BOOK REVIEW: Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

It was all just a terrible misunderstanding.
Feelings got hurt.
Then everything just spiralled out of control.
Jane hasn't lived anywhere for longer than six months since her son was born five years ago. She keeps moving in an attempt to escape her past. Now the idyllic coastal town of Pirriwee has pulled her to its shores and Jane feels as if she finally belongs. She finds friends in the feisty Madeline and the incredibly beautiful Celeste, two women with seemingly perfect lives and their own secrets.
But at the start of a new term, an incident involving the children of all three women occurs in the playground, causing a rift between them and other parents. Minor at first, but escalating fast, until whispers and rumours become vicious and spiteful, and truths blur into lies. It was always going to end in tears, but no one thought it would end in murder...

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 452

Liane Moriarty is fast becoming one of my favourite authors; I have read three of her  books now and I think she is a fantastic storyteller.
Little Lies focuses on three mothers, Celeste, Jane and Madeline. Their young children all attend Pirriwee Public School, they become good friends but all three women have secrets that will have huge consequences for the whole community.
The story was set up so well by Liane Moriarty, we know from the very beginning that someone has been murdered at the school trivia night but we don't know who; who by or why. The book goes back in time to build up the events until, that fateful evening. It's very clever as I felt as though I was on the edge of my seat from the very beginning. I was not disappointed  by the ending of the book; it was not what I was expecting at all. Liane Moriarty likes to shock her readers and she does it so well.
In all three of her books the author has written about small, close-knit communities. It was a fantastic idea to set this book in a school community as so many readers will be able to identify with it. The author shows the competitiveness, superiority, cliquishness and tensions in the playground and that is only the parents, not the children. Celeste, Jane and Madeline have no choice but to enter into this world which brings out the best in some and very worst in others.
I don't want to give anything away  about this fantastic book but the plot is gripping and shocking in places; Little Lies is a well thought out book that you will not be able to put down.

Many thanks to Katie at Penguin for sending me a review copy, Little Lies is out now.