Behind Every Lie

4.5 stars.

Behind Every Lie by Christina McDonald is a twist-filled domestic mystery.

After being struck by lightning, Eva Hansen awakens in the hospital with few memories of the evening before. Needless to say she is very distraught to learn her mother Kat has been murdered. Even more disconcerting is the discovery that Detective Kent Jackson believes that Eva is involved with her mother's murder. With an overwhelming sense of fear, Kat insists on leaving the hospital to return the secluded home she shares with fiancé Laim Sullivan. Unnerved by her wispy, unformed memories that place her at Kat's house the night of the murder, Eva uncovers disquieting information about her mother's past. With the help of her childhood friend, Jacob show more Quinn, she flies to London where she hopes to find answers. Will the information she unearths lead to the identity of Kat's killer? Or will Eva put herself more solidly in the crosshairs of someone who wants her permanently out of the way?

Eva is in her late twenties and events from her past leave her doubting herself. She is happily engaged to Liam but she is still keeping secrets from him. Although Eva loves Kat, their relationship is rocky due to her mother's emotional distance and her tough love attitude toward her daughter. Eva's inability to trust herself reaches a crisis point as she tries to put the new information about her mom's past into context. And in the midst of searching for answers, Eva cannot shake the eerie sensation that someone is watching.

Kat's past is revealed through chapters which alternate with present day events. Beginning twenty-five years earlier, a chance encounter sets Kat on a shocking path that culminates with tragedy in the present. As Eva pieces together the stunning pieces of her mother's past, will her fragmented memories of the night of Kat's murder snap into place? Is Eva fully prepared for the appalling truth when and if her memories return?

Behind Every Lie is an incredibly riveting mystery with a clever plot and unreliable protagonist. Eva is a sympathetic character who finds unexpected inner strength as she searches for answers about herself, her mom and Kat's murder. The storyline is engaging and despite a few easy to figure out elements, Christina McDonald saves some jaw-dropping revelations for the novel's dramatic and action-packed dénouement. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this engrossing mystery to readers of the genre. show less

Too much of a good thing isn't better, it's just too much.

The opening hooked me with an intense, well written scene. I didn't want to put the book down.

We have two narrating characters, Eva and Kat. Both are interesting, complex, and just mysterious enough to keep me wanting to learn more.

But then...

This story reaches in too many directions, adding a little of everything along the way. We have secrets, domestic abuse, rape, memory loss, manipulation, revenge, and obsessions galore. And lies! No one tells the truth here, ever.

Plot twists abound. The jaw-dropping kind that normally occur once in a book, but here they're littered throughout. And, yet, none of them surprised me because so much was happening that there was nowhere left to show more go.

And then we get to the major climax, with a round of truth and confessions from all the important players, which is obviously for the reader's benefit. The last thing I'd want to do if I'm bleeding and facing death is have a group share, but, hey, everyone's different.

Sadly, the implausibility and reliance on coincidences, along with the smorgasbord of content, detracted from what is, at its heart, an emotionally provocative story.

*I received a review copy from Gallery Books, via BookishFirst.* show less

Behind Every Lie

An engrossing and intense hearts-stopping thriller

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street from her mother’s home, but she can’t remember what happened. In the hospital she learns the police are suspicious of her. Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London—Kat’s former home—for answers. But as she unravels her mother’s carefully held secrets, Eva soon realizes that someone doesn’t want her to know the truth. When violent memories beginning to emerge, Eva doesn’t know who to trust. Least of all herself.

If you can’t remember it, How show more do you prove you didn’t do it?

REVIEW

She had me with the lightning strike. BEHIND EVERY LIE is an engrossing and intense heart-stopping thriller. The writing effortlessly blends the characters, settings and story into a compelling read that you will not want to put down. The cast of characters is masterfully developed with each character playing a vital role in the story.

Reading BEHIND EVERY LIE was like putting a huge thousand piece jigsaw puzzle together, there are so many pieces but it’s oh so satisfying when that last piece clicks into place. Eva’s confusion and angst was paramount to the story, and the vivid descriptions allow the story to come alive on the page.

The story is told in alternating perspectives of Eva’s search for answers and Kat’s mysterious past, which also alternates us between Seattle and London. Behind Every Lie explores the complicated nature of mother-daughter relationships, family trauma, and the danger behind long-held secrets.

Author Christina McDonald is The USA today best selling author of The Night Olivia Fell, which has been optioned for television by a major Hollywood studio. Originally from Seattle, Washington, she has an MA in journalism from the National University of Ireland Galway. Cristina now lives in London, England with her husband, two sons and their dog.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher Gallery Books
Published February 4, 2019
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com show less

Christina McDonald's debut novel The Night Oliva Fell was a real roller coaster ride. Behind Every Lie is a very different type of book but it also is full of twists and turns and kept me rapidly turning pages (and losing sleep) until the end.

