#BlogTour – #BookReview #SheLiesinWait by Gytha Lodge

For my second blog tour post of the day, I’m thrilled to share with you my book review of She Lies in Wait, the debut novel by Gytha Lodge. Thank you to Jenny Platt and Michael Joseph Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this fabulous thriller, which is book 1 of the DCI Jonah Sheens series.

About the book:

On a hot July night in 1983, six school friends go camping in the forest. Bright and brilliant, they are destined for great things, and young Aurora Jackson is dazzled to be allowed to tag along.

Thirty years later, a body is discovered. DCI Sheens is called to the scene, but he already knows what’s waiting for him- Aurora Jackson, found at long last.

But that’s not all. The friends have all maintained their innocence, but the body is found in a hideaway only the six of them knew about.

It seems the killer has always lurked very close to home . .

About the author:

Gytha Lodge is a multi-award-winning playwright, novelist and writer for video games and screen. She is also a single parent who blogs about the ridiculousness of bringing up a mega-nerd small boy.

She has a profound addiction to tea, crosswords and awful puns. When not writing, she heads up a copywriting team at a global translation firm, where she generally tries to keep all the video-game writing to herself.

She studied English at Cambridge, where she became known quite quickly for her brand of twisty, dark yet entertaining drama. She later took the Creative Writing MA at UEA.

She has signed with Penguin Random House worldwide for the first three books in her crime series featuring DCI Jonah Sheens. She Lies in Wait was released in January 2019.

My Review:

She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge is a fantastic, character driven police procedural thriller that once started is difficult to put down. It has the feel of something that could work incredibly well as a TV series as well as a book, with a long ago mystery to solve and clues to piece together that will finally reveal the murderer. It is the kind of story I love, told from the perspective of both the past and the present, from various points of view including the murder victim herself, that tries to uncover exactly what happened to Aurora on that fateful trip in 1983.

It introduces wonderful new character DCI Jonah Sheens, who I warmed to from the start. In fact, his whole team are so interesting I can’t wait to find out even more about them in future books!

Fourteen year old Aurora Jackson went missing 30 years ago on a camping trip with her older sister and her friends. But now her remains have been found and DCI Jonah Sheens is leading the investigation into her death. For Jonah this is a case he’s familiar with. As a young policeman he took part in the original search for Aurora, so for him this is a mystery he’s eager to solve.

For the six friends who were there that night, suspicion falls directly upon them, as the place where Aurora is found is somewhere only the six of them knew about. So what exactly happened that night? And who has been keeping this deadly secret to themselves for all of these years? DCI Jonah Sheens is determined to find out and, with the support of his team, sets out to unmask the face of the killer at long last.

She Lies in Wait is an impressive debut that twists and turns, slowly revealing the events that happened on that terrible night all those years ago. There are chapters sprinkled throughout that tell the horrifying story from Aurora’s point of view in 1983, leading up to the shocking truth of her death. It is a beautifully written and moving tale that kept me guessing right up until the end. Highly recommended.

I was so pleased to read that this is the start of a new series of books featuring DCI Jonah Sheens and his team. I can’t wait to see what this talented author is going to come up with for them next!

She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge is available to buy now: Amazon UK

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