Sweet Little Lies

A Novel

By: Caz Frear

Narrated by: Jane Collingwood

In this gripping debut procedural, a young London policewoman must probe dark secrets buried deep in her own family’s past to solve a murder and a long-ago disappearance.

Your father is a liar. But is he a killer?

Even liars tell the truth... sometimes.

Twenty-six-year-old Cat Kinsella overcame a troubled childhood to become a detective constable with the Metropolitan Police Force, but she’s never been able to banish these ghosts. When she’s called to the scene of a murder in Islington, not far from the pub her estranged father still runs, she discovers that Alice Lapaine, a young housewife who didn’t get out much, has been found strangled.

Cat and her team immediately suspect Alice’s husband, until she receives a mysterious phone call that links the victim to Maryanne Doyle, a teenage girl who went missing in Ireland 18 years earlier. The call raises uneasy memories for Cat - her family met Maryanne while on holiday, right before she vanished. Though she was only a child, Cat knew that her charming but dissolute father wasn’t telling the truth when he denied knowing anything about Maryanne or her disappearance. Did her father do something to the teenage girl all those years ago? Could he have harmed Alice now? And how can you trust a liar even if he might be telling the truth?

Determined to close the two cases, Cat rushes headlong into the investigation, crossing ethical lines and trampling professional codes. But in looking into the past, she might not like what she finds....

©2018 Caz Frear (P)2018 WF Howes

Wonderful narration!

Really enjoyed this unique story made all the more enjoyable by superlative narration! Tiny sidebar of advice to the author: drop the use of “literally”, especially when you mean “metaphorically”!
Highly recommend this entertaining book.

Good narrator, story, level of tension

Engaging, thoughtful, focused with enough character development, conflicts, relationships
I liked the final plot twist

This is a first class procedural

I listened to this in two days. Great characters, intriguing mystery, good twists and turns, nicely written. Well worth a credit.

Great read!

This book is a very good mystery. It kept my attention the entire time I was on a trip. The narrator did a great job creating the characters and is a fabulous actress. I highly recommend it. I had no clue who caused the mystery and there was a great twist at the end.

Entertaining!!

I am glad I purchased this one! I wouldn’t describe it as riveting but the story line moves along keeping the listener interested.

Gritty

This story is well written and I could see it as a detective mini series. The story is grim and if you like a a happy resolution, you won't be happy.

For Her First Book.

She, Caz, had a unique style of writing that for the first few chapters would kinda lose me. Once I caught on to when the main character was thinking to herself from actually speaking the thought is when I really started enjoying the book. Perhaps I was a bit slow at picking up on this but, to me there were times when it was tricky to separate the thinking thought from the spoken thought. I feel like I'm not saying it in a way that drives my point home. However, I thought it was impressive how the author wrote about how the main character processed her thoughts between thinking, speaking, remembering, and actually doing.

narration painful at times

The overall content was good but the narrator used a really sharp whistle when pronouncing words that began with an "S" sound. It was distracting and painful while listening with earbuds. Seemed to get better in the last third of the book.

Entertaining, but a bit predictable.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I especially enjoyed the performance of the audiobook actors. The storyline itself moved along quickly, and kept you turning the pages, but it became a bit predictable as you saw things come together. It reminded me of a storyline that would be used for an episode of Law and Order: SVU. After reading a couple of books with really strong twist endings, this ending really left me wanting more. Wouldn’t give as a gift, but not mad I read it.

Typical procedural

A little too long, dragged on at the end. I did not find anything gripping about it. Narrator was okay. I am not buying any more books of this series though.