Laura Marshall

Three Little Lies is another cracking thiller/crime/mystery from Laura Marshall.

Three Little Lies

Amazon.com link

My review -

Ellen’s flatmate Sasha has gone missing. Ten years ago, Ellen’s school friend Karina accused a boy of rape and he was subsequently imprisoned. Ellen fears he’s come to avenge himself on Sasha who gave evidence against him – as did she.

Initially I found I mixed Ellen and Karina up as their ‘voices’ didn’t seem individual. As the story progressed, however, the interaction between the characters, who was secretly having a relationships with whom, and the lies and secrets they told, became utterly fascinating. The characters were misleading one another and the reader and I didn’t guess the outcome at all. I found it a compulsive read and enjoyed it very much.

Laura Marshall

When Netgalley offered this book I was intrigued. It's a compelling study of young people trying to fit in to a peer group, with a knock-on effect into adulthood. 

Friend Request

At the time of writing, this is not yet realeased in the US

My review - 

Louise receives a Facebook Friend request. It’s from Maria, a girl she was at school with. The surprise, though, the thing that makes her shrink back in horror, is that Maria died twenty–five years ago at their leavers’ party. Louise is horrified because she believes her and her friends’ bullying cause the death. Only her husband knows her part in it as he was at the same school. The plot becomes more entangled when there is a school reunion for their class.

This is an interesting study in what young people are prepared to do to fit in with their peers. When your contemporaries’ opinions define you, you can persuade yourself to go against your own better nature and good sense. Louise is still, in adult life, bending her own nature and desires in order to fit in with those of others. If Maria is dead, someone else sent that friend request. Someone who blames Louise. Right at the very end, the story went a little out of my credibility zone but nonetheless, I enjoyed it a great deal.