Anatomy of an Alibi – Ashley Elston – Book Review | #AnatomyOfAnAlibi @headlinepg @ashley_elston @RandomTTours #booksky

Two women. One dead husband. And only one alibi…

Camille Bayliss suspects her husband Ben hides a dark secret. But as he tracks her every move, she cannot prove it.

Aubrey Price believes lawyer Ben Bayliss knows the truth about the night that wrecked her life a decade ago. But she needs a way in.

When Camille and Aubrey meet, they hatch a plan. For twelve hours, Aubrey will take Camille’s place. Ben will track the wrong woman, Camille can spy on Ben, and both women will get their answers. Except the next morning, Ben is found murdered.

Two women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it. And one false step is all it takes for everything to come undone…

MY THOUGHTS

My thanks to Anne of Random Things Tours for the invite and for the digital copy to review. I loved the twists and turns of the author’s debut, First Lie Wins and was very happy to take part in the tour. Published by Headline on 13 January 2026, it is available in ebook, audiobook and hardback with the paperback to follow.

Camille and Aubrey come from very different worlds. Camille from a privileged and wealthy, albeit shady family, and bar worker Aubrey, living from one paycheck to another in a shared house with no living family. One person connects these women, hot shot lawyer Ben Bayliss – Camille’s husband. With Camille being increasingly suspicious of her husband’s activities and tiring of his control she turns detective which is how she comes across Aubrey. In turn, Aubrey is keen to know the truth about events from 10 years before of which she is convinced Ben has information.

This is an intriguing and fast paced story where the tentacles of corruption and lies spread far and wide. In marrying Ben, Camille swapped one form of control for another but however much she despises her father, even she was unaware of how deep the family secrets were. Whilst there are some horrendous characters here that are so easy to dislike, there are one or two that have some kind of moral compass and whose dodgy dealings are a shade of grey, rather than black.

Told from various perspectives within a shifting timeline, Anatomy of an Alibi was addictive and a story that I was completely invested in. I probably enjoyed this even more than First Lie Wins as I was rooting for one particular character. As I anticipated from this author, nothing is straightforward and I was taken by surprise on more than one occasion by the twists and turns. I must confess I did find the timeline a little confusing at first, especially as I was reading a digital copy and its not so easy to flick back and forth, but for me the easiest point of reference was to to focus on a certain notable date in the story and then take in events from either side of that.

A tense and twisty thriller, recommended.

Ashley Elston is the author of the million-copy-selling thriller First Lie Wins – a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. She is the author of several young adult novels, including The Rules for Disappearing (a finalist in the Best Young Adult Novel category of the International Thriller Awards) and 10 Blind Dates. Her work has been translated into 23 languages. Ashley lives in Shreveport, Louisiana with her family.

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