4.75*

An amazing gripping twisty thoughtful thriller.

I listened to this on Audio and it was SO good.

Owen, one of the main characters is a little slow, not too good with social skills and a bit of a stutter. Regardless, he’s very, very clever with numbers. He reads life basically interpreting it into numerals for his ability of understanding.

A crime has been committed and he’s been pulled right into it.

The chapters go back and forth, not a problem though.
And......
Loads of characters, normally that can confuse me but not this time.

I got through this within two days. I took it everywhere with me it was habitual reading.


I’m very late reading this, first book by this author. So good I want to buy her others.

If you like a fast moving thriller, this is definitely for you.

Really enjoyed this thriller. Great cast of characters and a gripping and entertaining plot with enough twists and surprises to keep this reader guessing. I've read this author's first novel, The Hidden Legacy, and this is just as good. Couldn't put it down.

Unfortunately I couldn’t connect with this one and didn’t finish it so I can’t honestly review it. This one just isn’t for me but I truly appreciate the opportunity and I thank you kindly!

To me reading this was a tad confusing at times felt like I was jumping all over the place but was a great read which I will certainly read again

This is the first book by G.J. Minett that I have read and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it - I'll certainly be looking out for more from this author. It's a very strong thriller that feels like a game of chess with all the pieces on the board, just waiting for someone to make the first move. At times I didn't know what the devil was going on and why this or that person was in the story but it all comes together in a magnificent a-ha moment at the end.

Owen Hall hasn't had a great life; he doesn't really know how to relate to people. He suffered a terrible event as a youngster and you wonder how much this affected his ability to deal with people. At school he was bullied by Callum Green and only Abi ever showed him any kind of friendship. Now Abi is married to Callum and Owen crosses paths with them once again.

The story starts with Owen stopping at a petrol station so his female passenger can go to the loo. When she doesn't come back, Owen can't understand what has happened and the petrol station attendant calls the police. Now that the police have Owen in their sights they realise that he fits the bill perfectly as a suspect in a recent murder.

In a game of cat and mouse, all of the traps are set to catch the murderer and it's an absolutely brilliant game that is played in Lie In Wait. I was so sure that I knew what had happened but I had completely walked past all of the clues, such is the clever style of G.J. Minett's writing. Looking back now, I should have been asking questions, but my attention was always drawn on to something else. Well played, sir!

I loved the unravelling and gradual reveal of Owen's history and perhaps only now, a few days after I have read it, do I realise how very good Lie in Wait actually is.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Lie In Wait is a difficult novel to review without issuing spoilers because it doesn't have a linear timeline. Initially it is about a woman, Julie, who is driving with Owen Hall, to Worthing when she goes missing in a petrol station but there is more to the novel which is slowly revealed as it goes on.

I didn't like Lie In Wait for a variety of reasons, really struggled to get through it and was skim reading by the end. It has multiple points of view, with each chapter handily titled so there is no confusion. I found it difficult to identify with any one character or get immersed in the narrative as the perspective kept shifting. The same goes for the timeline which kept changing from October to "earlier". Again each chapter is dated so the reader knows where they are but it makes for a choppy read. I found it an easy novel to put down in favour of doing other things.

The main protagonist is Owen Hall, a vulnerable adult who is obviously on the spectrum amongst other mental health issues. He is not a particularly likeable character so it is difficult to summon up the energy to care about him. The other characters rather fade into the background in comparison with him and then there are some characters who make an appearance for no apparent reason.

I would have rated this novel 2* for all the reasons above and that I had a fair idea from early on where it was going but I like the writing style which is clear, vivid and readable. I can also admire the cleverness of the plotting while deploring the unnecessarily convoluted style of it. I think therefore that 3* is a fair assessment.

Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to have read this book. This was the first book by the author I've read, so I did not know what to expect.
This was a great read, very entertaining and worth the effort to spend precious reading time on a new (for me) author!
Highly recommended.

This novel threw me for the first couple of chapters there are a lot of characters and I was worried that trying to remember each one would distract me from the story. There was no need to worry.
G.J. Minett is such a skilled writer that I found myself a few times not even looking at the chapter heading and knowing which charachter I was reading by the use of language and the way they were written.
This story really leaves you trying to figure out how all these pieces and all these people tie together to figure out who the murderer is but there it is at the end all tied up in a neat little bow. The plot to this novel is fantastic so many threads all coming together flawlessly.
This story is so absolutely brilliantly well written that it leads you along sending you off in all the wrong directions and then hits you over the head with an amazing ending.
The story is told from two points in time "Now" and "Earlier" so I found myself skipping back over what I had read trying to piece what happened earlier to what's happening now trying to figure it all out.
The main charachter in the book Owen who is a hulk of a man, obsessed with numbers. He is on the autistic spectrum so is lacking in social skills and is painfully shy. He is ones of a few suspects in a murder which is being investigated by DI Holloway, who gets the feeling that Owen is being set up.
This is my first book by this author but I immediately got a copy of his first and will be on the lookout for any future books.
This is definatly one to read.

Owen Hall is a ma who is short on social skills. He has been bullied for most of his life. His mother took.him out of school to teach him at home because of the bullying. But this only made it harder for Owen to socialise.

Now Owen is an adult, he bumps into Abi, a fellow student, who was one of the only students to be nice to himwhile he was still at school. Abi hires Owen to landscape her garden but Abi is married to Callum who was one of the people who bullied Owen at school.

When a murder happens in the community, Owen is a suspect, but he's not the only suspect. There are quite a few suspects.

This is a good read with a good plot.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bonnier Zaffre and the author G. J. Minett for my ARC in exchange for an honest review..

Nice read and easy to follow story line. Look forward to reading more from this author.

I simply loved Hidden Legacy so I was happy to read G J Minett's latest novel. I found Lie in Wait a little bit hard to get into and didn't love it initially but perseverance is well worth it as I found I couldn't put the book down from about 30% in. The story surrounds a murder and each chapter is narrated by a different character on a different timeframe. Owen Hall has always been that wee bit different, a loner, with a stammer, bullied at school but a whizz with numbers. Abi, his friend at school is married to the bully, Callum. She asks Owen who has his own garden design business to revamp her garden and he sets about designing some plans. Owen's supposed passenger disappears at a petrol station and he can't understand what's happening when the police try to trap him as a culprit for a more serious crime. A gripping read. Loved it.