Sweet Little Lies : A Novel
Author(s): Caz Frear
"A dark and smart page-turner." -The New York Times
In this gripping debut procedural, a young London policewoman must probe dark secrets buried deep in her own family’s past to solve a murder and a long-ago disappearance.
Twenty-six-year-old Cat Kinsella overcame a troubled childhood to become a Detective Constable with the Metropolitan Police Force, but she’s never been able to banish these ghosts. When she’s called to the scene of a murder in Islington, not far from the pub her estranged father still runs, she discovers that Alice Lapaine, a young housewife who didn’t get out much, has been found strangled.
Cat and her team immediately suspect Alice’s husband, until she receives a mysterious phone call that links the victim to Maryanne Doyle, a teenage girl who went missing in Ireland eighteen years earlier. The call raises uneasy memories for Cat—her family met Maryanne while on holiday, right before she vanished. Though she was only a child, Cat knew that her charming but dissolute father wasn’t telling the truth when he denied knowing anything about Maryanne or her disappearance. Did her father do something to the teenage girl all those years ago? Could he have harmed Alice now? And how can you trust a liar even if he might be telling the truth?
Determined to close the two cases, Cat rushes headlong into the investigation, crossing ethical lines and trampling professional codes. But in looking into the past, she might not like what she finds. . . .
Review(s):
“A gripping mystery.”
“This remarkable debut features detective Cat Kinsella, who still experiences ‘constant low-level dread’ from festering family secrets. When a body is discovered near her dad’s London pub, Cat shakes off the fear that once ‘muzzled’ her, and unleashes herself on the investigation.”
“Frear keeps the reader riveted both to the progression of the case and the complicated truths the investigation exposes. In Cat, she has created a protagonist who is edgy and defensive, yet wry and incisive. Some passages will have you laughing out loud. First published in June in the UK, TV rights have been purchased and the author has a two-book deal. So we’ll be seeing at least one more Cat Kinsella novel—and hopefully an ongoing series. You might want to get in on the ground floor.”
“I recently made the acquaintance of a new detective whom I rather liked. . . . [I] found myself intrigued by her heroine, 26-year-old Metropolitan Police Force detective constable Cat Kinsella. Like many fictional detectives, Cat has a troubled past, but she also has an agreeably caustic tongue and a questionable approach to ethics, and I enjoyed following her through a Tana French-ish procedural plot.”
“ A gripping mystery starring a fascinating female detective, Sweet Little Lies is an exciting debut procedural that will leave readers wanting more from Caz Frear.”
“[A] taut, psychologically twisted debut . . . Readers will root for the spiky Kinsella, with her emphatic center, and hope to see more of her in future books.”
“Cat’s evolution from one-dimensional sad sack to complex, honest adult is both believable and welcome, putting her on par with Susie Steiner’s and Tana French’s female detectives. A truly satisfying—and gritty—mystery.”
“Frear has fashioned a remarkably rich and sympathetic character in Cat, and her portrayal of dysfunctional families, especially their mix of world-weary dialogue interspersed with cutting comments, is cringingly realistic. . . . Impressive. . . will also work as a way of keeping Tana French fans happy while waiting for French’s next book.”
“An assured debut . . . All the characters--minor or lead, living or dead--are well crafted. Frear also makes an impression with her vivid dialogue and prose . . . It’s no secret that Lies is an engrossing read.”
“Astonishingly assured. . . . a stellar crime fiction debut by an author to watch.”
ISBN: 9780062823274