Sweet Little Lies: The most gripping suspense thriller you’ll read this year Paperback – 29 June 2017

I LOVE Cat Kinsella, she's bolshy and funny and a great cop. This is Caz Frear's first novel and it's drop dead brilliant, a real sweet slice of chilling crime fic that will keep you guessing until the end. Set in London, parts of the story move to Ireland and to be honest it felt like I was back there again, great writing. I hope that next year we'll see another Cat Kinsella book.

As family Christmases go, asking your father if he has an alibi before the turkey has even been digested might seem a little ill-advised. For everyone but DC Cat Kinsella that is, whose relationship with her father, Michael McBride, saw him go from hero to zero when as a trusting eight-year-old and the apple of his eye she discovered he had lied. Seventeen-years-later it is this single event that has influenced the course of their relationship, left Cat with a boat load of hang-ups and ensured that the McBride clan are as dysfunctional as they come. The scars of that summer holiday of 1998 to Mulderrin, on the west coast of Ireland, have left Cat short of trust and a rather chippy madam with a fierce loyalty to her now deceased mother, a fractious relationship with her father and a firm belief in seeing justice delivered and criminals punished. All Cat knows for sure is that the fateful holiday coincided with local seventeen-year-old, Maryanne Doyle, disappearing from the village and her father denying even knowing the girl, let alone giving her a lift to town, flirting with her and being involved in a ‘heated disagreement’ with her. With Maryanne still missing all these years later, the doubts about her father's involvement in events and his questionable business practices has set in motion a bitter enmity that has left Cat spoiling for a fight. As for concrete facts though, Cat is in the dark and whilst supposition, theories, and conjecture remain, when all is said and done, she has no proof of her father's involvement, but it doesn’t stop the niggling doubts lingering.Now twenty-six-years old, a DC in the Met and after freezing at a crime scene DC Cat Kinsella is clinging by her fingertips to her place on the Murder Investigation Team and attending compulsory police counselling sessions. As Cat contemplates how to avoid a family Christmas, her team are called out in the early hours of the morning to the discovery of a woman's body, identified as thirty-five-year-old Alice Lapaine, of Thames Ditton. Found strangled to death with evidence of knife wounds, her body is discovered behind Exmouth Market and within spitting distance of where Cat spent the first eight-years of her life, residing above the pub her father ran. And the very bad news is that her father is now back as resident landlord once again, therefore posing the question, is his proximity to this second crime an uncanny coincidence or something decidedly fishy? As connections between Maryanne Doyle and the deceased Alice Lapaine surface, a jittery Cat sees herself faced with choosing either her family or her job and weighing up potential charges of misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice by keeping her bosses, DS Luigi Parnell, and supportive queen of comical put-downs, DCI Kate Steele, in the dark.Brimming with an eclectic and humorous cast, Sweet Little Lies is essentially a straightforward police procedural but coloured by an emotive psychological angle with Cat’s personal involvement in the case. Cat is a feisty and determined young woman with a softer side as evidenced by the guilt she feels at deceiving her colleagues and the worry that her dilemma unleashes. Frequently cynical and often flippant, she deflects every awkward situation with a wealth of humour, however Caz Frear never neglects her plot, which is cram packed full of jaw-dropping twists at every turn. Initial concerns that the bawdy humour might overwhelm the plot proved completely unfounded and what actually ensues is a gritty and intriguing investigation. Detailing the revelations that come to light risks spoiling the enjoyment of other readers, but expect some pretty sinister disclosures and a potential romantic interest for Cat. But as to whether Michael McBride is involved… watch and wait! Of the characters involved, the one who I felt a little at odds with was the deceased Alice Lapaine, albeit only described in the past tense, but she seemed rather sterile and left me questioning the plausibility of her awkward marital circumstances and recent history.With well-timed fleeting flashbacks after every unexpected discovery to the holiday in Mulderrin, there are some witty reminders of the late 1990s trends, from the clothes right through to the music of the era and Caz Frear manages a highly convincing presentation of an eight-year-old Cat’s voice, something that frequently escapes even the most well established authors. Packed with incisive humour and authentic dialogue which evoked memories of Belinda Bauer, despite the eventual unravelling stretching credibility somewhat, Sweet Little Lies is teeming with feel-good enthusiasm and an absolute pleasure to read. I look forward to seeing if Caz Frear follows this stunning debut up with another DC Cat Kinsella investigation, although my concern is that without the personal involvement of Cat’s father, it may be hard to match the high stakes element. However, on the strength of this belting page-turner, I wouldn’t bet against it! A gripping mix of lies, suspicion and genuine intrigue with excellent characterisation and a roller coaster plot. Recommended!Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)

