Little Liar: A nail-biting, gripping psychological thriller

This intriguing book follows the lives of two households only separated by a few feet between their properties. Childless Mira and Barry on one side, and Gemma, Peter, Rosie and Noah on the other. Their close proximity is the only thing they have in common.10-year-old Rosie has a temper and has tantrums on a fairly regular basis. The endless screaming can be heard clearly next door, and one day Mira snaps. She rings the police. This, in turn, begins a nightmare for the family.Gemma struggles with the whole work/life balance. She is a demanding and well paid, job in the city but this does' t give her much time at home. She has a nanny who looks after the children until she gets home, and Peter is usually not home until 9 pm.Mira befriends Rosie and gradually encourages her to say what happens at home. The picture is grim. Nobody knows Mira's secret or why she feels drawn to Rosie.The pace is fast and is one of those books you cannot read quickly enough. The characters, although not exactly nice, are sometimes endearing and bring out one's sympathy for their plight. Every parent's nightmare until the end is inevitable.I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are all my own and completely unbiased. My thanks to NetGalley for this opportunity.

For those who like a real page turner this book is it.Brilliantly written, fantastic build up to the horrors of motherhood and the unspoken feelings mothers can have.The interfering 'well intentioned neighbour' who causes havoc .Gripping from the beginning the sort of book you can't put down. Well done Claire Boyd I can see this as a fantastic film / TV serial.

The reader is led and misled through the story in a very clever fashion.I could recognise a lot of the feelings the main character explained and it could have been me or you who was misunderstood and wrongly accused, but unable to explain to doubting authorities.I really enjoyed the rollercoaster ride!

The only normal one is Noah and he's only six, poor child. If Rosie belonged to me she would have been disciplined which was lacking from this story. As a mum of three and grandmother of 7, I can only wonder at the author's parenting skills ignore tantrums just step over them and carry on with daily life believe me they soon get sick of writhing around on a cold dusty floor. Is the author perhaps going to turn Rosie into a psychopath because that bit at the end despite old mother earth's vows (Rosie's mum) she still seems to have a problem keeping her own temper in check? There are many issues not covered, what was Rosie like at school? Teachers are usually excellent at picking up on behaviour problems and what about EWOs? Educational Welfare Officers would have also picked up on Rosie's issues and they would have been brought in. Mira the teaching assistant at a different school can just go into a private school and pass written messages to a child under the guise of the child dropping it and it's done no questions asked? Seriously? Mira is not right bless her she needs to see a behavioral psychologist if only for letting her annoying weed of a husband into the bathroom with wine and cheese puffs each day (what a constant invasion of privacy) however did she pass an enhanced CRB check? I must also add I didn't much care for the stereotyping of the social worker, or the skills of the detective, most detectives I know are pretty down to earth and can spot an errant little liar a mile away. Maybe this was the author's intent to bring to attention that sometimes children do lie and they can disrupt the entire family when the powers that be believe them unconditionally? Also, I suppose the author did succeed in getting people to understand that it is not easy to judge these cases. This is why I gave it 3 stars, else it would have been one only. I wouldn't say that this was a psychological thriller by any stretch, it read more like an elaborate long winded tabloid tale - sorry.

This is the second book Ive read by this author and they are both the same. Interesting first few chapters. Lots of waffle and irrelevant information in the middle no doubt just to pad out the book and then a rushed and unexplained ending. The book is all about the false alegation by Rosie yet after Rosie is locked in the shed by the mad neighbour, everything is forgotten. Gemma feels free. The author appeared not to know what her ending was and simply changed it to be about Mira killing Barry. How can the whole purpose of the book just be ignored? And what really annoys me is lack of research. The reference to the CPS hearing in 4 weeks was crazy. There is no such thing as a CPS hearing. There would only be a court hearing if Gemma had been charged which she hadn't . I suspect the author has read about CPS giving advice before charge (as that does happen) but then gone on to write a book talking about a hearing that does not exist in the British judicial system. Really poor and unforgivable basic research. From the way the book is written, I have doubts that the author was involved at all in the ending. It was like a different story. Very rushed. Poor story. Pages of page filling waffle. I will not be reading anymore by this author.The

I found this to be a very slow moving book which focused on the relationships of career driven Gemma, her rebellious daughter Rosie and the nosey next door neighbour Mira, written in chapters by the three main characters all with their own issues and back stories and none of them particularly likeable. The book picked up about 10% from the end and I liked the twist and although in general it was an OK read, it wasn’t very engaging and certainly wasn’t the nail biting thriller it was described as.

Really poor story. Flimsy premise and not well told. I just can't believe the reviews - the author has tried to build tension but it fell flat for me. Won't be reading this author again.