She's done it again.
Gytha Lodge has given us yet another thrilling, messy and down-right impressive detective novel in the shape of Lie Beside Me, the third instalment to the Detective Jonah Sheens series.
Now, I will say, there was less of Mr Sheens himself within this novel, which I was a little gutted about (I dream about him being this gorgeous man that I want to know A LOT more about), however, that certainly didn't take anything away from the plot, or the other characters that we had more of instead.
Synopsis
'Louise, a woman with a sad and lonely marriage and a taste for alcohol, finds herself in bed with another man after a night of heavy drinking. But this is no ordinary one-night stand. The man is covered in blood, and he isn't breathing.
With no memory of the night before, and how this stranger ended up in her bed, dead, Louise tries to piece together her memories before she goes to jail for his murder.
DCI Sheens and the team see her as their prime suspect, but it doesn't take long to discover that she's not the only person keeping secrets. And if she didn't do it, then who did?'
One part of this novel that I absolutely loved is how much more of DS Hanson's backstory we get. In the first two novels, it is touched upon, and you get the feeling that there's a lot more to her story, but we certainly get some answers in this one. Aside from DCI Sheens, she has become my favourite character (I also love Ben Lightman too, please can they get together Gytha?!).
The main storyline throughout this novel is pretty impressive. I was honestly kept guessing the whole, damn, time. One minute Louise had done it, and the next I was sure her husband had, and then I was even second-guessing her best friend (who sounds super-fun by the way).
The reason I said above that this book was messy, is because Louise is a pretty mess. She's all over the place, from her drinking, to her misplaced loyalty to her husband. You slowly learn her life with her husband, and then what actually happened that night at the same time Louise does.
I won't say anything else, as this is a spoiler-free zone, but I encourage everyone that reads this to pick up a copy of this book, and if you haven't read the first two either, then please grab those too!
I am so ready to see what's coming with book 4!
4 and a half stars!