Author: Kathryn Croft

Publisher: Bookouture

ISBN: 9781837901104

When a teen goes missing, suspicion falls on her boyfriend. His mother fights to protect him from the police as the missing girl’s mother takes steps to get justice. Both mothers begin leaning on half-truths 

to find out what actually happened. Author Kathryn Croft returns with her latest thriller in the somewhat intriguing but mostly predictable book The Lie.

Newly settled in the suburb of Surrey outside of London, the Adams family is throwing a barbecue for the neighbors. Lucy Adams notices the frosty air between her son, Jacob, and his girlfriend, Rose Nyler. She tries to justify the behavior as a normal bump in the road of young love. After all, Rose seems perfectly content to hang out with Ava, Jacob’s little sister. Ava adores Rose, and the feeling is mutual. Maybe, Lucy thinks, things will work themselves out with Jacob too.

The next day she gets a nightmarish call from Rose’s mother, Carrie. Rose has been missing since Jacob walked her home from the barbecue. The police are looking for her, and, worse, a witness claims that Jacob and Rose were arguing on the way to Rose’s house. Now no one knows where she is.

Lucy trusts Jacob when he says he has no idea what happened to Rose, that he loves her and would never harm her, but she also senses that Jacob isn’t telling her everything. As more information confirms that he has, in fact, lied about some things, Lucy’s instinct kicks into overdrive. No matter what, she’s Jacob’s mother first and foremost and she has to protect him.

Carrie, Rose’s mother, is sick with worry for her. A single mother since Rose was a small child, Carrie has always put her daughter first and done everything she could for her. Now it’s just her, and she doesn’t know what to do with herself. Then word comes that the police have found a body, and Carrie’s entire existence spins into chaos.

Her on-again/off-again boyfriend, Joe, tries to support her, but he has his own issues and lies that he’s told. The more Carrie discovers how those lies connect to Rose, the more she doesn’t want Joe in her life anymore. Then comes the biggest surprise of all: support from Tom, Lucy’s husband. Tom says he knows the police are doing their due diligence in considering Jacob a person of interest in Rose’s death, but he’s also concerned for Carrie’s welfare. 

Both mothers make decisions that put their children first, and both end up lying to do so. As the investigation crawls forward, both mothers will fight for justice for their families. Only one, however, will truly get it.

Author Kathryn Croft sets up a likely cast of characters for her latest novel with the Adams family and Carrie and Rose. She does, however, give them more room beyond the tropes of regular thrillers. The reason for the move from the city to the suburbs doesn’t center on Jacob, a welcome change from some books in the genre, but readers may sense that he’s connected to that reason somehow. Also, Croft gives Carrie dignity with a purpose-filled job instead of painting her as the lazy, neglectful single mother. 

In many ways, however, the characters’ actions don’t make sense. When the police’s interest in Jacob increases after the discovery of Rose’s body, Lucy takes Jacob away from town and hides him from law enforcement saying she needs time and space to figure out how to help her son. During their time away, however, she wrings her hands and agonizes about how Jacob got mixed up in the situation in the first place.

Carrie authorizes the use of a private investigator to figure out whether Jacob killed Rose, yet that entire subplot mysteriously falls by the wayside with no results. Tom, Lucy’s husband, tries to be the impartial party between both women but, other than declaring his impartiality from time to time, doesn’t do much else. Ava, Jacob’s little sister, shows up frequently to tell all of the adults they don’t understand anything, yet she doesn’t explain what she means.

The story finds its climax and closure from a surprising source, but the book needed more active involvement from everyone in it. Those who want a standard thriller that’s a quick read will probably like this one. Otherwise, I recommend readers Borrow The Lie by Kathryn Croft.