Would you snoop around in a dead woman's house???

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Never Lie – Freida McFadden 

Phew… There are very few authors that I’ve read or talked about as polarised as Freida McFadden. In the reading community, people are either in love with her work or hate her… there’s no in-between. I try to steer clear of controversial authors… similar to how I avoid hyped books. But like all bad things, the call for picking up a Freida McFadden was too tempting to resist. So I picked you Housemaid as my first of Freida McFadden novel. And that was one twisty little book, I tell ya. But it also was an interesting experience. It had a range of emotions. There was thrill, and little mystery, a bit of intrigue, and some elements of horror too. All and all, I thought it was a twisty little book. I enjoyed reading it. So when Audible offered me, one of her other books, as a part of Plus… I picked it up.

 

Damn, I didn’t realise how twisted Ms. McFadden can really be.

 

Never lie is a story about a newlywed couple, Tricia and Ethan. They are on their way to look at a house, as their first home together.  They reach this beautiful but sort of remote manor, and learn that the house used to belong to a rather famous psychiatrist Dr. Adrienne Hale. Dr. Hale as turns out, disappeared four years ago. Vanished without a trace. The house has an air of abandonment. And yet, it also feels … haunted. As they explore the house, a winter storm rolls in… a storm that slowly turns into a blizzard, trapping the unsuspecting couple in the house. Left without a choice, the couple camps in. Going through the house, exploring its rooms on their own. Like all the good old houses, this one also has a library and in the library Tricia stumbles upon a secret room. A secret room, where Dr. Hale’s patient recordings are stored.

 

With nothing else to do, Tricia starts playing the recordings. And we start our journey in the life of the mysterious Dr. Adrienne Hale. In her recordings, and patient notes, we start seeing an image of the doctor being formed. We learn her life through her interactions with her patients. We slowly start forming an image, a rough map of events that lead to her disappearance. The more tapes we listen to, the more vivid this map becomes. A map that has some real sinister elements. Before you know, you get pulled into a tangle of feelings for the absent psychiatrist.

 

As the night wears on, you start realising that the stories you are listening to… have a connection to the couple you entered into the house with. As the stories from the recordings progress, you realise how first impressions can be deceiving. The innocent, loving couple comes under the shadow of doubt in our mind. We start fearing for the wellbeing of them. The house, and it’s haunted feel adds fuel to this fire. The entire experience takes on an air of uncertainty.

 

Ms. McFadden delivers a story in a manner that allows us to run a gamut of emotions. From uncertainty of a new place, to the creepy haunting of an abandoned house… we slowly move to intriguing stories heard through the tapes. And inch into a cold, unnerving fear… fear of what might have been. About 80% into the story, you start seeing shadows everywhere. You start doubting its protagonist. Shifting the tone from thrilling, to chilling. When in time, your first foreboding doubts come knocking… you feel like you have a handle over how the story is going to progress. And just when you are beginning to trust your own sleuthing prowess… the story changes gears.

 

I’m not going to tell you what the twist in the story is about. If I do that, there would not be any fun left. But what I can say… is that don’t expect to anticipate the end. I didn’ figure it out, till about 3 sentences before it was revealed. But when it was, I felt like… shit, I should have realised that before. The clues were all there…

 

Whether you are a Freida McFadden fan or not… I think Never Lie is a good book to try. It gives you a really improbable twist… in a rather interesting way. You might not turn into a fan of Ms. McFadden after reading this…. But you most definitely will understand why people are so polarised about her work. It’s a twisty little novel, that makes reading a very satisfying occupation.