Day: July 22, 2022

In the new psych thriller from L. G. Davis you’ll find yourself wondering who is telling the truth while pretty much calling everyone Liar, Liar.

From the very beginning, I was positive that I knew what was going on in the neighborhood.

I was not correct.

But the truth of the characters is better than what I was imagining.

Side note: I know Lumberton well, as we used to stop there when were driving back and forth between NY and FL. But that is just a neat little realization of mine.

The story belongs to Tess. I like how the story is all hers, because it gives the reader the opportunity to get into her head and see things more clearly. While jumping between multiple perspectives can make a book interesting, it sometimes gets confusing.

In Liar, Liar, we get everything from her, both in the past and the present. Well, except for a few small instances.

It is apparent from early on that Tess has a dark secret and that Oliver helps her hide it from their neighbors.

Is Tess lying? Is Oliver? And what is up with the bookclub with members who don’t want to talk about books?  

It is brilliant plotting, because it makes every character a suspect. But a suspect of what?

Slowly, in flashbacks, we learn how Tess and Oliver came to be where they are. We also learn that neither of them is completely innocent in the events of both the past and the present.

I don’t want to give anything away, but I suppose it could be boiled down to “men are liars, women are liars, both manipulate each other, kids end up in the middle.”

I will say that the ending is a bit gonzo, and I am not exactly sure I buy it all. But it is unique, so I’ll give the author that.

And – just an aside – I wish that authors who set their stories in America would take the time to research American terms for items. A person living in North Carolina would have a hoodie, not a hooded jumper.

But that is just a personal pet peeve.

Liar, Liar is a solid psych thriller that I can certainly recommend. I look forward to reading more books from her!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Liz’s story began in a refugee camp in Angola, where she spent the first eight years of her life. After that, she spent some years in Namibia (her home country), South Africa, and Germany. She now lives in Vienna, Austria, with her husband and two children. Liz wrote her first full-length novel at eighteen and hid it in a box under her bed. Several others soon followed it. Her passion lies in writing edge-of-the-seat psychological thrillers that give readers the same rush they would get on a rollercoaster.