The Lies We Told

By: Camilla Way

Narrated by: Sally Scott, Patience Tomlinson

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

The highly acclaimed author of Watching Edie returns with a new novel of dark psychological suspense that explores how those closest to us have the most to hide....

A daughter

Beth has always known there was something strange about her daughter, Hannah. The lack of emotion, the disturbing behavior, the apparent delight in hurting others.... Sometimes, Beth is scared of her and what she could be capable of.

A son

Luke comes from the perfect family, with the perfect parents. But one day, he disappears without a trace, and his girlfriend, Clara, is desperate to discover what has happened to him.

A life built on lies

As Clara digs into the past, she realizes no family is truly perfect and uncovers a link between Luke's long-lost sister and a strange girl named Hannah. Now Luke's life is in danger because of the lies once told and the secrets once kept. Can Clara find him before it's too late?

©2018 Camilla Way (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"The Lies We Told has the makings of your perfect weekend read. Think: an obsession, a dysfunctional family, and a disappearance, with an unreliable narrator to top it all off. Page, turned." (The Skimm)

“[T]he construction and pacing are solid, staying just far enough ahead of the reader to be fun, and offering, in the last quarter, a buffet table of twists.” (New York Times Book Review)

“[A] twisty psychological thriller.... Think you have the plot figured out? Think again. There are no easy answers in Way's dark, compelling story. Grade: A” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Loved it!

One of the best books I’ve ever read! Lots of twist and turns! Highly recommended

excellent 👍👍👍👍👍

the book was great. suspenseful. so many twists and turns. surprise ending. definitely 5 🌟

Loved it, didn’t stop listening

I really enjoyed this book. Everything about it was great. A sorry I hadn’t heard yet. Narration was great, which is so important for me. Definitely recommend.

Lots of twists - kept me guessing

I found a couple of the characters a bit flat and sometimes not quite believable but overall the plot kept me guessing and was quite entertaining. I did find the accents and characters of Hannah’s mom and dad quite annoying!

all I can say is WOW!

Ending was so unexpected . What a twisted mind some people have. Narrators did awesome with giving each character their own distinct voice.

Enjoyable summer “read”

I found the story entertaining and definitely wanted to know what happened. Some of the other reviewers commented the narrator for Beth sounded too old for her character. She did sound “old,” but I assumed this was intentional because Beth was recounting events that occurred nearly 40 years ago, so from that perspective the narrator’s voice sounded age appropriate. That said, I found the voice of Beth’s narrator grating when she was reading dialogue between characters. I thought Clara’s narrator was excellent. The characters in Clara’s timeline did drop quite a few f-bombs, but not an unrealistic amount.

So Freakin Good!!

This book was so good! It kept me constantly saying, "What is going on?" Usually I can guess the ending but not this one! Highly recommend!

Good Story

This was a good story, a little slow at times but everything comes together nicely at the end. The only part of the performance that I couldn't stand was when one of the narrators spoke in the "Hannah baby voice", it drove me insane, ear piercing. Other than that, the book was good.

Well plotted but disappointing flat ending.

I was enthralled with the excellent writing to gradually bring the story lines of two completely unrelated families together. It was fascinating, suspenseful and easy to follow and the crossing of the story lines was clever and made sense with the groundwork already laid. But then I expected a clever twist at the end and instead it went flat. There were a couple twists and attempts at more suspense, but the twists were obvious and the suspense didn't work for me. I was disappointed. I think the author should have spent sometime working through a much more nuanced and clever ending to go with the excellent writing in the rest of the story. I think this was worth my time, but I'll recommend it to my book friends with caution.

An engrossing & well-woven story!

Two story lines converge in an unpredictable way. From the beginning, each story held my attention and the Narrator was excellent. Well done! Highly recommend!!