Sweet Little Lies: A Suspenseful Mystery

by Caz Frear

WINNER OF THE RICHARD AND JUDY SEARCH FOR A BESTSELLER COMPETITION

'A blistering debut from a major new voice. I couldn't put it down. Authentic, compelling, unflinching and tender and written with real verve and assurance' ERIN KELLY

'Debut novels don't come better than this one, which begs the question - Caz Frear, where have you been?' RICHARD MADELEY

'Taut, gripping, surprising and original - a fabulous read' JUDY FINNIGAN

'Caz Frear's ability to write tight, tense dialogue with a dark comedic slant is brilliant. I read Sweet Little Lies in one sitting, it is a terrific debut' LYNDA LA PLANTE

'BRILLIANT! Unputdownable and great writing. Recommended' MARIAN KEYES

'An astonishingly confident and individual voice' ANN CLEEVES


WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW

In 1998, Maryanne Doyle disappeared and Dad knew something about it?
Maryanne Doyle was never seen again.

WHAT I ACTUALLY KNOW

In 1998, Dad lied about knowing Maryanne Doyle.
Alice Lapaine has been found strangled near Dad's pub.
Dad was in the local area for both Maryanne Doyle's disappearance and Alice Lapaine's murder - FACT
Connection?

Trust cuts both ways . . . what do you do when it's gone?

FOR FANS OF ERIN KELLY AND BELINDA BAUER, GET READY FOR THE SUSPENSE NOVEL OF THE YEAR.


'A killer premise. An original voice. An utterly compelling story that will keep you up all night' FIONA CUMMINS, author of Rattle

'Impossible to put down' ALEX GRAY

'The best debut I've read in a very long time' WILLIAM RYAN

'An incredibly strong and confident voice that has hit the page fully-formed' CATHERINE RYAN HOWARD, author of Distress Signals

'A perfect storm of a crime novel . . . one of the best novels in this genre' LIZ LOVES BOOKS

• ISBN10: 0062823280
• ISBN13: 9780062823281
• Publish Date: 14 August 2018 (first published 29 June 2017)
• Publish Status: Temporarily Withdrawn
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[Nadz@Totally Addicted to Reading]

Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear was an in interesting read. It took a while for me to get into the story, and there was a time I considered giving up on it. There was so much family drama, which I monopolized the story. However, I stuck with it, and I am glad I did, because the story got better and once it did, there was no turning back. I had to know who did it and why.


The author weaved a complex tale where we see the past colliding with the present. It goes to show that actions from our past always intertwine with our present. No matter how long it takes, your past will eventually catch up with you.


I found the mystery element quite intriguing, as the victim had many secrets and she was no saint, hence there were several suspects, with her husband being the main one.  DCI Cat Kinsella, the protagonist, strongly believes her father knows something about the murder based on his association with the victim 18 years ago. The question is does he know more than he lets on or is it sheer coincidence.


The mystery took a turn I never expected. I will not be going into details, but I will say this much it has a connection to an old case. 


Cat proved to be a rather complex character with daddy issues. As a child, she worshiped her father, but the hero worship turned sour, when she caught him in what her eight-year-old mind considered a lie. As an adult, she was estranged from her father and her siblings. However, the current case led to opening of old wounds and she finds herself confronted with the pain from her past.  


She has a good relationship with her colleagues, however with this current case; she is not truthful with them. They have no idea she and her family are connected to the victim.  This added to the intensity of the story as I kept wondering what would happen if the truth came to light.


One can sometime tell the gist of a story based on its title. In Sweet Little Lies, most of the characters are liars.  Lies permeated their lives, making them unreliable characters. One is never sure what to believe until the truth reveals itself.


Conclusion/Recommendation

Despite the slow start, Sweet Little Lies proved to be an interesting and complex mystery featuring characters that kept me on my toes.

[Leah]

Sweet Little Lies grabbed my attention because of its spine, it’s lime-green and I love it. Yes, I am a cover snob and yes, I am attracted to book covers with bright spines. What can I say, bright colours catch my eye! Getting serious, this is a thriller and I’ve read very few thrillers lately, having got a bit bored of the genre – there’s only so many times a woman can go missing, or a husband can be evasive about that woman going missing, or a child goes missing, etc, until you reach your limit. But I was intrigued by Sweet Little Lies because the back cover blurb is all about Cat’s dad and *his* role in a girl’s disappearance, that he lied. That he misled people, etc and it was just such an intriguing way to write the blurb!

I had a few tiny issues with Sweet Little Lies, so we’ll get them out of the way first: a police officer smoking weed is wrong, whatever way you dress it up. Google hasn’t come up much, but it did bring up an article that a police officer was sacked for smoking weed. That immediately lost points with me, that Cat smoked weed. Weed is still illegal in the UK, unless you have one of those medical dispensation cards??? And it just irked me immensely. Am I on a high horse? I dunno, but I didn’t like it. I don’t know why authors try to dress up smoking drugs as if it’s okay, as if it’s “cool”.

I also was so alarmingly baffled by Cat’s relationship with her dad. We get it, it’s complex. Her dad lied about Maryanne Doyle, Maryanne Doyle subsequently went missing, and since then Cat has tried to punish him and it was excruciating to read about. I’m all for daddy issues – but I cringed at the way Cat talked to her dad. Especially since she had no proof, just what her eight-year-old mind saw. And even then, at eight-years-old that’s hardly reliable. My memories of being eight are vague. I remember some things, some events, but I certainly don’t have day-to-day memories of anything at that age, and yet Cat remembers everything about that holiday perfectly (except we later learn, she doesn’t, as there’s an entire conversation that was had that she didn’t remember). I suppose what I didn’t get was that it Cat hated her dad so much, wanted to get back at him for hurting her mum so much, why she didn’t look into her dad properly? She’s a police officer, she could have mentioned it to her team at the very start, “Oh by the way, my dad knew that lass…” and he would have been investigated properly. But she didn’t. Was it loyalty? I do not know. It’s what kept me reading – because their relationship was like an off-balance see-saw; her dad was pretty decent to her all things considered, but Cat just didn’t give him the time of day.

Sweet Little Lies was such an intriguing read. It kept me gripped throughout, and I had not guessed how the plot would come together at all, which I always appreciate. I like when authors can still surprise me. I don’t know if Caz Frear plans more books with Cat, I would probably read them, though only if it’s with the same murder team as this one, as I liked Parnell and Steele. And I kinda feel like there’s more to Cat that we could learn, that we could see her really grow. Caz Frear has definitely hit it out of the park with her debut novel – it was tight, it was tense, it was paced so incredibly well and it kept me properly hooked from start to finish and I just had no idea where it was going.