Front Page Fridays Week-64
Welcome to Front Page Fridays Week-64. On Fridays I showcase the first page of a new book.
My Front Page Fridays Week-64 guest is Helen Matthews and her domestic suspense thriller House of Lies, newly relaunched by DP Books.
Here’s the opening:
Prologue
The December sky is inky, starless. My fist throbs from hammering on the locked door. I wait. Silence…
The torch in my phone flickers like a guttering candle as I tramp across the uneven ground to the rear of the building. A sliver of light seeps through a gap between two shutters but dissipates without illuminating the ground.
Sliding one foot in front of the other, I inch across the pitch-black yard, churning up loose grit with each step, until I reach grass and mud. My eyes adjust. A shadowy bulk takes shape, black against the patina of the sky – the hired digger, its metal bucket suspended at a rakish angle. Close beside it, mounds of soil, banks of sand and gravel, and three freshly dug rectangular pits.
I tread warily, remembering one is deeper than a grown man’s height. My phone emits a feeble beep as the battery signals its death throes. Heart pounding, I snatch a breath and train my flickering beam down into the trench…
House of Lies
About House of Lies
A fatal workplace accident. A double life. And questions that nobody has the answers to.
After years of hardship, Emma's chance of happiness is tinged with heartbreak. Together with her husband Paul and their daughter, Mollie, she takes a chance and moves to France, where an old ruin is set to become their new home, far away from their problems in England. But she's forced to leave her son behind.
Yet renovating an old building takes a greater toll on the family than expected and they are soon burdened with financial worries, conflicts and the challenges of life in a foreign country. At the same time, strange incidents begin to happen which make Emma increasingly nervous.
What began as a fresh start turns into a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Distrust poisons their marriage, old lies come to light, and the situation spirals out of control.
In the midst of the idyllic Limousin countryside and a new community, Emma fights for her family – and she needs to figure out who she can still trust. And the dream of a new beginning turns into a struggle for trust, truth and safety. Because some people don't give up. And some secrets don't stay buried.
This is a revised new edition of the previously published title Lies Behind the Ruin.
Purchase links
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0H94VMGHK (This is the Amazon UK link)
https://mybook.to/fxVy6l (This is an international link to the Amazon store in every country)
About Helen Matthews
Helen writes page-turning psychological suspense novels and is fascinated by the darker side of human nature and how a life can change in an instant. She is the author of five published novels. Her domestic suspense thriller House of Lies, first published in 2019 as Lies Behind the Ruin, was republished by DP Books in August. Her February release, If I Were You, a tense and compelling novel exploring sisterhood, manipulation, and the terrifying consequences of believing the wrong person, reached number one in Canada in its Amazon category. Previous novels have won prizes including the opening pages of a novel award at Winchester Writers' Festival and the suspense and thriller genre prize in the 2022 Pageturner Book Award.
Born in Cardiff, Helen read English at the University of Liverpool and worked in international development, consultancy and human resources. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford Brookes University.
Some of Helen’s novels cover themes of human trafficking and she has been appointed an Ambassador for the charity, Unseen UK, which works towards a world without slavery. She donates her author talk fees, and a percentage of royalties, to the charity.
Helen’s social media links
https://www.helenmatthewswriter.com
https://www.Instagram.com/helen.matthews7
https://Facebook.com/HelenMK7Writer
Purchase links to Helen’s other titles
If I Were You – https://Mybook.to/IfIwereyou
Girl Out of Sight - https://geni.us/GirlOutofSight
The Girl in the Van – https://geni.us/GirlinTheVan
The Sisters - https://geni.us/The-Sisters
I hope you enjoyed reading Front Page Fridays Week-64. Please come back next time when I’ll be featuring a different author and the first page of their book.
And please take a look at books already featured on Front Page Fridays:
1. Blood Ribbons by Lin Le Versha
2. Fatal Blow by Brian Price
3. Can I Trust You? by Rob Gittins
4. The Last Bird of Paradise by AJ Aberford
5. Never Forgive You by Hilly Barmby
6. The Mists of Pencarrack Moor by Terri Nixon
7. The Thief of Joy by Stacey Murray
8. Edge of the Land by Malcolm Hollingdrake
9. The Mind of a Murderer by Michael Wood
10. The Midnight Man by Julie Anderson
11. Dark Road Home by Sheila Bugler
12. Her Charming Man by Rachel Sargeant
13. Wedding Bells at the Lakeside Hotel by Linda Huber
14. Dark Island by Daniel Aubrey
15. The Shame by Maureen Myant
16. Dead Mile by Jo Furniss
17. The Violin and Candlestick by David Jarvis
18. New Memories by S.E. Shepherd
19. Young Blood by Victoria Gemmell
20. Private Investigations by Rob Gittins
21. The Car Horn revolution by A.J. Aberford
22. What Lies Beneath by Maureen Myant
23. A Safe Place by Stephanie Carty
24. Fatal Image by Brian Price
25. Run For Your Lies by A.A. Abbott
26. A Walk in the Park by Natalie Kleinman
27. A Storm in a Teacup by Rachael Gray
28. The Midnight Bookshop by Amanda James
29. A Death in the Afternoon by Julie Anderson
30. Justice by Madalyn Morgan
31. Let Me Out by Amanda Brittany
32. A Pocketful of Poisons by Brian Price
33. Tribute by Madalyn Morgan
34. Mistress of the Manor by Cara Clayton
35. Waves of Change in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Chistensen
36. A French Inheritance by Jennifer Bohnet
37. Beneath the Same Moon by AS Andrejevic
38. The Fallen by Maureen Myant
39. The Bad Women by Jennie Ensor
40. Lies Between Friends by AA Abbott
41. Fatal Shot by Brian Brice
42. The Alibi by Katharine Johnson
43. The Croatian Island Library by Eva Glyn
44. If I Were You by Helen Matthews
45. (Not Quite) Done With Dating by Bella Osborne
46. Poison at the Wild Haggis Bookshop by Jackie Baldwin
47. Beattie Cavendish and the Highland Hideaway by Mary-Jane Riley
48. Missing… Rose Malone by Linda Huber
49. Fiasco by Nicola Kelsall
50. 27 Church Street by A.J. Hobart
51. The Girls of Maple Close by Amanda Brittany
52. Growing Old Disgracefully by Karen King
53. Meet Me At Apple Blossom Lane by Anita Faulkner
54. Festival Days by Julie Anderson
55. The Conservatory by Anthony Aberford
56. Her Rising Star by Rachel Sargeant
57. Wonderful by Louise Beech
58. Safe Space by Beck Lewis
59. The Boy in the Photograph by Hilly Barmby
60. One Little Lie by Charlotte Leonard
61. Come Fly With Me by Natalie Kleinman
62. The Silent House by Lynda Renham
63. An Ordinary House by Rae Starling