Based on a True Story - by Sarah Vaughan (Hardcover)

Review Quotes

"What's not to love? A matriarch with buried secrets, an explosive party at a clifftop house and a family rapidly unravelling--a deliciously twisty page-turner that also packs a real emotional punch. Vaughan is simply a genius at immersing you in simmering tensions and turning up the heat." - Ellery Lloyd, New York Times bestselling author of The Club and The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby
"In Based on a True Story, Vaughan sets in motion the final, tragic act of a decades-long family drama. She writes beautifully and incisively; her evocative prose is spiked with sharp observations and insights that spare nobody. Sibling rivalries are stretched to breaking point, secrets leak, and loyalties quiver. When lucrative fame is a member of the family and storytelling is part of your DNA, nothing is predictable. A stunning novel." - Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author of The Burning Library and The Manor House

"A flawlessly constructed thriller, perfectly paced and filled with smart reveals. This is a read-in-one-sitting delight of a novel!"
-- Lucy Clarke, internationally bestselling author of The Surf House and The Hike

"A rollicking, thrilling read, Based on a True Story snares from the first page with its deliciously dysfunctional, glamorous family, bristling with characters to love or loathe, and a seductive Cornish setting. Another Sarah Vaughan cracker. I loved it."
-- Eve Chase, internationally bestselling author of The Midnight Hour

"Sarah's elegant prose, stunning descriptions and nuanced characters are all wrapped up in a cracking plot with a ticking clock - the ultimate literary thriller! Secrets, lies, subterfuge, scandal and sibling rivalry - the perfect recipe for a page-turner. I devoured it!"
-- Veronica Henry, internationally bestselling author of The Secret Beach and Thirty Days in Paris

"Are there better words than "there's a new Sarah Vaughan coming out?" Vaughan's books race along so thrillingly--you can never put them down. I zoomed through Based on a True Story, but the characters have really stayed with me. Vaughan had created a delightfully suspicious group of party-goers, all with their own questionable ambitions and motives. I particularly adored the Cornish setting--Vaughan captures the light and magic of that coastline so beautifully."
-- Holly Watt, author of The Last Truths We Told and The End of the Game

"Glorious Cornish clifftops, a glittering party and a swirling vortex of family secrets. . . . Sarah Vaughan lobs an explosive cocktail into Golden Age Crime to create something wholly new and deeply satisfying. I drank it up." - Sarah Hilary, author of Fragile and Never Be Broken
"Sarah Vaughan is one of my go-to writers and a modern, female re-telling of King Lear is exactly the sort of brilliance I have come to expect from her. This is a compelling story, with deep roots, which asks us to think about the stories we tell not just publicly, but also privately, to make up a life. It manages that rare trick of being both addictive and thoughtful." - Araminta Hall, author of One of the Good Guys and Hidden Depths
"Three sisters gather to celebrate with their narcissistic mother. I could literally feel the tension and frustration simmering between the lines. Wonderful storytelling." - Emma Curtis, author of The Commuter and The Babysitter

"Utterly addictive, surprising and full of characters you'll love to hate."
-- Louise Beech, author of Eighteen Seconds and Nothing Else

"There's a dangerous sense of reckoning in the air as the eminent Kingman family gather at their Cornish clifftop house to celebrate matriarch Eleanor's success - and just possibly to kill each other in the process. A rich, intoxicating brew, I loved it."
-- Louise Candlish, author of A Neighbour's Guide to Murder and Our Holiday

"Based on a True Story is a real pressure cooker of a novel - tense, immersive, and brilliantly told. I genuinely couldn't put it down. And the Cornish clifftop setting leapt from the page, with all of its drama and dangerous beauty."
-- Emylia Hall, author of The High Tide Murder and The Death at the Vineyard

"This is certainly one party no one will forget. With a cast of characters I loved to hate and secrets galore, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Smart, propulsive and so much fun...I loved it."
-- Nikki Smith, author of They Had It Coming and The Beach Party

"What a delight to be back with Sarah Vaughan's writing, and in particular to back in Cornwall. A sparkling, clever and compelling tale of power, money, lies and the stories we tell ourselves to survive."
-- Anna Mazzola, author of The Book of Secrets and The House of Whispers