ABOUT THE BOOK

A vicious assault. A devastating accusation. Who should she trust, her husband or her best friend?

It was supposed to be the perfect reunion: six university friends together again after twenty years. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with her college boyfriend, now husband. But that night her best friend makes an accusation so shocking that nothing will ever be the same again.

When Karen staggers in from the garden, bleeding and traumatised, she claims that she has been assaulted by Ali’s husband, Mike. Ali must make a split-second decision: who should she believe? Her horrified husband, or her best friend? With Mike offering a very different version of events, Ali knows one of them is lying, but which? And why?

When the ensuing chaos forces her to re-examine the golden era the group shared at university, Ali realises there are darker memories too. Memories that have lain dormant for decades. Memories someone would kill to protect.

MY REVIEW

Twenty-five years of friendship and one night changes it all. Rape, lies, murder, fear, desperation…cover ups for the lives they wanted to keep.

I loved this book!  It is a very suspense-filled mystery between college friends told mostly in  Ali Morris’ voice. Their lives change in one instant filled with lies, unfaithfulness and deception.  The buildup to Ali’s realization of the facts is intense and eye-opening.  Her life is shattered and any normal human being would have been broken, but she garbles through the untruths and changes her life to save what’s left of her family and friends.

I thought I had it all figured out and was blown away to find the truth at the end! Recommend highly.

Thank you to Claire McGowan and Damppebbles Blog Tours for giving me the opportunity to review this book with no expectation of a positive review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Northern Ireland in 1981, Claire McGowan studied in Oxford then lived overseas in France and China. She is the author of standalone thriller The Fall, and the Paula Maguire series, including The Lost, The Dead Ground, The Silent Dead, A Savage Hunger, Blood Tide, and The Killing House. The Paula Maguire series was optioned by the BBC in 2014. A ten-part radio drama written by Claire was broadcast on Radio 4 in early 2019, and as a screenwriter she was selected as the 2017/18 Nickelodeon International Writing Fellow.

Claire set up the Crime Thriller Writing MA at City University, London, and has also taught for the Arvon Foundation, Guardian Masterclasses and at many literary festivals.

As Eva Woods, she has published four women’s fiction novels, including the bestselling How To Be Happy.

Follow Claire on her website, Twitter, and Facebook.

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