All I Said Was True

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Imran Mahmood". Darley Anderson. 2020 . Retrieved 25 November 2020. He has been working on the criminal bar in London for over 20 years and regularly appears in jury trials across the country dealing in serious and complex criminal cases. He now lives in South East London with his wife and is currently plotting a second novel. However, I found the main character, Layla, so unlikeable that I had to pause my reading. I think it was intentional to make her seem frantic and disorganised throughout the investigation. She did not help the police by giving information or help herself. When Amy Blahn died on a London rooftop, Layla Mahoney was there. Layla was holding her. But all she can say when she's arrested is that 'It was Michael. Find Michael and you'll find out everything you need to know.' Layla is a lawyer so is fully aware of the predicament the police face and knows that they only have forty eight hours in which to charge her or let her go. Layla pleads with the police to find Michael but as the interviews progress more facts come to light that threaten to expose Layla.

When emergency services are called to a London office rooftop, they find Amy Blahn laying dead having been stabbed in the chest. Layla Mahoney held Amy as she died, & tells police that a mysterious man named Michael is the one who killed Amy. Evidence points towards Layla being involved & when the police can't find any evidence of Michael's existence, they arrest her. Was Layla telling the truth? Flawless prose from a skilful mind. Imran Mahmood really knows this world, and he stands head and shoulders above the competition." - Emma Bamford Fortunately Mahmood can really pull this off; his writing is sharp and beautifully constructed. When, quite far into the book, the rationale for all this becomes clear, it is a delight to know that the reader’s perseverance has been rewarded by a clear and logical explanation of what has transpired. The characters were likeable enough, and you could understand their motivations. There is depth with issues of family, race, feeling welcome by loved ones and a country. It all adds a great depth to them. Amy Blahn was murdered and her body discovered on a London office rooftop. Layla Mahoney held Amy as died in her arms. The police arrest Amy who offers little defence other than saying ‘It was Michael. Find Michael and you’ll find out everything you need to know.’Layla Mahoney is arrested for the murder of Amy Blahn when she was found holding the body. All Layla will say is to tell them to find Michael as he has all the answers, but they can’t find Michael and wonder if he exists. So, the novel is told from Layla’s point of view and it is apparent from the first chapter when she’s deciding what to tell and how to present it, that she is keeping secrets and is inherently unreliable. This is borne out by her erratic behaviour and thought patterns in the then sections. By about half way through the novel I was sure that there was an element of gaslighting to her story, but by whom I couldn’t work out. And that’s the joy or torment, depending on the reader’s view, of the novel. There is no firm ground and everything is open to interpretation. This I thought was particularly well done as interpreted one way certain events show Layla with mental health issues, interpreted another it’s a series of clumsy accidents. Owen, James (8 June 2021). "The best thrillers for June 2021". The Times . Retrieved 6 December 2021. as a portrait of vulnerability, it's sympathetically rendered and the resolution surprisingly disturbing. Layla is an enigma. Clearly not disclosing the truth, yet maintaining her innocence. Pointing to a perpetrator whose full name she does not know. She is obfuscating, but why is unclear. Whatever the reasons, she seems only to be succeeding in making herself look more desperate and by omission, guilty. As she tries to explain the concept of Free Will to the Police she succeeds only in making it look as if she’s trying to establish a mental health defence.

You Don't Know Me , the BBC adaptation of Imran Mahmood's brilliant debut thriller, is currently one of the most streamed programmes on Netflix!* I had no clue, absolutely zero, what the truth was. The narrative from Layla was believable and seemed to be perfectly reasonable but as the questioning goes on, Laylas behaviour starts to seem more unhinged and you wonder if the police do have something. This is the third book I have read by author Imran Mahmood and I have to say I have really enjoyed all three. The author has worked on the criminal bar in London for over 20 years and together with his skills as a writer he produces legal thrillers that have more than a touch of realism. The events leading up to that point are slowly uncovered both by the police questioning and Layla's own recollections as they happened.I would like to thank Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for a review copy of All I Said Was True, a stand-alone thriller set in London. You have to be a very good writer to keep your reader on tenterhooks, wondering what on earth is going on and what the point of this story is for several chapters. Fortunately Imran Mahmood is just that and he really pulls it off in this book which will keep you guessing all the way. Layla Mahoney is in custody for the murder of a woman she says she doesn’t know. The evidence appears incontrovertible;- while she says she didn’t commit the act, her explanation of who did isn’t convincing anyone, including her lawyer. So who did kill Amy Blahn? And why isn’t Layla helping herself to reveal the facts of what happened? The problem is these two narratives don't align. Layla insists someone called Michael is the one who committed the murder but the police cannot find any trace of him.

Our main character, Layla, is found on the rooftop of the building where her husband works. She is cradling the dead body of Amy Blahn, our victim. Her call to the police tells us little.Imran is probably the most exciting crime fiction author in the UK right now and All I Said Was True is further proof of that. The dual narrative is exhilarating, the plot complex and layered, the writing is perfect and the narrator's voice is somehow both unreliable and trustworthy. Superb stuff." - M W Craven A tantalising thriller that bleeds with authenticity. Taut, twisty and fiendishly clever, it will surely confound you until the gripping finale." - Kia Abdullah

Imran Mahmood (born 1969) is a British novelist and barrister. His first novel You Don't Know Me (2017), which was shortlisted for the Glass Bell Award in 2018, was dramatised by the BBC in 2021. As with the protagonists of Mahmood’s previous novels, YOU DON’T KNOW ME and I KNOW WHAT I SAW, Layla is an unusual, perhaps unreliable, narrator. It is clear from the start of her interrogation that Layla knows more than she initially offers, that she seems to be giving up her information to a planned timetable. She maintains that Michael killed Amy but the police cannot find any evidence that Michael was on the roof, or that he actually exists. THEN, Layla tells us that Michael saved her from being run over by an out of control car on a London street. Thereafter, Michael appears at intervals, claiming that he has not been following Layla, that their meetings are not coincidental, that they are in fact linked in some way, that they are intended to prevent some terrible occurrence. At times the reader might question whether there is something supernatural going on here, or Michael may just be a liar who Is following her… And then there’s this one immovable fact - I can’t face a murder charge. I didn’t do it. But there’s a danger in saying too much which would be worse for me that a murder trial.’Wonderfully twisty and kept me guessing all the way to a really satisfying denouement." - Ajay Chowdhury It's not often I say this, but throughout this book I kept developing wildly different theories about what was going on/what truth would be revealed at the end - I was optimistic for a big, exciting reveal, but sadly, I think pretty much any of my (incorrect) theories would have been better than the actual outcome. As a lawyer she knows that the police only have so long before they have to charge or release her and in a then and now narrative we have her police interview and the events leading up to the rooftop murder.