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The Lies You Told – Harriet Tyce

Can you tell the truth from the lies?

Sadie loves her daughter and will do anything to keep her safe.

She can’t tell her why they had to leave home so quickly – or why Robin’s father won’t be coming with them to London.

She can’t tell her why she hates being back in her dead mother’s house, with its ivy-covered walls and its poisonous memories.

And she can’t tell her the truth about the school Robin’s set to start at – a school that doesn’t welcome newcomers.
Sadie just wants to get their lives back on track.

But even the lies with the best intentions can have deadly consequences…

My thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the opportunity to join the blog tour. I received a copy of The Lies You Told from the publisher.

I read crime and horror fiction. I don’t bat an eye at murder scenes, ghostly or monsterous carnage or even at depictions of evil crimes and wrong doings. I know it isn’t real. But I find reading about bullying to be hugely uncomfortable. I get annoyed, anxious and so very frustrated when I read about bullies. So Kudos to Harriet Tyce for dropping a big bundle of angst into my hands with her excellent depictions of loathsome bullies in The Lies You Told. It all seemed so believable that I experienced maximum bully-hating fury at some chapters.

In The Lies You Told we meet Sadie. She and her daughter (Robin) have left America for reasons we don’t immediately know, they have left Sadie’s husband and they are in Sadie’s mum’s old house. A house she hated as a child and it is clear she had no fondness for her late mother either. Robin is to be enrolled at Sadie’s old school which is somewhere Sadie also doesn’t seem to hold too many fond memories of. The reader knows Sadie is putting herself into a situation she is far from happy about but we don’t immediately get to know why Sadie is seeking this fresh start.

The early stages of the book follow Sadie and Robin trying to adjust to their new lifestyle. Neither find it easy. We see their engagements around the school and it left me with questions I needed to have answers to. Why is Robin forced to endure the misery of not being one of The Group? Why are the PTA mums so abhorrant and mean to Sadie? Though I did feel Sadie seemed to have a knack of saying the wrong thing around them…a nervousness of being picked on by the group? These questions kept me reading, I needed to understand what was happening and I was desperate for their respective upset to be resolved.

Away from school Sadie has other issues to contend with. Before leaving for America to have Robin – a decade before the events in The Lies You Told – she was a well regarded lawyer. On her return to the UK Sadie is given the opportunity to work on a high profile case, a teacher accused of grooming one of his pupils. The case should never have been brought Sadie is told by her colleagues. Harriet Tyce worked as a criminal barrister for a number of years and she draws upon that wealth of experience ensuring the the courtroom scenes in this book make for compelling reading.

For the reader we get the courtroom drama, Sadie and Robin’s domestic dramas and the overarching mystery around why the pair left the US to find themselves in this strained and unusual position. More than enough intrigue to keep the pages turning and certainly some fabulously realised characters to keep me emotionally engaged with Sadie’s plight. Blood Orange was a real high point in my 2019 reading, Harriet Tyce has another good ‘un on her hands with The Lies You Told.

The Lies You Told is published by Wildfire and is available in Hardback, audiobook and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WWSCGVS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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February 28

Blood Orange – Harriet Tyce

Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise – she’s just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems…

Just one more night. Then I’ll end it.

Alison drinks too much. She’s neglecting her family. And she’s having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle.

I did it. I killed him. I should be locked up.

Alison’s client doesn’t deny that she stabbed her husband – she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself.

I’m watching you. I know what you’re doing.

But someone knows Alison’s secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she’s done, and who won’t stop until she’s lost everything….

I received a review copy from the publishers.

Alison is a defence lawyer with a successful career, a loving husband and daughter, a drink problem and she is having an affair. Her life is complicated and to be frank she is not a very likeable character.

Allison’s husband is rapidly reaching the end of his teather with her late nights, drunkeness and a constant unreliability when it comes to caring for their daughter Matilda. Allison’s husband is massively put upon throughout the story but I didn’t warm to him. Matilda was terrific and I felt sorry for her being trapped in a tale with these two parents.

