Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks

 

Simon and Daisy have a good life.  He's in interior design, she's a teacher.  They met and fell in love in their university days.  Their marriage had some strain while they were trying and failing to have a baby, but the birth of their daughter, Millie, six years before had completed their union.  

But is their life that perfect?  Simon is drinking more than ever, veering ever closer to the line of being an alcoholic.  Something is eating at him and Daisy thinks it started the day they went back to the fertility clinic to talk about having another baby.  She is fine with just Millie but another child seems critical to Simon.  They had left the office that day in a hurry and he has seemed different since then.

As Simon's drinking gets worse, Daisy tries harder and harder to cover it.  She suspects that their circle of friends know exactly what is going on and while everyone likes Simon, these successful professionals expect everyone to have their lives together.  But things get worse and worse.  Simon loses his job and soon he is spending his days in bed, drinking until there is nothing left to drink in the house.  When a horrific accident occurs, their lives explode.  Now the lies on which their marriage were built start to come out.

As each layer of lies is pulled aside, more truth is revealed.  Can they ever live with the brutal truths that are uncovered?  Is the truth always better than the lies that covered it and made it more acceptable to society?  Can they raise a daughter to a happy and successful adulthood if her foundation is constructed of lies?

Adele Parks has carved out a career with books that explore the darker side of relationships.  The lies that paper over the giant holes in Simon and Daisy's marriage cannot hold and the slow exposure of each lie adds to the book's tension.  Some of the surprises I saw coming; some hit me from left field.  As each layer of deceit is peeled away, the reader will emphasize with the characters and hope for a happy ending.  This book is recommended for readers of suspenseful  women's fiction.