Imagine you’ve finally escaped the worst relationship of your life, running away with only a suitcase and a black eye.

Imagine your new next-door neighbours are the friends you so desperately needed – fun, kind, empathetic, very much in love.

Imagine they’re in trouble. That someone is telling lies about them, threatening their livelihoods – and even their lives.

Imagine your ex is coming for you.

If your new best friends needed you to tell one small lie, and all of these problems would disappear, you’d do it . . . wouldn’t you?

It’s only one small lie, until someone turns up dead . . .

My thanks to Sryia at Penguin RandomHouse for my review copy and the opportunity to join the tour.

Ooft.

Psychological thrillers sometimes aren’t quite what they are billed as. No real thrills, a bit predicable, never a sense of peril – essentially some books just don’t quite hit the mark for me.  But One White Lie didn’t just hit the mark, it smashed it…maybe with the hammer that protagonist Lucy King carries around with her.

Ooft.

This story got me hooked – started reading in a hot bath, looked up 2 hours and 250 pages later in a decidedly cold bath. As a reader there is nothing better than finding a book which just keep you turning pages – One Little Lie did that for me. Always that nagging worry, doubt that what Lucy was experiencing was all it seemed, questions around why her new friends were shunned by the townsfolk where they lived. But I get ahead of myself.

We first meet Lucy as she is moving in to a new cottage in a small town on the outskirts of the city.  She is clearly terrified and on the run from a controlling and aggressive partner and she needs a safe haven to sort out what to do.

Lucy meets her new neighbours, John and Vera. They are a few years older than Lucy but a strong friendship bond soon forms as the couple show her a kindness and compassion which she has been missing from her life for so long. For John and Vera Lucy represents a new friend in a town where they are deeply unpopular with the locals. For a long time Lucy tries to piece together snippets of gossip to determine why her friends are being held as outcasts. A nice layer of mystery for the reader as we only get snippets and rumour too.

Just as Lucy begins to relax in her new surroundings two shocking twists will threaten to destroy the sanctuary she has created. One way to ensure her continued safety is to tell One Little Lie to help John and Vera. That shouldn’t be too difficult a task should it?  Unfortunately for Lucy one lie will lead to another and fate will play her a cruel hand further threatening her safety.

During all these issues Lucy is ever aware her ex is out there somewhere and he will be looking for her. So it is paranoia that Lucy believes someone has been in her home or has her ex finally caught up with her?

Stories build on the need to lie and sustain that lie places the protagonist under extreme stress and Leah Konen delivers that tension brilliantly. I really enjoyed One Little Lie – it ticked all the right boxes and I’d definitely recommend it.

One White Lie is published by Penguin and is available in physical, digital and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07YTHYLC6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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