One thing is for certain, this book is a true roller-coaster of a thriller. This fast paced story is told from the alternating viewpoints of the 2 main characters Alice and Paul. And I really enjoyed the short and snappy chapters. The opening scene really grabbed my attention and kept me wanting to keep reading to see where this crazy story was going.
And unfortunately that was the one downfall of the book, the story was crazily unrealistic and eye roll inducing.
Suspend all logic and normal belief, go with the flow and you might enjoy this one.

Just too unbelievable.

Promoted to Detective?

The Old Bailey is the High Court?

A rational high performing person making the decisions described?

Told from many points of view and timeframes which didn’t work

Overall there were too many things I couldn’t put to one side.

A chilling premise which pulled me in and compelled me to read the book. The author A. J. Park made the first few pages come alive.

Paul, a new circuit Judge, found his wife with blood on her and dead man in the bathroom. What was he to do? He didn’t think, just acted. That was The First Lie which dismembered their lives.

My first experience with this author was quite a ride with some unbelievable characters. It soon became an adventure with raised body count. The characters sure didn’t use their brains in their decisions. And I read on, hoping they would.

Told in multiple POVs from the main characters and cops, I was given the entire investigation in detail. The story line meandered at times, but the characters soon brought it in line. Emotions were built up as the pages turned.

Overall, it was an interesting read with rash decisions taken in fear and far fetched plot lines written in fun, though I did find myself rolling my eyes at their antics

A J.Park has penned a great psychological thriller for his debut book.The story is told from the angle of Alice and Peter who are man and wife.Peter has just landed a top job of Circuit Judge but one night he returns home to find Alice covered in blood and a dead mans body in their bathroom,they panic and get rid of the body and that is when their lives start to unravel.Alice just can't cope with what she has done and Peter doesn't help being at work for long days,throw into the mix 3 murders of old university friends and what you get is an excellent story full of twists and turns which will keep you guessing to the very end.I certainly recommend this book if you enjoy this genre,a very good 5 star read.

No one knows how they would react after a shocking event, Alice and Paul make a questionable decision when Alice kills an intruder but is this their first lie? This is fast-paced psychological suspense. It is told mainly from Alice and Paul’s viewpoints with periodic insight into the police investigation. Alice and Paul are unreliable protagonists. This increases the suspense and makes it difficult to trust their perceptions of events.

Like all psychological suspense, it seems unrealistic at times, but it is addictive and edgy. Sometimes shocking it keeps you engaged, until the last page.

I received a copy of this book from Orion Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A good psychological thriller that you really can’t second guess what will happen next.
Paul arrives home to find his wife Alice covered in blood and a dead man in their bathroom.
The man tried to attack her but she got to him first with a letter opener and killed him.
What happens next is a bit hard to believe but there may be some people who would react this way.
Alice is left traumatised that she’s killed someone and struggles to cope with everyday life.
Paul has a new job in London and can’t spend as much time as he wants at home so their relationship suffers.
How this book concludes is also a little surprising but as I’ve said, some people may cope on this way.
A good psychological thriller that had me racing through the pages.
Thanks to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The First Lie is a unique book and I’ll be honest and tell you to start with I was a little confused and unsure of where it was taking me. You see it felt like I was reading two different stories and I couldn’t see how they would or could connect. Both were intriguing though so I was super excited to see what lay ahead.

You’ll get an idea from the synopsis of what part of the story is about so I won’t go into any more detail but it was really interesting to see how Paul and Alice dealt with what they had done. I don’t agree with it but I could kind of understand the pressure they felt and my loyalties wavered between the couple. I couldn’t fully trust either of them so my suspicions were high throughout the book.

I said earlier that it was like reading two different stories but my confusion soon disappeared because as you follow the story you are given hints at how they will connect and I couldn’t have guessed the ending at all.

The First Lie is quite a fast paced psychological thriller, it hooks you from the first pages, it grabs your attention and I knew I wouldn’t want to put the book down. It’s well plotted and it has an edge to it, it’s like you are reading the words and understanding them but there was always an element of doubt and I knew there was more to it, more to come but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Obviously it was all made very clear at the end though and I was left feeling quite satisfied.

The First Lie is definitely one to add to your shopping basket, thoroughly enjoyable.

