The Last Lie by Alex Lake
Published by Harper Collins
Publication Date: 27 Dec 2018
Genre: Psychological Thriller/Crime
368 pages
My thanks to HarperCollins UK for providing me with a review copy of this book.
All views and opinions in my review are my own and are completely unbiased.
My thanks to HarperCollins UK for providing me with a review copy of this book.
All views and opinions in my review are my own and are completely unbiased.
Book Description:
Everyone lies…but some lies are deadly.
For Claire Daniels, life is good. She has everything she’s ever wanted – a career she loves, friends she can rely on and a husband who dotes on her. All she needs is to start a family of her own and things will be even better than good.
They’ll be perfect.
For Alfie, it couldn’t be more different. His life with Claire is built on a lie. A lot of lies. And she can never find out.
Because Alfie has plans for her. Plans which must never come to light. But lies have a way of taking on a life of their own, and when his do, the consequences threaten to destroy everything.
For him and Claire.
My Review:
There aren't many books which make me really, really angry with one (or more) of their characters but this one...well, I threw the book on to the sofa in temper on more than one occasion with this one! Some people really get under your skin with their duplicity and Alfie is one of those people.
It's hard to go into much detail without spoiling things too badly - that's the last thing I want to do in giving my feedback on any book - but suffice to say things go from feeling that he should really come clean with his wife to utter disbelief in just how premeditated Alfie's actions have been.
All Claire wants, bless her, is a child with the man she believes is the best man on the planet. She would do anything for him. Until the penny drops that all is not as fairytale in her life as she had thought. That happens during a consultation with a fertility expert and once she realises exactly what has been going on I was delighted with how the author proceeded with Claire's character. It would be easy to have written about a woman falling to pieces once she has the information she is given but I feel Alex Lake has stepped up and written a far better character here.
Alfie has even surpassed his own plans in order to get what he wants from life. Multiple mobile phones and a fake identity have led him further down the murky depths of a double life than even he had intended. Then when those involved in his double life conspire to 'out' him he has to take extreme action to try and cover his tracks. Someone is already ahead of him though, and it's making him careless.
This is a great novel telling the story of two individuals in a marriage rather than a couple working together. To coin a cliché, I honestly did not want to put it down and was frustrated when real life demanded I had to do so. I felt totally invested in the lives of Claire and Alfie - the reasons behind why Alfie acted the way he did made me so angry and I'm sure I will have mentioned in previous reviews of other books just how much I love a character who gets an emotional reaction from me, be it good or bad. But especially bad! The medical background facts are well researched and placed in the storyline with precision. The whole book is well-paced and excellently plotted and once again I stand in awe of how easy a good author makes it look to produce a quality product.
Top notch writing once again from Alex Lake, I look forward to reading his next novel 'Seven Days' which is previewed at the end of this book.
It's hard to go into much detail without spoiling things too badly - that's the last thing I want to do in giving my feedback on any book - but suffice to say things go from feeling that he should really come clean with his wife to utter disbelief in just how premeditated Alfie's actions have been.
All Claire wants, bless her, is a child with the man she believes is the best man on the planet. She would do anything for him. Until the penny drops that all is not as fairytale in her life as she had thought. That happens during a consultation with a fertility expert and once she realises exactly what has been going on I was delighted with how the author proceeded with Claire's character. It would be easy to have written about a woman falling to pieces once she has the information she is given but I feel Alex Lake has stepped up and written a far better character here.
Alfie has even surpassed his own plans in order to get what he wants from life. Multiple mobile phones and a fake identity have led him further down the murky depths of a double life than even he had intended. Then when those involved in his double life conspire to 'out' him he has to take extreme action to try and cover his tracks. Someone is already ahead of him though, and it's making him careless.
This is a great novel telling the story of two individuals in a marriage rather than a couple working together. To coin a cliché, I honestly did not want to put it down and was frustrated when real life demanded I had to do so. I felt totally invested in the lives of Claire and Alfie - the reasons behind why Alfie acted the way he did made me so angry and I'm sure I will have mentioned in previous reviews of other books just how much I love a character who gets an emotional reaction from me, be it good or bad. But especially bad! The medical background facts are well researched and placed in the storyline with precision. The whole book is well-paced and excellently plotted and once again I stand in awe of how easy a good author makes it look to produce a quality product.
Top notch writing once again from Alex Lake, I look forward to reading his next novel 'Seven Days' which is previewed at the end of this book.
About the Author:
Alex Lake is the pseudonym of a British novelist whose first book was one of Amazon UK's top ten debuts of 2012. Alex was born in the North West of England in the 1970s and now lives in the North East of the US.
Social Media Link:
Twitter: @AlexLakeAuthor
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