Not really enamored with this book. It starts out slowly and with a lot of humor to carry the dialogue. About 2/3 of the way through the book, the plot takes off and becomes quite intriguing. Cat stops groaning and moaning about her poor relationship with her family and her suspicions of her father. Still, she is just too self-pitying a character for me to want to read more about her.

This is acompletely absorbing book from the get go. Caz Frear has created a completely believable world and it isvery hard to believe that she hasn't done her time slogging foot leather as part of the Met. In her acknowledgements she plays down her research but this book lives and breathes so she whatver she did it worked exceptionaly well.Cat Killean is a completely believable character who has her foibles and her personal demons but who never strays in to the damaged detective which is such a find trope of other writers. When staying with her maternal grandmother a teenager, Maryanne Doyle, goes missing and Cat is convinved her father has something to do with it. After all, daddy knows some seriously dodgy people and has definitely been involved in some dodgy dealings even before he moved the family to a rather more salubrious Hertfordshire town than his London pub.Still reeling from a murder investigation involving a young child and whilst takin mandated therapy she is called out to a murder a stones throw from her dad's pub. Alice Lapaine has been murdered and dumped in quiet, Georgian Leamington Square and she an't help but wonder if daddy dearest, or his acquaintances, have been involved.Full of twists and turns you never lose the sense of just how hard it is to find the truth let alone bring it to justice. The pacing of the novel is perfect and the frustration when leads turn in to dead ends is beautifully crafted and in some places you are genuielyt transported in to these characters. Even the bit part players have full characters that although only hinted at you just know that these are real people just doing their job and indulging in the office banter that is surely needed to keep ou same.If you have ever read a police procedural and enjoyedit I am sure you willabsolutely love this book. Quirky, warm, humourous and takes you to tangents you never dreamt of to get through all the little lies and to the truth.Exemplary first novel and I am genuinely excited for the next one.

Sweet Little Lies is the debut novel by Caz Frear and it was the winner of the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition. I can certainly see why the book won. Frear’s prose is sharp, witty and absorbing, a stunning debut, I’m hoping we’ll hear more from Cat Kinsella soon.When the body of a young woman is found in Lemington Square, Detective Constable Cat Kinsella has no idea the trouble it’ll rake up for her. In 1998, when Cat was living in Northern Ireland, a young woman disappeared, now she has been found nearly twenty years later, murdered. But what is more concerning for Cat, is what has this young woman’s disappearance and murder got to do with her father? Is her father a suspect? Could he be responsible for her death?I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I loved Cat’s voice and her sense of humour; she had me laughing out loud throughout the book, which is what made this book feel so fresh. I love a crime novel that can make me laugh.The killer hook for this novel is that you don’t expect your father to become a suspect in a murder investigation nearly twenty years after a woman disappeared. Caz has created a gripping story line; I enjoyed learning about Cat’s relationship with her father, there is a lot of tension in their relationship and they have some rocky moments throughout the book which made for some gripping reading.I was surprised by the direction which Caz took us after the body of the young woman was found. The novel is tightly plotted and I really liked how everything slotted into place, I didn't see that ending coming.Caz has created a cast of exciting new characters in crime fiction and Caz is an exciting new voice; I can’t wait to see what she does next.