Told in chapters that were voiced singularly by either Paul or Alice or split into sections and voiced by both of them this is a gripping, enthralling tale of the lengths that people are prepared to go to in the name of love and self preservation. Paul and Alice were a pair of complex individuals,each of whom had their own unique character flaws, Alice having far more flaws than Paul. Alice was a hot mess who obviously had serious issues which made it difficult to judge her character fairly. The brain is a complex organ that in certain extreme cases can cause you do behave out of character so how much of her behaviour was beyond her control? Should I have found her unlikable or felt some empathy towards her due to my own personal issues? I was also unsure how I felt about Paul, was his behaviour driven by his love for Alice or his fears that he would lose his dream job. Most people would label him a doormat for staying with Alice but I thought it was very commendable of him until he did something that caused him to go down in my estimations. If self preservation was the name of his game then he really needed to re-read the rules because he wasn't very good at it. Interspersed throughout the book was chapters that followed DS Katherine Wright and DC Ryan Hillier as they investigated the murders of three men who had been murdered by having their throats cut. I enjoyed the banter between the two detectives but I have to be honest and say I liked Ryan a lot more than in liked Katherine. I thought that she came across as rather brusque and rude at times.

Wow, I really really loved this very well written, captivating page turner that hooks the reader in and keeps you guessing. It rockets along from the very first page, has some unexpected twists and turns and a spine chilling conclusion when you take into consideration a certain characters behaviour throughout the book. This is the first of this author's books that I have read and it most definitely will not be my last. Very very highly recommended

This has a great beginning and was quite an addictive read throughout. Paul arrives home and finds that his wife Alice has killed an intruder as she ‘didn’t have a choice’. They make a choice about what to do next and whether or not you agree with their choice (I didn’t) it makes for an entertaining read. There was a section which was almost farcical and I did feel I had to just give in and go along for the ride. I do wish I hadn’t been prewarned about the ‘shocking twist’ as I was on full alert expecting it on every page. Even at the end I was still waiting for another twist.

An opening with such a taste of urgency I could feel metal in my mouth, intrigue giving way to worry really fast. I didn’t know the characters yet but my blood was running cold. A man comes home to a dark house, his phone indicates six missed calls, there is no sound around, and his wife is nowhere to be seen. A.J. Park knows how to hook the reader with a few lines! Paul finally discovers his wife Alice upstairs. She is in shock, there is blood and a dead man in the bathroom. Ha! Take that for an opening! Let’s rewind; intrigue, worry, shock, and now… I was confused, and from that point, I knew I’d read the book in as few sittings as possible.

As you can imagine from the title, the married couple takes the heavy decision to conceal the crime. I remember tutting at this. Why?! Alice claimed it was self-defense! But things are never so clear-cut, are they? Paul is on his way to become a circuit judge and such a stain on his file would kill his chances to fulfill his dream. Alice wouldn’t survive prison. It doesn’t help that the cause of death doesn’t really look like self-defense… So I said ‘okay, let’s go with it’ I was happy I was not the one having to hide it all! It did feel as if I was teaming up with Paul and Alice as I read about their plan and how they executed it. The immersive description mixed with the intense feelings oozing from the characters made me part of it. I couldn’t escape. Neither could they. Paul’s love for his wife struck me. Would I have helped my better half hide a body? His strong presence, his reassurance, and the way he took things into his hands as he watched Alice try to make sense of what had happened made him so human, so vulnerable in his condition as a husband, that I realized I had a little preference for him.

After this first step, this first lie that no one knows, life doesn’t come back to normal. Paul does his best to pretend and despite a few moments when his mind wanders back to that night, he is not doing too bad. Alice on the other hand, has fallen into a hole of depression, guilt, and that night is eating away at her. Although I could understand her state of mind, she rapidly began to get on my nerves with her constant neediness. Paul had ‘saved the night’ but she kept resenting him for saving her, for trying hard every day to pretend all was well. What was he supposed to do?? It doesn’t happen often, I usually don’t defend husbands, but Paul is one of the exceptions!

The price for keeping such a big lie is that you have to cover it up with more lies and soon, a gap opens between Paul and Alice, each day and each new lie widening it until they both slide down their personal hell. Ensnared in their bubble of lies, trust disappears and Alice takes action to try and reclaim their life. She wants herself back, and she wants her husband back. I really began to dislike Alice and sometimes I couldn’t understand her train of thoughts or reactions. Some elements were thrown into the story to add a dangerous edge to it, but I just couldn’t make it stick with the rest. I chose to set aside my doubts and go with it.

I can’t read ‘horror’ horror because I am too much of a wimp. It doesn’t matter, because my favorite kind of horror is the real kind. The human kind. The horror we create and dive in. A.J. Park created a horror theme park for Alice and Paul, and their only way out might be their love for each other…

The more I neared the end, the more I felt for Paul, and while I won’t reveal a thing about what happens, I must say I thought a lot about the author’s choice. I decided that it was the best way to end this novel, and leave the remains of the protagonists’ mistakes behind.

The First Lie is a well-plotted psychological thriller which perfectly depicts the toxicity of a lie, and the twists of fate.

This is a book that comes under the 'okay' heading. I do think it started out well, but it did not stand the whole course. What I disliked was that in places it read like a holiday review - the description of the Old Bailey, the long paragraphs about New York - felt out of place to me. I also think in reality Paul would have got a grip with dealing with Alice earlier on - if you are in field of law/medicine/police then you cannot expect to be home on time each night and your partner would have to realise that. Good little twist at the end that I did not expect. All in all I enjoyed reading it but it is not AJ Park's best work.

