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The Echo of Lies: She drowned. Or so they said.
A Psychological Thriller by Rowan Thorne
Fifteen years ago, Sarah Keane vanished beneath the black waters of Hollow Ridge after a night of fire, violence, and betrayal. Her death was ruled an accident. A tragedy. A silence everyone agreed to keep.
But lies rot in the dark.
Now her sister, Emma, has returned to Hollow Ridge, reeling from a car crash that stole her fiancé and shattered her carefully built life in Chicago. Instead of solace, she finds a town steeped in suspicion, haunted by whispers of that night, and unwilling to forgive a past it never faced.
As Emma reconnects with Sheriff Brian Cross, Deputy Jack Lawson, and the relentless investigator Glen Wheeler, the truth begins to seep back through the cracks. The Watcher. The Unknown. Voices that stalk her sleep, reflections that don’t match her face, and memories of a sister’s final gaze at the river’s edge.
Told through shifting, unreliable voices—where every perspective hides a fracture and every confession twists into another lie—The Echo of Lies unravels guilt, sisterhood, and survival in a town where the past refuses to stay buried. With gut-wrenching revelations and a heroine caught between love and madness, it’s perfect for fans of Gone Girl, The Silent Patient, and Sharp Objects.
Some truths kill. Others drag you under.
And some… echo forever.
Fifteen years ago, Sarah Keane vanished beneath the black waters of Hollow Ridge after a night of fire, violence, and betrayal. Her death was ruled an accident. A tragedy. A silence everyone agreed to keep.
But lies rot in the dark.
Now her sister, Emma, has returned to Hollow Ridge, reeling from a car crash that stole her fiancé and shattered her carefully built life in Chicago. Instead of solace, she finds a town steeped in suspicion, haunted by whispers of that night, and unwilling to forgive a past it never faced.
As Emma reconnects with Sheriff Brian Cross, Deputy Jack Lawson, and the relentless investigator Glen Wheeler, the truth begins to seep back through the cracks. The Watcher. The Unknown. Voices that stalk her sleep, reflections that don’t match her face, and memories of a sister’s final gaze at the river’s edge.
Told through shifting, unreliable voices—where every perspective hides a fracture and every confession twists into another lie—The Echo of Lies unravels guilt, sisterhood, and survival in a town where the past refuses to stay buried. With gut-wrenching revelations and a heroine caught between love and madness, it’s perfect for fans of Gone Girl, The Silent Patient, and Sharp Objects.
Some truths kill. Others drag you under.
And some… echo forever.
462 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 11, 2025
31 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 9, 2025
This book completely captivated me from start to finish. The shifting points of view offered deep insight into every character, making the story feel rich and layered. It’s impressively written with great attention to detail—you can clearly see the author’s dedication and passion throughout. I couldn’t stop reading; I was constantly eager to find out what would happen next. I’ll definitely be recommending it to anyone who enjoys a mix of psychology and thrilling storytelling.
November 9, 2025
this book truly kept me hooked. The different pov really gave me an insight of each and every character. it is really well written and done with meticulous precision. you can tell the author put a lot of work and passion into writing this. I couldn't put it down, I always needed to know what happened next and how it ended. safe to say I'll forever be recommending it to anyone who likes physiology and thrillers combined.
November 5, 2025
If I could give more than 5 stars I would.
This kept me so gripped and desperate to know what was going on.
It’s a thriller but it’s creepy and secretive and just was right up there in my top 10 of books I’m really glad I came across.
A post on instagram found this and boy was it found!
Secrets in a small town, how they grow and are still locked away.
Excellent read.
This kept me so gripped and desperate to know what was going on.
It’s a thriller but it’s creepy and secretive and just was right up there in my top 10 of books I’m really glad I came across.
A post on instagram found this and boy was it found!
Secrets in a small town, how they grow and are still locked away.
Excellent read.
October 28, 2025
Book: The Echo of Lies
Author: Rowan Thorne
Stars: 5⭐
My Review: She drowned. Or so they said.
