Review ~ The Liars Chair by Rebecca Whitney

Mantle/ Pan Macmillan
January 2015

Rachel Teller and her husband David appear, on the surface to have everything. A beautiful home, a successful business and a close and loving relationship. However, from the start of the novel, all is not as it seems and Rachel seems to be a woman in turmoil. A catastrophic event sends her world into a downward spiral and before too long the cracks in Rachel's relationship with David threatens not just her marriage, but also Rachel's sanity.

This is a dark and rather vicious story about the controlling nature of one individual against another. At times sly and devious and other times so devastatingly cruel that it makes you stop and consider all the aspects of what makes a relationship function in the way it does. There is no doubt that the author has succeeded in getting right into the heart and soul of two very damaged individuals and in a perverse sort of way makes you feel quite sympathetic for both Rachel and David, although really neither of them are going to come out of this sorry state of affairs with any semblance of dignity.

The story unfolds almost like you are watching a television drama and I could very easy enjoy watching this should it ever be picked up by a drama team. It's sharp and sassy and very cleverly produced with a fine eye for detail and kept me enthralled from beginning to end.

The Liars' Chair is Rebecca Whitney's debut novel and I'm sure that it is just the start of a very successful writing career.

My thanks to Sam Eades at Macmillan for sending me this review copy of The Liar's Chair.

About the author

Photograph courtesy of the publisher

Rebecca Whitney studied Creative Writing at Sussex. She has a background in film and television production and now runs a business with her film-maker husband. They live in Brighton with their children. She is currently working on her second novel.

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~~This is my Paying It Forward Book for March~~