LIE BESIDE ME is Gytha Lodge’s third book featuring Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens of the Southhampton, England, police force. However, a great deal of focus is placed on the other members of the squad --- particularly Constable Juliette Hanson --- on both professional and personal levels. Aside from Lodge’s sharp characterizations, the real prize is the puzzling mystery at the core of the plot that will keep readers turning pages rapidly and incessantly.

The majority of the novel is told in the third person past tense. The exception is the intermittent presentation of a journal that is a work in progress by Louise Reakes. As we come to learn from the lady herself, she has two personas: “Sober Louise” and “Drunk Louise.” It is the latter whom readers first meet in a somewhat grisly tableau. Louise believes that she has awakened next to her husband, Niall, but she’s wrong. A man who she claims she doesn’t know has been murdered and is lying in her bed. She calls the police, but not before moving the body and trying to cover up his presence in her home.

"LIE BESIDE ME combines elements of police procedure with classic mystery while throwing plenty of twists, turns and surprises into the mix."

While the members of Sheens’ team may or may not have been born at night, they certainly weren’t born last night, and they quickly determine where the corpse was originally found. Louise is a train wreck, and her inability to remember precisely what occurred in the hours leading up to her discovery does her no favors. The name of the deceased is Alex Plaskitt, and it is highly unlikely that his presence in her bed was a one-off. While Louise is the prime suspect, others abound.

Lodge obviously had a great deal of fun designing a puzzle that toys with readers’ expectations as suspicion jumps from one character to the next. Louise’s journal, which is a long letter to her husband, does little to exonerate her or explain how she became involved in the proceedings. However, as her memory of that fateful evening comes back in fits and starts, some of the expectations and conclusions previously made by both the police and readers are upended, creating an “if not her, then who?” situation. All is answered with a satisfying ending and the potential for redemption.

LIE BESIDE ME combines elements of police procedure with classic mystery while throwing plenty of twists, turns and surprises into the mix. There are also unresolved issues involving the personal lives of three characters that undoubtedly will play out over the course of the next installment of the series, giving you another reason to put Lodge on your must-read list. And I would be remiss if I did not gratefully note that Lodge provides a helpful “Glossary of British Policing Terms,” most of which define the plethora of acronyms that one might find in a British police procedural novel. A tip of the fedora is in order, as is my recommendation for reading this fine work.