We follow Alison as she is asked to assist in the defence of a woman who has killed her husband. She is assisting a second lawyer who also happens to be the man she is having an affair with. He isn’t a very nice character either.

Blood Orange is a very well written character drama. The players in the story are suitably flawed that their lives became compelling reading. I didn’t like them much but I still wanted to know what was going to happen to them. The payoff at the end when the threads and clues all pulled together was (to me) very unexpected but nastily entertaining.

So taking great care to avoid spoilers…Blood Orange is a domestic thriller and a legal drama. Against all the turmoil in Alison’s life she balances the home life challenges and gets on with the day job. It takes a strain on her and the vices and excesses will show through the cracks. Harriet Tyce does a great job keeping her characters on the right side of sanity. Until even she cannot stop them tipping over…

Powerful storytelling and worthy of the praise being sung by authors and reviewers.

Blood Orange is published by Wildfire and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Orange-Harriet-Tyce/dp/1472252756/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1551311728&sr=8-1

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August 23

The Aladdin Trial – Abi Silver

An elderly local artist plunges 100 feet to her death at an overstretched London hospital and the police immediately sense foul play. The hospital cleaner, a Syrian refugee and loner, is arrested for her murder. He protests his innocence, but why has he given her the story of Aladdin to read, and why does he shake uncontrollably in times of stress?

Judith Burton and Constance Lamb reunite to defend a man the media has already convicted. Together they uncover not only the cleaner’s secrets, but also those of the artist’s family, her lawyer and the hospital.

A new Burton and Lamb legal thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Pinocchio Brief.

My thanks to Lightning Books for my review copy

This review is long overdue. Now that summer holidays are over, my kids have returned to school and “normal” is slowly returning I can try to catch up on writing reviews of my summer reads. I wanted to start with a good one so The Aladdin Trial was an easy choice in that regard.

The lead characters, Judith Burton and Constance Lamb, first appeared in Abi Silver’s The Pinocchio Brief. While reading the first book will give you a little extra detail on their background (and give you a great story to enjoy) you will not be disadvantaged in coming “cold” to The Aladdin Trial which can easily be read as a stand alone thriller.

In this story we have a distressing tale of an elderly artist taking a tumble from a hospital balcony and falling to her death. Suspicions are raised that this may not have been an accident and the police turn their attention to a hospital cleaner, a refugee from Syria, who had befriended the woman during her stay.

Judith and Constance will represent the cleaner in court but evidence is mounting up against their client and he is not providing his legal team with any reliable information with which they can defend him.

Away from the legal fact-finding and court preparations the reader also gets to see the children of the artist coping with the fallout of her death (and I assure you that no pun was intended there). Unbeknown to her children the artist had accumulated some personal wealth down the years and has drafted a will which requires certain conditions to be met before her children will inherit. Those conditions, while not unreasonable, show that the woman expected certain duties or responsibilities to be met by her offspring before they can inherit. Watching two adults (and their partners) trying to change their ways made for fascinating and frequently awkward reading.

Lots of twists and turns through the story made The Aladdin Trial a great story to spend time with over my holiday. If you like a courtroom drama then add Abi Silver to your reading lists – two goodun’s…and counting!

The Aladdin Trial is available in paperback and digital format and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aladdin-Trial-thriller-acclaimed-Pinocchio-ebook/dp/B07C8BB466/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534798231&sr=8-1&keywords=the+aladdin+trial

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August 19

Stitch Up – William McIntyre

Everything is coming up roses for Robbie Munro, newly married and living in the country with wife and child. That is until his wife takes up employment abroad just as old flame, Jill Green, asks him to investigate the unexplained death of her partner.

Suspecting foul play, Jill insists Robbie turns poacher to gamekeeper and does whatever it takes to find the killer – with no expense spared. Another killer on the loose is child-murderer Ricky Hertz, whose twenty-year-old conviction is under scrutiny.

Was the evidence at his trial fabricated? Suspicion falls on Robbie’s father who now faces a criminal prosecution. The only way to prove ex-Police Sergeant Alex Munro’s innocence is for Robbie to show there was no miscarriage of justice.

