The Literate Kitty

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...