Eva and her mom Kat have always had a rocky relationship but not rocky enough that Eva would kill her mother...or would she? Everything points in that direction and the police are very suspicious when Eva says that she can't remember anything. She has an excuse because she woke up in the hospital after being struck by lightning - but why was she in her mother's neighborhood when she lived miles away and why was her car at her mom's and her fingerprints in the house? She has no memory of anything show more that happened after she got home that day. Eva is determined to clear her name and to try to remember what happened and after finding a letter in her mother's files, she sneaks off to London, where her mom grew up, to try to find some answers. What she finds out is shocking and she has trouble connecting the mom that she learns about in London and the mom that she knew growing up. The more questions she gets answered, the more questions she has plus she has no idea what is true and what's a lie. This book is full of lies and secrets that cause more danger to Eva as they are revealed because someone doesn't want her to find out the truth. She learns that she can trust no one - and as her memory starts to return, she even wonders if she can trust herself.

I loved this book and the way the story is told. It all comes to light gradually as the story is told by Eva in present day and Kat in the past when Eva was born. When these two time lines intersect, the complicated relationship between mother and daughter becomes even more apparent.

If you want a book full of twists and turns, lies and truth that is full of surprises - this is the book for you.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own. show less

This was a 3.5 star at the very least. While it did have a LOT squished into the plot and I understand why other reviewers were turned off by that, I quite enjoyed it. It takes a good story to really keep my attention and this book did just that. Some of the links and surprises seemed unrealistic but it was still so entertaining. I can't wait to read more from this author!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I'll post a longer one on my blog!

Behind Every Lie from Christina McDonald is a difficult book for me to offer a review on. I liked it, quite a bit, but also had some issues with it. In reading what other readers have said, I find myself understanding the comments I disagree with better than I usually do. I'll try to explain in a moment. I also acknowledge that part of the problem (if it is a problem) is that McDonald's first book was spectacular so a follow-up almost has to disappoint a little.

I am not one of those who generally complains about coincidences (too many, too unbelievable, etc) in a novel of this sort. Coincidences and unusual or unexpected occurrences are necessary, otherwise there would be nothing to right about other than waking, working, and hobbies, show more all of which would be mundane without something throwing them out of whack. There are a lot of things that might be called coincidences in this novel, perhaps more than is absolutely necessary, but I didn't find them particularly bothersome. I am a reader that is willing to let the world of the work present itself, whether staying close to the everyday or straying into the realm of the hard to believe. As long as the things that happen work toward and help to resolve the conflict, I prefer to let the story be the writer's rather than my re-write of the writer's book. This is one of the areas I mentioned above, some readers were bothered by "too many coincidences." I often dismiss those comments because it is often just that the reader didn't like something else and used that as a point of contention. But in this case, while I don't think there were too many, I can see where someone who dislikes them would be put off a bit. If they are incapable of getting past that part of the storytelling then they will be disappointed. I don't fall into that group.

One thing that I think the many little twists, turns, and coincidences do accomplish is that this is a novel I have actually enjoyed thinking about after finishing as much as I enjoyed actually reading. Part of that is thinking about how McDonald managed to keep track of everything and bring it all to a conclusion. But also thinking about the daily minutiae that we don't consciously register but could be recalled if we were straining our memories to recover from a trauma. Might I remember a detail about my father, about an old house, or even about my own feelings? I don't know, but I like being made to ponder these things.

I think most readers will be satisfied with both the storytelling and the story itself. Let the work decide, within its own limited parameters, what is believable or not. Save your rewrites for your own novels. It will allow you to enjoy this one more and also make your future bestseller that much better.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

I received this book for free from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

If you read my review of The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald then you know why I was excited to read Behind Every Lie. I absolutely loved the way McDonald portrayed the mother-daughter relationship in The Night Olivia Fell. It was emotional, complicated and made the characters come alive for me. I expected the same kind of emotional thriller novel in Behind Every Lie, but it was much more of a straight-out suspense/mystery than being emotionally driven.

Normally, I talk about what I loved about a novel first, but this time I want to get what didn’t work for me out of the way first – mostly because it has a lot show more to do with how I’ve reviewed the book. I enjoyed the story itself and the characters, but there was a lot that was just hard to believe. I’m a huge sci-fi and fantasy fan so my ability to suspend disbelief is pretty high up there. Behind Every Lie requires that you believe in a series of consequences that, taken by themselves may not be that unbelievable, but when combined just ruined my ability to pretend what I was reading was anything other than make-believe.

Another problem I had with this story wasn’t so much to do with the writing itself, but because I had recently listened to the audiobook Silent Child by Sarah A. Denzil. While the plots of the two stories are nothing alike, the characters and their relationships are essentially the same. The result was that I figured out almost every plot twist just because I knew how the relationships were going to play out.

All that being said, I still really enjoyed this book. I’m definitely a fan of the way Christina McDonald writes and this would probably be a full 4- or 5-star book for me, if not for the issues I pointed out above.

I’ve become a fan of books written from different perspectives, but it’s hard to pull this off well and so there are few stories I can even read like this. But Christina McDonald has perfected this way of storytelling. In Behind Every Lie, the story goes back and forth between Eva and her mom, Kat. Kat has been murdered and Eva is suspected of being the murderer. The relationship between Kat and Eva had recently become more strained than usual and we’re slowly let in on the reasons for this most complicated of mother-daughter relationships.

It’s hard for me to say much more about the events or people in the novel itself because SO MUCH happens and is interconnected that this entire review would just be spoilers. So I’m gonna go ahead and wrap this up…

This book is worth the read for anyone who enjoyed The Night Olivia Fell. I know I’ll definitely be picking up the next novel Christina McDonald writes. show less