Abandoned by Booklikes

Since I had to get this back to the library this week, I moved this up and am wrapping up my "Watchers" read as well. I have to say that I could not put this book down last night! It was insanely good and the twists I didn't see coming well expertly done. I also like how Mackintosh plays with POVs via some of the narrative choices she chose. I thought this worked from beginning to end and I have to go back and read some more of her thriller/suspense novels.

"Let Me Lie" follows 20 something year old Anna Johnson. Anna is a new mother in a new relationship mourning the loss of her parents (Tom and Caroline Johnson) the year before. Both her father and mother committed suicide and Anna has always thought that someone has murdered them. When she gets a post in the mail that alludes to something sinister happening she goes to the police hoping they will re-investigate her parents' suicide. From there "Let Me Lie" follows not only Anna's POV, but someone close to her (no spoilers) and a retired police detective who finds himself intrigued about Anna's parents' case. 

So I really liked Anna and felt for her. She had a great upbringing with her mother and father and feels a bit adrift after having her daughter. Once she receives the anonymous post in the mail about her parents she starts going back over her family's history and meeting with her father's brother and wondering if she ever really knew her parents. When her long-time family friend Laura trying to help Anna let go of the past, she starts to wonder if she's just looking for a reason behind her parents suicides or if there really was something more sinister going on.

I thought that Anna's boyfriend Mark was kept underdeveloped on purpose. You have Anna constantly protesting the relationship internally and saying  how it works, but even at times you have her popping her head up and wondering about them being together no matter how many times she protests to her uncle and Laura. 

The retired detective Murray Mackenzie's POV was welcomed in this one. I felt so much sympathy for this character. Mackintosh shows how relentless he is in order to figure out the truth and how much inner pain he is due to the constant episodes with his wife Sarah that have caused her to be voluntary committed to a psychiatric hospital. 

The writing was really good and the flow works. Mackintosh ensures the chapter headings show us when Anna and Murray are "speaking." And then we get another POV and then a fourth POV that I just shivered in delight with once things get revealed. I went back and re-read those knowing what I know now and just went "ah so clever." I loved the fact that Mackintosh takes a hard look at people's memories of an event and flips it around so many times in this one. 

The setting of the book focuses mostly on Anna's family home and how hard she is trying to hang onto it. You get why Mark wants to move since I felt a lot of times that once again Anna was seeing the house in the past (happy families) and Mark was seeing it as it was (place where two people who killed themselves lived and dark aura around everything). 

The ending was fantastic! Loved it from beginning to end.