Little Black Lies

Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton

Published by Bantam Press

2nd July 2015

Hardback Edition

 

What's the worst thing your best friend could do to you?

Admitedly, it wasn't murder. A moment's carelessness, a tragic accident - and two children are dead. Yours.

Living in a small island community, you can't escape the woman who destroyed your life. Each chance encounter is an agonizing reminder of what you've lost - your family, your future, your sanity.

How long before revenge becomes irresistible?

With no reason to go on living, why shouldn't you turn your darkest thoughts into deeds?

So now, what's the worst thing you can do to your best friend?

I'm so pleased to have been asked to take part in the official blog tour for Little Black Lies, the newest novel from the fabulous Sharon Bolton.  This is a stand-alone novel, set in the Falkland Islands in 1994.  As a bit of a coincidence, in 1994, my then boyfriend was a serving member of the RAF based in the Falkland Islands!  So...back to the plot.  In 1991, Catrin's two children died in a tragic car accident having been left in the car by her then best friend Rachel and ever since then she has been planning her revenge.  Set over five days in November, Little Black Lies follows Catrin, Rachel, and ex-paratrooper Callum as they live, work and breathe their daily lives on the island of East Falkland.

At the start of the book, a child goes missing.  This isn't as unusual as it seems though, as he is not the first child to disappear without a trace on the islands; he is in fact the third such child.  There are no tangible links to anyone on the island and the police are at a loose end as to whom to pinpoint the abduction on.  Could they possibly even consider that it could be down to a local?  Catrin, and her ex-lover Callum begin to work together to see if they can find any evidence of the missing boy.  However, people begin to question Catrin's sanity, especially as the events tie-in around the anniversary of her children's deaths, and Callum, who found Catrin's own boys, suffers from PTSD as a result of his time serving on the islands during the conflict in the 1980s.

Little Black Lies follows each character during these five days, looking at their past and present lives and interweaving them fantastically.  The island descriptions are very well written and it is definitely an atmospheric novel.  The beach scene where Catrin has to work with the beached pilot whales is both moving and intrinsically detailed, and whilst I've never visited the Falklands, I sort-of feel like I have now.  None of our narrators is wholly reliable however, and whilst you are reading each of the three parts, you are never totally sure whether to believe them or not.  Catrin clearly has a grudge that she is building up to avenging, Callum has terrible flashbacks that leave him unable to function properly, and Rachel is a mother who is clearly struggling to cope behind the facade of her everyday life.

In the final chapters, the book takes you on first one journey and then another before ending with a dramatic climax.  Sharon Bolton has done it again - Little Black Lies is definitely another best seller in my opinion.

Happy Reading

 

Miss Chapter x