Book Review #75: The Friend Who Lied by Rachel Amphlett


Title: The Friend Who Lied

Author: Rachel Amphlett

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Format: Ebook

Date of Publication: June 9th 2019

Publisher: Saxon Publishing

ISBN13: 9781999368340

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What she doesn’t know might kill her…

Lisa Ashton receives a last-minute reprieve from death two weeks before her birthday. Regaining consciousness, she is horrified to learn one of her friends has been killed – and saved her life.

As she recovers, she uncovers a trail of carefully guarded reputations, disturbing rumours, and lies. Soon, Lisa begins to wonder if one of her friends is hiding a terrible secret.

Because five of them entered the escape room that day, and only four got out alive.

And someone is determined to cover their tracks before she can find out the truth.

Can Lisa find the killer before someone else dies?

The Friend Who Lied: a twisted psychological thriller from USA Today bestseller Rachel Amphlett – perfect for fans of The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley and Friend Request by Laura Marshall.



Lisa, Hayley, Bec, David and Simon are five friends who are celebrating Lisa’s supposed last birthday, who only has a couple of weeks left to live. All five of them enter the Escape Room but only four come out alive. Simon doesn’t make it out alive but his kidney give life to Lisa. Lisa is horrified to learn about Simon’s fate but she doesn’t understand what exactly happened in the escape room. Since she has no recollection of what happened, she tries to piece together the information she gets from her friends. As she dives into learning more about the unfortunate event, Lisa begins to wonder if one of her friends is hiding something from her. What she uncovers will shake her past, present and future.


Rachel Amphlett knows how to create a calm yet chilling read that will make you want to look over your shoulder. Of all the Amphlett books I have read, and I have read many, The Friend Who Lied is the most unsettling read. I couldn’t turn the pages quickly enough and stayed up well past midnight to finish this book. Though the synopsis talks about Lisa trying to find out what happened, all the four characters felt like protagonists to me. There wasn’t one important character but all of them were important. Miss one character’s thoughts and you lose track of the plot. All four of them were under the spotlight and I doubted all of them, that is how devious this plot was.


Like always, I enjoyed another Rachel Amphlett read from start to finish and will highly recommend this book to all psychological thriller fans.


Final Verdict:

The Friend Who Lied by Rachel Amphlett gets 5 out 5 stars from me.


If you want to read my reviews to the other Rachel Amphlett books you can click the following:

Kay Hunter series:  Book 1 | Book 2 | Book 3 | Book 4 | Book 5Book 6 | Book 7

Dan Taylor series: Book 1

English Spy Mysteries: Series 1 Trilogy

If you would like to read my interview with Rachel, you can click here.

If you would like to read Rachel’s guest post, you can click here.


About the Author:

Rachel Amphlett author photo

Before turning to writing, Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as a sub-editor and editorial assistant.

She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, including the Dan Taylor and English Spy Mysteries espionage novels and the Detective Kay Hunter British police procedural series.

She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and the Crime Writers Association, with the Italian foreign rights for her debut novel, White Gold sold to Fanucci Editore’s TIMECrime imprint, and the first four books in the Dan Taylor espionage series contracted to Germany’s Luzifer Verlag.

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Thank you to Book On The Bright Sideand author Rachel Amphlett for providing me with the e-book.