Eva wakes up in the hospital, her memory erased but in deep pain. The nurse explains that she had been hit by lightning, her arm feathered by Lichtenberg figures, red lines left from where the electrical current went through her. But that’s not the worst thing. Her mother had been murdered. Eva had been found by the police several blocks away from her mother’s house, from the scene of the crime.
As time goes by, she learns that her past is a web of secrets and lies, but her memories stubbornly keep their distance. After leaving the hospital, she tries to relax and let her body heal, but her need for answers is stronger. She starts trying to piece together what had happened to her and to her mother, because she’s afraid that the police will arrest her for the murder.
But as shards of memory return, and Eva is faced with bad decisions from her past, she realizes that without her memories, she can’t be certain that she wasn’t the one who killed her mother. The lightning strike itself can cause memory deficits, and a previous trauma left her vulnerable to anxiety, even paranoia. So with all that working against her, how can she be sure if she was the killer or not?
Her fiance Liam and an old friend from the neighborhood Jacob both try to help Eva, encouraging her to get the help she needs, but she insists on digging into her past, finding the truth for herself, and putting her fears to rest. But will she be able to put the pieces together before it’s too late?
Christina McDonald, author of the popular The Night Olivia Fell, is back with Behind Every Lie, a thriller about a mother-daughter relationship built on lies as well as love. The story is told by Eva in the present and her mother Kat in the past, interweaving a story of two families in danger and what strong women did in order to survive.
I was so excited to get to read this book, especially with all the good press her first book got. But as I got started, I found a lot of problems with the logic and the timing. It just felt like it wasn’t completely planned out at first. That being said, the more I read, the better the construction of the story became, and many of the logic problems were left behind. It is a compelling story with interesting characters, and for the most part, the wording is beautiful, sometimes lyrical. But it is not a perfect novel, which is disappointing, as a lot of my problems with the story could have been fixed with just some more attention to detail. I don’t want to tell you not to read this, because there is a lot of good in there. I just want you to be prepared to be irritated by details that don’t seem to add up well, especially in the first third of the novel.
Galleys for Behind Every Lie were provided by Gallery Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.