Someone killed a man last night... and it might have been you.
Louise wakes up. Her head aches, her mouth is dry, her memory is fuzzy. But she suspects she's done something bad. She rolls over towards her husband, Niall. The man who, until recently, made her feel loved. But it's not Niall who's lying beside her. In fact, she's never seen this man before. And he's not breathing...
As Louise desperately struggles to piece her memories back together, it's clear to Detective Jonah Sheens and his team that she is their prime suspect - though they soon find she's not the only one with something to hide. Did she do it? And, if not, can they catch the real killer before they strike again?
Full disclosure: I loved this book so much. I must admit, I haven't read any others in the series (but I do have one on my shelf!) so I'm reading them out of sequence. I don't think it matters. This reads perfectly as a standalone but has made me keen to read the rest. A good sign, don't you think?
As you can see from the summary above, the hook for this addictive book is immense. It captured my attention immediately, making me desperate to find out who the dead man is in Louise's bed. Reader, I could not put this book down!
The narrative style of this thriller is brilliant. Louise, the prime suspect, tells the story of what really happened in alternating chapters, running parallel to the police investigation, addressing her husband in a letter. The only problem is, she doesn't remember a great deal. Drunk Louise was in charge that night... and she's unpredictable. She can't control herself. Bit by bit, you're drip-fed more and more information to help you piece together the mystery. And my god it's mysterious. Who murdered the man in her blood-soaked bed?
You also get a look into the personal lives of the detectives, an element which I really enjoyed. As the focus switches from character to character, it builds the pace brilliantly. With DCI Sheen heading up the investigation, we also follow the story of DS Ben Lightman, Domnall O'Malley and DC Juliette Hansen. Juliette was a character who interested me greatly. While she's focusing her efforts on this challenging investigation, her abusive ex-partner Damian refuses to leave her alone, intent on destroying her life.
I love Gytha's writing style. It's compelling, dripping with suspense and packed full of drama. The plot is exciting, clever and feels thoroughly researched, and the characterisation is second to none, with an authenticity that brings each character to life. I'm so convinced you'll love it too!
Ready to meet the author? Gytha joins me on the blog today to discuss his latest launch.
Welcome to the blog, Gytha! I'm excited to be part of the blog tour for such an exciting book... I love the hook for Lie Beside Me. Can you tell me what sparked the idea for it?
So glad you like it! It's definitely my favourite hook so far. I think I'm a little boring at how I come up with ideas - in that I basically sit in a chair and go, "Right, that's that book done. Now I need a concept for the next one."
With Lie Beside Me, I'd actually had a totally different idea that I wasn't happy with. So when it came to starting to write, I just thought, "I need something better. Something that will give me chills to think of." And as I often do, I hunted for some kind of experience that was spine-tingling. Hopefully to readers as well as to me.
There was perhaps some background thought for the idea. I wrote a play in 2004 about someone finding themselves in a police interview room with no memory of the events they were being questioned about thanks to alcohol. It was an idea that really appealed to me then and still appeals to me now. I know I've had a night or two in my life where I've woken up and been horrified at what I might have done. For Louise, it's just a lot worse because what she might have done includes murder.
I love hearing how ideas come to writers! And this one is truly chilling.
What was your favourite scene in this book to write? On the flip side, what was the most difficult to write?
I loved writing the opening scene. I am a huge fan of really gasp-worthy openings. But there's also a scene later on in the book when a whole lot of memories suddenly rush back to Louise, and I found it profoundly satisfying for her - and us - to finally understand part of the puzzle.
Me too! As a reader, I can say it was VERY satisfying. On the subject of Louse, she is quite a character! Do your characters tend to take you on an unexpected path, or do they behave themselves and stick to your plot?
Ha, they're total tearaways! I often plot quite extensively and then end up going in a hugely different direction because it becomes clear to me that the characters want something else. I think that's part of the fun of writing, as well as one of its challenges.
Characters can be such nuisances! Which of your characters would you enjoy being stuck in a lift with and why?
Ooh, interesting. I think most of my detectives would be good company in one way or another. Hanson and O'Malley would be great banter. Jonah would be great at working out how to get out. And I think a good length of time to try to figure out what's going on beneath the surface with Lightman would be good, too!
Are there any actors you can imagine playing the characters if this were to be adapted for TV or film?
I love thinking about this. They definitely look, in my head, nothing like any actors I know. But it's really good fun to cast the characters. Because John Hopkins did an amazing job with the audiobook, I'd be intrigued to see him playing Jonah. And I'd love Jodie Comer to bring Hanson to brilliant life.
All great choices!
Will there be more from you in the DCI Sheen series? If so, can you give us some sneaky details?
Yes, Jonah Sheens and his team will be back for more next year and the year after if all goes to plan - and to be honest, from my perspective, for many years after that 😉 I just hope I keep being allowed to write them!
The team has a really strange, challenging and unsettling case to come in the next instalment. But they also have their own issues to deal with, some of which become evident in Lie Beside Me. It's so satisfying to thread the team's own lives through as the books progress. At times some come more to the fore than others but they will all have their time. And it's great to build relationships between them, too.
Very excited to hear there will be more in the series - I love it when I find a series I can get stuck into.
