She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge [Book Review]

Book Review

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BOOK INFO

Title: She Lies in Wait

Author: Gytha Lodge

Publisher: Random House

Publish Date: January 8, 2019

Genre: Crime & Detective

Series: DCI Jonah Sheens #1

My Rating: 3/5

She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge

BOOK BLURB

On a scorching July night in 1983, a group of teenagers goes camping in the forest. When they wake in the morning the youngest of their group, Aurora Jackson, has disappeared. 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.


She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge

MY REVIEW

A group of teens go camping, and one of them goes missing. Thirty years later, the missing girl’s remains are found. The investigation looks into what happened that night in the woods.

Told with alternating timelines – the night the teens gathered in the woods to camp and the investigation thirty years later. I enjoy the alternating timelines, especially when there is such a big difference in time. Aurora is the missing girl, and the past is told from her point of view. The present is from the investigation side. This worked well. It made it more intriguing to guess who of the teens were telling the truth and who was trying to hide something.

This is a straightforward police procedural. A girl goes missing, stays missing for years, then her body is discovered. The police investigate to find who killed her and why. I enjoy these types of books, but this one did fall a little flat. I didn’t really connect to the characters, so that held something back for me. It’s a good read though, and one I would recommend to fans of British crime fiction.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books in the DCI Jonah Sheens series:
  1. She Lies in Wait
  2. Watching from the Dark
  3. Lie Beside Me
  4. Little Sister
  5. A Killer in the Family

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