A vicious assault. A devastating accusation. Who should she trust, her husband or her best friend?
It was supposed to be the perfect reunion: six university friends together again after twenty years. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with her college boyfriend, now husband. But that night her best friend makes an accusation so shocking that nothing will ever be the same again.
When Karen staggers in from the garden, bleeding and traumatised, she claims that she has been assaulted-by Ali's husband, Mike. Ali must make a split-second decision: who should she believe? Her horrified husband, or her best friend? With Mike offering a very different version of events, Ali knows one of them is lying-but which? And why?
When the ensuing chaos forces her to re-examine the golden era the group shared at university, Ali realises there are darker memories too. Memories that have lain dormant for decades. Memories someone would kill to protect.
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[When it stops, she's lying on the grass with her face crushed in it]***
(Thomas & Mercer, 1 August 2019, ebook, 269 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle, Amazon First Reads)
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I really enjoyed this book. The book has a great opening, when Karen's assault is about to end and this demands your attention. This is the kind of book full of twists, turns and misdirection. I didn't know who to believe. Ali stood by her husband and I could understand her motivations for this. However, it is clear Karen has been assaulted and isn't making it up. Whose story is more believable? The author does a great job of showing how the strain of the situation affects Ali. Karen's accusation is bad enough but her son does something shocking to defend his mother which will have far-reaching consequences. There are also the dark secrets about Karen and Mike dating back more than twenty years and an unsolved murder from the group's university days. I was impressed by the way the author gradually brings all these threads together.
