A Game of Lies

This latest installment was absolutely brilliant. I have really warmed to the characters of detectives Leo and Ffion. The first book was laying the foundations of the area in Cwn Coed in North Wales and the characters.
While the luxury houses on the lake and the posh people drama and murder plot of the first one was a little slower to get into, this book jumps straight into a juicy plot line.
I loved the big brother/ psychologically warped game show plot line. I loved the introduction of a new sidekick colleague George for Ffion to tackle. I loved the development of the will they/won't they tension between Ffion and Leo. I loved the introduction of the rescue dog Dave into the story and I am beyond excited to continue on with this series and the colourful cast of characters Clare Mackintosh has created.

The basic plot is that there is a new game show hitting UK television screens called Exposure and all contestants are average people including Ceri (the local postie) and it will be filmed in Cwn Coed. But when the twist of the show is revealed. That all contestants are not trying to survive in the wilderness for prize money but are really fighting to stop their secrets being exposed on national television, this leads to one contestant escaping camp and going on the run. Ffion (Welsh representative ) and Leo (English representative ) are called in to help find him as a missing persons case but it might just lead to a murder investigation too....

Thanks to the author Clare Mackintosh, the publisher Sphere and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes just one character can keep you hooked and Ffion was definitely it for me! While I love Clare's writing, loved the story and there are so many great characters in this series, I adore Ffion. She's a special kind of messed up, she makes terrible decisions, can't commit, can't follow the rules.... but she surely makes me laugh and I just love her no-nonsense bad a$$ attitude. I adored her and Leo's back-and-forth relationship in the first book in this series and book two made it all right for me. I do admit to having one moment of yelling out loud at my Kindle, “Just let Dave look!” and without spoilers, I love where this relationship ended.

Book 1 sucked me into this series and book 2 brought us an entirely different bit of drama happening up in Cwm Coed, a small Welsh mountain town we all came to know in book 1. This time a TV show “Exposure” is being filmed in the surrounding mountains and someone turns up dead... Everyone has a motive and an alibi... so who's the killer? I highly recommend you pick this one and find out! Please just tell me we'll get more of Ffion & Leo after this!?

It was a bit of a slog for me. The first part of the book was a bit boring but it really picks up in the last half.

The characters were a bit monotonal and I didn't much care for them.

I usually love the author but this one just didnt grip me. The ending is the best part for me. I really enjoyed the first book too.

3 stars