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It should have been an idyllic day for the Turner family - until a dying man, beaten beyond all recognition, arrives at their home, uttering the words 'help me'. Rob and Wendy Turner and their children try to explain away the horrific scene as being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but in the days that follow, their lives are threatened in ways they could never imagine. The family is unaware that they are being watched by someone with their own terrifying agenda, who will stop at nothing to fulfil their own twisted desires.
The murder of a media moghul in his country mansion appears to be the result of him disturbing a gang of would-be thieves. The robbers are swiftly caught, but when they are unexpectedly moved to a different prison they escape. Back in Edinburgh, a young solicitor reveals to the press that one of the subjects had left a letter with her some time before the break-in which proves his innocence.
Exclusive to Audible! Listen to a discussion between the author and the narrator of The Widow at the end of this recording. We've all seen him: the man - the monster - staring from the front page of every newspaper, accused of a terrible crime. But what about her: the woman who grips his arm on the courtroom stairs - the wife who stands by him? Jean Taylor's life was blissfully ordinary. Nice house, nice husband. Glen was all she'd ever wanted: her Prince Charming.
Gaby Mortimer is the woman who has it all. But everything changes when she finds a body on the common near her home. Because the evidence keeps leading back to her. And the police seem sure she's guilty.... Under Your Skin is an unpredictable, exquisitely twisty story, which proves that there are only three rules in life that mean anything: Assume nothing. Believe no one. Check everything.
1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children, and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change. Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end, which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared.
Be careful what you wish for. On the surface, Callie Harwell has it all. Newly married to James, she finally gets the family she has longed for and becomes a mother to his two sons. So why is she arrested for murder? Things are not as Callie hoped they would be and she struggles to be accepted as part of James' family, and to keep hidden the secrets that could destroy her future.
It should have been an idyllic day for the Turner family - until a dying man, beaten beyond all recognition, arrives at their home, uttering the words 'help me'. Rob and Wendy Turner and their children try to explain away the horrific scene as being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but in the days that follow, their lives are threatened in ways they could never imagine. The family is unaware that they are being watched by someone with their own terrifying agenda, who will stop at nothing to fulfil their own twisted desires.
The murder of a media moghul in his country mansion appears to be the result of him disturbing a gang of would-be thieves. The robbers are swiftly caught, but when they are unexpectedly moved to a different prison they escape. Back in Edinburgh, a young solicitor reveals to the press that one of the subjects had left a letter with her some time before the break-in which proves his innocence.
Exclusive to Audible! Listen to a discussion between the author and the narrator of The Widow at the end of this recording. We've all seen him: the man - the monster - staring from the front page of every newspaper, accused of a terrible crime. But what about her: the woman who grips his arm on the courtroom stairs - the wife who stands by him? Jean Taylor's life was blissfully ordinary. Nice house, nice husband. Glen was all she'd ever wanted: her Prince Charming.
Gaby Mortimer is the woman who has it all. But everything changes when she finds a body on the common near her home. Because the evidence keeps leading back to her. And the police seem sure she's guilty.... Under Your Skin is an unpredictable, exquisitely twisty story, which proves that there are only three rules in life that mean anything: Assume nothing. Believe no one. Check everything.
1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children, and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change. Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end, which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared.
Be careful what you wish for. On the surface, Callie Harwell has it all. Newly married to James, she finally gets the family she has longed for and becomes a mother to his two sons. So why is she arrested for murder? Things are not as Callie hoped they would be and she struggles to be accepted as part of James' family, and to keep hidden the secrets that could destroy her future.
Quitting her job as a high school science teacher to join the Seattle Police Department was an easy decision for Tracy Crosswhite. Years earlier, what should have been one of the happiest days of her life instead became her worst nightmare when her younger sister, Sarah, disappeared. After the murder trial, while her family disintegrated, Tracy turned her heartbreak and her lingering questions into a passion for justice.
The girl emerged from the woods, barely alive. Her story was beyond belief. But it was true. Every dreadful word of it. Days later, another desperate escapee is found - and a pattern is emerging. Pairs of victims are being abducted, imprisoned then faced with a terrible choice: Kill or be killed. Would you rather lose your life or lose your mind? Eeny Meeny is an electrifying debut, with the nerve-shredding intensity of Saw and Along Came a Spider.
