I Know You Lied (formerly titled "What We Hide") by Lesley Sanderson
Genre: Psychological thriller, Domestic thriller, Suspense
Read: 18th March 2021
Published: 23rd June 2020
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
The news of her mother’s death hits Nell as if she’s been shot. The letter must be some kind of prank, but who could be so cruel? Because Nell’s mother died nearly thirty years ago.
When Nell was just a tiny baby, her parents died in a car crash, leaving her to be raised by her devoted grandmother, Lilian. So when the lawyer’s letter arrives, informing her of her mother Sarah’s very recent death, it destroys everything Nell thought she knew. Her grandmother loved her, so why did she lie? And why did her mother abandon her?
Nell knows she can never recapture the years with her mother that were taken from her, and fears this will haunt her forever. Now she won’t rest until she finds out why she was so cruelly deceived. But her family’s past has been kept secret for a reason, and someone is desperate for it to stay that way. How much danger will Nell risk for the truth?
If you loved The Silent Patient, The Secret Mother and The Wife Between Us, then this addictive thriller about dark family secrets and obsession will have you on the edge of your seat.
MY REVIEW:
After the last two books I read by Lesley Sanderson I was went into this one a little apprehensive. After all, the premises for the previous two - "The Leaving Party" and "The Birthday Weekend" - sounded promising but ended up lacking something. I simply loved "The Woman at 46 Heath Street" and have yet to read "The Orchid Girls". So when I began I KNOW YOU LIED, I wasn't quite sure what to expect...but I never expected to love it as much as I did!
One word - WOW! It's a simple plot weaved in such a way that ends up being a tangled mess. And I loved every minute of it! Even the parts I hated...lol
Brought up by her controlling paternal grandmother Lilian, twenty six year old Nell Weatherby believed herself to be an orphan, losing her parents in a car accident when she was just a baby nearly 30 years ago. But a solicitor's letter arrives one morning informing her that she was the lone recipient in a will...her mother's. The mother who she thought had died years ago.
She attends the solicitor's firm and is bequeathed whatever personal items are left in her mother's flat and a gold locket...with a photo of her mother and herself as a child. It was all her mother had left and it was her expressed wish that it be given to Nell upon her death. So with the keys to her mother's flat Nell makes her way to where her mother had been living for the past twenty six years. Just a few streets away from her own flat. So close all these years and she never knew.
After clearing our the flat and bagging up the rubbish, Nell knocks on the neighbour's door and is greeted by a friendly elderly man. Tom and his wife Moira knew Sarah, Nell's mother, as well as anyone could know her. She kept herself to herself and refused any help offered as she maintained her pride. Tom and Moira's greatest sorrow was that they never knew how sick Sarah really was...and had they known they would have done more...if she'd let them. They gave Nell their number to keep in touch and let them know when the funeral would be.
Nell had no idea what to do about the funeral and she left it in the hands of her best friend Hannah whose father was a funeral director. She had other things on her mind. Like why her grandmother told her that her mother had died along with her father when she was buy a baby. Why lie to her? Did she not think that she would want to know her mother? That her mother might like to know her? Lilian had robbed her of that chance and now she will never know her. What right did she have to lie to her?
Distressed, Nell returns to the house she grew up in and left at 16 in Seahurst, a small quiet coastal town in Sussex to confront Lilian. But when she called ahead to speak to her, a strange man answered and informed her that "Lil doesn't live here anymore". Since when has Lilian been known as "Lil"? She would shudder at the mere thought of the abbreviated term. And who was the man who answered? Lilian would never sell Willow House. It has been in the family for generations.
Upon arrival, the stranger who answered the phone introduced himself as Adam Harris, great-nephew of Lilian's and therefore, her cousin. But she doesn't trust Adam and he obviously doesn't trust her. He tells her that Lilian is in assisted living but refuses to tell her where. And although he is living at the house temporarily while he undertakes renovations to prepare for Lilian's return, Adam believes that the property will be his inheritance. When he does verify her identity with Lilian, she heads off to visit her grandmother searching for answers.
