G. J. Minett

Talk about nice guy getting into a situation way out of his depth and control all in the name of love!

Meet Billy Orr, as a teenager the love of his life was a girl called Aimi, whom he dating for a while when they were teenagers but their relationship came to an abrupt end when Aimi’s parents divorced and she was forced to move away from the area to live with her father leaving him heartbroken.

Now 11 years on he is a successful London website developer running a business with friends and Aimi, having moved back to the town they grew up in is now married to the son of an influential businessman, the kind of man you wouldn’t want to cross or as an enemy!

Billy returns to his home town to take care of his sister who sadly is terminally ill, inevitably he soon bumps into Aimi and even though he hasn’t seen her in years he’s never been able to forget her or how he felt about her.

Sounds like a fairly normal average story so far right?

Don’t let that fool you, soon events take you into a rather unusual direction!

Aimi seeks Billy out and opens up to him about her marital problems, her abusive husband, her desperation to escape from him and that she feels her only way out is to fake her own death.

Manipulating Billy’s feelings toward her, his natural good nature and his desire to help her he soon finds himself part and centre of her plan to fake her own death.

Although Billy agrees to help her execute her plan he soon realises that, despite the careful planning, her husband and his family are suspicious and are not the kind of family that will let this go.

After Aimi’s disappearance Billy soon starts to question if she had other reasons for wanting to fake her own death and disappear, and that their actions might be far more dangerous than he first thought and led him to believe. He soon realises that her disappearance involves more people than he was made aware of and more to her story than he knew throwing his own life into turmoil.

The entire book is full of twists and turns, subplots and is a story full of deceit with a very unexpected outcome. The ending certainly caught me by surprise which these days with the market flooded with this genre of novels is a credit to the author!

This is definitely on my highly recommended read’s list!… (más)

This is the first book by G.J. Minett that I have read and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it - I'll certainly be looking out for more from this author. It's a very strong thriller that feels like a game of chess with all the pieces on the board, just waiting for someone to make the first move. At times I didn't know what the devil was going on and why this or that person was in the story but it all comes together in a magnificent a-ha moment at the end.

Owen Hall hasn't had a great life; he doesn't really know how to relate to people. He suffered a terrible event as a youngster and you wonder how much this affected his ability to deal with people. At school he was bullied by Callum Green and only Abi ever showed him any kind of friendship. Now Abi is married to Callum and Owen crosses paths with them once again.

The story starts with Owen stopping at a petrol station so his female passenger can go to the loo. When she doesn't come back, Owen can't understand what has happened and the petrol station attendant calls the police. Now that the police have Owen in their sights they realise that he fits the bill perfectly as a suspect in a recent murder.

In a game of cat and mouse, all of the traps are set to catch the murderer and it's an absolutely brilliant game that is played in Lie In Wait. I was so sure that I knew what had happened but I had completely walked past all of the clues, such is the clever style of G.J. Minett's writing. Looking back now, I should have been asking questions, but my attention was always drawn on to something else. Well played, sir!

I loved the unravelling and gradual reveal of Owen's history and perhaps only now, a few days after I have read it, do I realise how very good Lie in Wait actually is.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.… (más)

From my blog

This book has the feel of a classic, something quiet and remarkable about it. I am impressed it is G. J. Minett's debut. The opening is one of the best I have read, shocking incident that lays the foundation for the book.

Ellen is the main character and a strong willed one, I respected and really enjoyed. She is told a beautiful cottage has been given to her from the will of a lady she has never heard of. Ellen begins the journey of trying to find out why while we read and slowly discover the hidden legacy right to the end.

Ellen's mom has Alzheimer disease and is unable to answer Ellen's questions. She goes into the unknown with her best friend Kate which made the journey more believable.

The story was told by different time periods and multiple characters, mostly from the current 2008, 1974, 1966 when the intro incident occurred etc, I found this at times to be a little puzzling but it did still move the story along. I enjoyed all of the characters, even disliking the reporter, but he was still a great character. The intricate details of a will and the secrets numerous characters wanted to understand and be revealed was the essence of this beautiful mystery.

But it's the lack of detail that's the problem. He's at that stage in life where he doesn't want mysteries any more - what he wants is answers. Kindle 66%

I prefer more seating on the edge of my seat thrillers, but this mystery you had to take your time and cherish the moments. If you enjoy historical novels and mysteries, I highly recommend this one to you.… (más)