Review: The Lying Room

The Lying Room

Nicci French

Neve Connolly is having an affair with her boss Saul. One morning she gets a text message to meet him at his London flat. Arriving at his place, she is shocked to find him dead. What does she do? She cleans the crime scene, hoping to erase any trace that she's ever been there. After all, she has her husband and three children to think about and her job. After telling numerous lies to the police, hoping to protect herself, she realizes she has to find out who killed Saul and why, if she wants to avoid being caught in her tangled web of lies.

The Lying Room is an exciting mystery with a lot of twists and turns. That alone makes this one worth reading. But the long drawn out chapters, unfortunately, made this seem like a slow-moving story. I also felt the last chapter was a bit odd, and it felt like it dangled a bit in the end as an afterthought. I think parts of it should have been integrated into the story much earlier but, that being said, the authors provided an entertaining mystery that I enjoyed.

Thanks to LibraryThing and William Morrow for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Very Nice

Very Nice

Marcy Dermansky

Rachel has a thing for her writing professor Zahid, and she thinks he might feel the same way about her. But when Zahid meets Rachel's mother, Becca, who is looking after his dog while he's been in Pakistan for a funeral, he quickly develops feelings for her. Becca's husband ( and Rachel's father) Jonathan has a thing for Mandy, a pilot. He's left his family in Connecticut and moved into Mandy's apartment in Tribeca. Back in Connecticut, things are not going the way Rachel had planned. When Zahid moves in with her and her mother to write his second novel, he has little time for Rachel but all the time in the world for Becca. How could it not be an interesting summer with all these tangled relations?

Very Nice is a fast-paced, fun tale that will remind you of nothing you've read recently. With a contemporary flair that seems spot-on for our times and characters who seemed so real, this is

one book I'm glad I got to read.

Thanks to Alfred A. Knopf for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.