Book Review: Everything Is Lies by Helen Callaghan

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Everything Is Lies, is one of those thrillers that makes you start to question everything you know about people.  Who knows that we're being told the truth? Who knows what secrets lie in the past, waiting to jump out and redefine everything we held as TRUTH. We rely on those we love to be honest, but ... sometimes ... that's just not the case.

Sophia is having a nice time at a work's party, when she gets a strange call from her mother asking her to come home. Knowing how needy her mum's always been, Sophia digs her heels in.  After all, her mum needs to let her go.  She needs to let Sophia get on with her own life, instead of trying to keep her glued to their small homestead business in the middle of nowhere.



Wracked with guilt the next day, Sophia drives down to see her parents only to find her mother hanging from a tree and her father seriously injured and barely alive, beside her.  The police become convinced that it's an attempted murder /suicide. but, Sophia's not convinced.  She knows her mother couldn't commit a violent act like this.  

Whilst waiting for her father to waken from his coma, Sophia discovers that what she believed about her mother isn't the truth and from here the story branches into two timelines; one telling the ongoing events in Sophia's life as she struggles to discover what really happened that night and the other following her mum's strange upbringing and involvement in a cult

Callaghan delivers the two timelines very effectively and the story is dotted with enough red herrings and possible 'bad guys' to keep me riveted.  I was fascinated with the whole idea of someone's existence being turned on its head.
Sleight of hand by the author make sure we're always slightly off footed in this fast paced read.