Thanks to the Author, Publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sorry I found this book too unbelievable. I wanted to like it but struggled to keep reading.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

On the second of October 37-year-old barrister, Paul Reeve, returned home at 9 pm to find his house in darkness and the front door open. His wife was in the bedroom in a state of shock and in the bathroom there was a dead man who had been stabbed repeatedly in the neck with Paul's paper-knife. In that moment Paul takes a decision that will be irrevocable: he decides that he and Alice are not going to ring the police and tell the truth. They're going to bury the body in woodland and go on as though nothing has happened.

I'd have gone to the police and so I suspect (and hope) would most people, so everything that happened after this point had a feeling unreality for me. Paul's reasoning was that Alice was mentally frail, but - and I felt this was more important to him - he'd applied to be a circuit judge. If he got the job he'd be the youngest ever and that was important to him. So, he and Alice went on a nightmare journey and disposed of the body. For the most part, with a busy professional life, Paul is able to put what has happened behind him, particularly when that promotion comes through. But Alice, who doesn't have a job, is not so fortunate. The death, the burial, play on her mind.

It's then that we meet DS Katherine Wright and DC Ryan Hillier of the Major Incident Team and they're going to take us back four weeks to the fourth of September when they're called to the home of 37-year-old Richard Dollard who has been garroted with piano wire in his home. Apart from all the blood that's around, it's a very clean crime with no clues left at the scene. A week later, Ethan Fleming, another 37-year-old is killed in the same way - and he won't be the last.

I worked out very early on what had happened and why, with regard to the murders and I read with a feeling of just wanting the police to get on with it. What I didn't foresee was just how fragile Alice's mental state would become and how she would react to the events around her. There was a natural knock-on to Paul, already struggling with a case which has produced some unwelcome memories and Alice's problems. There's a consolation at hand though - and he's quick to take advantage. The downward spiral becomes ever steeper...

I enjoyed the read, to the extent that I found it difficult to put down and finished it in under twenty-four hours. If you enjoyed Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn you'll probably like The First Lie more than I did because I couldn't finish Gone Girl - I found Amy just too annoying and couldn't understand Nick's motivations. In The First Lie I never really got past the fact that Paul was a barrister, used to forensically analysing a situation and making rational decisions quickly as well as being good enough to become a circuit judge, but in his private life, he was, well, injudicious. I'd still like to thank the publishers for letting me have a review copy.

How many lies would you tell to protect the ones you love, to protect yourself?

Paul and Alice are a happily married couple with Paul up for promotion to a circuit Judge the future is looking good for them, until one night in October changes everything.

It started off really well and I was hooked until about halfway when the behaviour of the characters became a bit too crazy and unbelievable for me. It is a quick and easy read with each chapter being split between Paul, Alice and the detectives. All in all it’s not a bad read just a bit too far fetched for me.

The First Lie alternates between Alice and Paul (both in the first person) and DS Katherine Wright and DC Ryan Hillier (in the third person). It starts with a bang: barrister Paul Reeve comes home and finds his wife Alice with a bloodied letter opener. An intruder had surprised her and it had cost him dearly. Meanwhile, the police are investigating what appears to be a serial killer case: three men have been murdered in cold blood with piano string. How is everything connected, and where will that first lie lead us?

I really wanted to love this book, and for the first half or so, I did. I read the first 200 pages in the blink of an eye, and I was entertained, although I had to suspend disbelief and I didn’t like any of the characters. And then… The First Lie just kinda, I don’t know, lost me, I guess.

I can handle unlikeable characters, hell, I can love them! But. I need them to be bad eggs through and through, I need to be able to loathe them, they should be unlikeable in an evil kind of way, not the way Paul and Alice were: unlikeable in an ugh sort of way, the kind that has me roll my eyes until I’m convinced they’re going to roll right out of their sockets. And the more I read, the more they annoyed me, up to a point where I couldn’t take any more of Paul’s cock-ups or Alice’s whinging. Mind you, a more patient reader than I will probably feel compassion for her, and I did at first, but I couldn’t keep it up. Moreover, I failed to connect with any of the other characters either.

While suspending disbelief isn’t usually an issue for me, it became an issue here. I was willing to look beyond the huge mistake Paul and Alice make at the beginning of the book, but by the end of the book I simply could not believe anybody could cock up their life as badly as Paul.

As I don’t want to give away any spoilers, I can’t disclose any more than I already have, except perhaps that the finale did not surprise me at all. I didn’t feel the aha feeling I think I was supposed to feel. I had come up with a dozen other theories that I’d hoped would be the outcome, and frankly, I liked them better than the actual ending. It felt to me that the story fizzled out and it left me feeling like it could have been more.