When billionaire philanthropist Sir Hugo Fletcher is discovered murdered in his London home, tied naked to a bed, the scandal is only a shadow of the darkness lurking off-camera. Laura Fletcher returns from an Italian vacation to find her home under siege by paparazzi. Is she shocked? Yes. But is she distraught? Not exactly. Chief Inspector Tom Douglas reveals his suspicions that Hugo’s killer is female. The deeper Douglas digs, the more sordid details he uncovers.
England,1976. Mrs Creasy is missing, and The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, 10-year-olds Grace and Tilly decide to take matters into their own hands. And as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find much more than they imagined.
It was the job she had dreamed of since childhood. But on her very first day, when an unnerving encounter drags up memories Sophie Greenwood would rather forget, she wonders if she has made a mistake. A fatal mistake. What is her ambitious young assistant really up to? And what exactly happened to Sophie's predecessor? When her husband and daughter are pulled into the nightmare, Sophie is forced to confront the darkest secrets she has carried for years.
Lydia Fitzsimons lives in the perfect house with her adoring husband and beloved son. There is just one thing Lydia yearns for to make her perfect life complete, though the last thing she expects is that pursuing it will lead to murder. However, needs must - because nothing can stop this mother from getting what she wants....
Mary has been nursing a secret. Forty years ago, she made a choice that would change her world for ever, and alter the path of someone she holds dear. Beth is searching for answers. She has never known the truth about her parentage, but finding out could be the lifeline her sick child so desperately needs. When Beth finds a faded newspaper cutting amongst her mother's things, she realises the key to her son's future lies in her own past. She must go back to where it all began to unlock...the Secret.
For fans of Gillian Flynn, Laura Lippman, and Paula Hawkins comes Holly Seddon's arresting fiction debut: an engrossing thriller full of page-turning twists and turns, richly imagined characters, and gripping psychological suspense. Some secrets never die. They're just locked away. Alex Dale is lost. Destructive habits have cost her a marriage and a journalism career. All she has left is her routine: a morning run until her body aches, then a few hours of forgettable work before the past grabs hold and drags her down.
The international number-one best-selling author of Tell No One and Six Years is back with a thriller that grips and twists and turns - and, just when you're not expecting it, twists once again.
When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, Ruth Galloway lectures at the University of North Norfolk. She lives happily alone in a remote place called Saltmarsh overlooking the North Sea and, for company; she has her cats Flint and Sparky, and Radio 4. When a child's bones are found in the marshes near an ancient site that Ruth worked on ten years earlier, Ruth is asked to date them.
When a six-year-old girl is found dead, hanging from a tree, the only clue the Oslo Police have to work with is an airline tag around her neck. It reads, 'I'm travelling alone'. Holger Munch, veteran police investigator, is immediately charged with reassembling his homicide unit. But to complete the team, he must convince his erstwhile partner, Mia Krüger - a brilliant but troubled investigator - to return from the solitary island where she has retreated with plans to take her own life.
Here are the rules. Method: you can't use a gun. You can't use explosives. You can't use poison. It has to be up close and personal. You don't have to worry about leaving evidence; that will be taken care of. Victim: no one suicidal. No one over the age of 65. No one with a terminal illness. Choose your method. Choose your victim.
The truth can be deadly....
The dazzling new suspense novel from the author of Remember Me This Way. Twisty, tense, impossible to turn off psychological suspense for fans of I Let You Go and The Widow.
It starts with a lie. The kind we've all told - to a former acquaintance we can't quite place but still, for some reason, feel the need to impress. The story of our life, embellished for the benefit of the happily married lawyer with the kids and the lovely home.
And the next thing you know, you're having dinner at their house and accepting an invitation to join them on holiday - swept up in their perfect life, the kind you always dreamed of....
Which turns out to be less than perfect. But by the time you're trapped and sweating in the relentless Greek sun, burning to escape the tension all around you - by the time you start to realise that however painful the truth might be, it's the lies that cause the real damage - well, by then it could just be too late.
As soon as I started this, I was hooked. Narrator perfect in role. Dark story, impending doom feeling from start to finish, redemption too late etc. would recommend to anyone.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful
Very cleverly put together, quite a frightening idea. I really enjoyed this book and it was well read.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful
Sabine Durrant's sinister slow-burner scores high for creating a vivid and mixed array of characters who, despite being an unpleasant lot, I found intriguing, mainly credible and involving. I was hooked by the story and enjoyed the increasingly uncomfortable sense of something dark going to happen.
