House of Lies

Detective Karen Hart, Book 4

By: D. S. Butler

Narrated by: Henrietta Meire

Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

A dark secret. A haunted past. And a house full of lies.

When two teenage girls vanish without a trace from an educational retreat at Chidlow House in Lincolnshire, the students and teachers are put on high alert.

Called in to investigate, Detective Karen Hart questions everyone who came into contact with the two girls, Cressida and Natasha, in the days leading up to their disappearance.

Stories of Chidlow House being haunted abound, but Hart - still coming to terms with the suspicious circumstances surrounding the tragic loss of her own family - knows that while the house might be otherworldly, the crime is grimly real.

But nothing is quite as it seems at Chidlow House. When it becomes clear that someone at the estate must know more than they’re letting on, Hart faces a race against time to find the culprit and save the girls.

While there is no shortage of suspects, Hart comes up against one dead end after another. And when she too begins hearing eerie whispers in the walls, she is forced to wonder: was she too quick to dismiss Chidlow’s supernatural reputation?

©2020 by D. S. Butler. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

House of Lies

I do enjoy the slow unfolding of a murder mystery. Again with twists and turns and unreliable characters, not to mention creepy men. So glad I found this series. There are only 3 books left!
Part of the Kindle Unlimited catalog.

Good series

Em enjoyed this installment to the series more than some of the previous books. I feel myself becoming more invested in the characters with each book. Love the narration! I could listen to Henrietta all day.
Would recommend.

Brilliant twist!

Excellently written police procedural thriller! Well developed characters and engaging, interesting dialogue! Jaw dropping twist! Fabulously narrated by Henrietta Meire👌

Fantastic book!

DI Karen Hart and team are fast-tracked on a case of two missing teens who were attending a week-long special advanced course...at a mansion that’s supposed to be haunted. One girl is recovered alive and the other is finally located...dead. As Karen and team investigate, they uncover more lies than facts. The ending will leave you speechless! Looking forward to the next book!

Brilliant and Sophisticated

The story was fluid and brilliantly executed. The performance was awesome with considerable care taken to individual characterization.

Great Book!

I love this series! D.S.Butler has a talent for shining the light toward various characters which keeps you focused and using your deductive reasoning to find out who is responsible. Unexpected surprises and results are achieved, leaving the reader hoping for more!

Easy to join this series with book 4

It was easy to jump right in to this series starting with book 4. I also appreciated that it had NO cliffhangers. Meeting a new British female detective led me to select this title. Karen Hart has obviously had some tough times but she buckles down and gets her work accomplished despite some veiled (and some imagined) threats against her job. The teen son of a superior pushes every button in the book.
This story moves fairly quickly and delivers enjoyable entertainment without too much intense concentration. It was just right for some relaxing holiday listening.

This is NOT a stand-alone. Protagonist is obsessed by a case from earlier book or books.

Recently I’m not had much success when choosing Audible books. Unfortunately, the narrator has a staccato cadence which I found difficult to listen to, so after a few chapters, I switched to Kindle.

I was not aware that this book has a continuing storyline from a prior book. The current storyline about the disappearance of two teens is a good one, but DS Karen Hart is too distracted by an old case to properly attend the current case. For over half the book, she’s preoccupied by an old corruption case that I know nothing about. Worse, her obsession continues through this book, and she even chases down a witness from the old case. I prefer authors to either 1) enlighten about the backstory or 2) drop it after the first 25 pages, or at the most, 50 pages.

Although I almost DNFed this book several times, I made a resolution to finish every book I started. I’ll undo that resolution on 31 December, which can’t come soon enough. I skimmed through the book to follow the storyline the end, and overall, it’s a decent mystery.

If you’re a fan of this author, please take my review with a shaker of salt, because if you’ve read earlier books in this series, you might love this one.

Please follow basic police procedure... Please!

1.75 Stars for me!

My low rating is due to blatant procedural errors and the worst trained Police Officers around.

When a person of interest requests a lawyer, questioning has to stop or any information divulged is considered fruit of the poisoned tree.

When a claim is made about a person under investigation, you don't automatically assume that it is true. You look for corroborating evidence. Our h went on a 10 minute rant about how she trusted the wrong person and just assumed that the information provided was true. This happened with two persons of interest (including on obviously gilted ex-wife). The Ex had every reason to feel gilted as he Ex was horrible.

The h is pretty much handed her backside by a teenager as well as many other characters in previous stories. She acts like she hasn't been trained.

I do like the stories in this series but have to skip past the constant negative head banter. I don't expect a strong police procedural but I want authors to follow the most basic tenants of policing and the law.

Yes I will continue to read this series as I do like the stories overall and most rate 3-4 Stars for me.