All The Lies

Amy has spent years inside a marriage to a controlling, violent husband. She has learned to manage him, and nobody outside the house has noticed. Leaving feels less like an option than something to be planned in secret.

On a short cruise she meets Liz, a younger woman who looks a good deal like her. The two spend enough time together that other passengers take them for friends. Then an accident kills a great many people on board.

Amy wakes in hospital to find that a mix-up over personal effects has led everyone to treat her as Liz. The real Liz is on the list of the missing, presumed dead. Amy has to decide whether to correct the error and go back to her husband, or stay silent and live as a stranger for as long as the mistake lasts.

The mistake does not last cleanly. Liz had a life of her own, and people in it who knew her. This is a domestic and psychological thriller built on a single choice, and its tension comes from how long Amy can keep it up. There are also questions about the accident, and Amy is now the only person placed to answer them.