The Lying Room: A Novel

In this thrilling standalone from the internationally bestselling author of the Frieda Klein series, a married woman's affair with her boss spirals into a dangerous game of chess with the police when she discovers he's been murdered and she clears the crime scene of all evidence.

One little secret between a married woman, her lover, and a killer.

It should have been just a mid-life fling. A guilty indiscretion that Neve Connolly could have weathered. An escape from twenty years of routine marriage to her overworked husband, and from her increasingly distant children. But when Neve pays a morning-after visit to her lover, Saul, and finds him brutally murdered, their pied-à-terre still heady with her perfume, all the lies she has so painstakingly stitched together threaten to unravel.

After scrubbing clean every trace of her existence from Saul's life-and death-Neve believes she can return to normal, shaken but intact. But she can't get out of her head the one tormenting question: what was she forgetting?

An investigation into the slaying could provide the answer. It's brought Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Hitching, and Neve's worst fears, to her door. But with every new lie, every new misdirection to save herself, Neve descends further into the darkness of her betrayal-and into more danger than she ever imagined. Because Hitching isn't the only one watching Neve. So is a determined killer who's about to make the next terrifying move in a deadly affair....

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The Lying Room: A Novel

In this thrilling standalone from the internationally bestselling author of the Frieda Klein series, a married woman's affair with her boss spirals into a dangerous game of chess with the police when she discovers he's been murdered and she clears the crime scene of all evidence.

One little secret between a married woman, her lover, and a killer.

It should have been just a mid-life fling. A guilty indiscretion that Neve Connolly could have weathered. An escape from twenty years of routine marriage to her overworked husband, and from her increasingly distant children. But when Neve pays a morning-after visit to her lover, Saul, and finds him brutally murdered, their pied-à-terre still heady with her perfume, all the lies she has so painstakingly stitched together threaten to unravel.

After scrubbing clean every trace of her existence from Saul's life-and death-Neve believes she can return to normal, shaken but intact. But she can't get out of her head the one tormenting question: what was she forgetting?

An investigation into the slaying could provide the answer. It's brought Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Hitching, and Neve's worst fears, to her door. But with every new lie, every new misdirection to save herself, Neve descends further into the darkness of her betrayal-and into more danger than she ever imagined. Because Hitching isn't the only one watching Neve. So is a determined killer who's about to make the next terrifying move in a deadly affair....

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The Lying Room: A Novel

The Lying Room: A Novel

by Nicci French

Narrated by Jan Cramer

Unabridged — 10 hours, 38 minutes

The Lying Room: A Novel

The Lying Room: A Novel

by Nicci French

Narrated by Jan Cramer

Unabridged — 10 hours, 38 minutes

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Overview

In this thrilling standalone from the internationally bestselling author of the Frieda Klein series, a married woman's affair with her boss spirals into a dangerous game of chess with the police when she discovers he's been murdered and she clears the crime scene of all evidence.

One little secret between a married woman, her lover, and a killer.

It should have been just a mid-life fling. A guilty indiscretion that Neve Connolly could have weathered. An escape from twenty years of routine marriage to her overworked husband, and from her increasingly distant children. But when Neve pays a morning-after visit to her lover, Saul, and finds him brutally murdered, their pied-à-terre still heady with her perfume, all the lies she has so painstakingly stitched together threaten to unravel.

After scrubbing clean every trace of her existence from Saul's life-and death-Neve believes she can return to normal, shaken but intact. But she can't get out of her head the one tormenting question: what was she forgetting?

An investigation into the slaying could provide the answer. It's brought Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Hitching, and Neve's worst fears, to her door. But with every new lie, every new misdirection to save herself, Neve descends further into the darkness of her betrayal-and into more danger than she ever imagined. Because Hitching isn't the only one watching Neve. So is a determined killer who's about to make the next terrifying move in a deadly affair....


Editorial Reviews

A.J. Finn

Attention, fans of Tana French and Ruth Ware: meet your new obsession... The Lying Room ranks among French’s very best, a thriller as combustible as gunpowder, as propulsive as a jet engine. Psychological suspense at its brightest and most blazing.

eMissourian.com

"This tense psychological thriller is full of twists and will keep you guessing who really did murder Saul. This page turner is all about Neve’s choices and their consequences."

Culteress

"Such an enjoyable ride."

Bookreporter.com

"An enthralling and addicting novel.... Longtime fans of French will find their high expectations rewarded, while newcomers will be motivated to explore the author’s backlist. I envy their discovery."

Suspense Magazine

"Author Nicci French entertains readers with a chilling reminder that a lie is like a snowball rolling down-hill. With each new layer, it gains momentum that we might not be able to stop."

Popular Culture Association

“[If you] are drawn to excellent psychological suspense... this is a book for your 'must list.'”

Booklist

This stand-alone from the team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, authors of the Frieda Klein series, delivers engaging characters, a complex story, and steadily increasing suspense. International best-seller French belongs on every thriller fan’s TBR list.

People

"Razor-sharp writing by French expertly amps the tension."

Kirkus Reviews

2019-07-15
Having ended the saga of forensic psychologist Frieda Klein on a suitably harrowing note (Day of the Dead, 2018), French produces a stand-alone that's just as suspenseful, especially because there's no franchise heroine whose survival is assured.

Summoned by a peremptory text to her lover's Covent Garden pied à terre the morning after they've enjoyed an assignation as satisfying as it is secret, Neve Jennifer Connolly finds Saul Stevenson bashed to death with a hammer. At the point of dialing 999, Neve takes a moment to think what the news of her affair and her inevitable involvement in the police inquiry will do to her husband, mostly jobless painter/decorator/illustrator Fletcher Connolly, their two young sons, Rory and Connor, and mainly their daughter, Mabel, a child with a troubled teen history who's just now packing her things to move to university—and then decides on a completely different plan of action. She removes every trace that she's ever been in the place, scrubs it clean of her fingerprints (and everyone else's), then goes back home, returns to her domestic rounds, and is lying in bed next to Fletcher that night before she's realizing that she's left a unique and easily identified bangle bracelet at the flat. That's only the first of many twists best left to readers to discover as French ramps up the nightmare sense of claustrophobia that dogs Neve's every movement and intensifies each pang of guilt and second-guessing. Neve is swiftly entangled in a thicket of lies to DCI Alastair Hitching; to her co-workers at Sans Serif, the partnership Saul's firm Redfern Publishers took over; to Saul's wife, Bernice, who confides in Neve that she thinks her husband's been having an affair and asks her to look out for who his partner might have been; and to the very family she's straining her every nerve to protect.

Long before the end, the sorely tried heroine realizes, "I can't trust anyone." Neither can the expertly manipulated reader.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940172921964
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 10/01/2019
Edition description: Unabridged
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