The best psychological thrillers with secrets from the past

The opening to this psychological thriller is stunning. Beautifully written, dark, tense and emotional – there is no way you can’t read on. And the rest of the book is equally good. There’s a complex plot that is revealed in bite-sized chunks at just the right time, the two main characters are likeable and authentic, and Cummin’s writing style keeps you just on the right side of ‘on edge’ throughout the book. But the reason this thriller really stood out for me is how it explores intense relationships formed in childhood under extreme conditions, and how they play out in adulthood decades later.

This is a story about three brothers. It starts with the funeral of one of them (you don’t know which) and goes back over their lives to unravel the mystery. They are all very different and none of them are likeable, and yet I found myself invested in all of them, trying my hardest to like them despite what they did – to each other and more widely. The book explores some serious issues around mental health and addiction, and I felt Nugent did this incredibly well – with both sympathy and clearly lots of research. The story is also told very skillfully. It uses multiple characters and jumps between timelines but reads very smoothly.

The first thing that drew me into this book is the feeling of “I could see that happening… what would I do if it were me?” The second really enticing element comes when McAllister introduces a future timeline where the three siblings have had a falling out and their cover-up plan seems to have not worked. There is then a constant question of how did they get from here to there? The book is further enriched by the interesting relationships between the two sisters and brother. They each have their role in the family dynamic, largely set by a traumatic event in their childhood, and these have a significant impact on how they respond – individually and collectively – to this new highly stressful event.

I heard that Lisa Jewell had the idea for this book after seeing a woman sleeping on the beach in France with her children and wondering what her story was. If that’s true, it shows what an incredible imagination she must have to build such an original and intriguing plot from that one image! The story centres on a house in Chelsea, but is really the tale of a mix of extreme characters living together, causing a terrible event, and the one truly innocent person in it all unravelling the truth 25 years later. Told via two timelines, this is one of those ‘just one more chapter’ kind of books. 

The first thing that stood out for me about this book is that the narrator is in a coma – scared of the people who are supposed to love her, but unable to defend herself. The second thing is the title. Sometimes I Lie sets you up for an unreliable narrator, which I love in a thriller – especially when you’re not quite sure who is even telling the story at certain points in the book. This is a clever thriller that manipulates your thinking constantly. I found my loyalties constantly changing, which meant I could never quite trust anyone – and also that I couldn’t stop reading it!