Behind Every Lie
From the USA TODAY bestselling author of The Night Olivia Fell—an “emotionally charged mystery” (Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author)—comes a thrilling suspense novel about the insidious nature of family secrets…and their deadly potential.
If you can’t remember it, how do you prove you didn’t do it?
Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street. She can’t remember what happened but the police are highly suspicious of her.
Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London—Kat’s former home—for answers. But as she unravels her mother’s carefully held secrets, Eva soon realizes that someone doesn’t want her to know the truth. And with violent memories beginning to emerge, Eva doesn’t know who to trust. Least of all herself.
Told in alternating perspectives from Eva’s search for answers and Kat’s mysterious past, Christina McDonald has crafted another “complex, emotionally intense” (Publishers Weekly) domestic thriller. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell’s I Found You and Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her, Behind Every Lie explores the complicated nature of mother-daughter relationships, family trauma, and the danger behind long-held secrets.
If you can’t remember it, how do you prove you didn’t do it?
Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street. She can’t remember what happened but the police are highly suspicious of her.
Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London—Kat’s former home—for answers. But as she unravels her mother’s carefully held secrets, Eva soon realizes that someone doesn’t want her to know the truth. And with violent memories beginning to emerge, Eva doesn’t know who to trust. Least of all herself.
Told in alternating perspectives from Eva’s search for answers and Kat’s mysterious past, Christina McDonald has crafted another “complex, emotionally intense” (Publishers Weekly) domestic thriller. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell’s I Found You and Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her, Behind Every Lie explores the complicated nature of mother-daughter relationships, family trauma, and the danger behind long-held secrets.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
With the publication of The Night Olivia Fell, Christina McDonald became a best-selling author. Behind Every Lie is a spectacular successor that she accurately describes as "twisty. Emotional. Empowering."
Behind Every Lie, inspired by the case of Emily Doe, the woman who was sexually assaulted at Stanford University by Brock Turner, is an intense, atmospheric story told at a relentless pace. Once again, McDonald mines a timeless and endlessly fascinating topic: the complex relationship between a mother and daughter. As the story opens, Eva's memory has been impacted as a result of being struck by lightning. Ironically, that occurred on the very night her mother was brutally murdered. Now Eva can't remember the time leading up to the murder. And because the police suspect her, she initially doubts herself, actually wondering if she was capable of such a violent, abhorrent act. She is deeply frustrated by her inability to remember.
McDonald sets the story in two locales, Seattle, her home, and her adopted home city of London, and employs two narratives. Eva's first-person, present-day narration alternates with that of Kat, set twenty-five years earlier. Kat notes at the outset, "A memory is no more reliable than the weather, broken, warped by the teller's view." McDonald deftly shows that Kat is going to explain how that opening scene in a park was "the beginning of the end," pulling readers into a unique and cleverly-plotted mystery. Eva and Kat are the centerpieces of the tale, but McDonald includes a colorful cast of supporting characters, among them Liam, Eva's live-in boyfriend, a successful property developer with offices in Seattle and on isolated Whidbey Island. Eva has kept a secret from Liam, and worries that if he finds out what happened four years ago, she will lose him. Because of that, Eva has isolated herself and catered to Liam's whims, always being pliable and compliant, allowing him to dictate the terms of their relationship. Vulnerable and scarred by the events she has never revealed to him, Eva has always viewed him as a "nurturer," believing that he is better at taking care of things than she is. There's also Andrew, Eva's brother, and the intriguing Lilly, Kat's best friend. The two women grew up in England, and Lilly has been like a second mother to Eva and Andrew.
It quickly becomes clear that Eva can trust no one. Can she dare trust herself to uncover the truth?
As the story progresses, everything Eva has always believed about her life and the people around her is called into question. Text messages reveal why Eva was at her mother's home on the night she died, and a letter from her mother explains some of the truth, and the fact that Kat kept secrets from her in order to protect her.
In order to prove that she is not a murderer, she knows she must learn the truth, no matter how destructive or painful it might be. In the midst of the murder investigation, Eva flees to London in search of answers, determined not to take the blame for something that she did not do.
