It’s super exciting to be a part of this blog tour for A.J. Park’s debut novel ‘The First Lie’. With thanks to Alex at Orion Books for the invite! Please keep scrolling for some bookish chat…

The Blurb…

A freak accident. An impossible choice. But what was the first lie?

When Paul Reeve comes home to find his wife in the bathroom, bloodied and shaking, his survival instinct kicks in.

Alice never meant to kill the intruder. She was at home, alone, and terrified. She doesn’t deserve to be blamed for it. Covering up the murder is their only option.

But the crime eats away at the couple and soon they can’t trust anyone – even one another… But there is much more at stake than anyone realises – and many more people on their trail than they can possibly evade…

My thoughts…

Crikey, this book opens with a nightmare situation and a terrific narrative hook! Imagine the terror of arriving home after discovering several missed calls from your spouse… and finding the front door open! This is the scary and traumatic scene Paul Reeve finds at the beginning of ‘The First Lie’, and from this starting point we are hurtled along at quite a pace, as he deals with the cover up of a bloody ‘crime’ and his wife’s struggle to accept the events of that night and the choices they made.

A.J. Park’s debut novel moves from the narratives of Paul, and his wife Alice, whilst alternating with the police investigating team of a series of murders, where an assassin is the suspected culprit; this is headed by D.S. Katherine Wright and becomes our alternate focus in the story. These two elements eventually combine, and the narrative pulls together sharply.

I must admit that there are characters who are incredibly annoying in this book! This is not a negative, this is part of the story and their roles; personally I struggled with the development of Alice – she seemed to have a complete personality change three-quarters of the way in, which alienated me a little, but again that’s just my individual response. I love the balance between the two narratives, and how they gradually pull together; this makes exciting reading!

This is a super debut novel, with all the thriller elements readers of this genre enjoy! There are lots of plot layers and links which make it an enjoyable puzzle to read; it’s jam packed with deception, lies and mistrust, building to an intense and nerve-wracking climax.

A swiftly flowing, dark and challenging thriller that compels you to keep turning the pages!

About the author

After studying literature, linguistics and Spanish at university, A.J. Park trained as an English teacher and actor. He has edited magazines, and taught English, Media Studies and Drama in secondary schools across England. He was also a competitive fencer for seven years.