15yrs ago Sarah Keane vanished.. Now her sister Emma has returned to Hollow Ridge. After the death of her fiancé. She comes back to a place already haunted by mysterious death of her sister. Emma starts to uncover signs that Sarah's death may not have been an accident at all. I don't want to give to much away but this was totally worth 5⭐.. Also I will most definitely read more by this author
Author: Rowan Thorne
Stars: 5⭐
My Review: She drowned. Or so they said.
15yrs ago Sarah Keane vanished.. Now her sister Emma has returned to Hollow Ridge. After the death of her fiancé. She comes back to a place already haunted by mysterious death of her sister. Emma starts to uncover signs that Sarah's death may not have been an accident at all. I don't want to give to much away but this was totally worth 5⭐.. Also I will most definitely read more by this author
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 3, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Utterly Unputdownable – A Haunting Masterpiece of Suspense and Heartbreak
The Echo of Lies by Rowan Thorne is the kind of novel that grabs you by the wrist on page one and refuses to let go until long after the last page is turned. It’s dark and poetic, a psychological thriller that feels alive — pulsing with dread, grief, and an eerie beauty that lingers like the fog over Hollow Ridge.
The story is as much about secrets as it is about the damage they leave behind. Thorne layers the mystery of Sarah Keane’s disappearance with astonishing depth, threading guilt, obsession, and fractured memory into a tapestry so tight you don’t notice the trap until you’re already caught. Each chapter pulls you further into the shadows — the bonfire that started it all, the river that won’t give back its dead, the townspeople who know more than they admit.
What makes this book extraordinary isn’t just its twists — though there are plenty, and I never saw them coming — but its characters. Emma Keane’s psychological unraveling is chilling and heartbreakingly human. Sheriff Brian Cross, Megan Turner, and even the enigmatic Unknown feel like living, breathing souls with their own ghosts. The alternating perspectives make the story both intimate and cinematic, as if the town itself is whispering its secrets.
Rowan Thorne’s prose deserves its own applause. It’s atmospheric without ever slowing the pacing — think Gillian Flynn’s razor-sharp darkness blended with the emotional resonance of Celeste Ng. The dialogue cuts deep, the descriptions of Hollow Ridge are so vivid you can smell the damp pine woods and hear the river at night.
I rarely call a thriller “unforgettable,” but The Echo of Lies earns it. It’s not just a mystery to solve; it’s a psychological storm that will keep echoing in your mind long after you close the book.
👉 If you’re a fan of Sharp Objects, The Silent Patient, or Verity, this is your next obsession.
💀🌲 Final Verdict: A hypnotic, nerve-wracking journey into guilt, grief, and the lies we tell to survive.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ — A must-read for every thriller lover.
Utterly Unputdownable – A Haunting Masterpiece of Suspense and Heartbreak
The Echo of Lies by Rowan Thorne is the kind of novel that grabs you by the wrist on page one and refuses to let go until long after the last page is turned. It’s dark and poetic, a psychological thriller that feels alive — pulsing with dread, grief, and an eerie beauty that lingers like the fog over Hollow Ridge.
The story is as much about secrets as it is about the damage they leave behind. Thorne layers the mystery of Sarah Keane’s disappearance with astonishing depth, threading guilt, obsession, and fractured memory into a tapestry so tight you don’t notice the trap until you’re already caught. Each chapter pulls you further into the shadows — the bonfire that started it all, the river that won’t give back its dead, the townspeople who know more than they admit.
What makes this book extraordinary isn’t just its twists — though there are plenty, and I never saw them coming — but its characters. Emma Keane’s psychological unraveling is chilling and heartbreakingly human. Sheriff Brian Cross, Megan Turner, and even the enigmatic Unknown feel like living, breathing souls with their own ghosts. The alternating perspectives make the story both intimate and cinematic, as if the town itself is whispering its secrets.
Rowan Thorne’s prose deserves its own applause. It’s atmospheric without ever slowing the pacing — think Gillian Flynn’s razor-sharp darkness blended with the emotional resonance of Celeste Ng. The dialogue cuts deep, the descriptions of Hollow Ridge are so vivid you can smell the damp pine woods and hear the river at night.
I rarely call a thriller “unforgettable,” but The Echo of Lies earns it. It’s not just a mystery to solve; it’s a psychological storm that will keep echoing in your mind long after you close the book.