My thanks to Ceris at Sandstone Press for my review copy and the chance to join the blog tour

Any time spent reading the Robbie Munro (Best Defence) books by William McIntyre is time very well spent.

Robbie is a criminal lawyer who will usually find himself in opposition to the police as he defends the people they are trying to have convicted for crimes committed. This doesn’t make Robbie a bad guy but he is good at his job and we know he has past form of highlighting the police may have made an error when his clients are concerned.

Away from work Robbie is newly married and his family ties remain strong. His young daughter, Tina, is highly entertaining and she features quite frequently in Stitch Up as Robbie is technically on a short holiday and looking after his 6yo. “From the mouths of babes” is an old saying which Robbie would do well to remember as Tina shares her opinion and makes indiscreet observations with amusing frequency.

Stitch Up concentrates on an old crime which rocked Robbie’s hometown of Linlithgow some 17 years ago. A child killer has been released early from his custodial sentence when a doubt was cast upon the original conviction. The arresting policeman was Robbie’s father and he is now in the spotlight as questions are being asked about the legality of the arrest and evidence obtained. Robbie needs to stand by his father to ensure justice prevails and ensure his dad does not become a scapegoat.

Stitch Up is a cracking read, cleverly plotted, engaging characters, humorous and it is clear William McIntyre knows his subject matter well. The authenticity makes the book much easier to get into and enjoyable.

The Best Defence books are a fabulous series and are fast becoming one of my favourites. Stitch Up can easily be read as a jumping-on point – you will want to go back and read the others though!

Stitch Up is published by Sandstone Press and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stitch-Best-Defence-William-McIntyre-ebook/dp/B07D7K4Q92/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1534637409&sr=8-1&keywords=stitch+up

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April 22

Good News Bad News – WHS McIntyre

Life’s full of good news and bad news for defence lawyer Robbie Munro. The good news is he’s in work, representing Antionia Brechin on a drugs charge. The bad news is that she’s the granddaughter of notorious Sheriff Brechin.

Meanwhile, another of Robbie’s clients, Ellen Fletcher, has won the lottery and asked Robbie to find her husband Freddy, who disappeared having swindled the evil Jake Turpie. Unfortunately, Jake’s not willing to bury the hatchet – not unless it’s in Freddy’s head.

Robbie juggles cases and private life with his usual dexterity, but the more he tries to fix things the more trouble everyone’s in.

My thanks to Keara at Sandstone Press for my review copy and for the chance to join the blog tour

Robbie Munro is a defence lawyer and he sounds like the kind of guy you would want to have fighting your corner for you. He understands the law but does not feel that applying the law necessarily means that justice will be served or that the consequences will always be appropriate for the crime committed. This is entertainingly demonstrated at the start of the book when a young teacher is due to be sentenced by Robbie’s nemesis Sheriff Brechin.

The verbal battling in the courtroom between Robbie and Sheriff Brechin is laced with much of the wry humour which is evident throughout the book and it firmly establishes that there is no love lost between the two men. This sets up a future dilemma very nicely as Brechin’s grand-daughter (herself a promising young lawyer) finds herself on the wrong end of the law. As Robbie is the only criminal defence lawyer she knows she appoints him to represent her. A new client is Good News, the prospect of failing and letting down the Brechin family – very Bad News.

Away from the court Robbie is approached by a client who has her own Good News Bad News. She has won the lottery and wants to enlist Robbie’s help in tracking down her husband (a conman that everyone believes to be dead). However the client only has a few months to live so time is tight and Robbie will have his work cut out to ensure he can keep himself on the right side of the law and not let down his client.

This was my introduction to Robbie Munro but the Best Defence series has been running for a while. The good news is that Good News Bad News can be read as a stand alone novel (and it is a book I highly recommend). The bad news is that (if you are like me) then reading Good News Bad News will make you want to read all the other books in the series – brace your TBR pile for some legal drama courtesy of WHS McIntyre.

Good News Bad News is published by Sandstone Press and is available in paperback and digital format. Order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-News-Bad-Best-Defence/dp/1910985600/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492812720&sr=1-1&keywords=good+news+bad+news

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