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All I Said Was True

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All I Said Was True

By: Imran Mahmood
Narrated by: Tanvi Virmani
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Bloomsbury presents All I Said Was True by Imran Mahmood, read by Tanvi Virmani.

Longlisted for the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award

'A thoroughly compulsive ticking-clock thriller’ TM LOGAN

'The very definition of a compulsive page-turner' CHRIS WHITAKER
_______________

I didn’t kill her. Trust me…

When Amy Blahn died on a London rooftop, Layla Mahoney was there. Layla was holding her. But all she can say when she’s arrested is that ‘It was Michael. Find Michael and you’ll find out everything you need to know.’

The problem is, the police can’t find him – they aren’t even sure he exists.

Layla knows she only has forty-eight hours to convince the police that bringing in the man she knows only as ‘Michael’ will clear her name and reveal a dangerous game affecting not just Amy and Layla, but her husband Russell and countless others.

But as the detectives begin to uncover the whole truth about what happened to Amy, Layla will soon have to decide: how much of that truth can she really risk being exposed?
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'A relentless, absorbing thriller' JANICE HALLETT

'I loved every single page!' GILLIAN MCALLISTER Crime Thrillers Espionage Mystery Police Procedural Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime
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Critic reviews

A haunting exploration of memory and obsession, of guilt and betrayal – set against the backdrop of a thoroughly compulsive ticking-clock thriller (T. M. Logan, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE HOLIDAY and THE CURFEW)
Imran is probably the most exciting crime fiction author in the UK right now and All I Said Was True is further proof of that. The dual narrative is exhilarating, the plot complex and layered, the writing is perfect and the narrator's voice is somehow both unreliable and trustworthy. Superb stuff (M. W. Craven)
A twisting path to the moment of murder via a police interview where the truth meets its match. A relentless, absorbing thriller of the darkest paranoid noir (Janice Hallett, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE APPEAL and The TWYFORD CODE)
I loved every single page! (Gillian McAllister, author of Sunday Times bestseller, WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME)
Original and ingenious. There’s an authenticity to Imran Mahmood’s books that is so rare and rewarding. All I Said Was True is the very definition of a compulsive page-turner (Chris Whitaker, winner of the CWA Gold Dagger and the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year award)
A tantalising thriller that bleeds with authenticity. Taut, twisty and fiendishly clever, it will surely confound you until the gripping finale. (Kia Abdullah)
Mahmood just keeps getting better and better (Simon Lelic)
Offering powerful insight into Layla's tortured mind, while also revealing parts of the mystery like a set of Russian dolls, each one concealing another, it underlines barrister Mahmood's considerable talents as a crime writer
Wonderfully twisty and kept me guessing all the way to a really satisfying denouement (Ajay Chowdhury)
Imran Mahmood’s ALL I SAID WAS TRUE is beautifully complex and arresting. I was swept away in Layla’s story, though not quite knowing who I should be trusting and when which - for me - is absolutely key in great storytelling. The way that Imran continues to challenge society, and all our many preconceptions within his books is so powerful (L. V. Matthews)
This novel haunted me with its lyrical lies (Jane Corry)
A suspenseful and intriguing thriller, layered with authenticity and told with real poise (Victoria Selman)
Mahmood perfectly executes the killer combination of beautiful prose and a bloody great story. I will read anything he writes (Ayisha Malik)
Exquisite writing, a voice that pulls you in, and a story where you simply have to know what happened. All I Said Was True by Imran Mahmood is addictive (Vicki Bradley)
Flawless prose from a skilful mind. Imran Mahmood really knows this world, and he stands head and shoulders above the competition (Emma Bamford)
A beautifully written, gripping page-turner that you won’t want to put down (Adam Hamdy)
All stars
Most relevant
And it was! What a great plot. Its rare to get into a book so quickly but this had my attention from Chapter 2 on. I thought I knew the outcome but couldn’t work out how that was going to unravel. The characters are believable, and their behaviour lent itself to the twists and turns. Right to the end.

Great book. So intelligent and well written. Have a previous one to read and there will soon be a third!

With the temperature outside 41 degrees this needed to be special

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I love Imran Mahmood's work, and this is no disappointment.

I found the the unreliable narrator and interesting device and and fell for one or two red herrings along the way.

if you like thrillers that keep you guessing right until the end this book is for you you. being a writer does an excellent job of managing a number of different accents and her voice quality really makes this and easy listen.

Gripping!

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Another example of the complexity required when writing an unreliable narrator. I'm a big fan of books which bounce between POV or timeline, and it's refreshing to hear it done well. Few authors can hold the 1st POV well, but this book is a great example. The lot unravels slowly, but the mystery is addictive. Could she be lying? Maybe insane, or dillusional?

Great performance, too.

Great twisty narrative

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Narrator was mostly good, accents were ok though some of the detectives were a bit comical. The story started promisingly and was well written on the whole. There is some stuff that goes nowhere talking about free will, reminding me of first year philosophy class. The main character seems incredibly gullible and possibly suffering from a possible mental illness, I may have missed something there. The main premise was so implausible that I expected a big twist, but there wasn’t one; it seemed odd that a lawyer could not work out what was going on. I think this story was genuinely unusual but I was disappointed in how it played out.

All I said was true

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