This may be an excellent time for me to refer to my review of Nicci French’s The Lying Room with which I had the same kind of issues. That was an unpopular opinion, most readers thoroughly enjoyed it and I really do think the same may be the case with The First Lie, it just means it wasn’t the book for me. However, I can’t help but agree with Martina Cole who says it’s a page-turner, it really is, I flew through it, my attention never wavered, it just turned out to be an okay read for me, and not the great one I’d been expecting.

Thanks to Orion for the proof copy and the NetGalley eARC. All opinions are my own.

I took part in the blog tour for this book.

It packs a punch right from the word go. It follows the police trying to identify who has committed some gruesome murdwrs. As well as Paul and Alice who have a little secret.

Paul lands his job of a lifetime and Alice just seems to be there, made woman because of her husband. There are lots of twists and turns with this couple. You never know what is around the corner.

Brilliantly written chapters from each character in this book. You are able to tell who the chapter belongs to. Each one has a certain style in talking.

I really enjoyed this book. There is so much drama. Ups and down and an ending I never saw coming. Brilliant.

I cannot help but think some times telling that one little lie isn't worth it. You'll understand when you read it.

Cannot wait to read more by this author.

I read the back cover of The First Lie and thought "how intriguing". Early on when we were informed that Paul was a barrister on his way to being a judge, it made the dilemma all the more juicy. How could this man of law justify and deal with this act? Moreover, how would Alice cope knowing that in self defence, she had killed a man and between them, they had agreed to hid the crime. Lots to mull over and look forward too I believed, hoping we would investigate roles, responsibilities, blame, guilt, justification, etc

The First Lie, started out well, with alternate chapters from the point of view of the married couple but after about 30%, it began to go downhill for me for a number of reasons., which I will limit to two because I just can't..think more about this book.

I began to take a real dislike to both main characters.
Alice went from a self assured woman (with some background trauma shared later in the story) to a grasping hot mess of need and crazy. If this was trying to show what guilt and remorse mixed up with depression looked like then I'm staggered because this was a version that baffled and scared me.

Paul portrayed a loving husband who would do everything and anything for his beloved wife and their marriage. Thus it was understandable but was never believable to me why they would hide the murder, even given the fact of his new job. Nor that he would be so easily swayed against common sense, his legal training and knowledge. Again clearly the stress of the event, the marital snipping and discord contributed to further poor choices.

Melodrama much!
Alice and Paul were really fortunate that the person whose murder they'd hid, wasn't also classified as a missing person. It was almost as if they were going to get away with it, no one was looking for this dead body. The police only entered the picture to ruminate about the murders of a group of men that was beginning to look like the work of a serial killer. These two storylines naturally converged.

It was apparent not long after the murder who was involved, and shortly thereafter the puzzle began to fall into place. But what kept me reading was firstly I dislike not finishing a book and two just how far would this couple go to cover the first lie. The impressive levels that they sunk to was hysterical in its scope.

I can be a fan of light hearted, easy, coincidental, occasionally implausible reads, but unfortunately The First Lie didn't fall into this broad category. Any entertainment value was overcome by the inability to engage in this farcical ride.

2 Stars

Guilt, obsession and deceit are the order of the day in this story.
It carried me along nicely and for a debut novel I felt that it was good.
Some slightly impossible parts are a bit hard to believe, but on the whole the story felt strong and the characters were quite good, although there were definitely some stereotypes in there.

Yes it was a book I would recommend.

You're home alone. Someone breaks in. In defending yourself, you end up killing the intruder. This is what criminal barrister Paul Reeve finds when he arrives home. His wife, Alice is in the bathroom, clutching a bloodied letter opener.

In a split second Paul decides to bury the body instead of calling the police. He worried that If it came out what Alice had done, it would ruin his career, he was up for promotion. He's also worried that Alice will loose her freedom. Thenstory is a bit far fetched. The pace is steady. There's a few twists but imdid guess where the story was headed. This is an easy book to read.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and the author A. J. Park for my ARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for the arc The First Lie by A.J Park.

Thank you to A.J Park for writing this book which was gripping.

This follows Paul who is up for promotion to the role of judgeship. He then goes home to find his wife Alice who has blood covering her hands, on the bathroom floor with a intruder dead upon the floor. With all the risks like Paul's career and Alice's freedom on the line they decide to hide the body instead of phoning the police. So they bury the body.

But that's just isn't the beginning of what is happening.... Someone entered their house, But was it random or not??? . And if it wasn't, who were they after.... Paul or Alice?

Two detectives whose unsolved murder cases lead right to their door, and poor decisions that make everything threatening to break apart even more than before.

I really liked the way it was written and structured, I love the progression of the characters and the mystery and the secrets and revelations.

Definitely recommend
4 Stars⭐⭐⭐⭐