Eleven Liars by Robert Gold

 

Returning home one evening, investigative journalist Ben Harper stumbles across a fire in the derelict community centre attached to the local church. Realising someone is trapped inside Harper quickly goes to their aid but is dismayed when they flee the scene. Harper's curiosity is piqued. Who was inside the building and what were they doing? When a body is discovered in the burnt out foundations Harper begins to investigate and discovers links to drugs, long forgotten missing people, pillars of the community and close friends.

Eleven Liars is the follow up to Robert Gold's debut novel, Twelve Secrets. Once again the setting is the small town of Haddley and features investigative journalist Ben Harper along with many of the characters we were introduced to in the first book. Eleven Liars take place fairly soon after the events of Twelve Secrets but there is no need to have read the first book in order to enjoy this one. In fact the opening chapter gives a quick recap of Ben's story, almost like the scene setting narration at the start of a film.

This story focuses on PC Dani Cash, one of the main characters from the first book. We gain more of an insight into her background and her current, unhappy, relationship. Many of the events link to Dani and as the story progresses we see that her childhood is littered with false memories.

The novel starts slowly, mainly because we are introduced to a vast range of characters. As I was reading my mind was in a whirl trying to work out how all the different characters and threads fitted together. Some are obvious, some less so. Robert Gold has laid out an intricate plot line which is impossible to guess and this makes many of the revelations shocking to both the characters and the reader.

Eleven Liars by Robert Gold will be published on 30th March 2023 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown UK for a review copy.