The Good Liars

Anita Frank

IT'S not just the First World War that casts a long shadow over the lives of the Stilwell family at their rundown Tudor home, Darkacre Hall, in 1920… secrets from the past are coming back to haunt them and the consequences will be deadly.

Anita Frank (pictured below) – who impressed both readers and critics with her stunning, award-winning debut novel, The Lost Ones, and followed up that success story with the piercingly insightful The Return – sweeps us away to a rural enclave in the raw aftermath of wartime, a claustrophobic place where old sins resurface, the scars of battle have not yet healed, and the pain of strife and terrible loss still stalks every dwelling.

Written in Frank’s impeccable, descriptive prose, and tingling with the atmospherics that have become a hallmark of her novels, The Good Liars explores a compelling and complex family whose standing in the local community has suffered from changing times and past events, along with the slings and arrows of wartime, tragedy, grief... and guilt.

In August of 1914, the disappearance of 17-year-old Bobby Higgins is overshadowed by looming war. Six years later, Detective Sergeant Verity arrives at Darkacre Hall armed with new evidence regarding the boy’s case. A witness has suggested that the boy was at Darkacre on the day he disappeared, throwing the spotlight firmly upon the Stilwell family who no longer command the respect they once took for granted.

Even Darkacre’s grandeur has faded and the hall is now a place where the day’s ‘wan light’ fails to penetrate and instead, ‘seems to hover outside the vast windows, uncertain of its welcome.’ It is home to brothers Maurice and Leonard Stilwell, Maurice’s wife Ida, and the debonair Victor Monroe, a ‘house guest’ who has lived at Darkacre since boyhood and still lingers there ‘like a cuckoo in the nest.’ Leonard, who lost three limbs on the Western front, is confined to a wheelchair and has ‘sadness emanating’ from him while his older brother Maurice’s life is blighted by shell-shock and night terrors. Ida, meanwhile, longs for the lost days of privilege and parties and is looking forward to the arrival of Sarah Hove, a much-needed new housekeeper from Brighton.

As Verity digs further into the events of that final halcyon summer six years ago, he uncovers a viper’s nest of secrets that will change the whole aspect of the case. And as he does so, Darkacre Hall becomes an unlikely battlefield... one that not all of its residents will survive.

Frank works her special storytelling magic on this gripping and emotionally charged tale, set in the painful aftermath of war when families were still reeling from not just the loss of loved ones but also caring for those whose injuries are both seen and unseen. At the centre of the story is the pivotal mystery of missing teenager Bobby Higgins, his links to Darkacre Hall, and the hunt for the truth of his disappearance in the dying days of summer in 1914. And riding the storm that rages outdoors, and the seemingly impenetrable tempest of lies that surrounds the dark and brooding Stilwell household, is the doggedly determined detective Verity.

With each unique and fascinating character exquisitely drawn, Frank’s piercing psychological insight guiding us deep into the heart and soul of a damaged and secretive family, several breathtaking twists and turns, and a thrilling thread of supernatural pulsing through the action, The Good Liars sees this gifted author at the top of her game.
(HQ, paperback, £9.99)