#BlogTour ‘One White Lie’ by Leah Konen

About the book….

IT’S ONLY ONE SMALL LIE . . . UNTIL SOMEONE TURNS UP DEAD

2020’S MOST GRIPPING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER with twists you’ll never see coming, perfect for fans of Samantha Downing, Rachel Caine and Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door

Imagine you’ve finally escaped the worst relationship of your life.

Imagine your new next-door neighbours are the friends you so desperately needed.

Imagine they’re in trouble. That someone is threatening their livelihoods – and even their lives.

Imagine your ex is coming for you.

If you just needed to tell one small lie to make all these problems disappear, you’d do it . . . wouldn’t you?

It’s only one small lie, until someone turns up dead . . .

Many, many thanks to Sriya at Penguin Random House for inviting me onto the blog tour for ‘One White Lie’ (aka ‘All The Broken People)

This is a twisting, turning, pacy thriller which plunges the reader straight into first person narrator, Lucy’s immediate escape from an abusive relationship.

Along with dog, Dusty, she has put her carefully laid plans into place and left no traces behind her where partner, Davis, can begin to track her down.. Off grid, in the back of beyond, she can finally begin to heal.

Her new neighbours are immediately welcoming, John and Vera are local art gallery owners(as well as landlords) and ask no questions about her past. Certain ways that she behaves has them suspecting that she has been a victim of abuse, and on a hike into hills behind their houses, revelations of a girl who went missing and was then found later, dead, are juxtaposed with Lucy’s feelings of safety in the face of danger. She then feels she can reveal some, but not all of the details of her running away to Shadow Creek road.

She hesitantly opens up to them, and before long, mealtimes for 3 become a part of her routine . As she and Dusty settle, little clues and forshadowing events seem unlikely to unsettle the familiarity of her daily routine. Graffiti saying ‘go back to Brooklyn you perverts’ outside their gallery, the reactions of the waitress in the cafe where Lucy likes to write when she tells her where she is staying,are not setting off any warning bells. Nor is the re-appearance of the last tenant of the cottage , turning up to collect a piece of mail,and acting a little hinky, suspicious.

Are there any for the reader?Or is it just the same old small town minds not wanting any outsiders setting up a business in town?It’s easy to be suspicious because something sure doesn’t feel right to the reader, and with Lucy being so vulnerable, you are worried.

The three get along well until Vera and John ask Lucy to cover for them whilst they plan their own getaway, having had enough of local gossips. And feeling betrayed and about to be abandoned,yet also grateful to them for taking her under their wing, she agrees to help them. After all, what is one small untruth compared to their support?

It’s a Hitchockian mystery where you have a narrator who you don’t entirely trust yet have no reason not to, a couple who seem too good to be true versus a small minded town-or are they?-who want them gone. Where is this going? You flip page after page as Leah skillfully weaves a tale of revenge, thwarted love and the violence comitted in the name of control. It’s a testament to her skill that she manages to get you to forget Lucy’s boyfriend until his sister-Lucy’s best friend-turns up in the exact same cafe that Lucy likes to write in.

And the the tension hits the roof!

I couldn’t guess where this was going, the ‘off screen’ menace of Davis had me thinking of ‘Sleeping With The Enemy’

A little white lie is still a fundamental untruth, no matter how it is framed .Who is lying and for what reason is hard to fathom when you have an unreliable narrator ,and every character seems to have their own motivation to avoid the truth.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy reading domestic thrillers, I couldn’t work out whodunnit, could you?

About the author….

Leah Konen is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied journalism and English literature. “All the Broken People,(aka ‘One White Lie’)” releasing June 30, is her first thriller. She’s also the author of several young adult novels, including “Love And Other Train Wrecks” and “The Romantics” She lives in Brooklyn and Saugerties, NY, with her husband, their daughter, Eleanor, and their dog, Farley.

Links-http://leahkonen.com/

Twitter @LeahRowanBooks @penguinrandom