Lies We Told This Summer

At first glance, the queen of travelogue thrillers, Emily Barr’s ninth YA novel appears to be a generic crime mystery set on the French Riviera. It’s reminiscent of Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder with curious wannabe pod caster Cat digging up a cold case, and has a title that recalls the tense teen stalker movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. Surprisingly it’s actually inspired by Barr listening to an audio book of Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen’s homage to the Gothic genre, which features a mysterious house with secrets and a young girl with a romantic imagination. Some of Barr’s central characters even have the same names.

Cat is a believable protagonist eager for adventure and escape from her babysitting duties in Cornwall while she waits to start university in Belfast. Acting on an invite to Antibes from her exasperated mother’s sophisticated school friend Sophie and her urbane husband Owen, she soon finds herself in danger as her impulsive behaviour leads to romantic entanglements and dodgy decisions. Introduced to the glitzy world that she stalked on Instagram, she becomes unsure of who her real friends are. 

Structured in three parts, the plot unfolds as Cat becomes involved in the machinations of the Thorpes, Tilneys and Allens. The prologue opens with a locked room which the reader will return to later as suspense builds. A slow burner which is somewhat derivative, predictable and clichéd in places, Barr does endeavour to liven the storyline up with plot twists as Cat experiences a steep learning curve. Lies We Told This Summer will appeal to fans of YA crime thriller fiction set in glamorous locales.