She Lies In Wait – Gytha Lodge {Book Review}

It’s the day we encourage reading over here on the blog, so no… surprise….another #BookReviewFriday is upon us! Thrillers are my thing….I prefer a good thriller over any genre any day of the week. So it’s not too shocking that today I am reviewing a thriller..this week from author, Gytha Lodge, titled She Lies in Wait.

What is the book about?

On a hot July night in 1983, six school friends go camping in the forest. Bright and brilliant, they are destined for great things, and young Aurora Jackson is dazzled to be allowed to tag along. Thirty years later, a body is discovered. DCI Sheens is called to the scene, but he already knows what’s waiting for him: Aurora Jackson, found at long last. But that’s not all. The friends have all maintained their innocence, but the body is found in a hideaway only the six of them knew about. It seems the killer has always lurked very close to home…

My thoughts

As a mother, automatically a story about a dead child hurts my soul…fiction or not.

The story starts very quickly with the discovery of the bones and so begins the narrative, jumping from the present time to 1983. Each chapter is usually told  from a different person’s perspective. I loved reliving and reading the actual events of 1983, especially from Aurora’s perspective as we relive her last few hours with her. Not reliving the darker bits of course, but you know what I mean. Though getting to know her was also tragic, in that you knew we were set on a course that she would not come back from.

The storyline itself I felt was really good and intriguing. A real ‘whodunnit‘ sort of book. You want to know whodunnit and you want justice for Aurora.  In the present time the 6 friends are still close and…one of the 6 friends, includes Aurora’s sister, Topaz. So I wondered what the impact would be on Topaz if she realises she knows the killer….or if in fact she may be the killer or in on it.

So I loved the plot and storyline, but….just shy of 400 pages, this book could have been shorter. It does tend to drag a bit as they try to include a bit of history about everybody.  For me, there were so many ‘side stories’ or an attempt to delve into the personal lives of some of the characters, but they never really tie that up or allow us to really get to know or be intimate with the characters. Then the ending just went a little bit crazy, and seemed a bit rushed in my opinion… I wasn’t a fan of how the book was wrapped up.

Final thoughts

So this book was a bit of a mixed bag….I enjoyed reading it and I finished it in 2 days flat. It was a real page turner! Despite my criticism, it wasn’t a bad book. Also, I had no idea whodunnit until the very end! I rate this book about 3.5 stars out of 5. Its Goodreads average is 3.76, so I’m not too far off.

‘She lies in Wait’ retails for around R290 and is available from all leading book retailers.

Looking for more book reviews? Check out: Target: Alex Cross, Murder In Paradise.

Thank you Penguin Books for sending this over for me to review.