The Lie

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Helen Dunmore was an award-winning novelist, children’s author and poet who will be remembered for the depth and breadth of her fiction. Rich and intricate, yet narrated with a deceptive simplicity that made all of her work accessible and heartfelt, her writing stood out for the fluidity and lyricism of her prose, and her extraordinary ability to capture the presence of the past. I really don't know how authors dream up these stories, they are enthralling, compulsive, addictive and my time just flies when reading books such as this. I can't talk about this without delving into spoilers so please beware that the resolution and most of the mysteries in the book will be spoiled if you continue to read on. 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.

At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel. And the writing, enriched by the poetry that Daniel read in the library of the big house, that he loved, that he learned, is every bit as special as I hoped.

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Events start to have a sinister, complex and tense edge to them, the loyalties and friendships are tested, strained and damaged, some repaired some not. You can sense the book going into a darker place. Timeline switching happens all through the book, from Jane and her friends years ago, before and during their holiday and to the present day, with Jane and her secrets and her new and hidden life. It's pretty easy to follow, not confusing like some timeline switching can be. I have long been an admirer of Helen Dunmore and am pleased to say that I greatly enjoyed her latest work. Obviously it is the Centenary of the First World War and so there are bound to be many books about such a cataclysmic historical event which changed Europe, and the people involved, forever. This is a moving read, but events and memories are unravelled slowly – almost poetically – and it is not a book to rush, but to savour and think about. Overall this is a great follow-up novel by C L Taylor and I look forward to her future books with anticipation. She does creepy and dangerous with ease and in way that sets my heart pitter pattering!

This is told in the first person by Daniel Branwell. Many novels have multiple time lines as does this one. We are never told exactly when the present is, but I think it isn't too long post war, so probably about 1919 or 1920. The two other timelines are Daniel's war experiences and his life as a child when about 10 to 12 years old. During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.I thought the book was extremely good at depicting the dynamics of groups. Firstly, the female toxic friendships that were shaped by competitiveness, envy and bitterness and secondly, the group dynamics at the "retreat" in Nepal, which showed how easily people can be manipulated and how dangerous a situation can turn once a follow-the-leader environment has been established. However, there were some situations in Nepal as well as in Wales where I felt the plot was losing some credibility. Nevertheless, it was such a tense, fast-paced and provocative story, which was refreshingly different, I really liked it and will seek out more by this author. I have purposely waited until now to get my reading matter done on this new book from this author as I know many would grab and start reading it right away. I wanted to wait. I wanted to wait for the hype to simmer down so that I could chill out......they hype this book up again where it deserves to be.

During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession. We not only have LIE'S we have SECRETS, and we know secrets come out too and get revealed when we least expect them.

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 not a mystery, because it is not possible to figure out. You are so slowly spoon fed the information by the author that the crime solving aspect of the story ends up basically being non-existent. The ending was wholly disappointing for this reason. Jane Hugh works and loves being in the animal sanctuary. She has a steady man in her life, she seems to be happy. I read this in just over 24 hours I really couldn't put it down, its fast paced with lots of unexpected twists. Highly recommend it to anyone that likes thrillers, you really wont be disappointed reading this one.

I really loved the pace, the plot and the energy of the book up to them arriving at the holiday destination of a lifetime, it's hard to share without spoilers, but it's not quite what everybody expected. At this point in addition to the group of friends a number of new and flawed characters are introduced and I can confidently say I did not take to one of them. The Lie is a really excellent follow up to “The Accident” a book I was enthralled by last year, clever and tense psychological thrillers both. In The Accident the focus was on parental relationships and secrets, here with “The Lie” it is all about friendship.The Lie was a thrilling read that was very hard to put down. If I didn’t have to eat, sleep and work, it wouldn’t have left my hands. The Lie is a downright dark and very twisted psychological thriller that is a compelling rollercoaster of a read especially as the tension builds to a crescendo finale when we finally receive the answers to the questions posed throughout the book. With the multiple twists in the examination of friendships and cults you really do enter a dark and very creepy world. The characters are well developed well written and the story really does grip you by the throat and not let you go until the end. I certainly would not want to get on the wrong side of Cally Taylor because The Lie is an example of her thinking she has a seriously twisted mind that would make her revenge a very painful cold dish being served.