Paul Morris is an arrogant womaniser, although he's frequently been too drunk to remember his conquests. He's also a liar and a loser. His writing career has flopped after one long- forgotten novel; he's lost his home, and his money has run out. But when he meets Andrew, an old university friend - one whom in truth he barely remembers and never liked - he is introduced to Alice and the circle of friends who holiday on Greece together each year. That's when the lies start - Paul makes up a West End apartment, American publishers vying for his latest novel - and he and Alice quickly become lovers. What could be more natural than Paul being included in the Greek holiday line-up?
The holiday makes for compulsive and unsettling listening as things go disconcertingly awry. Why are Alice and Andrew seemingly so close? Why is Alice so obsessed with the disappearance of a 14 year-old girl on the Greek island years before? Why did Alice lie about her teenage son being brought back to the holiday villa dead drunk in the early hours?
Paul becomes increasingly uneasy himself, but every doubt seems to have a simple answer - until a young tourist on the island is raped after a night out. Even worse follows, and the police are involved. This is a mystery-thriller well rooted in everyday reality which makes the listening compelling and rewarding, and it also has a strong cautionary tale element about lying as Paul becomes enmeshed in the tangle of his own web of self-aggrandising lies.
The very competent narrator helps the story glide along, and Lie with Me gets full marks for its gripping story, for the intricate details of its plot and for Durrant's classy, fluent writing. I didn't give the story a full 5 because although the resolution of the plot has a good shock element, if you think about it in any depth, it raises just too many questions about credibility. But never mind, this is a great listen!
21 of 22 people found this review helpful
The first time I had heard a book by this author. I love the way this book is written.. The descriptive language is fantastic. The narrator is also great. My only criticism is the end of the book was disappointing.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful
Would you consider the audio edition of Lie with Me to be better than the print version?
It was wonderfully narrated, it gave depth to the storyline
What other book might you compare Lie with Me to, and why?
It is similar to many books in that it slowly reveals it's characters as harbouring dark secrets and lies and ultimately being different people from the ones portrayed at the start of the book.
What about Kirk Bage’s performance did you like?
He managed to tell the story and convey beautifully an undercurrent of something sinister.
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
No, I just enjoyed the story
Any additional comments?
Well worth a listen, although a stronger finish would have been more satisfying.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
Pleasantly surprised as how much I enjoyed this book. I do recommend it for an easy listen.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
When I thought the description sounded promising, I checked the reviews - there were none!
Surprising as there were many ratings - indeed averaging 4+stArs.
I took a chance and do not regret the credit. Increasingly uncomfortable atmosphere and credible narration.
15 of 16 people found this review helpful
Sabine Durrant is a good writer and I enjoyed her previous two novels. In this one she introduces us to Paul, a shifty arrogant man with a selective memory and a lifestyle that relies on preying on the goodwill of others. He is unlikeable but I did feel sympathy for the fact he is so delusional about his looks and popularity and that at the age of 42 he is forced to return home to live with his mother with only a few bin bags of possessions to show for his life. It was also a nice touch to make him an animal lover and so not entirely devoid of humanity.
The scenes set in Greece are tense and oppressive and the characters in this story all have an intriguingly sinister edge. You just know something is going to go horribly wrong and the suspense is maintained until the end. What lets this down for me is the preposterous nature of the plot. I felt it relied far too heavily on the victim of the story doing everything exactly to plan for the ultimate outcome to be a success. For me this over precise engineering was simply not believable but I admit it was an enjoyable ride and it would make a good TV show. I also think that it is entirely appropriate that one of the characters runs a shop called ‘Ripping Yarns’.
I thought Kirk Bage sounded about ten years older that Paul's character, but that is a minor grumble and overall he did a very good job.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Very good. keeps you guessing the whole way. I would recommend it to anyone! !
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
What did you like most about Lie with Me?
All characters are very plausible. I disliked the self centred, cheating, lying central character and was looking forward to his come uppance. When it was finally delivered, my sympathies changed. Strong plot with plenty of twists and great sense of place.
Who was your favorite character and why?
I didn't 'like' any of them, for all sorts of reasons, but they were still part of a compelling story and each had a role.
What does Kirk Bage bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
Great narration and good character voices which brought individuals to life.
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It made me cross from time to time. The manipulation and selfishness was well portrayed.
Any additional comments?
A neat little psychological thriller, well paced and a few surprises. Kept me listening throughout and keen to hear more.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I was confused by the narrator at first but after the first chapter it totally made sense. Loved it. The story was ok but probably wouldn't have finished it except for the narrator was SO GOOD.