One White Lie By Leah Konen

‘One White Lie’ is Leah Konen’s debut novel.

Imagine you’ve finally escaped the worst relationship of your life, running away with only a suitcase and a black eye. Imagine your new next-door neighbours are the friends you so desperately needed – fun, kind, empathetic, very much in love. Imagine they’re in trouble. That someone is telling lies about them, threatening their livelihoods – and even their lives. Imagine your ex is coming for you. If your new best friends needed you to tell one small lie, and all of these problems would disappear, you’d do it . . . wouldn’t you? It’s only one small lie, until someone turns up dead.

I curled up during the week with this book and within three hours, I had the whole lot consumed.

The story is seen through the narrative of Lucy who has escaped New York to get away from her abusive and controlling boyfriend Davis. She moves to a quiet and small town with only her dog called Dusty for company. It’s there, that she befriends her new neighbours, husband and wife called John and Vera who Lucy confides in about running away and in turn they confide in her. One day, John is murdered and Lucy finds herself caught up in a web of drama and danger.

Fast paced, with unreliable characters and an almighty twist, this book had the makings of a great thriller, that didn’t disappoint at all. Lucy is an interesting character, who’s fled her abusive boyfriend and is trying to make a better life for herself. The story features flashbacks to the abuse, giving the reader an insight to what she was running away from. Vera and John are an interesting couple, even though they have taken Lucy under their wings and have become firm friends, they’re not liked in the town and this makes for gripping reader as the reader is left to wonder what is wrong with the pair to have a town turn against them.

The story flows at a pace that really keeps the reader engaged with clever twists and dialogue that really hooked me in. I found the flashbacks to be particularly interesting as they really set the tone for the story.

For debut, I thought it was a gripping page turner that was addictive from start to finish. With drama and suspense from the first moment that Lucy arrives in the sleepy town to the climatic final page, ‘One White Lie’ is a tense and atmospheric story that has all the elements to make it the perfect psychological thriller.

You can buy ‘One White Lie’ from Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops.