In this thrilling standalone from the internationally bestselling author of the Frieda Klein series, a married woman’s affair with her boss spirals into a dangerous game of chess with the police when she discovers he’s been murdered and she clears the crime scene of all evidence.
THE LYING ROOM by NICCI FRENCH
Series: Standalone
Publication date: October 1, 2019
Published by: William Morrow
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
SYNOPSIS
One little secret between a married woman, her lover, and a killer.
It should have been just a mid-life fling. A guilty indiscretion that Neve Connolly could have weathered. An escape from twenty years of routine marriage to her overworked husband, and from her increasingly distant children. But when Neve pays a morning-after visit to her lover, Saul, and finds him brutally murdered, their pied-Ã -terre still heady with her perfume, all the lies she has so painstakingly stitched together threaten to unravel.
After scrubbing clean every trace of her existence from Saul’s life—and death—Neve believes she can return to normal, shaken but intact. But she can’t get out of her head the one tormenting question: what was she forgetting?
An investigation into the slaying could provide the answer. It’s brought Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Hitching, and Neve’s worst fears, to her door. But with every new lie, every new misdirection to save herself, Neve descends further into the darkness of her betrayal—and into more danger than she ever imagined. Because Hitching isn’t the only one watching Neve. So is a determined killer who’s about to make the next terrifying move in a deadly affair….
Praise for The Lying Game:
“This stand-alone from the team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, authors of the Frieda Klein series, delivers engaging characters, a complex story, and steadily increasing suspense. International best-seller French belongs on every thriller fan’s TBR list.”
- Booklist
“If you have admired and enjoyed the Frieda Klein... you will definitely like The Lying Room. Even if you are unfamiliar with that series, but are drawn to excellent psychological suspense... this is a book for your “must list.”
- Popular Culture Association
“Fans of domestic thrillers will be rewarded.”
- Publishers Weekly
“Having ended the saga of forensic psychologist Frieda Klein on a suitably harrowing note, French produces a stand-alone that’s just as suspenseful... The sorely tried heroine realizes, “I can’t trust anyone.” Neither can the expertly manipulated reader.”
- Kirkus Reviews
“Attention, fans of Tana French and Ruth Ware: meet your new obsession... The Lying Room ranks among French’s very best, a thriller as combustible as gunpowder, as propulsive as a jet engine. Psychological suspense at its brightest and most blazing.”
- A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
“This stand-alone from the team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, authors of the Frieda Klein series, delivers engaging characters, a complex story, and steadily increasing suspense. International best-seller French belongs on every thriller fan’s TBR list.”
- Booklist
“If you have admired and enjoyed the Frieda Klein... you will definitely like The Lying Room. Even if you are unfamiliar with that series, but are drawn to excellent psychological suspense... this is a book for your “must list.”
- Popular Culture Association
“Fans of domestic thrillers will be rewarded.”
- Publishers Weekly
“Having ended the saga of forensic psychologist Frieda Klein on a suitably harrowing note, French produces a stand-alone that’s just as suspenseful... The sorely tried heroine realizes, “I can’t trust anyone.” Neither can the expertly manipulated reader.”
- Kirkus Reviews
“Attention, fans of Tana French and Ruth Ware: meet your new obsession... The Lying Room ranks among French’s very best, a thriller as combustible as gunpowder, as propulsive as a jet engine. Psychological suspense at its brightest and most blazing.”
- A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
EXCERPT
Excerpted from the book THE LYING ROOM by Nicci French. Copyright © 2019 by Joined-Up Writing. On sale October 1st, 2019 from William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.
When Neve pulled up the blinds, the kitchen sprang into life like a theatre set, empty and waiting for the familiar show to begin. She looked around: it was all a bit threadbare, the skirting boards scuffed and that crack running down the wall. She and Fletcher had been meaning to do something about it for years. There were wine stains on the table and a couple of cigarette burns, cobwebs drifting high up among the lights. Dinner from last night hadn’t been properly cleared away. There were dirty plates on the surface next to the sink and the milk had been left out. Last night: she let the memory pulse through her and then she pushed it away. Not now. Not here.
The clock said it was ten past seven. She filled a glass with water and drank it slowly, tied her dressing gown more firmly, took a deep breath and turned to face the room. The door opened on cue.