Do you find inspiration in real-life events or news stories, or does it all come from your head?
I think it's absolutely fed by real-life events, interactions and people - but when coming up with stories, I tend not to consciously base it on one particular thing. Perhaps it's to do with liking the illusion of true originality! But without question, everything feeds in somewhere.
The past year has been interesting, to say the least. Has the pandemic changed your approach to writing? Has it made it more difficult, or easier?
It's been a strange old year, hasn't it? I've had to change my approach thanks to being a real coffee-shop writer, and thanks to having a 10-year-old boy at home with me. Homeschooling got a lot better as the school adapted, but there was a while where it inevitably took a lot of input, and being my son's friend, psychologist, teacher and mum all at once (with side roles as his cleaner and his cook) was definitely hard.
I had to get a lot better at being ok with staying in, and with getting my day started without any of the usual routines or cues. I would put exercise in at different times - having formerly always done the bike ride to school and then a run into the city to find a coffee shop - and have spent more time working in the evenings to make up for interrupted days.
I think I'm lucky to really love the job I do. It's made it all so much easier. Because as much as I might gripe about deadlines from time to time, I love to write and edit at every stage of a book, and that has also definitely kept me sane!
I can't imagine what it must be like trying to write a book during a pandemic and be a mum at the same time!
What was the first thing you ever wrote? (I'm hoping it's something embarrassing from when you were a kid...)
Oh, I don't know what the first thing ever was - I remember my mum talking to my teacher when I was 7 and her saying that I didn't write stories - I wrote novels. Ha!
The first full-length book I wrote was a terribly over-written thriller called Retribution set in America. I wrote it at 14, mostly in the back of history classes, and then I rewrote it later to set it in the UK and sent it to an editor, with full belief that it was BRILLIANT. I was lucky enough to pick a really lovely editor who rang me up to be super encouraging but to tell me the things I needed to change, and it was both incredible and humbling. It made me realise that writing was a real job of work, like so many other things, and involved learning all the skills over time. An attitude I have never lost.
How amazing they took the time to give you feedback - it must have been so encouraging.
What book are you most looking forward to this year?
I hate having to choose just one! Hahaha! I've been hugely excited for the new Elizabeth Knox title, The Absolute Book, and we're actually launch day buddies here in the UK!
Thrillers-wise, there are so many, but Gillian McAllister's That Night looks just terrific and I always snap everything of hers up.
I've also recently read utterly brilliant proofs by Erin Kelly and Jane Casey, so look out for those!
Oh my goodness, I'm a huge fan of both Jane Casey and Gillian McAllister (and Erin Kelly is on my list of authors to check out!). I'm so jealous you've read the proof copies.
What's the best writing advice you ever received… and the worst?
It's strange that I can never pick out a single eye-opener when it comes to advice. I've had so much gentle, brilliant advice that has trickled through from my wonderful agent, Felicity Blunt, and from my editor at Penguin, Joel Richardson. They are both really great at asking key questions and I learn so much with each and every book.
That said, I think the advice that turned around my career came from the marvellous Michael Lengsfield at UEA. He was teaching us adaptation that term, and we were all trying our hands at adapting a book into a script. During it, we all had to write a synopsis as if we were pitching our script, and he went through my synopsis and said, "No. We don't want a series of plot points. We want the STORY." And in making me think about what made it a story, he totally changed my way of thinking about everything I wrote.
The worst advice would probably be in script feedback I once had. I had a character saying, in a slightly obnoxious attempt at a joke, that, "Oh, Nick works in a call centre, so he's not the brightest," and the person giving feedback actually wrote, "Not all people who work in call centres are stupid." And I just wanted to shake them for the extraordinary bad teaching involved in that. He was basically saying that we should only write characters who say NICE things or things that WE think. Which I thought about the most reductive idea I'd ever heard.
I totally agree! Wouldn't it be boring if all our characters agreed with us?
What's your dream writing setup – snacks, drink, music, location?
The coffee shop in a Waterstones book shop. I love my Cambridge one. It's just the best possible writing space. There is the wonderfulness of being surrounded by books, the fact they get the temperature right, the fact that most people there are kindred book-loving spirits, and the fact that they do amazing snacks. Including crumble cakes, which are the best thing ever.
This has now become my enduring fantasy for the last year, as I've been denied my favourite place for all that time. I absolutely cannot wait to get back there, vaccinated and with the shop open again, spending half my salary on lattes and black earl grey tea.
That would be the DREAM right now.
Thanks so much for joining me today, Gytha! I really can't wait to read more from this series.
This tense, riveting thriller is out tomorrow in
hardback,
audiobook and
ebook. Grab a copy from your favourite bookshop... I'm 100% sure you won't regret it!
Roxie
@RoxieAdelleKey
About the authorGytha Lodge is a writer and multi-award-winning playwright who lives in Cambridge. After seven years spent as a successful playwright, she studied creative writing at UEA and was shortlisted for the Yeovil Literary Prize and the Arts' Council England fiction awards. She also developed a large online following, with over seven million reads accrued on platform Wattpad. Her first novel, She Lies in Wait, was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and a Sunday Times bestseller. Lie Beside Me is her third novel.
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