A tense psychological thriller that keeps you turning the pages. This is the story of a group of friends who, between them, hold the answers to what happened one night when five of them went into a room and only four came out alive. Told in the first person, the narrative is split between the friends, and we are drawn into their dilemmas. All appear to be hiding something. The main character is Lisa Ashton who is suffering from amnesia while recovering from a kidney transplant. After discovering that one of the friends is the donor, she tries to find out what did happen during the gaps in her memory. What are her friends not telling her, and why? I love the structure of this novel as we gradually move through the hours and days following the inciting incident, finding out snippets of information that lead us to conclusions that then challenge the sleuths in each of us. The characters are well-drawn. We empathise with them all, experience their guilt, and their fears. Often, in this well-drawn thriller, we have cause us to doubt what we hear from each of the friends, until we suspect everybody. I would certainly read more from this author. 5 star rating.
Lynne Johnson, A LoveReading Ambassador
| Primary Genre | Thriller and Suspense |
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Rachel Amphlett knows how to create a calm yet chilling read that will make you want to look over your shoulder.
Rachel Amphlett knows how to create a calm yet chilling read that will make you want to look over your shoulder. I have read a fair few thrillers in the past but The Friend Who Lied is the most unsettling read I have read in a good while. I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough and stayed up well past midnight to finish this book. Though the synopsis talks about manly Lisa trying to find out what happened, and you would believe just from this that it is all about her, but all the four characters felt like protagonists to me. They each have a reason to kill that person. Each has their own chapter from their point of view and if you miss one character's thoughts and you lose track of the plot.... Read Full Review
The author uses skill and subtlety to reveal a little at a time until we finally learn the awful truth.
Do we really know our friends? This book is about six friends who have known each other for many years. One of them has not been seen for years but no one knows what happened to him. The story begins with Lisa, waking up in darkness and pain, not knowing where she is. We discover that she is in hospital having just had a kidney transplant. However, the identity of the donor comes as a shock. Each chapter is told by one of the friends, mainly Lisa, and we soon find that there are many dark secrets being kept. This is a well-paced, gripping thriller that keeps you reading. The author uses skill and subtlety to reveal a little at a time until we finally learn the awful truth.... Read Full Review
I think it is a real sign of the author’s brilliance that she can make the reader want to keep reading when the characters are so unpleasant and unreliable.
Lisa, Bec, David, Hayley and Simon have been friends since their student days. However, Lisa is ill, very ill, with kidney disease and is not expected to live much longer. The group decide to visit an escape room for what will probably be her last ever birthday. And while they are in the escape room, tragedy strikes. Lisa can’t recall what has happened when she wakes up in the hospital, all she knows is that she is alive when she hadn’t expected to be and that she now has a new kidney. A mistake at the hospital means she soon finds out that the donor was Simon, who died in the escape room incident.... Read Full Review
