‘My Husband's Lies’ by Caroline England

Published by Avon,
17 May 2018.
ISBN: 978-0-00826025-5 (PB)

As with her debut novel, Beneath The Skin, England takes a close and intimate delve into the lives of a singleton and four dysfunctional couples.  One of the many twists of this complex story lies in the fact that some of them are not even aware of their dysfunctionalities.  The author deals with many First World problems, among them pregnancy, infertility, sexual preferences, severe mental health difficulties and infidelity, as she journeys between her characters, a group of people who have been friends from school days.  Sounds grim but isn't.  They have jobs, money, nice houses, children, yet England is adept at showing how desperate, how close to the abyss some of them are. 

We get off to a thundering start with the discovery of a wedding guest perched on a high ledge outside the wedding venue, looking as though she is ready to jump.  As you might expect, there is shock and horror and a burning desire to know why on the part of both the reader and the rest of the characters.  And slowly, their neat lives begin to unravel into untidy loose ends. 

Like many other readers, I had some difficulty at first in untangling the cast of characters, but the author handles them deftly.  I loved her first book: this one is a worthy follow-up and I'm eagerly looking forward to her next. 

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Reviewer: Susan Moody

Caroline England was born in Yorkshire. She studied Law at the University of Manchester and stayed over the border. Caroline was a divorce and professional indemnity lawyer and instigated her jottings when she deserted the law to bring up her three lovely daughters. In addition to the publication of her short story collection, Watching Horsepats Feed the Roses by ACHUKAbooks, Caroline has had short stories and poems published in a variety of literary publications and anthologies. She was shortlisted for the Impress Prize 2015, in the Pulp Idol 2016 finals and long listed for the UK Novel Writing Competition 2017. Her debut novel, Beneath the Skin, will be published by Avon HarperCollins on 5 October 2017.

Susan Moody was born in Oxford is the principal nom de plume of Susan Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her suspense novels. Susan Moody began writing crime novels with Penny Black, the first of the seven Penny Wanawake crime novels.  She has a second series of six books featuring bridge player Cassie Swan. In all, she has published 29 novels, most of them crime and suspense. Susan spent two years as a Creative Writing Tutor in Her Majesty's Prison, Bedford. She is a past Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association, serving in all as a CWA Committee member for seven years. She is a long-standing member of the prestigious Detection Club and served for three years as the President of the International Association of Crime Writers.  In 2016 Susan Moody began a new series featuring Alex Quick. Click the title to read a review of Quick and the Dead

http://susanmoody.co.uk