My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A dark tale of motherly obsession, Lying in wait made me feel sad and disturbed. Its an unexpected psychological thriller about 2 families and the lengths that a mother would go to keep her son close.

‘ My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it. ‘ The story begins with this utterly captivating line and from then on it gets murky and dark. The characters are well developed and one can’t help but feel depressed for the 2 families. Lydia, Andrew and Laurence are the affluent family but it’s Karen love for her sister Annie that leaves a mark. This has been in TBR for a long while. I loved her way of story telling, the desolate feel of the story that happens in Dublin in 1980’s and the very subtle obsessive darkness that permeates the book is notable.



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On the surface, Lydia Fitzsimons has the perfect life—wife of a respected, successful judge, mother to a beloved son, mistress of a beautiful house in Dublin. That beautiful house, however, holds a secret. And when Lydia’s son, Laurence, discovers its secret, wheels are set in motion that lead to an increasingly claustrophobic and devastatingly dark climax.

From the international bestselling author of Unraveling Oliver, an “unputdownable psychological thriller with an ending that lingers long after turning the final page” (The Irish Times) about a Dublin family whose dark secrets and twisted relationships are suddenly revealed.