Book Review: Lying in Wait

LYING IN WAIT | Liz Nugent
06.12.2018 | Gallery/Scout Press
Rating: 4/5 stars

Lydia Fitzsimons is living the high life or so it seems from the outside perspective. She is married to a well respected judge and together they have a doting son, Laurence. The family lives on a sprawling estate in Ireland that was inherited from her father. Under the glitz and glam that people believe the Fitzsimons family live in, there is a dark secret brewing that will tear the family to pieces.

My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.

Lydia’s husband has killed a young woman named Annie Doyle and despite the couple’s best attempts to keep this murder hidden, Laurence is able to unveil the truth. After this discovery Laurence’s life changes forever. He can no longer look at his father and becomes obsessed with the Doyle family. His love for his mother keeps him from going straight to the police, but even that love can’t keep him from tracking the Doyle family. How long can Laurence keep this awful secret to himself and what will he do if he ever discovers that his mother knew about the murder?

I had finally begun to resent my mother. Her emotional blackmail had me trapped.

Liz Nugent creates a clever tale of murder and the years of deception that follow within the pages of LYING IN WAIT. The story is told from alternating points of view between Lydia, Laurence, and Karen, who is Annie Doyle’s sister. The connections between the three narrators begin to grow as the novel progresses and the tension builds. I won’t give away any specifics, but I can say that I loved the way Nugent effortlessly built up the different narrators’ stories and created a general mood of uncomfortableness. I quickly grew to hate Lydia and love Karen, but my feelings for Laurence often fluctuated, which I find to be a positive. Throughout Laurence does several things that make the reader cringe, but at the same time you can’t stop yourself from feeling bad for him. The closing chapters of this book, when all of the drama comes to a final crescendo, where extremely well done. The deviousness of Lydia is truly at its peak in these pages and you’re not quite sure who will make it out of her grasp untouched. This story is dramatic, dark, unnerving, and worth a slot on your Fall TBR!

A special thank you to Gallery/Scout Press for my free copy!