Name: She Lies in Wait
Rating: 5 (0 reviews)
Author: Gytha Lodge

About this book

Summary

Book Summary

Six friends. One killer. Who do you trust? A teen girl goes missing after a night of partying; thirty years later, the discovery of her body reopens a cold case.

On a scorching July night in 1983, a group of teenagers goes camping in the forest. Bright and brilliant, they are destined for great things, and the youngest of the group - Aurora Jackson - is delighted to be allowed to tag along. The evening starts like any other - they drink, they dance, they fight, they kiss. Some of them slip off into the woods in pairs, others are left jealous and heartbroken. But by morning, Aurora has disappeared. Her friends claim that she was safe the last time they saw her, right before she went to sleep. An exhaustive investigation is launched, but no trace of the teenager is ever found.

Thirty years later, Aurora's body is unearthed in a hideaway that only the six friends knew about, and Jonah Sheens is put in charge of solving the long-cold case. Back in 1983, as a young cop in their small town, he had known the teenagers - including Aurora - personally, even before taking part in the search. Now he's determined to finally get to the truth of what happened that night. Sheens's investigation brings the members of the camping party back to the forest, where they will be confronted once again with the events that left one of them dead, and all of them profoundly changed forever.

This searing, psychologically captivating novel marks the arrival of a dazzling new talent, and the start of a new series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens.

Membership Advantages

Reviews
"Beyond the Book" articles
Free books to read and review (US only)
Find books by time period, setting & theme
Read-alike suggestions by book and author
Book club discussions
and much more!
Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
More about membership!

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Despite the small list of suspects, the mystery intrigues and twists, offering enough red herrings and moments of police procedural to please fans of the genre...There are already two more DCI Sheens novels in the works - hooray!" - Kirkus

"[T]his psychological thriller marks a promising start to a planned series." - Publishers Weekly

This information about She Lies in Wait was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews

She Lies In Wait
What could have happened to Aurora? Someone knows but isn't telling.

Uncovering bones from a thirty-year-old disappearance/murder case wasn’t something the police thought would happen after their very thorough search and investigation back then.

The remains of fourteen-year-old Aurora Jackson was a shock to the six teens that had been with her as well as the town and her parents. Everyone believed she had been kidnapped or had run away not murdered.

SHE LIES IN WAIT goes back and forth from 1983 to the present telling the story of what happened at the campsite, how the investigation was exhaustive and came up with nothing, and moves to present day with the interviewing of the now-adult teens and the re-opening of the case.

Opening the case meant bringing the six friends together at the station for a meeting. Was that a good idea or had there been collaboration beforehand? Are they all only going to try to save themselves? Will one of the friends say things that had not been said before and reveal something that could get that person arrested?

The investigation turned up some facts that had been overlooked and involved a person that was not one of the six friends.

SHE LIES IN WAIT moves smoothly from one chapter to the next and holds your interest because of all the questions about what really happened and who was lying back then and who was still lying now.

If you enjoy being a detective, you will definitely enjoy SHE LIES IN WAIT.

The story line is good and nicely carried out with some twists and of course secrets being kept. 5/5

Membership Advantages