Let Me Lie: The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller

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Anna believes her unease is validated when she receives an anonymous note questioning the verdict of suicide and she takes her concerns to the police.

Q: LET ME LIE follows a new mother named Anna whose life takes a very strange and sinister turn. Is she inspired by anyone in particular? Viewpoints alternate through Anna, an unknown (ghost?), and a retired detective named Murray. After Anna receives a mysterious card she reaches out to Murray who is now working as a civilian at a desk job for the local police station. She wants her parent's suicide cases reopened because she now believes her parents were murdered... DUN DUN DUN. The poem “Requiem” is about a wish of the poet R.L. Stevenson concerning where he should be laid after his death. He describes the wide sky, lit with several stars. His wish is to lie beneath such a glorious sky. He has lived gladly. So he wants to gladly embrace death. It is not that death will be victorious over him. He laid himself down with a will, a determination of death. After his death, he wants a few lines to be sung commemorating him. These lines feature a “home” that is compared to a “sailor” and “hunter”. While death is represented as “sea” and “hill”. A: One in four people in the UK suffer from mental health problems yet there’s a huge amount of stigma surrounding mental health. It touches so many people’s lives in very different ways. I worked with lots of people with mental health issues when I was in the Police and was interested in how everyday activities and relationships can be affected. The more it’s discussed, the better chance we have of reducing the stigma. So, if she is unsure of what she might have done, (was there this little moment when I reached out with my hand to help her along??)... then the letter, would indeed, be disturbing. I guess the question is, was Anna, from how she behaved throughout the book a person who could, in a moment of great distress push her mother off the balcony and then continue so handily about her life? I don't think I could really do that.For the record: my personal favorite of Clare’s books is I SEE YOU, and I LET YOU GO still holds second place for me!) This was a Traveling Sisters group read and I always love hearing the perspectives from my buddies, they always add a fresh take to my perspective. The first half of the book was a solid 5 star. I was hanging on every word, loving everything about the characters, perspective changes, pace and flow. I took one star away because a big reveal that happens around the halfway point was a let down. It wasn’t terrible, but it was unrealistic and not nearly as amazing as I had expected after the build up. However, I was so invested in the story by that point that I accepted it and continued on enjoying the rest of the journey. The ending was dramatic, but highly entertaining and twisty. The title of the poem “Requiem” means an act or token of remembrance. This poem is a remembrancer of the poet that he left behind for his dear readers. Besides, the term also means a mass for the repose of the souls of the dead. So, Stevenson wrote this piece for two purposes. One is to make him memorable in the minds of his readers as a “sailor” or a “hunter” (in their metaphorical sense). Another reason concerns how he wants to be remembered. He does not want to die like a person defeated by death. Rather his wish is to be reminded of as a person who accepted death wholeheartedly. Anna turns cold when she receives the letter, is clearly distressed. However, pushing her mother off the balcony and then moving forward in her life (as she had to this point) seems very incongruous with her personality thus far. Perhaps she snapped, and then passed out; perhaps she herself doesn't know what occurred in those moments.

Inversion: It occurs in “Glad did I live and gladly die”. Here, the regular sentence pattern is reversed. No one knew Anna had asked for this case to be re-opened, but it sure seemed as if they did. Strange things started happening that even her husband dismissed. Was she in danger too? Metaphor: In the last two lines, Stevenson metaphorically compares death to a “sea” and a “hill”. While he compares himself to a “sailor” and a “hunter”. As a sailor longs for the sea, so does the poet.We’ve got a great lead in Anna Johnson. After a whirlwind romance with the psychologist she started seeing after her parents’ deaths (ethics schmethics) she’s recently become mother to eight week old Ella. Anna Johnson is trying to adjust to life without her mother and father. Her mother committed suicide a year ago, just a few months after Anna’s father killed himself. Requiem” offers us several moving fictions. The principal inducer of make-believe here is the utter smoothness and rhythmic consistency of the poem. (That second “the” on line seven is a plaque-maker’s error.) The sounds this text makes—one almost bursts into song reciting it—correspond to conventional notions of what it meant to write beautiful English verse in the late-nineteenth century. With this being said, and ridiculously far-fetched plot points aside, I can't deny it was entertaining. It did keep me engaged; I was particularly drawn to the chapters from Murray's perspective. As the one year anniversary approaches of her mothers suicide, Anna remains deep in her grief. Her mother took her life in the exact spot her father did less than a year prior. Anna focuses on her new baby to help get her through the dark and heavy days of endless questions and confusion as to how her parents could do this to her. One day she receives a piece of mail that changes everything…

