53142315._sx318_sy475_Nina can never forgive Maggie for what she did. And she can never let her leave.

They say every house has its secrets, and the house that Maggie and Nina have shared for so long is no different. Except that these secrets are not buried in the past.

Every other night, Maggie and Nina have dinner together. When they are finished, Nina helps Maggie back to her room in the attic, and into the heavy chain that keeps her there. Because Maggie has done things to Nina that can’t ever be forgiven, and now she is paying the price.

But there are many things about the past that Nina doesn’t know, and Maggie is going to keep it that way—even if it kills her.

Because in this house, the truth is more dangerous than lies.

Source Format Pages Publisher Genre Publication Date
Netgalley eARC 371 Thomas & Mercer Thriller May 15th, 2020

John Marrs is back with a new novel and it does not disappoint. I’ll be bold and stake the claim for the future, too (with my crystal ball) and say that Marrs never disappoints. One thing I like about this author is that he seems to be a step ahead of others in the genre as the core of each of his books feels something that has not been done before in the genre. Say, the autonomous cars in The Passengers or the genetic partner fixing in The One. What Lies Between Us also plays with a plot device that has not been used as often… I think… (says someone who isn’t a thriller junkie! 😀 ) .. but I can’t tell what it is, because spoilers!

There’s nothing more intriguing than a secret, dangling like a chunky carrot. Tease the reader with more than one secret? You got yourself a super sticky fly tape to get tangled up in. Juicy! And talk about putting the premise of ‘you never know what goes on behind closed doors’ to work – Marrs has taken one of the closest relationships between a mother and her child and turned it into a sinister house of horrors. Really, I didn’t know what made my head spin more, the fact that I couldn’t figure out who was worse, Nina or her mother; or the things that went on behind closed doors. Twisted, man. Twisted!

I don’t need to spin a yarn about Marrs writing – he’s an established author with a solid fanbase. He knows what he’s doing and there is never a lull in his stories. Even if I tried to troll and say there was something off in the book, people in the know would tell me to FOFF and rightly so 🙂 No critique from this here reader – Marrs does a psychological, crime thriller good. He does it very darned good. So… if you’re on the hunt to put some dys in the dysfunctional, then look no further and let What Lies Between Us deliver an afternoon of warped.