👉 If you’re a fan of Sharp Objects, The Silent Patient, or Verity, this is your next obsession.
💀🌲 Final Verdict: A hypnotic, nerve-wracking journey into guilt, grief, and the lies we tell to survive.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ — A must-read for every thriller lover.
October 3, 2025
⚫️Rowan Thorne delivers a spine-tingling psychological thriller in The Echo of Lies that keeps you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. This isn't just a story about a mysterious drowning; it's a deep dive into memory, guilt, and the heavy weight of secrets that refuse to stay buried.
⚫️When Emma Keane returns to Hollow Ridge after a personal loss, the past starts to unravel in unexpected ways. As she investigates her sister Sarah's supposed death, readers are pulled into a web of twisted truths, unreliable narrators, and eerie encounters that blur the lines between what's real and what's imagined. The presence of The Watcher and Emma's fading grip on her memories create a haunting atmosphere that lingers long after you turn the last page.
⚫️Thorne's writing is sharp and vivid, perfectly capturing the unsettling quiet of Hollow Ridge. The shifting perspectives add layers of intrigue, making each revelation more shocking and every confession more dubious. This expertly crafted novel keeps you guessing, where trust is a rare commodity and every answer leads to more chilling questions.
⚫️Fans of Gone Girl, The Silent Patient, and Sharp Objects will find themselves right at home in this twisty tale of betrayal, sisterhood, and survival. The Echo of Lies is an addictive read that pulls you in like dark waters, holding you captive until the very end.
Happy reading ❤️✨
October 2, 2025
The Echo of Lies: She drowned. Or so they said. by Rowan Thorne is a gripping psychological thriller that dives deep into family secrets, grief, and hidden truths. The story begins with Emma returning to her hometown of Hollow Ridge after the tragic death of her fiancé. She comes back to a place already haunted by the mysterious death of her sister Sarah, who supposedly drowned years ago. But as Emma revisits her past, she starts to uncover signs that Sarah’s death may not have been an accident at all.
The book is written in shifting points of view, which makes the mystery even more intense. Every chapter adds another layer sometimes giving answers, sometimes raising new doubts. This style keeps readers hooked and forces you to question who can really be trusted. Rowan Thorne does not give away the truth easily, and that slow reveal makes the suspense even stronger.
What stands out most is the emotional depth. Emma is not just chasing the truth; she is fighting her own grief, guilt, and trauma. The way her emotions are described feels real and relatable, especially for anyone who has ever struggled to move on after loss. The side characters like the sheriff, the deputy, and the investigator add weight to the story because they each hold pieces of the hidden truth.
The ending is both shocking and powerful. It ties together the lies, the silence, and the broken relationships in a way that leaves the reader thinking long after the book is finished. This is not just a thriller about solving a mystery it’s about how secrets can destroy people and how truth, once uncovered, changes everything.
I strongly recommend The Echo of Lies to readers who enjoy psychological thrillers with real emotional impact. It is suspenseful, haunting, and filled with layers of truth and deception that keep you turning the pages.
The book is written in shifting points of view, which makes the mystery even more intense. Every chapter adds another layer sometimes giving answers, sometimes raising new doubts. This style keeps readers hooked and forces you to question who can really be trusted. Rowan Thorne does not give away the truth easily, and that slow reveal makes the suspense even stronger.
What stands out most is the emotional depth. Emma is not just chasing the truth; she is fighting her own grief, guilt, and trauma. The way her emotions are described feels real and relatable, especially for anyone who has ever struggled to move on after loss. The side characters like the sheriff, the deputy, and the investigator add weight to the story because they each hold pieces of the hidden truth.
The ending is both shocking and powerful. It ties together the lies, the silence, and the broken relationships in a way that leaves the reader thinking long after the book is finished. This is not just a thriller about solving a mystery it’s about how secrets can destroy people and how truth, once uncovered, changes everything.
I strongly recommend The Echo of Lies to readers who enjoy psychological thrillers with real emotional impact. It is suspenseful, haunting, and filled with layers of truth and deception that keep you turning the pages.
October 2, 2025
A chilling river of secrets that pulls you under and refuses to let go.