Through a series of shocking revelations, McDonald challenges readers to consider what sacrifices a mother will make to protect her child, the lengths to which a mother will go in the name of putting the child's needs ahead of her own. She examines how several women respond to unimaginable circumstances, making choices that they will be required to live with for decades to come. And explores the impact of those choices on those whose lives are impacted. Is forgiveness too much to ask? Is it possible to move on after discovering devastating truths about your family members and their actions . . . and learn to rely upon your own power?
Behind Every Lie is a fast-moving, engrossing mystery about a woman who needs answers about who she really is not only to prove that she is not a murderer, but also to forge a future for herself, free from her family's secrets about the past. It is entertaining and compelling, full of expertly-timed plot twists and surprises guided by McDonald's evident compassion for Eva, her protagonist. At the beginning of the story, Eva is a heartbroken young woman who is very much lost, mired in mystery, memory loss, and desperately in need of information about her and her family that has been kept hidden from her for years. Her journey to the truth, and the empowerment and belief in her own worthiness it engenders, is poignant and compelling.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Behind Every Lie, inspired by the case of Emily Doe, the woman who was sexually assaulted at Stanford University by Brock Turner, is an intense, atmospheric story told at a relentless pace. Once again, McDonald mines a timeless and endlessly fascinating topic: the complex relationship between a mother and daughter. As the story opens, Eva's memory has been impacted as a result of being struck by lightning. Ironically, that occurred on the very night her mother was brutally murdered. Now Eva can't remember the time leading up to the murder. And because the police suspect her, she initially doubts herself, actually wondering if she was capable of such a violent, abhorrent act. She is deeply frustrated by her inability to remember.
McDonald sets the story in two locales, Seattle, her home, and her adopted home city of London, and employs two narratives. Eva's first-person, present-day narration alternates with that of Kat, set twenty-five years earlier. Kat notes at the outset, "A memory is no more reliable than the weather, broken, warped by the teller's view." McDonald deftly shows that Kat is going to explain how that opening scene in a park was "the beginning of the end," pulling readers into a unique and cleverly-plotted mystery. Eva and Kat are the centerpieces of the tale, but McDonald includes a colorful cast of supporting characters, among them Liam, Eva's live-in boyfriend, a successful property developer with offices in Seattle and on isolated Whidbey Island. Eva has kept a secret from Liam, and worries that if he finds out what happened four years ago, she will lose him. Because of that, Eva has isolated herself and catered to Liam's whims, always being pliable and compliant, allowing him to dictate the terms of their relationship. Vulnerable and scarred by the events she has never revealed to him, Eva has always viewed him as a "nurturer," believing that he is better at taking care of things than she is. There's also Andrew, Eva's brother, and the intriguing Lilly, Kat's best friend. The two women grew up in England, and Lilly has been like a second mother to Eva and Andrew.
It quickly becomes clear that Eva can trust no one. Can she dare trust herself to uncover the truth?
As the story progresses, everything Eva has always believed about her life and the people around her is called into question. Text messages reveal why Eva was at her mother's home on the night she died, and a letter from her mother explains some of the truth, and the fact that Kat kept secrets from her in order to protect her.
In order to prove that she is not a murderer, she knows she must learn the truth, no matter how destructive or painful it might be. In the midst of the murder investigation, Eva flees to London in search of answers, determined not to take the blame for something that she did not do.
Through a series of shocking revelations, McDonald challenges readers to consider what sacrifices a mother will make to protect her child, the lengths to which a mother will go in the name of putting the child's needs ahead of her own. She examines how several women respond to unimaginable circumstances, making choices that they will be required to live with for decades to come. And explores the impact of those choices on those whose lives are impacted. Is forgiveness too much to ask? Is it possible to move on after discovering devastating truths about your family members and their actions . . . and learn to rely upon your own power?
Behind Every Lie is a fast-moving, engrossing mystery about a woman who needs answers about who she really is not only to prove that she is not a murderer, but also to forge a future for herself, free from her family's secrets about the past. It is entertaining and compelling, full of expertly-timed plot twists and surprises guided by McDonald's evident compassion for Eva, her protagonist. At the beginning of the story, Eva is a heartbroken young woman who is very much lost, mired in mystery, memory loss, and desperately in need of information about her and her family that has been kept hidden from her for years. Her journey to the truth, and the empowerment and belief in her own worthiness it engenders, is poignant and compelling.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.