The Lie (31 page)

“Jane!” Chloe skips into the kitchen with Jack padding along beside her and Will trailing behind. He locks eyes with me, and smiles warmly. “Can we take Jack for a walk? Please! He’s ever so keen to go out.”

“Jack? Or you?” I look from Chloe’s hopeful expression to the open-mouthed smile on the face of the happy, sweet-natured, loyal dog at her feet. There are people who believe that a fighting dog should be put down, that it’s too physically and psychologically damaged to ever live a normal life, but I know differently. Jack’s strong, stronger than the things that happened to him, and he’s surrounded by people that love and care for him. Your past doesn’t have to define your future, not if you won’t let it.

“Jane?” Chloe says again. “Can we, please?”

I stand up and reach for the lead, hanging from a hook on the Welsh dresser. “Of course we can, sweetheart.”

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Clarissa is frightened of her colleague, Rafe. He won’t leave her alone, he won’t take no for an answer. He is always there.

Being selected for jury service is a relief. In the courtroom, she will be safe. But as a violent tale of abuse unfolds, Clarissa begins to see parallels between her own situation and that of the woman on the witness stand.

Realizing that she bears the burden of proof, Clarissa unravels the twisted fairytale that Rafe has spun around them – and discovers that the ending he envisions is more terrifying than she could have imagined…

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Huge thanks to my editor Lydia Vassar-Smith for understanding what I was trying to do with this book and for believing in me and supporting me every step of the – sometimes painful – way!
The Lie
wouldn’t be the book it is without your insights and suggestions. Thanks also go to Caroline Ridding and everyone at Avon for their hard work and enthusiasm. Thank you to Alex and Jo at LightBrigade PR for doing such a good job promoting my books, and a big hug to my wonderful agent Madeleine Milburn for being my constant cheerleader and for doing her best to keep me sane in what’s been quite a stressful year. Thank you too to Cara Lee Simpson for all her hard work.

I couldn’t have written the present-day thread of
The Lie
without the kindness of Anna James and Little Valley Animal Shelter, Exeter (RSPCA). Little Valley do a wonderful job caring for unwanted, abandoned and cruelly treated animals in the South, East and West Devon areas, and Anna very kindly gave me a guided tour of the sanctuary, answered my million and one questions about procedures and practices, and responded to the countless texts and emails I sent her afterwards. I can’t thank you enough, Anna.

Thank you also to Dr Charlotte McCreadie for her medical knowledge, Paul Finch and Sharon Birch for answering my police procedural questions, and to Fionnuala Kearney, who won the “Authors for the Philippines” online auction to name a “baddie” in this book. She named Frank Cooper.

A huge thank you to my family for their never-ending love and support: Reg and Jenny Taylor, Bec, Dave, Suz, Sophie, Rose, Steve, Guinevere, Nan, Granddad, Angela and Ana. And my wonderful friends: Joe Rotheram, Becky Harries, Bex Butterworth, Laura Barclay, Kimberley Mills, Claire Bagnall, Rowan Coleman, Julie Cohen, Kellie Turner, Tamsyn Murray, Miranda Dickinson, Kate Harrison and Scott James. I love you girls (and boy) to bits. Thank you for putting up with me.

This book is dedicated to Laura B, Georgie D and Minal S, the friends I went on holiday to Nepal with in 2006. Unlike the girls in
The Lie
, we really did have the holiday of a lifetime, and for all the right reasons. Thanks for making it an amazing holiday, girls – and for not killing me! (I promise none of the characters are based on you.)

Finally, I’d like to thank my amazing, supportive partner Chris and our beautiful, funny son Seth. None of this would mean anything without you two.

1. One of the themes of the book is whether your past defines your future. At the end of the book Emma says that it doesn’t if you surround yourself with people who love and care for you. Do you agree?

2. What did you think of the character, Al? Was she sympathetic or unsympathetic?

3. Emma tries to rescue Leanne from the fire. Would you have done the same?

4. After Emma has told Will about who she really is she tells him she’d rather he still called her Jane. Why do you think she did that?

