Let Me Lie: The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller

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There were plenty of twists and turns, however, the end was so dumb WILD it teetered on the brink of ridiculousness. Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds in neighboring words can be found in “ starry sky”, “ dig the”, “ let me lie”, “ Here he”, and “ hunter home”.

Anna knows she should leave the past alone but how can she after this note. She elicits the help of a retired cop who, by the way, is far more interesting than most secondary characters, and together they begin to unravel what really happened. Or do they? The title of the poem “Requiem” means an act or token of remembrance. This poem is a remembrancer of the poet that he left behind for his dear readers. Besides, the term also means a mass for the repose of the souls of the dead. So, Stevenson wrote this piece for two purposes. One is to make him memorable in the minds of his readers as a “sailor” or a “hunter” (in their metaphorical sense). Another reason concerns how he wants to be remembered. He does not want to die like a person defeated by death. Rather his wish is to be reminded of as a person who accepted death wholeheartedly. Too many twists none of them particularly hard to predict and no real connection to any of the characters beyond the two I mentioned just now. Death does not suit me. I wear it like a borrowed coat; it slips off my shoulders and trails in the dirt. It is ill-fitting. Uncomfortable. p 3 But Anna has never been convinced that her parents were suicidal and on the anniversary of her mother’s death she receives a note questioning that fact. Turning the note over to Murray who is a retired detective he begins to investigate thinking that the couple just may have been murdered instead.

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Repetition: There is a repetition of the word “glad” in the third line. In the last two lines, he repeats the word “home” thrice. It is meant for the sake of emphasis.

For the record: my personal favorite of Clare’s books is I SEE YOU, and I LET YOU GO still holds second place for me!)Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley Publishing Group, for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review. Anna is a new mother that is still struggling with the loss of both of her parents just a year before. Anna’s father had been seen just before he apparently jumped to his death and then shortly after Anna’s mother seems to have done the same thing weighted down with the grief of the loss of her husband. Meanwhile we have another voice being heard in the book. The voice is the voice of Anna's mother watching Anna and being elated that she has a grandchild and also not very happy that Anna was digging into papers that might put Anna in danger depending upon what she would find. Requiem” offers us several moving fictions. The principal inducer of make-believe here is the utter smoothness and rhythmic consistency of the poem. (That second “the” on line seven is a plaque-maker’s error.) The sounds this text makes—one almost bursts into song reciting it—correspond to conventional notions of what it meant to write beautiful English verse in the late-nineteenth century. Both parents committing suicide at the same exact spot seven months apart seemed a bit strange. Anna extremely missed both her parents but didn't know how much until a horrible reminder arrived in the mail.

I also liked that she spent a lot of time on Murray's character. I really got to know that retired cop, and I felt really bad for him and his wife (you'll see why). This book touches on mental illness with them and that was an aspect I wasn't expecting. Imagine losing your father to suicide and then months later, your mother follows with her own suicide in the same place your father chose to end his life? No one knew Anna had asked for this case to be re-opened, but it sure seemed as if they did. Strange things started happening that even her husband dismissed. Was she in danger too? The writing is very good. It flowed well and kept me reading. It had plenty of twists and lots of lies, lots and lots of lies! The main character, Anna Johnson, is well described. She is a young woman dealing with the deaths of both of her parents, a new baby and a still developing relationship with the baby’s father. I may have wanted her to handle some of the situations differently but, hey, this is a story. She is just beginning to heal when she receives an anonymous note which suggests that perhaps her parents deaths were not by suicide, as they had been ruled by the police investigation but something else. Baby Ella was an unexpected gift of an unexpected relationship with Mark. Mark, a professional psychologist, began counseling Anna after her parents' sudden deaths. He recused himself as he became attracted to Anna and they soon moved into Anna's family home. Anna refused his marriage proposals and still remained single in their relationship.

Warning: This novel has several heavy and sensitive topics — suicide, depression, self-harm, alcoholism, domestic abuse. Q: A theme throughout your novels has been the fragility of mental health. In LET ME LIE, it’s almost a sub-text. Could you tell us about the intent behind that? Q: Your central figures have all been mothers – Anna, here, has an infant daughter. Is this to do with you being a mother yourself, or is there some other reason?