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 harbouring some dark secrets of her own. The truth may lie closer to home and put Melanie’s life in terrible danger…
My Review: The Darkest Lies deals with every parents nightmare – a missing teenager daughter who is found barely alive having obviously been attacked but by whom? Told from the viewpoints of the mother Melanie and the daughter Beth, this story uncovers secrets, lies, betrayal and suspicion.
Whilst reading Melanie’s chapters and realising she is narrating her story to her daughter who lies in a coma is heartbreaking but watching her slowly fall apart through blame and guilt is really painful to read as a parent.
Set in a small village the reader feels the ripple effect throughout the tight-knit community and quickly realises that everyone has a guilty secret. Full of twists and turns and red-herrings everywhere I thought I had worked out who the attacker was but was shocked to find out I got it completely wrong! This is a tense page-turner which fans of psychological thrillers will love.
About The Author: Barbara Copperthwaite is an Amazon UK best-selling psychological crime author. Barbara’s writing career began over 20 years ago when she became a journalist. She has written and edited for a number of national magazines and newspapers. At the start of her working career she also worked in a men’s maximum security prison. It was there that her fascination with crime began, as she realised that bad guys don’t always seem that bad – and are often charming.
Interviewing real people who have been victims of crime, either directly or through the loss of loved ones, consolidated Barbara’s interest in crime. As a result, she knows a lot about the emotional impact of violence and wrongdoing. That’s why her novels are not simply about the criminal act, but the repercussions they have. People are always at the heart of her thrillers, along with a genuine ability to get under the skin of even the most evil of characters.
This insight is what has propelled both of her novels, INVISIBLE and FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD onto Amazon’s bestsellers charts, and led to rave reviews.
