First time author Lizzy Goudsmit Kay (LEH 2002-2009) has written Seven Lies, under the pen name of Elizabeth Kay, which is being published in hardback, eBook and audio on 16 April and is already being hailed as “unputdownable”, “breathtakingly good” and “chilling and original”.

The BBC and the Daily Mail have both selected the hypnotic and unsettling first novel as one of their ‘Books of 2020’ picks and suggested it will be one of the thrillers everyone will be talking about this year.

"I have been overwhelmed by the response to Seven Lies and I am thrilled that it's going to be published in over 25 territories, including the UK and the US,” says Lizzy. “It started very much as a book about female friendship, and I'm delighted that early readers have responded to that in a positive way. It's certainly a dark and sinister read, but I hope that others will enjoy it when it publishes in the spring."

The story is about Jane and Marnie, who have been inseparable since they were eleven years old. In their twenties, they both married handsome young men. Years later, Jane and Marnie are still best friends – and both men are dead.

But if Jane had been honest from the start – if she hadn’t told that first little white lie – then perhaps the person she loves most would still love her too. Perhaps everything would be different.

This is Jane’s opportunity to tell the real story – if you could only believe her.

As Jane narrates hers and Marnie’s shared history and unpicks each of seven increasingly catastrophic lies, she reveals the pockets of darkness that have infiltrated their friendship; the toxic secrets still bubbling beneath; and a tale of obsession, of grief – and the real meaning of truth. 

Lizzy admits that she was thinking about LEH when she writing some of the opening sections set in a school: “There's a scene early on in which the girls are queuing a corridor, and that was very much the front corridor of the main building in my mind! And, as most of my closest friends are ex-LEHers, there are lots of those names in the acknowledgements at the back too.”

The TV rights to the books have already been snapped up following a hotly contested five-way auction, and the book set the publishing industry ablaze when the international rights were sold to 25 territories in just two months.

Lizzy started her career as an assistant at Penguin Random House. She is now a commissioning editor and is simultaneously pursuing her passion for writing, although she is currently on maternity leave.

Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay will be published by Sphere in the UK on 16 April, but you can pre-order in on Amazon here. All pre-orders are incredibly valuable for debut authors and demonstrate to retailers and media that there is demand for the book.