Liar by Lesley Pearse BLOG TOUR @LesleyPearse #Liar @MichaelJBooks @ed_pr #MyLifeInBooks #LoveLesley

In a Shepherd's Bush bedsit, Amelia White dreams of being a reporter. The closest she's come is selling advertising in the local paper.

Until the fateful day she stumbles on a truly shocking scoop.

Round the corner from her home, she discovers the body of a murder victim, dumped among the rubbish. When the police and reporters descend, Amelia is horrified at the assumptions made and lies soon to be spread about this poor young woman.

Determined to protect the victim from these smears and help her grieving family, she convinces her paper's editor to allow her to take up her pen and tell the true story.

But when another body is found and the police investigation stalls, Amelia - uncovering new witnesses and suspects in her search for clues - discovers that she may be the only one with any chance of learning the truth and stopping more killings.

If only she can work out who the liar is . . .

Liar by Lesley Pearse was published by Michael Joseph on 25 June 2020.  I've read and loved this book, you can read what I thought when my review is published in the Express later this month.

My thanks to the publisher and ed Public Relations who sent my copy for review and invited me to take part on this blog tour.

I'm delighted to welcome the author here to Random Things today. She's talking about the books that are special to her in My Life In Books

My Life In Books - Lesley Pearse

The Prophet by Kahil Gibran
I have been dipping into this beautiful inspirational book all of my adult life. It makes me see what is important in life and gives my soul a massage.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella GibbonsA hilarious classic from the 30’s about country life. My stepmother introduced me to it when I was about fourteen. I’ve read and reread it loads of times. It never fails to make me laugh; in every stage of my life it’s had some new resonance.

Sun Signs by Linda Goodman.First read and loved in 1971 when I was passionate about Astrology, I believe that through reading it I learned to understand people better. I regularly look up the birth signs of new friends in it. Its written in a very entertaining way too. It’s never been out of print.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret MitchellFirst read at 13 this magnificent tale of life in the Deep South never palls. I adored Scarlett O’Hara as a girl, yet as a grown woman the selfless Melanie Wilkes was my idol. And Rhett Butler will forever be my ideal man. I feel very sad that people are now seeing it as racist. It tells a sad history of the South, certainly, but my sympathies were totally with the black servants and slaves.  

The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood by Rebecca WestI almost didn’t read it because of the cringe worthy title, but I’m so glad I did. It’s a story of enduring friendships and how grievances daughters have about their mothers should be looked at and overcome.  I have given it to many girlfriends who have issues about their childhood.

Freckles by Gene Stratton PorterI found this book written in 1904 in a junk shop when I was 12. It’s about an orphaned boy with a missing hand. He finds work at ~The Limberlost Forest in Georgia, making sure the fences haven’t been pulled down by robbers intending to steal timber. I cried buckets over it as a girl. The beauty of the forest and its wildlife, and how Freckles overcame his disability has stayed with me for a lifetime. It has a wonderful happy ending.

Girl by Edna O’Brien.This is a more recent read, a fictionalised account of one of 276 young girls who were abducted from their school in Nigeria, by the brutal Boko Harem as wives for the soldiers. The girls had to endure every kind of humiliation and hardship, and many had babies from the men who raped them.  Some eventually found their way home, only to be ostracized for becoming ‘Bush Wives’. It is a sad, hard to stomach story, but I believe it needed to be told by such a wonderful writer as O’Brien.  

Little Grey Rabbit and the Weasels by Alison UttleyThis is one of the first books I could read myself and I still love it now. The story is about Little Grey Rabbit, Hare and Squirrel who live together. Little Grey Rabbit is snatched by a family of wicked Weasels who want her to cook and clean for them. There is a marvellous scene when the Weasels insist she sings to them. She straightens her apron and sings Rule Britannia, accentuating the line ‘Britons Never Shall be Slaves.’ She is rescued by Wise Owl and he orders the Weasels to be gone by morning, or he will make a meal of them. I adore the story and the beautiful illustrations.

My fabulous Lockdown reads. Both in their own way stories of endurance, loneliness and fear. Emotions I think most of us felt at some time.  

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia OwensA fabulously evocative tale of Kya a young girl left on her own in a ramshackle cabin in the swamps of North Carolina. It is as much a story of wildlife as the power of the human spirit to survive. It is about resilience, hope, love and loss. I was swept away entirely by it, almost smelling the marshes and hearing the cries of birds.  

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy LefferisNuri and Afra are Syrian refugees and this is their story of how they got to the UK and sought asylum. Afra lost her sight in a bomb blast, along with her seven-year-old son, and Nuri her husband, the beekeeper protects her as they go through so many nightmarish incidents. But the beauty of this story is in the writing, you can see how Aleppo was before the bombing, taste the food Nuri describes and feel you know his beloved bees. A truly gorgeous read which I think will stay with me forever.

Lesley Pearse - July 2020 

Lesley Pearse was told as a child that she had too much imagination for her own good. When she grew up she worked her way through a number of jobs, including nanny, bunny girl, dressmaker and full-time mother, before, at the age of forty-nine, settling upon a career that would allow her gifts to blossom: she became a published writer. 

Lesley lives in Devon and has three daughters and three grandchildren.

Find out more about Lesley and keep up to date with what she's been doing:

Follow her on Twitter @LesleyPearse

Follow her on Facebook @LesleyPearseAuthor

Sign up for her newsletter www.lesleypearse.com