Whoever Said the Thing About the Truth Setting You Free... Underestimated What a Mean SOB the Truth Really Is. (Lying in Wait thriller REVIEW)

It is, without doubt, a ballsy move to craft any sort of mystery (or psychological thriller) wherein the big question of “whodunit?” is revealed in the first few pages… yet that’s precisely the tack Liz Nugent takes in her wickedly-twisty (and twisted) new page turner, Lying in Wait.

As you may have guessed, though, there’s a brilliant method to her madness, because the pages which follow concern a far-more intriguing question: the “whydunit”, if you will.

To wit, any idea why a respected, middle-aged judge would kill a wrong-side-of-the-tracks young woman—with his to-the-manor-born wife’s assistance, no less—then drive the body to their own home and proceed to bury it in the back garden on their posh estate?

Of course, there’s more to murder than just the act—especially for seemingly “normal” folks, like you or me. There’s the memory of it (and trying to live with same). There’s guilt (for the murderers here are anything but your typical cold, hardened killers). There’s a lifetime of lying that must follow (especially when you have a teenage child in the house, who mustn’t ever find out what you did). And, above all, there’s keeping every bit of it a secret, forever.

Fortunately for us, Nugent didn’t content herself with looking at things from the couple’s point of view; we’re also privy to everything from a viewpoint of 180—the family of the “missing girl”, in other words (for without a body, anyone who vanishes without a trace must needs be considered “missing”, unless/until evidence to the contrary surfaces). And things are very, VERY different from the other side…

Perhaps the greatest brilliance in Lying in Wait, though—the real shocker—is the element of Hatfields-&-McCoys, or even Romeo-&-Juliet, in a sense, once the paths of the two families cross again, down the road… and everyone involved discover that memories, like hidden bodies, are always just lying in wait.

I absolutely loved Lying in Wait. It’s awful and horrible (some of the characters, not the writing), but entirely believable—full of hope, despair, and pathos, by turns. In the end, it delivers an emotional punch which refuses to go unfelt. This one demands your attention, your patience, and your heart… so just give them up. 

~GlamKitty

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