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For fans of Nine Perfect Strangers and Little Fires Everywhere, Tell Me Your Lies is the gripping debut thriller from one of British TV’s most successful producers and screenwriters.
Partly inspired by the true story of a well-heeled therapist who turned the daughters of Britain’s elite against their parents, Tell Me Your Lies delves into the dark side of psychotherapy whilst exploring the toxicity of family secrets and the complexity of mother-daughter relationships.
Lily will do anything to protect her picture-perfect life and family. She’s made ruthless choices to make sure their secrets stay buried, and she’s not going to stop now.
When her party animal daughter Rachel spins out of control, Lily hires a renowned therapist and healer. Amber is the skilled and intuitive confidante that Rachel desperately needs. But as Rachel falls increasingly under Amber’s spell, she begins to turn against her parents, and Lily grows suspicious.
Does Amber really have Rachel’s best interests at heart or is there something darker going on? As more and more family secrets are exposed, one thing is certain: either Rachel’s mother, or her therapist is lying. Never quite knowing who to believe, untold truths expose this picture-perfect family as anything but flawless.
Kate Ruby, whose TV credits include dramas for Netflix, BBC and Sky, pulls no punches in this compelling and addictive psychological thriller that sees a seemingly enviable family unravel from the inside.
It's my pleasure to be opening the blog tour for Tell Me Your Lies today. Many thanks to Kate Ruby and to Simon & Schuster and Midas PR for inviting me and for my advance digital copy of the novel, received through Netgalley.
Tell Me Your Lies opens with a prologue that's dripping with self-righteous bitterness and Lily's fury immediately ensured I was intrigued to find out just what had occurred between her, her daughter, Rachel and the person her ire is directed towards. The storyline then reveals what happened over the previous year to bring her to this point – and it's not a happy read.
Rachel's life is in freefall; when her wild partying results in her being hospitalised and having her stomach pumped, Lily hires Amber, a therapist who has come highly recommended. Rachel is reluctant at first but quickly forms a bond with Amber which initially gratifies her mother – until the relationships connecting the three women transform into something dark and ugly. The first-person narrative switches between Lily and Rachel which frequently allows us to see the same event through their separate perspectives. Both are the epitome of unreliable narrators which is fascinating, particularly as it becomes increasingly clear that the truth is being twisted and the vulnerable manipulated.
Rachel's addictions stem from an unresolved incident in her past and she believes that Amber will help her come to terms with her feelings about what happened back then. The lines between therapist and client become ever more blurred as Rachel's dependence on drink and drugs is transferred to Amber. The most compelling scenes in the book are perhaps at a retreat where Rachel meets other clients who are equally under Amber's spell. She is evidently not a conventional therapist but her methods do seem to reap results and the atmosphere at the retreat is unsettlingly fervid. Kate Ruby's experience in television pays dividends here and these scenes are powerfully dramatic. Meanwhile, Lily's obsessive need to present a picture-perfect façade extends beyond her own appearance and as she realises Rachel is slipping away from her, she cajoles and threatens others, and I raced through the pages to discover what it was she feared being exposed.
The character-driven plot is riveting, with the three women at the heart of Tell Me Your Lies vividly brought to life. They are complicated, flawed women and I can't say I especially liked any of them but I was compulsively curious to learn more. The nuanced storyline meant my sympathies shifted constantly and even at their worst, I was able to understand and appreciate what motivated them. Interestingly, I thought the men in the novel were weaker characters with their roles often consigned to the periphery; perhaps as a consequence I particularly disliked Rachel's father and brother.
I managed to guess some of the secrets before they came to light in the book but the clues are there to be followed and it's really the impact of these revelations that is most gripping. Tell Me Your Lies is compulsive domestic noir, exploring toxic relationships, obsessive love and cruel revenge. It's also an insightful and disturbing examination of the darker side of psychotherapy, having been partly inspired by a true story. Menacingly suspenseful from start to finish and with a deliciously satisfying conclusion, Tell Me Your Lies is an engrossing debut and I look forward to reading more from Kate Ruby in the future.
Tell Me Your Lies is published by Simon & Schuster, purchasing links can be found here, please support independent bookshops whenever possible.
About the Author
Kate Ruby is a producer and screenwriter, with a highflying career in television. Tell Me Your Lies, a psychological thriller, is her debut novel and is currently in development for a major TV show. As an executive producer for drama, she spent a decade at the BBC, working on shows including Spooks and Being Human. Currently Head of Television for a global production company, she has worked on major Netflix shows including Watership Down, Traitors and The English Game. She has recently worked on the BBC/HBO adaptation of JP Delaney’s bestselling thriller The Girl Before, starring Gugu Mbatha Raw and David Oyelowo.
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