A review by marc
The Lie by C.L. Taylor

4.0

Suspenseful from the start, this one was hard to put down. Jane Hughes is a young woman who has fled her stressful corporate and social life in London for anonymity and a new life in Wales, working in the Green Fields Animal Shelter. Her days consist of cycling to work and taking care of the animals brought to their shelter due to abandonment or abuse. Having always wanted to be a veterinarian, the job suits her interest in caring for animals. But, as we quickly learn, Jane has a past with a different name -- a name that she seeks to conceal from her Welsh employer and community -- but why?

The Lie bounces from the present to five years past, when Emma Woolfe is an assistant to the head of sales at a software company. She hates her job and her boss, when she agrees to travel with her best friend Daisy, and two other friends to Nepal. The plan is to go to a yoga retreat for two weeks, followed by a jungle safari. However, once the group arrives at the retreat, Ekantra Yatra, strange things start to happen, and the friendship is tested in unfathomable ways. It's what happens at the retreat, and among the four friends, that causes "Jane" to choose her current life in Wales. We bounce back and forth between present and past until the truth and past are revealed.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks, Inc. for the ARC of this book.