First of all, many thanks to Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an advance review copy of this book via Edelweiss AND a physical copy! All opinions are my own. The police ruled her parents death a suicide but on the anniversary of their death Anna receives an ominous, anonymous note suggesting otherwise. Is it just a hoax, or is it a clue to what really happened to Anna's parents? This horrible reminder had Anna rethinking the possibility that her parents really didn't commit suicide but had been murdered. She never thought her parents would kill themselves and leave her without them. An intense psychological thriller that I inhaled with my heart in my mouth…unsettling and claustrophobic read. Truly shuddersome.”—Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good GirlWith a smidgen of optimism, I finally decided on a 4 star rating for LET ME LIE. But, in all fairness of honest disclosure, at certain points in the book I felt the dreaded THREE STAR rating looming in the distance. Now with a young baby of her own, Anna misses her mother more than ever and starts to question her parents’ deaths. But by digging up their past, she’ll put her future in danger. Sometimes it’s safer to let things lie… Now with a young baby of her own, Anna misses her mother more than ever and starts to ask questions about her parents’ deaths. But by digging up the past, is she putting her future in danger? Anna Johnson has suffered a terrible loss in the form of her parent’s suicide. First her father, then seven months later her mother meets the same fate in the exact manner as her father’s suicide. Almost two years later Anna still struggles with grief and confusion. On the anniversary of her mother’s death, Anna receives a cryptic message suggesting her mother’s suicide was actually murder. Anna has always had doubts about the death of her parents but this message confirms her suspicions. As Anna digs deeper into the lives of her parents, she uncovers secrets, lies, and begins to question her relationship with her parents and everyone in her life.

But on the plus side for this one that left me rating the book at 3.5 stars I really did enjoy the twists the author wove into the story. Some things just weren’t what I was thinking they were which is always a nice surprise and then I did enjoy the ending of the book and how the entire story unfolded. So while not a perfect rating this time around I will definitely look out for more from this author in the future. Murray is a semi-retired criminal investigator, who ends up looking into their cases. Both Anna and Murray suspect foul play, or are at least willing to entertain the idea.

Too many twists none of them particularly hard to predict and no real connection to any of the characters beyond the two I mentioned just now. This will be an exciting, twisty thriller to some, but for someone who reads a lot of this genre, I found it to be a bit predictable. There are many twists to be had, and unfortunately, they didn’t work for me. This is a downfall for a reader who loves thrillers and mysteries - I seem to always have my detective hat on and can’t take it off and just enjoy! Her third (and new release), Let Me Lie, probably rivals her debut for me in terms of its twists and turns, cos just when I thought I had it figured out… I was fooled again! In the following lines, he uses another analogy of a “hunter” and “himself”. A hunter is never happy staying at home. He becomes restless for hunting. When he goes to the hill, he becomes happy and fulfilled. Likewise, the poet is going to be happy when he leaves his mortal home and goes up the “hill”. This “hill” is a symbolic reference to heaven or eternal life. Only death can help him to reach there. Hence, he accepts death with all his heart. I feel really bad. I loved this authors first book and was very fond of her 2nd but I have so many problems with this one - not to do with the writing obviously she can write - and not even with the addictive quality it's not like I threw it aside, I wanted to know what happened - but I found the plot and execution disappointing considering it came from such an obviously talented author so rather than my *rating reflecting the writing quality this is ALL about everything else.