Silent Lies by Kathryn Croft

Mia Hamilton lived the perfect life with her husband, university teacher Zach, and their two-year-old daughter, Freya. But everything changed when Zach committed suicide on the same night one of his students, Josie Carpenter, vanished.

Five years later, and Josie is still missing but Mia has finally found some happiness with new boyfriend Will.

Until one day when stranger Alison walks into her life and tells Mia that her husband didn’t kill himself.

Desperate to find out what really happened to Zach, Mia is forced to put her trust in Alison. But she soon discovers that Alison has her own agenda behind exposing the details of Zach’s death. Can Mia really believe anything Alison says?

Mia must decide how far she is willing to go to uncover the truth – even if she risks losing everything she loves.

Review

Silent Lies by Kathryn Croft is narrated through two POVs and timelines. One timeline follows Josie’s story and the events that took place five years ago. At the time, Josie was a student until one night when she disappeared. In the present timeline, Mia is trying to rebuild her life after her husband committed suicide on the night that Josie disappeared.  All seems well until Alison walks into her life bringing up the past.

This was a suspenseful read and right from the start, I couldn’t guess what had happened to Mia and Zach. Alison who seemed to have the answers was an unreliable narrator hence making it hard to fully trust her. What is interesting though, I didn’t have any suspects. I just couldn’t guess what happened that night leading to Zach’s suicide.

The characters in the story are well crafted though I didn’t like most of them. Interestingly, my opinion of different characters changed as the story progressed. I liked most of them at first but their actions soon turned me against them. One I disliked and ended up liking towards the end. I struggled to connect with any of them although I did find Josie’s narration to be quiet addictive. Perhaps this is because I knew that it was going to end with her disappearance and Zach’s death.  So I kept turning pages to find answers.

Kathryn’s writing is great and the story has an interesting premise but I took longer than expected with this book. I can’t say for sure if it’s my lack of connection with the characters or perhaps the fact that the middle section felt slower for me or maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood. However, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I liked turning pages trying to find answers but something felt amiss.

If you are interested in this title, I suggest that you read other reviews especially on goodreads. Most readers enjoyed the book so I am in the minority here. As I said, it could be a personal issue and not the book so don’t let this review deter you from checking it out.