TELL ME LIES

SYNOPSIS

After a betrayal that sent their marriage into freefall, Hannah and Sam are desperate for a fresh start with their eight-year-old daughter Lily―and where better than picture-perfect Owl Cottage in beautiful Cornwall. But something about the holiday home stirs dark memories for Hannah…

When she finds dead creatures on the doorstep and hears mysterious knocks at the door, Hannah can’t help wondering whether someone is messing with her―or whether the past she’s been running from has finally claimed her sanity.

As the disturbing events at Owl Cottage seep out into the local community and the police become involved, Hannah turns to Sam for help, but when he dismisses her worries, she wonders if she was wrong to ever trust him. Are the memories making her paranoid, or is this something more sinister than she dares imagine?

Title: Tell me lies

Author: Teresa Driscoll

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Publication date: April 18, 2023

For more than twenty-five years as a journalist―including fifteen years as a BBC TV news presenter―Teresa Driscoll followed stories into the shadows of life. Covering crime for so long, she watched and was deeply moved by all the ripples each case caused, and the haunting impact on the families, friends and witnesses involved. It is those ripples that she explores in her darker fiction.

Teresa’s novels have sold more than two million copies and have been published in twenty languages. She lives in beautiful Devon with her family. You can find out more about her books on her website (www.teresadriscoll.com) or by following her on Twitter (@TeresaDriscoll), Facebook (www.facebook.com/teresadriscollauthor) or Instagram (@tkdriscoll_author).

REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐💫

After an infidelity Hannah and Sam’s marriage is going through a rough patch, so they decide to go on vacation to a picturesque cottage in Cornwall, Owl Cottage, to make a decision about their marriage. But some disturbing events added to some deeper issues relating to her father’s death when she was a child will put a strain on Hannah’s mind. Is she losing her mind or can she really trust her husband?

Tell Me Lies is Teresa Driscoll’s sixth psychological thriller, with special emphasis on the psychological, as it reads like a deep study into Hannah’s character more than as a fast paced thriller. 

The story begins a bit slowly but builds up nicely, picking up the pace once the police is involved, and creating a creepy foreboding atmosphere with plenty of uneasy vibes that go along perfectly with Hannah’s descent into insanity. Is she imagining things? Can she really trust her mind? Is her husband gaslighting her? She is really well characterized and her fragile mental state is depicted in a very realistic way, managing to great the author some real doubts around her character.

Hannah’s past will play an important role in the plot. Even though she can’t exactly remember that night, what happened in the woods when she was a kid has defined her whole life. Are her memories real or a product of her mind? The mystery surrounding her father’s death is alluded several times but, after such a strong build up, I was hoping for something a bit more shocking.

There were not a lot of characters in the story, so it was interesting to try to form a theory around them with the small nuggets of information we get along the way. The ending turned out to be simple (and I don’t mean that in a bad way) but unexpectedly dark, and I loved it. Some things I would not have predicted in a million years!

When I had lost hope DI Melanie Sanders and PI Matthew Hill would make an appearance, they were thrown straight into it. They had a role in the story too, though much smaller than I would have like. I’ve always liked their chemistry and I love reading about them. 

Tell Me Lies was an interesting domestic suspense with a compelling psychological side. I’ve now read all Teresa Driscoll’s books, except her first one, and can say she really knows how to build the tension.