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I bring you another book and a new author I’ve discovered through Rosie’s wonderful Book Review Team. This is a pretty twisted one. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

One of Them is Lying by Peter Bailey

A dark, twisted psychological crime thriller

When a privileged student stumbles home covered in blood, urine, and bruises, he claims a teacher attacked him. The media explodes. The police are called. Careers are threatened.

But DCI David Riley isn’t convinced.

Miss Fleming has a spotless record. Sebastian McBride has none. His wealthy father wants justice, or revenge, and he knows how to pull strings. But as Riley digs deeper, the story begins to unravel, revealing a toxic mix of lies, manipulation, and class warfare.

Meanwhile, Miss Fleming becomes a pariah. Vandalised. Harassed. Alone.

Until the truth surfaces, and by then, it’s too late.

Sharp, brutal, and disturbingly believable, One of Them Is Lying is a chilling story of power, perception, and the slow-motion wreckage of a single lie. Perfect for fans of Happy Valley, Broadchurch, and Line of Duty.

About the author:

Peter lives in England with his long-suffering wife. He originally trained as a teacher, but now supports Microsoft windows and ArcSight ESM. His first story was a fictionalized account of a disastrous trip to Las Vegas with a dental abscess. Since then, he has written a vampire story (without any actual vampires) and about a perfectly ordinary day at the office that will last for eternity. Walk in the Flesh is his first book, and possibly the only book based on a scene from the 1966 film Arabesque.

Facebook writing page: facebook.com/peter.bailey.940 / Twitter: @peterbailey111

My review:

I write this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team (author, check here if you are interested in getting your book reviewed) and thank her and the author for this opportunity.

This was quite a curious reading experience for me. When I read the description, I thought the book would be mostly about one thing, an accusation of abuse against a teacher, and what resulted from that. When I started reading it, after only a few chapters, I felt reluctant to read on. Not because it was badly written —that is not the case— but because I had the feeling that it would be a tough read. And it was. It isn’t the most violent book I’ve read (not at all. I love horror, and I’ve read some extremely descriptive scenes in the past), although there is violence, but mostly off the page, described in reports, and readers aren’t direct witnesses of it (We all have imaginations, of course). But there is some nasty undercurrent of evil and menace in this novel, and one of the characters is one of the worst baddies I’ve come across. No shades of grey here. Total evil. We discover the full extent of that as we read, but, somehow, the creepiness grabbed me from very early on. It might not be the case for all readers, but I thought I’d mention it and see what you think.

I won’t go into a lot of detail, not to spoil the novel for you, and because the description is quite apt. The story is told in the third person, primarily from the point of view of DCI Riley, but also includes chapters that offer perspectives from some of the other characters. Although those are rare, they allow us to get a glimpse of what is going on inside the heads of some of the other protagonists and grasp how they are feeling. The more the novel advances, the more we are thrown inside the investigation, and although the book shares many characteristics of the police procedural genre, including some tropes we are used to read and see in TV dramas (a detective used to working in the big city but now sent to a small place, with more than his share of personal problems, and who is given a very new to the force and green assistant; a difficult to navigate small-town society with power struggles and important people whose influences reach high; interrogations, searches, looking for clues, trips to visit people involved, reluctant witnesses, doubtful pieces of evidence…), it also feels like a classical mystery/detective novel at times, because most of the advances in the investigation come from Riley’s deductions, hunches, and hypothesis, often difficult to prove, at least in the first instance. This is not a book where it is easy to follow the clues and reach a conclusion, because we aren’t always given all the elements or the information we need, and because, as expected in the genre, there are a lot of characters, clues, red herrings, twists, and turns. Readers need to pay attention to every little detail and keep their wits about them. This is not one of those books that you can read, drop for a while, come back after days or weeks and pick it up where you left off, because you’ll miss the connections between the events and end up feeling puzzled. And yes, there are many events, and although everything seems pretty cut and dry to begin with, things get more and more complicated the more the case advances. There are many separate strands to the investigation, strange happenings and characters come to light, and things get personal at points, as well. Of course, with such a plot and so many questions that keep popping up as we read (and the title gives us a clue already), it will be a challenge for readers not to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next, and to discover if they have guessed right.

I have mentioned a truly evil character in the novel, but he is not the only person of interest in the book. Riley is an intriguing character whom I wouldn’t mind getting to know better and seeing again in other cases. He has a dry and sharp sense of humour, he enjoys watching and finding fault with police dramas on TV (some pretty recognisable ones), and he is a man who has to fight his own demons and always tries to do the correct thing, even when it does not feel as the best or the fairest thing to do. That doesn’t mean he is beyond twisting the rules now and then, but only for a very good reason. George, his assistant, is a likeable character who grows and learns to be tough during the book, and there are some other memorable characters in the novel, even though many of them we only see very little of. But, overall, the novel creates a picture of an interesting town with enough of a personality to grow into a character in its own right in the future, if the author so chooses.

The writing is excellent, with the right amount of description, witty repartees, and many memorable and quotable paragraphs, some very funny, which help us break the tension, keep us hooked, and make us keep turning the pages.

The ending… I’ll only say that it is as twisty as it was to be expected, and that I enjoyed it a lot.

An author I’ll keep track of from now on, and a fascinating novel that combines elements of several crime fiction subgenres, full of character, which could easily grow into a series.

I thought I’d share a few samples of the writing to give you an idea of what it is like, but remember, you can always try a sample.

Long ago, chandeliers like frozen waterfalls had lit the room that echoed with laughter and wit. Now, fluorescent tubes hummed in metal cages hung on chains. The windows were packed with paper to stop them rattling and patched with yellowing tape.

The central part of the building was two stories of red brick with all the charm and grace of a budget supermarket.

Maybe she was worried he’d find skeletons in closets, but if they were there, he’d put them on the stage and get them to dance The Macarena.

Thanks to the author, Rosie and her team for their ongoing support, and above all, thanks to all of you for being there, for reading, commenting, sharing, and liking. I’ll be very busy for a couple of weeks or so, so don’t worry too much if you don’t see me around. I’ll be doing my best to try to survive and enjoy the local festival while helping at the local radio station. Remember to keep smiling and to have fun!