At first, Lilian refuses to answer her questions but after some prompting it seems she grows a conscience and reluctantly shares with Nell the troubled state of her mother's mind after losing her father, David. Lilian assures Nell that she only lied to protect her...but Nell isn't so sure. She grew up with this woman. She knows how demanding and controlling she is. And how she smothered Nell throughout her childhood and into her teenage years. But for now, she must take what Lilian has told her as truth while she continues to search for answers herself.
Beginning with the library, in which an imposing painting of a former mayor hangs in the entrance, Nell strikes up a friendship with librarian Jenny and starts to research her family tree. Which proves difficult since Lilian tells her virtually nothing of her family and their past. So Nell endeavours to search Willow House for answers. Surely Lilian has plenty of secrets locked away within the walls of that formidable house.
Then mysterious events begin to occur. Things going missing or being moved around the house. Shadows at windows, locked doors to disused rooms and sounds that awaken her in the night. Then Nell's room is trashed, a painting disappears, silent phone calls with no one there and then she starts receiving anonymous threats.
"You are not welcome here!"
But Nell refuses to be driven away. Not until she uncovers the answers to the secrets of her past. What really happened to her mother and why was she living in London without her daughter who, by all accounts, she adored? And what did Lilian not mention that she and her husband were close friends with Sarah's parents, her maternal grandparents? What is Lilian really hiding? And why does she keep lying to her? And who is behind the mysterious happenings trying to drive her out? And why?
Nell won't rest until she uncovers the truth...and someone wants very much to keep the truth buried, doing whatever it takes to keep it that way. Family secrets. Deception. Betrayal. Obsession. Lies and more lies. Everyone seems to be hiding something.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave. And a tangled web is most certainly and most cleverly woven here as we follow the story through the eyes of Nell in the present day and Sarah in the past, with the odd sporadic inclusion of letters penned by Lilian. Each perspective is cleverly told as we sympathise, empathise or are just plain angered. A family drama played out as a sinister tale of secrets and lies turn into threats with a confused Nell puzzling over her family's past and her grandmother deftly manipulating others as pawns.
Although the characters were cleverly portrayed, I hated Lilian with every fibre of my being. She made my skin crawl and just reading about her made my blood boil. I found her character reminiscent of the equally manipulative Annie in Nina Manning's "The Daughter in Law" and she got under my skin in just the same way. Two characters from two completely different thrillers by two completely different authors that were two peas in a pod. They could have been carved from the same stone. It's no secret what Lilian was up to. Blind Freddy could see it. The woman was obsessed, controlling and manipulative. And that made her dangerous. But oh how I loved reading about her! Despite how she made me feel.
I KNOW YOU LIED is a thriller of deft proportions and, although I unravelled a few of the insidious secrets, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey I was taken on and uncovering the source of all the lies.
My only complaints are that the ending was a tad rushed but still satisfying and the fact that there was no real decisive cause to Sarah's death. The only indication we got was when Nell found a letter from an oncologist which suggested cancer. But then in Sarah's narrative towards the end she indicated that she could not attend those doctors appointments she kept had to keep rescheduling if she had no job...because while she had the time, she wouldn't have the money. So it isn't overly clear if it was cancer or not and would have been good if that were clarified. But those were my only complaints and only enough to knock off half a star but not enough to round it down. So in essence, a 5 star rating it is!
I really thoroughly enjoyed I KNOW YOU LIED and every nuance within the pages. It was cleverly written and deftly manoeuvred that I was thrilled to see Lesley Sanderson back on track with to match the expert storytelling and thrills as found in "The Woman at 46 Heath Street".
Definitely recommended for fans of domestic or psychological thrillers.
I would like to thank #LesleySanderson, #NetGalley, #Bookouture for an ARC of #IKnowYouLied in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
'The Orchid Girls' was her first psychological thriller followed by 'The Woman at 46 Heath Street' in 2019, The Leaving Party (2020), The Birthday Weekend (2020) and I Know You Lied (2020).
Lesley spends her days writing in coffee shops in Kings Cross where she lives and works as a librarian. She loves the atmosphere and eclectic mix of people in the area. Lesley discovered Patricia Highsmith as a teenager and has been hooked on psychological thrillers ever since and is particularly interested in the psychology of female relationships.
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