House of Lies

Written by D. S. Butler

Narrated by Henrietta Meire

A dark secret. A haunted past. And a house full of lies.

When two teenage girls vanish without a trace from an educational retreat at Chidlow House in Lincolnshire, the students and teachers are put on high alert.

Called in to investigate, Detective Karen Hart questions everyone who came into contact with the two girls, Cressida and Natasha, in the days leading up to their disappearance.

Stories of Chidlow House being haunted abound, but Hart—still coming to terms with the suspicious circumstances surrounding the tragic loss of her own family—knows that while the house might be otherworldly, the crime is grimly real.

But nothing is quite as it seems at Chidlow House. When it becomes clear that someone at the estate must know more than they’re letting on, Hart faces a race against time to find the culprit and save the girls.

While there is no shortage of suspects, Hart comes up against one dead end after another. And when she too begins hearing eerie whispers in the walls, she is forced to wonder: was she too quick to dismiss Chidlow’s supernatural reputation?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Sep 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781713530558

D. S. Butler

Born in Kent, D. S. Butler grew up as an avid reader with a love for crime fiction and mysteries. She has worked as a scientific officer in a hospital pathology laboratory and as a research scientist. After obtaining a PhD in biochemistry, she worked at the University of Oxford for four years before moving to the Middle East. While living in Bahrain, she wrote her first novel and hasn’t stopped writing since.

Reviews for House of Lies

[Cilica · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There is a moral statement about marijuana smoking that cracked me up as it is full of fear mongering. I didn't warm up to the DCI Karen character in this series. She has a righteous streak that doesn't work for me. I do like this series even though.

[Lizette Brits · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great book. Complex Storyline 5/5. Better narration needed. Narration 2/5.

[ben thomas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great story, one of the few books that I couldn’t guess the ending, kept twisting and turning right until the end

[Lisa Moriah Chenthitta · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So good. The other reviewers were right, when they said these books get better with every one. Loved all the little evolutions of the macro story, carefully woven within the standalone mystery.

[OliviaGiles · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

characters were great, and the plot was good with a lot of twisty turns but I knew who the killer was way too soon

[funstm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Detective Karen Hart and DI Morgan are called in early on Friday morning when it's discovered that two teenagers haven't slept in their beds last night and no one's seen them since they snuck out of the premises the night before. But the further the team dig into the girls' lives the more they find that not everything is as it seems.

This series is really hitting it's stride. The last book was fantastic and so was this one. I loved the team and the way the worked together to uncover clues. My favourite is still DI Morgan though, he can be so smart but so cluelessness about the world and people and it's adorable. I like the friendship between him and Karen too, backing each other up and being supportive and bolstering each other's weak points. I thought it might be headed towards romance, but I'm glad it seems to have veered away from that. Which was good because Mike was great. I loved his personality and how much of a match he is for Karen. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him and how it all plays out. I was also pleased to see more of DC Farzana Shah. I hope there's more of her in future books.

As for the mystery, it was good. There were some decent twists and turns and I was surprised by the reveal. I really hadn't guessed Cressida was a psycho who killed her best friend, Natasha.

I guessed that the noises were fake. I figured there was probably hidden passages or something although I was expecting something more exotic than a peephole used to spy and record women in the bathroom. I didn't really get why Cressida had directed Ethan to scare everyone with the recorded sounds though. She'd set it up before she was thinking about killing anyone so it kind of just seemed dumb. But maybe that was the point. I liked Mike Harrington and his gruff personality but most of the other characters involved in the case were off putting.

I would've liked to see more progress made into the investigation into the police corruption but I was happy that there was a new taskforce designated to look into and actually do something about it now. I didn't really understand why it went nowhere in the first place. It was mentioned that it was because they only had Charlie Cook's evidence but the arrested cop also was said to be talking and DI Morgan had been busy making sure that he pressured his colleagues to come forward and tell the truth. So that bit definitely didn't sit right with me. And I was glad that the police chief didn't try to bribe or otherwise influence Karen into backing off his son. They seem to be trying to change things so that was good.

A well written and well paced story with likable characters. 4 stars.