To Tell You The Truth by Gilly Macmillan
Published by Penguin RandomHouse, Cornerstone
Publication Date: 25th June 2020 (ebook & hardback)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title via NetGalley.
All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own and unbiased.
Book Description:
Lucy Harper has a talent for invention…
She was nine years old when her brother vanished in the woods near home. As the only witness, Lucy’s story of that night became crucial to the police investigation. Thirty years on, her brother’s whereabouts are still unknown.
Now Lucy is a bestselling thriller writer. Her talent for invention has given her fame, fortune, and an army of adoring fans. But her husband, Dan, has started keeping secrets of his own, and a sudden change of scene forces Lucy to confront some dark, unwelcome memories. Then Dan goes missing and Lucy’s past and present begin to collide. Did she kill her husband? Would she remember if she did?
Finally, Lucy Harper is going to tell us the truth.
Cross her heart.
And hope to die.
My Thoughts:
I am a big fan of Gilly MacMillan and have read a few of her previous books. This one seems rather different to her other books and sadly fell slightly short of the mark - I didn't feel gripped by the storyline, nor did the characters particularly work that well for me. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the overall story though, I just wasn't hooked as much as I expected to be.
Lucy Harper is the narrator of the story, and if you like an unreliable narrator then that's good because I really wasn't sure how much of what she related was true and what was invention. She's a successful crime writer, married to Dan - one of the least likeable spouses ever to have appeared in a novel. He's a failed writer himself and has catapulted himself into the published world by becoming Lucy's self appointed personal assistant. He literally rides through life off the back of her success. He then crosses the line of acceptable behaviour in my mind (and that of most others I would imagine) by spending a considerable amount of her hard earned cash on a huge house not far from where Lucy lived as a child.
Not only did he not discuss the transaction or even the possibility of moving house with her, he also chose a property which he knew she had issues with. Instant grounds for divorce on all fronts for me.
We find out that when Lucy was a child her younger brother Teddy went missing. The facts surrounding his disappearance slowly come out throughout the novel and we begin to understand why Lucy has issues - including the basis for the lead character in her highly successful novels. After the unsettling house move Lucy's mental health takes a downward turn and her relationship with Dan becomes decidedly wobbly. Then when Dan disappears Lucy becomes prime suspect in the police investigation - especially once the link is made with previous events from her childhood.
The book didn't grab me as I really didn't care what had happened to Dan as he was such an obnoxious character - I wouldn't have blamed her for disposing of him to be honest! But what I was curious about was Teddy's disappearance and how Lucy's friend Eliza, who had literally helped turn her life around, fitted in to things. Would the truth come out about what happened to Teddy that night? How involved was Lucy that night?
There are some interesting turns of events in this book, but it wouldn't be one I would want to re-read.
I much prefer Gilly's previous work What She Knew, which was one of my favourite reads of the last few years.
About the Author:
Gilly Macmillan is the New York Times bestselling and Edgar-nominated author of What She Knew, The Perfect Girl and Odd Child Out. She grew up in Swindon and studied at Bristol University and The Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She has worked at The Burlington Magazine and the Hayward Gallery and has been a lecturer in photography. She now writes full-time and lives in Bristol with her family.
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