The Darkest Lies

A Gripping Psychological Thriller with a Shocking Twist

By: Barbara Copperthwaite

Narrated by: Alison Campbell

A mother desperate for the truth. A daughter hiding a terrible secret.

Melanie Oak appeared to have the perfect life. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Jacob, the couple live with their beautiful, loving, teenage daughter, Beth, in a pretty village. Nothing can shake her happiness - until the day that Beth goes missing, and is discovered beaten almost to the point of death, her broken body lying in a freezing creek on the marshes near their home. Consumed with grief, Melanie is determined to find her daughter's attacker. Someone in the village must have seen something. Why won't they talk?

As Melanie tries to piece together what happened to Beth, she discovers that her innocent teenager has been harboring some dark secrets of her own. The truth may lie closer to home and put Melanie's life in terrible danger.

A completely gripping psychological thriller with a twist you won't see coming. Fans of The Girl on the Train, The Sister and Before I Let You In will be captivated.

©2017 Barbara Copperthwaite (P)2017 Bookouture

Well written, engaging but...

there are some seriously frustrating characters and scenes. I'm sure the author designed it so to evoke the reader/ listeners emotions because it will, unless you have a cold, dead heart.

The narrator did a fantastic job although, I did have to speed it up just a tad. It was not due to her reading slow just for some reason the recording is slow.

Recommend.

Twisted and Surprising

The Darkest Lies is a twisted and dark story with many surprising moments. It was pretty good, though there was a lot of repetition in scenes as recalled memories of the characters. The sub-plot was definitely shocking. I thought the main plot was easily solved, but was surprised that it was as parallel to the sub-plot as it was. Could’ve shortened the book had it not been so repetitive.

best book ever.

I loved it and hated it to be over. it was exciting and sad and made me smile as well.

Twist

I saw the twist right from the beginning so I was a little disappointed but the story is worth listening to if this is the genre you like

edge of my seat

fell in love with the characters grin the start. twists and turns that kept me guessing!

twists and turns

I was mad at the stupidity of Marci through most of the book. However, the author redeems herself by introducing unexpected twists.

Wow- great psychological mystery!

Well done all around by this talented author and narrator! The story, characters, unexpected twists, obvious background research done by this author all came together in this very clever novel. Thanks to the author and narrator for a very interesting and engaging experience.

About 3 hours too long

Story starts out interesting enough. If you find the narrator annoying, turn the narration to 1.25 - you're welcome. The author uses different character narratives in each chapter, so they blend the tale together through their perspective. The mom and dad are blissfully ignorant of their daughter's "secret life" and on her first foray into teen life, she is brutally attacked. The remainder of the book is about the mom trying to find the attacker with the help of an old school chum who suddenly turns up in town. But then it draaaaaags with the mom doing "are you kidding me?" kind of stuff that no one would ever really do in real life. There's no big reveal or "shocking twist" for readers who are used to psychological thrillers, but the story has a satisfying end and earns the 3 stars I gave it. Alison Campbell is clear and she accentuates each word like she's talking to a small child. I found her very annoying but at the slightly increased speed, it was tolerable - she could have done much better if she'd had a couple drinks before her recording sessions. IMHO

Excellent!

Loved it. Great narration, plot, and anticipation. If you like psychological thrillers you're in for a treat.

Slow paced, weird POVs, insipid characters

This story did not resonate with me because I didn’t like the writing style and because I couldn’t develop a strong interest in any of the characters, and the story just didn’t hold my interest.
The author employs a clunky multiple point-of-view style to tell the story using one of my very least favorite POV styles as the main one: a sort of first and second person mix where the second person is not YOU the reader but YOU, another character. So mom is saying, ‘Beth, we looked for you but you were gone, weren’t you, Beth?’ (Interspersed are tiny parts told from the bad guy’s POV and then Beth’s own story). This is probably a personal preference but it really bugged me.
In addition, I found the characters insipid and too many aspects of the plot were just pushed past the point of fictional unbelievability. The parents came across as too naive and so did Beth, even for small town residents. When characters are pushed too far past the mark, it makes me disconnect from the story. The narration was good, but it could not save the book for me.