‘Morning,’ she said cheerfully to her eldest son.
Rory blinked, mumbled something, bobbing his head. He was wearing blue jeans, a blue tee shirt and a blue jumper. He had her Irish paleness and he was going to be tall, as she was: in the last year, he had grown by four inches, like a piece of elastic being stretched to the point of snapping. Sometimes Neve thought she could almost see him growing, his limbs elongating, his feet large and flat, his bony face exhausted.
‘You’re very matching,’ she said. She wanted to put an arm round him but she restrained herself; he had started to dislike being touched; hugging him had become a stiff, awkward business. He would soon be eleven. Next year he would be at secondary school and in uniform.
When Neve pulled up the blinds, the kitchen sprang into life like a theatre set, empty and waiting for the familiar show to begin. She looked around: it was all a bit threadbare, the skirting boards scuffed and that crack running down the wall. She and Fletcher had been meaning to do something about it for years. There were wine stains on the table and a couple of cigarette burns, cobwebs drifting high up among the lights. Dinner from last night hadn’t been properly cleared away. There were dirty plates on the surface next to the sink and the milk had been left out. Last night: she let the memory pulse through her and then she pushed it away. Not now. Not here.
The clock said it was ten past seven. She filled a glass with water and drank it slowly, tied her dressing gown more firmly, took a deep breath and turned to face the room. The door opened on cue.
‘Morning,’ she said cheerfully to her eldest son.
Rory blinked, mumbled something, bobbing his head. He was wearing blue jeans, a blue tee shirt and a blue jumper. He had her Irish paleness and he was going to be tall, as she was: in the last year, he had grown by four inches, like a piece of elastic being stretched to the point of snapping. Sometimes Neve thought she could almost see him growing, his limbs elongating, his feet large and flat, his bony face exhausted.
‘You’re very matching,’ she said. She wanted to put an arm round him but she restrained herself; he had started to dislike being touched; hugging him had become a stiff, awkward business. He would soon be eleven. Next year he would be at secondary school and in uniform.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Nicci Gerrard was born in June 1958 in Worcestershire. After graduating with a first class honours degree in English Literature from Oxford University, she began her first job, working with emotionally disturbed children in Sheffield. In that same year she married journalist Colin Hughes.
In the early eighties she taught English Literature in Sheffield, London and Los Angeles, but moved into publishing in 1985 with the launch of Women's Review, a magazine for women on art, literature and female issues.
In 1987 Nicci had a son, Edgar, followed by a daughter, Anna, in 1988, but a year later her marriage to Colin Hughes broke down.
In 1989 she became acting literary editor at the New Statesman, before moving to the Observer, where she was deputy literary editor for five years, and then a feature writer and executive editor.
It was while she was at the New Statesman that she met Sean French.
Sean French was born in May 1959 in Bristol, to a British father and Swedish mother. He too studied English Literature at Oxford University at the same time as Nicci, also graduating with a first class degree, but their paths didn't cross until 1990. In 1981 he won Vogue magazine's Writing Talent Contest, and from 1981 to 1986 he was their theatre critic. During that time he also worked at the Sunday Times as deputy literary editor and television critic, and was the film critic for Marie Claire and deputy editor of New Society.
Sean and Nicci were married in Hackney in October 1990. Their daughters, Hadley and Molly, were born in 1991 and 1993.
By the mid-nineties Sean had had two novels published, The Imaginary Monkey and The Dreamer of Dreams, as well as numerous non-fiction books, including biographies of Jane Fonda and Brigitte Bardot.
In 1995 Nicci and Sean began work on their first joint novel and adopted the pseudonym of Nicci French. The Memory Game was published to great acclaim in 1997 followed by The Safe House (1998), Killing Me Softly (1999), Beneath the Skin (2000), The Red Room (2001), Land of the Living (2002), Secret Smile (2003), Catch Me When I Fall (2005), Losing You (2006) and Until It's Over (2008). Their latest novel together is What To Do When Someone Dies (2009).
Nicci and Sean also continue to write separately. Nicci still works as a journalist for the Observer, covering high-profile trials including those of Fred and Rose West, and Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr. Novels include Things We Knew Were True (2003), Solace (2005) and The Moment You Were Gone (2007). Sean's last novel is Start From Here (2004).
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