5. At what point in the story do you think Daisy’s death could have been prevented?

6. When Emma reads Leanne’s emails she finds out that Leanne thinks she’s a pessimistic person who uses what happened to her in the past for her own gain. Do you agree with this?

7. How do you think Emma changes over the course of the book (both as Emma and as Jane)?

8. What did you think of the ending? Should it have ended differently?

9. The book explores female friendships and the fact that some friendships have under-currents of jealously, competitiveness and resentment running through them. Is this true of any of your friendships?

10. What other similar books would you recommend to people who enjoyed
The Lie
?

1. What inspired you to write THE LIE?

I wrote THE LIE because I’ve always been fascinated by the nature of female friendships, in particular the dynamics of close knit groups of friends. Most of the time female friendships are healthy and supportive – you literally trust them “with your life” – but sometimes they’re not. Sometimes they’re much more toxic than they appear, with possessiveness, resentment, bitterness, competitiveness and envy lurking under the surface.

I wanted to write a story about a group of women who appear to get along well but whose friendship is riddled with issues that none of them are willing to confront. I was curious as to what would happen if I put those friends in a dangerous, crucible-type situation where they’re forced to trust each other in order to survive? Would they support each other, or turn on each other instead?

2. Did you include any of your own real life experiences in the novel?

Like the women in the novel I went to Nepal on a holiday of a lifetime. Unlike Emma and her friends I had the most amazing time and, if anything, stronger bonds were formed amongst my friendship circle as a result of our experience.

But I have also experienced friendships that weren’t healthy – friends who were effervescent, generous, spontaneous and fun but also unpredictable, competitive, possessive and argumentative. When someone like that is at the centre of your friendship group they can get away with antisocial behaviour because everyone is aware that, if they call them on it, they’ll be frozen out. That can make for a lot of tension, isolation and mistrust – sensations I hope my readers experience when they read THE LIE.

3. Your characters are so authentic. As a writer, how do you get into their psyche?

My characters are an amalgamation of me, people I’ve known, people I’ve observed and my imagination. I always make sure I know what each character desires – something they want more than anything else in the world – and also what they fear most. I also look to their childhoods to discover how their past has shaped them into the people they are now. As well as obvious things like the way they look and the things they wear I also spend a lot of time thinking about my characters’ mannerisms, the way they hold themselves, the way they walk and the way they speak. Sometimes I know everything about a character before I start to write the novel, sometimes it’s not until I’ve written the first draft and fully got to know them.

4. Why did you decide that Emma should work in an animal sanctuary?

Emma always wanted to be a vet and, after her experience at Ekanta Yatra, I felt it made sense to give her a new start that was centred on animals rather than people. Even though she’s still quite isolated socially (she still doesn’t trust people enough to let them get close) I wanted to make her content so that, when the letters and messages start arriving, she’s got a lot to lose. I also liked the similarity between Emma and the animals she cares for. Like Jack, she’s been hurt and mistreated and needs patience and gentleness to teach her to trust and love again.

5. Did you know the ending when you started writing the book?

Actually it changed several times. Originally Daisy was going to fall off the cliff by accident and Al was going to die of an asthma attack (or die in the car after Leanne had attacked her) but I felt it would be too bleak to completely destroy Emma’s friendship group. I needed there to be one friendship that survived, one person that Emma could trust, despite everything. I don’t imagine that Emma and Al will remain close for the rest of their lives. I think they’ve both been through so much that spending time together will bring back bad memories but they’ll both move on to happier times and, in part, they have their trust in each other to thank for that.

6. THE LIE has so many unexpected twists and turns. Do you sometimes even surprise yourself when you are writing?

Absolutely! When I was writing the first draft I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen but new twists occurred to me as I was writing it. That sometimes meant I had to veer off in a completely different direction from the one I was planning but that’s one of the magical things about writing, the way your mind can surprise you. It keeps you entertained as a writer and, hopefully, it means some unpredictable twists for the reader too.

C.L. Taylor lives in Bristol with her partner and son. She started writing fiction in 2005 and her short stories have won several awards and have been published by a variety of literary and women’s magazines. C.L. Taylor was voted as one of the Bestselling Adult Fiction Debut Authors of 2014 in
The Bookseller
.

The Accident

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