Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent

Description from Amazon:

My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.

On the surface, Lydia Fitzsimons’s life seems idyllic. Her husband, Andrew, is a prosperous, respected judge; they live in the spacious, comfortable, well-appointed house where she was raised. And she is utterly, obsessively devoted to her son, Laurence—her adored only child, her pride and joy.

But Andrew’s murder of Annie Doyle, accidental or not, sets into motion a dark downward spiral. It doesn’t take long for Laurence to suspect that something is very, very wrong in the Fitzsimons household—and he is determined to discover the truth.

This was a new author for me, and she sure knows how to craft a tale!

The story starts off with a bang, and what helps it along is that each section comes from a different POV, so we get to see the hows and the whys from multiple angles. The main event in the story comes to you early, so what the rest does is explain the peripherals and how people deal with it. Adding to the tension is not just the family that does the killing, but the family affected by it, and as the truths unfold, the layers reveal things buried even deeper throughout the years. With the book taking place in the 1980s in Dublin, the scenes and settings are all very real to the time period.

The author goes deep into the characters, and here they are not just people willing to do deeds, but actually willing to manipulate people emotionally, psychologically, and physically for the good of their own futures. Lydia is an especially creepy character in that she looks like the perfect old-money genteel woman on the outside, but her scheming in order to make sure that what she wants is paramount is diabolical. And the sad thing is that she believes that what she is doing is right.

You vacillate over whether Laurence is doing the right thing as you follow his decisions, starting with thinking he is a mommy’s boy, then cheering him on as he strikes out on his own, and then disliking him once more with later actions.

The tragedy lies in what people are willing to do for their own gain and using others they see as less than themselves.

The ending is like knowing an accident is coming but being unable to look away, and the simplicity of the actions to accomplish this makes you feel a little sick to your stomach. When you close the book, you are going to feel rather icky.