Review: Little Black Lies by Sandra Block

Title: Little Black Lies

Author: Sandra Block

Series: Zoe Goldman, #1 

Narrator: Kara Bartell

Published: February 2015, Hachette Audio / Grand Central Publishing

Length: 9 hours / ARC E-copy, 352 pages

Source: Personal copy via Audible / Netgalley

She helps people conquer their demons. But she has a few of her own…

In
the halls of the psychiatric ward, Dr. Zoe Goldman is a resident in
training, dedicated to helping troubled patients. However, she has
plenty of baggage of her own. When her newest patient arrives – a
beautiful sociopath who murdered her mother – Zoe becomes obsessed with
questions about her own mother’s death. But the truth remains tauntingly
out of reach, locked away within her nightmares of an uncontrollable
fire. And as her adoptive mother loses her memory to dementia, the time
to find the answers is running out.

As Zoe digs deeper, she
realizes that the danger is not just in her dreams but is now close at
hand. And she has no choice but to face what terrifies her the most.
Because what she can’t remember just might kill her.

Little Black Lies is about madness and memory – and the dangerous, little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

My thoughts:  I am a big fan of psychological thrillers and when I saw this one, I knew I just had to read it. As a debut author, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Sandra Block, but I now say that she has a new fan!!! I found this one to be a thrilling, edge-of-your seat story that had me hooked right from the start. 

I love books that right from the beginning have me totally enamored with the main character and leave me wanting to know everything about her. That’s how I felt with Zoe as soon I met her in this book. I also liked how there was a nice mix of Zoe’s personal life with that of her work life…we really get to know Zoe, but as it turns out, Zoe doesn’t even really know Zoe. 

Balancing ADHD with memory loss from when she was little and her birth mother died in a fire, Zoey is determined to find out who her birth mother really was and what really happened the night she died. Despite her adoptive mother’s dementia, and her constantly changing stories about what happened that night, she continues with her search. But at what cost? Her new patient seems to have triggered the nightmares that used to plague her years ago. Why is this and what is the connection?

As the answers unfold, I found myself completely engaged and needing to see how it would all play out. I was totally unprepared for what would happen and definitely see myself rereading this just to see if I can pick up the clues on a second read. This is a cleverly constructed book and I really loved how it all came together. From the richly drawn characters to the subject matter to the setting – it all comes together to create a crazy good psychological thriller that you just can’t stop thinking about.  

 





Audio thoughts: This is the first time I’ve listened to Kara Bartell narrate a book and I really enjoyed listening to her. She does a great job with the different characters’ voices and adding just the right amount of tension to her voice to set the scene and add extra suspense. I will definitely be looking to see what else she has narrated.