The Truth-Teller's Lie by Sophie Hannah

 

DS Charlie Zailer is about to go on vacation with her sister when Naomi Jenkins comes in to make a missing person report.  The missing person is her lover, Robert Haworth, and she is sure that something has happened to him.  Once Zailer and her assistant, DC Simon Waterhouse, hear that the lover is married they start to doubt Naomi.  After all, her only evidence is that Haworth missed their weekly tryst and Jenkins insistence that he loves her so much that he would never do that.

Charlie goes off on vacation, first to Spain then when that doesn't work out, on to Wales to a set of luxury chalets.  She is there when she hears that Naomi now insists that Robert had kidnapped her three years ago and attacked her in front of an audience of men eating dinner.  It seems like the wildest of stories but then, after searching files, the police realize that there have been other women who tell the same story.  Sure that there is a serial rapist on the loose, Charlie cuts short her vacation and comes back to work the case  Can they find the truth?

Sophie Hannah is an English author who has written more than thirty mysteries.  She has a series where she continues Agatha Christie's series about Hercule Poirot along with the Zailer-Waterhouse series and other standalone novels.  She teaches a master's program at Cambridge on mystery writing and is also a poet.  This is the second novel of the Zailer-Waterhouse series.  Charlie is in love with Simon but he doesn't return the sentiment and there are many embarrassing moments between the two.  It definitely affects the everyday working of the murder team and it's surprising that it is allowed to continue.  Zailer seems very emotional but has a good grasp of the case and how to run one.  I will be reading more in this series to see what happens to Charlie and if her love for Simon is ever returned.  This is one of the most diabolical mysteries I've read and the coldness of the perpetrators and the constant twists and turns make this one a definite win for me.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.