How well do we know those closest to us?
Liam is a charismatic smooth-talker, but when the police accept his disappearance as suicide, his older brother Tom finds it difficult to believe and needs to discover what really happened.
Tom and his sister Andi search for answers, but they don't know who they can believe as they discover that Liam's friends and associates aren't the people they claim to be. The search propels them into a world where their ideas of right and wrong don't exist. Where criminals threaten them and their families, and demand what they don't possess.
Liam's legacy of deceit is dangerous, and when Tom follows his trail, Andi and her twin daughters are kidnapped. Only then does Tom realise the truth may have too high a price.
What would you risk to find the truth?
Lies of the Dead is part mystery, part thriller with a little romance and lots of twists and turns.
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Q & A for Lies of the Dead with author Shauna Bickley
Question: Liam is the central mystery in Lies of the Dead, but the story is told through the viewpoint of his brother and sister. What was the reason for this?
Shauna: My initial intention was to write LOTD from Liam's perspective, but each time I began writing or even thinking about the story, Tom's voice came through. Ultimately, it is Tom and Andi who change because of their investigations, and them (hopefully!) we are emotionally connected with as they try to discover what happened.
Question: LOTD is set mainly in Cornwall. Is there any reason for this?
Shauna: I love Cornwall, and enjoyed writing scenes based on places I know. Tom is happy and content living in his home village, however, when he decides to find out why Liam killed himself, he has to move outside his comfort zone in a very literal sense. The search takes him to London, and then later to France and Switzerland. Some of the areas Tom visits are fictionalised, but all are based on places I know and enjoy visiting.
Question: When you write, what comes first: title, plot, characters?
Shauna: Always the characters. Tom, Andi and Liam came as a 'job lot', which was a surprise. In my other books the protagonist has always come first and then the people around them; love interest, family, friends and the people who might dislike them.
Question: What first gave you the idea for LOTD?
Shauna: A television programme about people's characteristics and personality, and the impact birth order can have on that, e.g. being in the middle, the oldest or youngest etc. I'd already been thinking about the secrets people hide, even from those who know them well, and when all this mixed with Tom, Andi and Liam, Lies of the Dead was born.
