The Lie

Product Information

This is a beautifully written tale about the sacrifices of the WW1 generation. It's been marketed by the line "Can love survive the war?" but this is no simple love story. It's far more complex and layered than that involving a triangle of people who all love each other in such different ways. And the love theme is but one strand and it mostly just simmers under the surface of the story and remains ambiguous to the very end.

I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland. That's literally the thought that was screaming through my head the whole time I was listening/reading this book. The Lie focuses around Emma and is split into the present where she is working in Wales and known by the name Jane Hughes and four years earlier when Emma went on a holiday to Nepal with three of her best friends and only two of them returned alive. Emma has built a new life for herself as Jane but she sudden;y starts receiving ominous messages and must figure out who is threatening her. This was my first time reading a book by British author C.L. Taylor, and I really enjoyed it. The Lie was a very sinister and atmospheric tale of psychological suspense. At one stage, I was doubting everybody who was around Jane, completely unsure whom to trust. Jane was a very likable character, but there weren't many of those. Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later. If you set a story in Cornwall, if you change the names of places, you really shouldn’t use real place names for your characters. If you set out to write a novel set in the aftermath of the Great War, elements often found in gothic novels will seem out of place. Such small things, but they took me away from the heart of the story.Five years ago Emily was persuaded to go on a holiday with three of her friends to Ekanta Yatra a retreat in Nepal. The retreat is not all it appears to be and soon friendships will become a thing of the past. This was supposed to be the holiday of a lifetime but it is slowly turning into Emily's worst nightmare from which there seems no escape. I have to say I am not keen on plots involving anything resembling a cult, and this lessened my enjoyment of The Lie. This is a personal dislike and not something that should dissuade readers without that opinion from reading the book.

Twelve hours after finishing, my thoughts are still somewhat scattered. I'll try to be coherent, and I apologize if I fall short.This is a creepy read which just oozes menace in every chapter. Five years ago four friends – Emma, Al, Leanne and Daisy went on holiday to a spiritual retreat in Nepal, but it was a holiday that ended in disaster and we know right from the start that not everybody returned although we don’t know the full horrific details until much later in the book. Five years later Emma has a new identity - Jane – a new job and a blossoming relationship. Her past is a highly guarded secret, or is it? Someone seems to have discovered the truth about her. Who that is, we are not told. We not only have LIE'S we have SECRETS, and we know secrets come out too and get revealed when we least expect them. I would have to say that overall I liked this book. I enjoy a wide range of books and find that mixing things up works best for me. I have been reading way too many romances lately so I was immediately interested in this book because I was in the mood for a mystery. The fact that the cover promises that it will be "Dark and creepy" was really just an added bonus. The characterization is so good - people who you thought were trustworthy turn out to be anything but and the sinister undertones increase as gradually the story unfolds. All four friends had flawed but interesting characters. They may not have been very likeable but each had their own issues which all played a part in the trauma that was to follow. The Ektanta yatra retreat, where they were staying, was anything but a haven of peace and tranquility, some of the people there may have seemed charming and welcoming but a few had an agenda of their own. Most of the time my sympathy was with Emma – there were times when I thought she was a bit naive but I could identify with her character and I felt for her at the way she was treated. Five years ago, Jane Hughes was called Emma Woolfe and she and three friends set out for the holiday of a lifetime to Nepal. The fun that they were expecting however soon turned into a nightmare.