THREE LITTLE LIES by Laura Marshall

There's no such thing as a little lie . . . 

 When Sasha North comes into Ellen's life, Ellen falls under her spell. As Ellen is welcomed into Sasha's family, she doesn't see the darkness that lies beneath their bohemian lifestyle. Not until a brutal attack changes all their lives forever. 

Ten years later, Ellen and Sasha share a flat in London, still bound together by that night. When Sasha disappears, Ellen fears the worst. The police won't take her seriously, but the events of the past give Ellen good reason to be frightened. 

What really happened that night? Who is telling the whole truth? These are the questions Ellen must confront when searching for her friend. But someone knows Ellen is looking. And they don't want the answers coming out... 

I really enjoyed Friend Request, so I was excited about reading the latest thriller by this author.

Ellen and Sasha met when they were teenagers, and ten years later they're still friends and living together. 

When Sasha goes missing, Ellen calls the police but because of Sasha's habit of running out when things don't go her way, the authorities aren't in a hurry to investigate.

Determined to find her friend, Ellen decides to take things into her own hands and starts to investigate herself. She reaches out and finds herself falling into the dark memories that started with becoming obsessed with the Monkton family and ended in an awful tragic event that destroyed all of their lives...

Okay. Yikes. This is such a tangled mess of what lies can do when they get out of control.

There was a lot of messed up stuff going on in this story. And it totally hooked me in, kept me reading and dragged me down with the main character. Ellen goes through a lot, but in hindsight, not as much as the real victim of the story.

This is a well-written book and it's certainly compelling. It also deals with some pretty serious issues: teenage drinking, obsession, relationship violence, irresponsible adults, harmful lies, abuse, jealousy and betrayal. The way everything unfolds, revealing how these things affected everyone, is disturbing.

I was totally feeling everything that was going on and enjoyed the pace. Until the revelations started coming. That's when my attitude changed. Not just because the truth infuriated me, but because I just didn't like the end. And the selfish, greedy, manipulative characters are to blame. They were terrible, so frustrating. The whole lot of them!

Oh, and I seriously despised Sasha. She was the worst. So much of the story revolved around her: where she was, what happened to her, was she in danger? I hated her conclusion. I know it was meant to show just what kind of person we were dealing with, but it was the weakest link in the story. And changed my overall opinion of the whole book.

One of my favourite things was the time jumps. Most of the events take place during 2017, but also go back to 2005, 2006 and 2007. By slowly revealing the past through the eyes of several characters, all the events are tied together in a messed up but tidy fashion.

Three Little Lies is an interesting and very suspenseful book. It's interesting, a disturbing slow burner that sucked me in and kept me glued to the page. I couldn't wait to see how the events of the past and present turned out after colliding.

I just wish I'd loved it all the way to the end, but that's mostly because of my own personal disappointment. Still, it takes some seriously cool writing skills to weave such a twisty tale.

Three Little Lies, July 2018, ISBN 9780751568363, Sphere