I am delighted to be one of the stops on the blog tour today for The Friend Who Lied. My review is written with thanks to Sarah Hardy from Book On The Bright Side for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book

Blurb:

What she doesn’t know might kill her…

Lisa Ashton receives a last-minute reprieve from death two weeks before her birthday. Regaining consciousness, she is horrified to learn one of her friends has been killed – and saved her life.

As she recovers, she uncovers a trail of carefully guarded reputations, disturbing rumours, and lies. Soon, Lisa begins to wonder if one of her friends is hiding a terrible secret.

Because five of them entered the escape room that day, and only four got out alive.

And someone is determined to cover their tracks before she can find out the truth.

Can Lisa find the killer before someone else dies?

The Friend Who Lied: a twisted psychological thriller from USA Today bestseller Rachel Amphlett – perfect for fans of The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley and Friend Request by Laura Marshall.

Review:

I know Rachel Amphlett through her Kay Hunter series, so I jumped at the chance to read her new standalone novel and was intrigued by how she would create characters that would stand out in a single novel rather than over a series  My intrigue was well and truly satisfied as the four main characters  Lisa, Hayley, David and Bec each have their own flaws and secrets which are drawn out slowly over the course of the novel  This makes them fascinating characters to follow, something which is heightened as they each narrate their own chapters, making it impossible to know who is reliable or telling the truth.

The Friend Who Lied is set around the premise of an escape room. I’ve never been to an escape room, and I’m not sure I want to after reading this! It sets the scene for a very claustrophobic novel and this feeling remained with me the whole time I was reading. The novel is full of tension, increased by the punchy writing style and short chapters, and I read it in a day in my desperation to get to the truth!

The wide range of characters with multiple back stories gives Amphlett the opportunity to bring some important themes to the reader’s attention, including organ donation, coercive control and abortion. They are not always explored in great detail, but the discussion.was enough to make me think about them and create a very engaging narrative.

The Friend Who Lied is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: