DCI Alastair Hitching is a complex character, he has so much more going on underneath the surface and he is one of the best characters written for a while. My issue was that it dropped a couple of times, it seemed to lose the depth but then a chapter later it picked itself up again.

The Lying Room by Nicci French
Thanks @netgalley @simonandschuster for my ARC
Publication date 2nd October ‘Neve Connelly looks down at a murdered man. She doesn’t call the police’. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Without a shadow of a doubt this is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It was an absolutely amazing story that just kept getting better and better. I felt claustrophobic and out of breath just reading certain chapters. I loved the main character Neve, which just extenuated these feelings more as I was rooting for her the whole time. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A complex, well plotted and well written thriller full of lies, deceit and heartbreak. An exceptional story with a plot that is very hard to put down. Five stars xxxx

This reeled me in at an increasingly fast rate as layers of suspense built up alongside the number of valid suspects. Still thinking about what I'd have done differently ....

An engaging story which I didn’t manage to unravel before the murderer was revealed. I found the Inspector an extremely creepy character, but found the others relatable. Worth reading and I shall be recommending it to my book club.

I have read a number of Nicci French books before and I did not feel that this was as good as the others.

Neve gets a text from her boss and lover to meet him at his flat. She arrives to find him murdered. It is at this point that the plot goes haywire. Neve"s reaction to this scene leads her to take a rash course of action that starts a chain reaction of lies. The premise of this book is that Neve is everyone"s "go to character" for support. How can this nurturing person be responsible for so many lies.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Truly gripping, and I would expect nothing less.
Such an interesting page turning story.
A sure hit for anyone whom loves Nikki French novels .

An amazing read. I Could not put it down. Really draws you in and keeps you hooked from start to finish. Looking forward to more from this amazing author!! Highly recommended book.