Little Black Lies

By: Sandra Block

Narrated by: Kara Bartell

She helps people conquer their demons. But she has a few of her own...

In the halls of the psychiatric ward, Dr. Zoe Goldman is a resident in training, dedicated to helping troubled patients. However, she has plenty of baggage of her own. When Zoe becomes obsessed with questions about her own mother's death, the truth remains tauntingly out of reach, locked away within her nightmares of an uncontrollable fire. And as her adoptive mother loses her memory to dementia, the time to find the answers is running out. As Zoe digs deeper, she realizes that the danger is not just in her dreams but is now close at hand. And she has no choice but to face what terrifies her the most. Because what she can't remember just might kill her.

Little Black Lies is about madness and memory - and the dangerous, little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

©2015 Sandra Block (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

2016, Best first novel, International Thriller Writers, Nominated.

suspense until the end...

Loved the story, characters and suspense! It left me wanting more...can't wait for the next book!

Interesting storyline, tough to put down

I actually picked this book up by accident, intending to read a book of the same title for a book club selection, but I'm so glad I stumbled upon this one instead. This novel is a well-constructed psychological thriller, revolving around dark secrets and lies.

Suffering from a nightmare of the night her biological mother died in a house fire and faced with treating a patient who murdered her own mother, Zoe sets out on a search for more information about her childhood and the mother she barely remembers.

This book was written with the perfect steady pace of twists, nibbles of insight into the truth, and a good amount of humor. There is a lot of build up in the beginning that some may feel is a bit slow, but I felt it was appropriate to build the foundation for the reader as to why this character needs to know more about her past and why something might trigger her persistent search. I hung on to every word until the very end. I'm excited to read future novels from this author.

It's the DSM Five not DSM-V

The book was fine....entertaining enough and with good narration...but every time the narrator read the title of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Five (the Roman numeral is spelled out when referring to the title in speech) as the DSM Vee It made me crazy. Where were the editors or fact-checkers? Argh!

Good read

I was captivated by the plot it was fun the psychological term were on point. I do have to admit that when the reader kept saying DSM V as in the letter V and not the roman numero V it drove me crazy. However I like tge twist and surprising ending along with the characters.

Just didn't love it

Story line was ok, but I felt like I was studying for a pharmacy exam through much of it.
The author spent a little too much time on meds for me, and the narrator was a little too light and sing song to be believable as a doctor. I finished it, but really can't say that I liked it

Excellent!

Kept me wanting more, never lost interest. That hasn't happen for a while. Thank you!

DSM V - ugh

I couldn’t figure out if the protagonist, Zoe was written to be fairly unintelligent or if the narrators voice made it sound like it. Her tone of voice often did not match the serious or even common dialogue. And what bothered me the most is the a resident in psychology or psychiatry would know that it is the DSM 5 not DSM V. I got annoyed every time.

The plop

The whole book was great! I could not put the book down!! You should read it!

Decent...

Sandra Block does a good job here in presenting a mystery behind a psychiatrist's background. Certainly not groundbreaking, but it is a nice, not too long, pleasant read. For it being her first book, Block does very well. The narration is good, but not sure the voice was the right fit for character. all in all, worth the credit.

Great narration improves the story

Grade- C+

Dr. Zoe Goldman was adopted at age four after her mother died in a fire. Now her adoptive mother, her bio mother's best friend, has dementia and Zoe is eager to learn more about bio-mom before it's too late. At work in a psychiatric institution, she's challenged by Sofia, a new patient who has been hospitalized for twenty years, since the age of fourteen after she killed her mother. Zoe also juggles nightmares from the fire, an ex, several suitors, weekly visits with her psychiatrist, visits with her brother, seeing her mom in a nursing home, and her psychiatry residence.

Zoe is, for the most part, a very likable character, easy to root for though sometimes she's impetuous. Although she's haunted by the same nightmare of the fire she's had since childhood, yet determined to solve the mystery of her past. I was very interested in Sofia and her backstory. The other characters didn't have much personality.

Zoe's descriptive narration had a consistent voice, though sometimes Sandra Block bogged Zoe's voice with useless description that slowed down the pace. I was bored the first hundred pages of LITTLE BLACK LIES, most of which was backstory. The "mystery" of Zoe's mother didn't feel fresh, but more like any adoptee searching for information. I was surprised she didn't use the computer more effectively and hadn't googled the information she supposedly has been seeking for years. She included a lot of snippets of the DSM V and psychiatry textbooks, but since I'm a psychologist, I already knew that info. Block is a practicing neurologist, so most of the symptomology was fairly accurate. The psych hospitals I've worked at had men and women on different floors, judges had to approve transfers and releases of patients who were deemed not guilty by reason of insanity, but those are picky details. Had the story not picked up momentum after about 25% through, I would have skipped the middle and gone to the end. I never felt as if I were reading a thriller, though the mystery of Zoe's bio mom did pick up. The last 10% of the book did grab me. I figured out the twist pretty early on, but wanted to see how it played out.

If you enjoy books by Heather Gudenkauf and Chevy Stevens, you'll like LITTLE BLACK LIES, though the writing and plot aren't at the same level.