Shortlisted for the 2006 Duncan Lawrie Dagger. Brilliantly written in a forthright and pragmatic manner, this novel encapsulates one of the most disturbing and least discussed of domestic crimes with its horrific consequences. Wilson manages to bring the reality of the present investigation whilst unearthing the secrets of the past in such a way that the reader can envisage the outcome, but is compelled to read on to discover the awful truth.
In 1987 Sheila Shand was given a suspended sentence for murdering her father. At her trial, it emerged that she and her mother and sister had been forced to shield brutal sadist Leslie Shand while he subjected them to a reign of terror, daily beatings and sexual abuse. Years later, investigative journalist Amy Vaughan discovers letters and a newspaper cutting about the Shand case while clearing out her late mother's flat. Concluding that she must be related to the Shands, she decides to visit Sheila's mother who is in a care home.
Amy is curious about the elderly Iris Shand who pores over an album of family photos, for Amy knows that photographs tell lies. Her own mother had subjected her to a different form of abuse - Munchausen By Proxy, using snaps of the daughter she'd made sick to try to keep the affections of Amy's father George, a charismatic con-man. Then George appears on Amy's doorstep after a long absence and tells her that he is dying of cancer. Soon she discovers that he may be lying about far more than his health.
As she pursues her investigation of the Shand case, Amy realises that there is more to the murder of Leslie than the police ever unearthed, including two long-buried skeletons in woods near the family's home …
'Prepare to be chilled by this tale of long-buried murder and mystery.' RED magazine
'Laura Wilson is a class act who just gets better and better ... A Thousand Lies is superb - creepy, moving and surprising.' Peter Guttridge - THE OBSERVER
'Wilson is expert at turning the screws slowly and malevolently, and her uncomfortable stories of families in turmoil hit all the right buttons.' Maxim Jakubowski - THE GUARDIAN
Author
About Laura Wilson
Laura Wilson was brought up in London and has degrees in English Literature from Somerville College, Oxford and UCL, London. She has worked briefly and ingloriously as a teacher, and more successfully as an editor of non-fiction books. She has written history books for children and is interested in history, particularly of the recent past, painting and sculpture, uninhabited buildings, underground structures, cemeteries and time capsules. She lives with her partner and their basset hound in North Essex.
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