The Echo of Lies isn’t just a thriller — it’s a haunting experience. I opened it for “just a chapter” before bed, and before I knew it, the sun was coming up.
Rowan Thorne has built Hollow Ridge so vividly that it feels like a real small town living right at the edge of your nightmares — quiet streets hiding unsaid things, a river that seems to watch you back, and characters who feel startlingly alive.
This isn’t your typical twist-for-the-sake-of-twists thriller. It’s smarter. The suspense creeps in like fog, sentence by sentence, until you’re holding your breath. The psychology of the characters is razor-sharp — complicated, fragile, darkly human. I especially loved how grief, memory, and guilt play just as big a role as the mystery itself.
The pacing is masterful: slow enough to let you feel the weight of every secret, fast enough that you’ll always think, “one more chapter.” And when the reveals start coming, they hit like lightning — shocking yet inevitable in the way only the best mysteries manage.
If you love atmospheric, character-driven thrillers with a strong sense of place — think Sharp Objects meets The Silent Patient — you’ll be obsessed with this book. I’ll be thinking about these characters, and about that river, for a long time.
Highly recommend if you crave:
A story that makes your heart race and your brain work
Unpredictable twists that feel earned
A small-town setting dripping with secrets and dread
Writing that’s lyrical, dark, and unforgettable
The Echo of Lies deserves every bit of its buzz.
The Echo of Lies isn’t just a thriller — it’s a haunting experience. I opened it for “just a chapter” before bed, and before I knew it, the sun was coming up.
Rowan Thorne has built Hollow Ridge so vividly that it feels like a real small town living right at the edge of your nightmares — quiet streets hiding unsaid things, a river that seems to watch you back, and characters who feel startlingly alive.
This isn’t your typical twist-for-the-sake-of-twists thriller. It’s smarter. The suspense creeps in like fog, sentence by sentence, until you’re holding your breath. The psychology of the characters is razor-sharp — complicated, fragile, darkly human. I especially loved how grief, memory, and guilt play just as big a role as the mystery itself.
The pacing is masterful: slow enough to let you feel the weight of every secret, fast enough that you’ll always think, “one more chapter.” And when the reveals start coming, they hit like lightning — shocking yet inevitable in the way only the best mysteries manage.
If you love atmospheric, character-driven thrillers with a strong sense of place — think Sharp Objects meets The Silent Patient — you’ll be obsessed with this book. I’ll be thinking about these characters, and about that river, for a long time.
Highly recommend if you crave:
A story that makes your heart race and your brain work
Unpredictable twists that feel earned
A small-town setting dripping with secrets and dread
Writing that’s lyrical, dark, and unforgettable
The Echo of Lies deserves every bit of its buzz.
October 15, 2025
4.5 rounded to 5
So it took me a little longer to read this book than normal, but only because I had so many other books going at the same time. Once I got to a point where I had more free time, I couldn't put it down.
The first half of the book is a lot of back and forth with POVs of multiple characters in the book as well as timelines. Typically, my simple mind doesn't always follow well when there are a lot of characters, but the way this was done was great! It's not that you just hear a lot of other characters speaking, you actually get to see their POV in the book, so it is easy to follow that way. But I also think it was necessary to do in order for a lot of secrets being hidden to come to light, but still also give you that, "something still ain't right" feel.
That second half, especially AFTER the trail, things start really picking up and getting to the real nitty griddy of the story. The part of the story that really got covered. The last 20% or so of the book turned wicked and sinister very fast and I really kind of loved it!
So it took me a little longer to read this book than normal, but only because I had so many other books going at the same time. Once I got to a point where I had more free time, I couldn't put it down.
The first half of the book is a lot of back and forth with POVs of multiple characters in the book as well as timelines. Typically, my simple mind doesn't always follow well when there are a lot of characters, but the way this was done was great! It's not that you just hear a lot of other characters speaking, you actually get to see their POV in the book, so it is easy to follow that way. But I also think it was necessary to do in order for a lot of secrets being hidden to come to light, but still also give you that, "something still ain't right" feel.
That second half, especially AFTER the trail, things start really picking up and getting to the real nitty griddy of the story. The part of the story that really got covered. The last 20% or so of the book turned wicked and sinister very fast and I really kind of loved it!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews