View source for Buried Lies (Gaby Darin Book 5) by Jenny O'Brien

{{infobox1
|title=Buried Lies (Gaby Darin Book 5)
|author=Jenny O'Brien
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's the fifth book in the series but they all read well as stand alones.  This is the best in the series so far but earlier books are worth going back to.  A series to follow.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=320
|publisher=HQ Digital
|date=November 2021
|isbn=978-0008457075
|website=https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/jenny-obrien
|cover=B09GJW49GF
|aznuk=B09GJW49GF
|aznus=B09GJW49GF
}}
Hannah Thomas was having her first night away from her son.  Hunter had diabetes and this was controlled by a pump attached to his stomach, so her over-protectiveness was understandable, but her fiance, Ian, was pestering her to get married and she thought it would be a good idea for him to find out what parenting was ''really'' like.  Her friend, Milly, had arranged to take her boyfriend, Liam, for a night in a posh hotel but then he dumped her and she couldn't get the money back, so Hannah was offered the opportunity to go in his place.  She would return home to find Ian dead and five-year-old Hunter missing.

It had seemed to be going so well, too.  Hannah had had a text from Ian: ''A boring night in with a curry and my best boy.  You enjoy, my love.  See you soon xx''.  When Hannah got home she couldn't find anyone in the house - and then found Ian's body in the fume-filled car in the garage.  There was no sign of Hunter.  It ''looked'' like suicide but there was shock when the Major Incident Team from St Asaph arrived. Ian Strong was ''one of ours'' - a policeman.

Hannah had had a lot to put up with in her life.  Her parents and her younger brother had been killed in a plane crash and whilst this meant that she had the funds to buy her own home it also meant that she had no one to call on for support.  Ian Strong's father and his brother, Dominic, were there but Dominic was decidedly suspicious about Hannah.  DI Gaby Darin and the St Asaph MIT were suspicious of her too: they thought that she might have had a hand in Ian's death.  Then another body was found. 

I first encountered Jenny O'Brien in early 2020 when I read [[Silent Cry (Gaby Darin Book 1) by Jenny O'Brien|Silent Cry]] and thought that it was the start of a promising new series.  I then read [[Fallen Angel (Gaby Darin Book 3) by Jenny O'Brien|the third book in the series]] and now I've caught up with the fifth.  The marvellous thing is that they all read well as stand alones and there are no spoilers for earlier books in the series - so I'll be able to pick up the books I've missed.  Regular readers will enjoy meeting up with characters they're familiar with but they'll quickly come off the page if you're new to the series.

The plot is good.  I began by having absolutely no idea of what had happened, then moved to thinking that I had it sussed.  It was pretty obvious that Hannah was hiding something but even when we found out what that was, I didn't feel any closer to the answers I needed.  The clues were all there, though - and the denouement is particularly satisfying.  It's a good read and the best of the series so far.

I'd like to thank the publishers for allowing Bookbag to have a copy of the book.

[[Jenny O'Brien's Detective Gaby Darin Novels in Chronological Order]]

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