Title: Never Lie by Freida McFadden 

Published: September 19, 2022

Genre(s): adult, thriller, mystery, suspense

Read as: ebook, Kindle Unlimited

Rating: 4

Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams.

But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate… with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end.

In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to Dr. Hale’s mysterious disappearance.

Tricia plays the tapes one by one, late into the night. With each one, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and Dr. Adrienne Hale’s web of lies slowly unravels.

And then Tricia reaches the final cassette.

The one that reveals the entire horrifying truth. (Goodreads)

It has been ages since I have written a proper book review. Legitimately years. This kind of thing used to be second nature to me but now I’m feeling wobbly and unsure. Well, let’s just jump in together and see what happens, shall we?

Mysteries and suspense never used to be in my top genres but I am finding myself drawn to them more and more. I love a good surprise and when you throw in s sprinkle of murder and the tension of wondering what is going on just at the edge of your eyesight, I will be sold almost every single time. This is my first read of McFadden’s works and I have to say, she had me hooked from the start.

The slow build up of tension through this novel was well done. Even when it would get to a point where I felt confident what was going on, along would come another little nugget of information to throw all my theories right out the window. It wasn’t until very near the true reveal that I really pieced all of the bits together in my head.

Without giving much away, I will say that there were a few threads of the story that didn’t sit well with me. Some points seemed plonked into the story for the sole purpose of misleading the reader without flowing with the story itself or adding to the plot in general. Being a mystery, I understand that the occasional red herring can be delightful but there were a few sprinkled throughout that were too obvious and unwieldy to actually aid the story. That being said, it obviously wasn’t enough to make me stop reading.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I found myself wanting to pick it up over and over again even when there were other things I should have been doing. The suspense kept me reading and it lead me to adding more of McFadden’s works to my TBR which I think is a glowing recommendation.