‘The Lies You Told’
by Harriet Tyce
First Lines

This is a meme for all you ‘First Page Browsers’

‘THE LIES YOU TOLD‘ by HARRIET TYCE

BOOK BEGINNINGS / FIRST LINES

PART ONE

“It’s the first time I’ve ever slept in my mother’s room. That I can remember, anyway.

It’s cold. My arm is the only part of me out from under the covers and my skin feels clammy, my fingers chilled. I roll over, tucking myself fully in, leeching off Robin’s warmth. She’s snoring gently next to me. It’s a couple of years since she’s wanted to sleep in with me, but the temperature of the house defeated her. The first night we arrived, she walked into the room I made up for her and walked straight out again.

‘It’s freezing,’ she said, ‘and I don’t like that weird painting on the wall.’

‘I’ll move it,’ I said. but I didn’t argue when Robin wanted to share my bed. I don’t want to let her out of my sight. The duvet is too thin. I piled our coats on top last night for extra warmth but they slipped onto the floor while we slept. I reach over and pull them back on, trying not to disturb Robin, eking out her sleep for at least a few minutes more. It’ll be cold when we get up.

The gas fire is still there. I remember sometimes, in winter, my mother would let me dress beside it, warning me not to get too close. I was never allowed to touch it then, I’m scared to touch it now. It’s brown and shiny, its corners sharp. The ceramic burners are black with soot. I don’t even know if it’ll still work. The fireplace around it, once white, has yellowed, scorch marks above the fire. I looked away from the china ornaments on the mantelpiece last night, but in the dim light of the morning I see they’re still the same – smiling shepherdesses, a Pierrot with a vacuous grin, all crowded close along the narrow shelf.

Robin shifts in the bed next to me, sighs, subsides back into sleep. I don’t want to wake her. Today is going to be hard enough for her. Anxiety spikes through me. The dank room lies heavy on me, thoughts haunting me of the warm house I’ve fled. The contrast between the spare room here, rejected by Robin, and her own bedroom that we’ve been forced to leave behind, the bed draped with pink hangings, the sheepskins on the floor. There are no sheepskins in my mother’s house – only a ram’s skull still displayed on the stairs, resplendent in his horns.

It’s safe though.

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So, you have taken a look, would you read the book?

Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Just to give you an extra helping hand, here is the book’s premise.

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‘THE LIES YOU TOLD‘ by HARRIET TYCE

Has she left her child in the care of a killer?

Sadie has moved back to London so her daughter can attend the exclusive school her domineering father has secured her a place at. It’s highly sought-after and highly competitive – just like the other mothers, Sadie soon discovers.

While she’s trying to get her daughter settled and navigate the fraught politics of the school gate, Sadie is also trying to reclaim a position in her old legal chambers – she used to practice as a criminal barrister. She’s given the junior brief on a scandalous case involving a male teacher and his student.

It’s an opportunity to prove herself, but will she let a dangerous flirtation cloud her professional judgement? And will her sudden close friendship with another mother prevent her from seeing the truth – and the threat that she’s inviting into her home?

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You might also like to visit Gilion, over at ‘Rose City Reader‘, where you can share links to the book beginnings from her own reading schedule and that of many of our fellow bloggers.

There are always plenty of new authors and titles to be discovered, and you never know where that next ‘must read’ will come from.

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