The Family Lie by P.L. Kane

 

The Family Lie by P.L. Kane.

Published 17th September 2021 by HQ Digital.

From the cover of the book:

A scream cut through the night as they watched flames engulf the woodland. Fire ripped through the trees, leaving only charred branches behind. And then they saw it… on the ashen forest floor… was a body.

Police officer, Mitchel Prescott answered the phone with a shaking hand. It was the one call he had been dreading. It was the hospital at Green Acres… his father Thomas, had died in the night.

Returning to the small town he had been avoiding since he was a child, Mitch must lay his father to rest.

When he arrives, the close-knit residents refuse to speak about Thomas’ death, other to explain he was found burnt to death in the woods and his dementia was the likely cause.

But when Mitch discovers traces of accelerant on his father’s body, he’s certain it wasn’t an accident. Then his childhood home is broken into, his father’s study ransacked, and a rock thrown through the window warning him to leave.

Mitch is convinced Thomas had discovered something that had got him into trouble… something that would threaten his entire family.

But what secret is worth killing for?

****************************

Mitch Prescott finds himself all at sea after resigning from the police force in the wake of a riot that went horribly wrong, for which he lays the blame entirely at the feet of his incompetent superiors. It doesn't help that this calamity happens on the same day he finds out that his estranged father has died and he is expected to return home to the small town he has been avoiding for years in order to organise a funeral, rather than his sister who seems to be conspicuous in her absence.

The strain of his current predicament is weighing heavily on Mitch as he heads back to Green Acres, leaving his girlfriend Lucy behind with no idea if their relationship will survive recent events, and he can only hope that he will be able to tie up his father's affairs in double quick time and find a way to get his life back on track. But what he finds in his boyhood hometown has him bemused.

Things in Green Acres seem decidedly off. No one wants to talk to him about what happened to his father, a prospective property development is causing waves with the locals, and a strange commune that looks all too much like a cult in Mitch's eyes has established itself in the neighbourhood in his long absence. Things only get weirder when Mitch discovers that the circumstances of his father's death are highly unusual - how on earth did he come to be wandering around the woods late at night, let alone catch fire in the process? What was his father up to? And where the hell is his sister?

As Mitch uses is investigative skills, and his uncanny sixth sense, to try to uncover what is going on in Green Acres, attracting some very unwelcome attention in the process, he becomes convinced that something is afoot in this small community, and he is going to to his best to find out what it is.

The Family Lie is a slow burn tale of secrets. lies and conspiracy that builds its tension nicely as Mitch goes about finding out exactly what is going on in both his home town and at the dark heart of his fractured family. It starts its life as a police procedural that goes way left of field into the delicious realms a mystery that draws heavily on folklore, witchcraft and weird small community dynamics to ham up The Wicker Man vibes to the max, throwing in some nice horror scenes along the way.

I must admit that I wasn't too sure whether this story would hook me at the start, but the supernatural vibes ended up dragging me right into the eerie goings on in Green Acres. It's a quick, easy read that makes for an entertaining, cross-genre tale, and it has a rather splendid cat in it too, who ended up being my favourite character. There is some scope here for a sequel that could team up Mitch and his sister in a supernatural investigative venture, which would be quite intriguing. Lots of fun, especially in the run up to spooky season.

The Family Lie is available to by now in book format and will be available in paperback from 25th November 2021.

Thank you to HQ for providing me with a Netgalley copy of this book in return for an honest review and to P.L. Kane for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

P.L. KANE is the pseudonym of a number one bestselling and award-winning author and editor, who has over a hundred books published in the fields of SF, YA and Horror/Dark Fantasy. In terms of crime fiction, previous books include the novel Her Last Secret, the collection Nailbiters and the anthology Exit Wounds, which contains stories by the likes of Lee Child, Dean Koontz, Val McDermid and Dennis Lehane. Kane has been a guest at many events and conventions, and has had work optioned and adapted for film and television. Several of Kane’s stories have been turned into short movies and Loose Canon Films/Hydra Films have just adapted Men of the Cloth into a feature, The Colour of Madness. Kane’s audio drama work for places such as Bafflegab and Spiteful Puppet/ITV features the acting talents of people like Tom Meeten (The Ghoul), Neve McIntosh (Doctor Who/Shetland), Alice Lowe (Prevenge) and Ian Ogilvy (Return of the Saint).