The Lying Room by Nicci French

Who is lying, and why?

A woman walks into a room. She looks down and sees a murdered man. She doesn't call the police.

In the throes of a passionate adulterous affair, Neve Connolly gets a cryptic text over breakfast. She assumes it's from her lover and after waving the kids and husband off to work, sets off on her bike to an assignation at his house. She gets there to find he has been brutally murdered. About to call the police, she panics. If she calls them, then she'll somehow be involved and inevitably her husband and judgemental teenagers will find out about her illicit affair. Disaster. So, what does she do?

She attempts a forensic clean of the flat to remove all traces of her occupancy and relationship with Saul, the murdered man, of course! What else would she do? Then she leaves, dumping the black bin bag containing any incriminating evidence on her way. She can't find a poem she wrote for him or, annoyingly, a pair of her undies, which is irritating because a nice pair of undies is worth holding onto, but, hey, she's done her best.

Like, duh! What??

I have got about this far into the book, but I am going to make a few confident predictions. Thanks to the modern wonder of CCTV plus nosy neighbours, the police are going to be onto Neve in a flash and not only are they going to think she murdered Saul thanks to her misguided attempt at covering up her affair, but there is more going on here than meets the eye.

The lost poem… the missing underwear… the text message summoning her over to the flat…. Who has been lying to who and about what??? Someone's out to frame her… will they succeed… etc, etc.

Watch this space….