Hi Reader,

I hope youre having a wonderful May so far and if the weather has been kind, I hope you’ve been able to reconnect with the outdoors and bask in sunshine!

May is my Birthday Month, and I chose to spend mine up a Mountain in the Lake District. It took us 6 and a half hours, but my Husband and I climbed Skiddaw via the fairly challenging route of Ullock Pike and Long Side. Not only did we make it up the super steep climb up the face of the mountain, but I also managed to take a Birthday cupcake all the way up in my backpack, which I enjoyed immensely at the summit!

I got a lovely variety of Birthday gifts from my nearest and dearest, including the book I’m going to share with you today.

A GAME OF LIES BY CLARE MACKINTOSH

Synopsis:

‘They say the camera never lies. But on this show, you can’t trust anything you see.  Seven reality show contestants arrive in the Welsh mountains to compete for a life-changing prize, not realising what they’re truly signing up for.  Each stranger has a secret – and the show will force them to expose one another live on air.  It’s not long before things take an even darker turn, and Detective Ffion Morgan is summoned to untangle the truth behind the scenes.  And when a murderer strikes, every one of Ffion’s suspects has an alibi… and a secret worth killing for. ‘

I’d never read a Clare Mackintosh novel prior to reading A Game of Lies, which is actually the second in the series with DC Ffion Morgan as the main protagonist, but I absolutely love thrillers and crime novels, and I mean, it’s literally SET IN THE MOUNTAINS, so this sounded perfect for me!

The gist of the story is it’s a bit like ‘The Traitors’ meets ‘Too Hot to Handle’, meets ‘I’m a Celeb’. The 7 contestants think they’re on the show for an outdoor adventure reality programme, only to find out pretty brutally that they’re there to protect their darkest secrets. The winner keeps their secret safe and wins a large sum of money – the other 6 will have their secret exposed.

This huge deception of course creates lots of emotions for the contestants and culminates in a murder. With so many suspects, so many motives and a vast wild landscape as the murderer’s playground, will Ffion be able to trace the true murderer?

CAN’T PUT IT DOWN RATING: 5/5

I really enjoyed the way in which this book was written and I pretty much flew through it! What I enjoyed significantly is that this is obviously a book written around a dark subject – lots of fairly dark-ish secrets and a murder, yet Mackintosh (a former Police officer herself), manages to make the story fairly light hearted and fun to read.

The main characters are so interesting, Ffion herself has no airs and graces, she is flawed and knows it. She also has a really clingy dog called Dave who is hilarious to read about and who adds a lot of humour to some of the more serious moments. The contestants felt like real people with real backgrounds, were believable and fairly stereotypical reality tv contestants without feeling like caricatures and were of interest to me as a reader. I had lots of fun trying to work out what their secrets might be.

Not only can you find a crime thriller within these pages, but there’s also a lot of self-reflection, self discovery and even a bit of romance thrown in for good measure!

Overall, I think this was a fantastic, well paced read. It kept me guessing, I enjoyed the characters, the ending seemed believable and I enjoyed the development of Ffion as the story went on. I’ll now be picking up ‘The Last Party’ which is the first novel in the series when I next see it in store!

I would recommend for fans of thrillers such as The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse, where the story revolves around one place which in itself becomes an additional character, and for fans of the tv shows I mentioned previously!

Washed down with…

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying a bottle of Tanqueray Sevilla Alcohol Free 0% spirit paired with Lemonade in the garden with a book in hand. I got the bottle for my birthday and paired with either a lemonade or a tonic water, it’s a sunshine delight!

To conclude..

What a fantastic book gift this turned out to be! It was so easy to read, funny, captivating, engaging and kept me guessing until the end. I’ll definitely be reading more of this author’s books!

Have you been reading any thrillers so far this spring? Do you think the book I’ve reviewed today might be one for your bookshelves? Let me know in the comments!

Until the next Chapter…

Emma X0

Socials: @papyrusandpeppermint