The problem is, the police can’t find Michael – there is no evidence that he exists. And time is running out before they have to either charge Layla with Amy’s murder, or let her go.
As a lawyer, Layla knows that she has only forty-eight hours to convince police to investigate the man she knows only as ‘Michael’ instead of her. But the more she attempts to control her interviews with police, the more the truth leaks out – and how much of that truth can Layla risk being exposed?
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‘Every one of the billions of stars and planets - every single one is just cause and effect. They exist in their current states because of the things that happened beforehand. Do you think you’re immune from cause and effect, but whole galaxies aren’t?’
Imran Mahmoud’s third novel, ALL I SAID WAS TRUE, is narrated by Layla Mahoney, a personal injury lawyer, being questioned by police in connection with the murder of Amy Blahn. Layla’s story unfolds NOW, as she is interrogated by detectives who have 48 hours in which to decide whether to charge her, and THEN, as we find out how she came to on the roof of her husband’s workplace cradling the dead body of a woman whom she claims not to know, and, in particular, her strange relationship with a man called Michael, a man she claims is really responsible.
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.’
Imran Mahmood is clearly the master of unconventional narrators. Layla is a complex character; we know she is withholding information from both her interrogators and from us as readers, that she is playing some longer game, but she also appears to have episodes when she is unsure of herself, when she questions the reality of what she sees, when she makes very questionable decisions. And yet, Layla is entirely relatable and three-dimensional. There is a lot going on in ALL I SAID WAS TRUE and, like Layla, Mahmood gives us just enough information to keep us on tenter hooks while keeping the big reveals until later. It is a delicate balance but it really works. ALL I SAID WAS TRUE builds on the craft of the author’s previous novels, honing it to an even sharper edge; a thoroughly entertaining mystery.
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Imran Mahmood is a practising barrister with thirty years’ experience fighting cases in courtrooms across the country. His debut novel You Don’t Know Me was chosen by Simon Mayo as a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Choice for 2017 and longlisted for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year and for the CWA Gold Dagger, and was made into a hugely successful BBC1 adaptation in association with Netflix. His second novel I Know What I Saw was released in June 2021, was chosen as a Sunday Times crime novel of the month and reached no. 2 on the Audible charts. He has been commissioned to write three screenplays and is working on his next novel. When not in court or writing novels or screenplays he can sometimes be found on the Red Hot Chilli Writers’ podcast as one of the regular contributors. He hails from Liverpool but now lives in London with his wife and daughters. @imranmahmood777
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