PINTEREST
BLOGLOVIN
GOODREADS
Publisher – Avon
Available in ebook (23 July 2018) and paperback (6 September 2018)
384 pages
| About the Book |
‘My name is Alice. And my son is a murderer.’
Deborah’s son was killed four years ago. Alice’s son is in prison for committing that crime.Deborah would give anything to have her boy back, and Alice would do anything to right her son’s wrongs.
Driven by guilt and the need for redemption, Alice has started a support group for parents with troubled children. But as the network begins to grow, she soon finds out just how easy it is for one little lie to spiral out of control…
They call it mother’s intuition, but can you ever really know your own child?
Deeply psychological and suspenseful, One Little Lie is a twisty and unnerving story about the price of motherhood and the unthinkable things we do to protect our children.Perfect for fans of Cara Hunter and Laura Marshall.
The Mother and Son Bond
The mother-son relationship is a major theme in One Little Lie. The story follows Alice, the mother of a murderer – and Deborah, the mother of the victim. Both Alice and Deborah narrate their own chapters, offering an insight into how they are each experiencing the devastation of the murder.
The real-life inspiration for the story came from watching a documentary about a teenage boy who’d befriended an older teen through online gaming and had been groomed by him. After a while, the victim was encouraged to meet the perpetrator in real life, and when he did, he was brutally murdered. In the documentary, the victim’s mother told her story and I found it harrowing to hear the details of how it affected her and his family members and friends. Having two sons myself, the online gaming aspect scared me – and I could relate to the mother’s concerns.
The effects of this crime stuck in my mind, and I remained deeply shocked and saddened by it, particularly when thinking about the mum of the victim and how devastating it must be to lose your child through a seemingly harmless activity – one that a huge number of teenagers engage in. But then I also found myself thinking about the mother of the murderer: how terrible it must also be for her – her son had committed a brutal crime and he was only 18-years-old. What effects did his actions have on her? Do the media care about the mother of the murderer? Or is all the heartfelt grief and understanding reserved for the victim’s mother only?
Those were just a few of the questions I wanted to explore in One Little Lie.
Thankfully, now aged 18 and 21, my sons only play online games occasionally. But at the time of watching the documentary my youngest was 16-years-old and was spending huge amounts of time online gaming. It’s the parents’ responsibility to ensure their children are safe on the internet, but it can also be very challenging. Teenagers are often secretive, spending more and more time in their bedrooms, and, unless you are watching them 24/7, this can result in a lack of awareness of what exactly they are doing. I spoke to my boys at length about the pitfalls of the internet, of social media, of online gaming – but can you ever fully protect them from the dangers?
I certainly worried then, as I will continue to do, no doubt – and all I can hope is that because of our close relationship and the fact we foster open and honest communication, that nothing untoward will happen and they will remain safe whilst on the internet.
In One Little Lie, however, the harm has already been done – and Alice and Deborah are now suffering the repercussions. For Alice, it’s about damage limitation and gaining redemption as her guilt threatens to ruin her life. And for Deborah, it’s about salvaging any semblance of life with her husband after her role of mother is cruelly snatched from her.
* * * *
My thanks to Sabah of Avon for the tour invite and to Sam for providing the guest post.
| Author Bio |
Sam Carrington lives in Devon with her husband and three children. She worked for the NHS for fifteen years, during which time she qualified as a nurse. Following the completion of a psychology degree she went to work for the prison service as an Offending Behaviour Programme Facilitator. Her experiences within this field inspired her writing. She left the service to spend time with her family and to follow her dream of being a novelist. SAVING SOPHIE, her debut psychological thriller, published in September 2016. It became a Kindle eBook bestseller, with the paperback hitting The Bookseller Heatseeker chart at #8. Sam was named an Amazon Rising Star of 2016. Her second psychological thriller, BAD SISTER, published in October 2017 in ebook and December in paperback. ONE LITTLE LIE follows in July 2018.
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