She Lies in Wait

by Gytha Lodge

[zooloo1983]

This was such a little gem of a book! I suspected everyone including DCI Jonah Sheens even though this is his book series! It really did have me guessing and I loved that!

With this book, I listened to the audiobook as well as reading it. The narrators were fab, and I did love the guy trying to do a female Brummie accent, however, his Irish accent was to die for!

Following the cold case of Aurora Jackson missing body turning up 30 years later, and the fear begins to set in for the six remaining, now adults, survivors. What happened that night? Who is to blame? Who killed Aurora?

It was heartbreaking listening/reading Aurora’s chapters as you were counting down until her untimely death, given updates of the day and evening and then finally the horrifying events of that day.

From the opening pages, I was sucked straight into this story. I loved trying to figure out what was going on, how everyone was linked and who committed this awful deed! To me, you could feel the fear and shock of everyone when Aurora’s body was discovered, from Sheen with his secrets and being part of the original investigation, to the 6 friends, Topaz, Connor, JoJo, Daniel, Brett and Coralee.

I do love discovering everyone’s secrets, and by Jove, there were quite a few in here to be discovered. But did that make them guilty of neglect or even murder?

Lodge’s writing had me caring for Aurora and Sheen. The other characters were great but I was not overly fussed how they felt. These two shined for me. Aurora, the pure and innocent, whilst Sheen is contrasting with his conflict, darkness and guilt.

Sheen’s team were fab too and I can not wait to see how they developed and see how Hanson (being the newest member on the team) fits in with them all. Hanson, to me, is a fantastic addition and I hope she shines. She is meticulous and upon discovering something that could jeopardise the case, she handled herself so well it had me smiling with pride at her behaviour and her actions afterwards. She has a lot to learn but to me, she has proven herself in so many ways already.

I loved this was more not a fast action whizzy paced book, I loved that it was slowed down as we uncover each clue carefully and delved further in. Even with the police interviews, where Sheen held back on some questions the first time around, to come back to them later, to me, added to the intensity. He allowed the six adults to move freely around the chess board as he watched them connecting the dots before finally it was checkmate.

I will definitely be picking up the next book in this series and anything that Lodge writes, to be honest. To have me completely stumped to the hows and the whys, to have me go on a merry-go-round on my suspect’s list and still leave hanging for more is a real treat.