Book Review: Lies She Told

LIES SHE TOLD | Cate Holahan
09.12.2017 | Crooked Lane Books
Rating: 4/5 stars

Liza Jones has graced the bestsellers list for a novel about an abused teen, but since Drowned Secrets took the book world by storm she can’t seem to find her groove. Coming off of a failed book, Liza now has thirty days to produce a manuscript for a thriller that will get her back to bestseller status. Liza’s personal life is threatening to derail her plans for success as she struggles with infertility by using hormones that seem to be affecting her personality. Her husband is far too distracted with the disappearance of his law partner and best friend, Nick, to see the spiral his wife’s life is taking.

The faithful often find themselves blindsided. They don’t suspect anything because they can’t imagine doing something so awful themselves.

In order to escape the troubles of reality, Liza buries herself deep in her manuscript, which centers around Beth, a new mother who suspects her husband of cheating on her. Beth feels betrayed and furious at her husband for going behind her back with another woman while she stays at home taking care of their newborn. Desperate to uncover the truth, Beth resorts to stalking her husband in order to confront him about his affair. Before she knows it, she’s shoving the body of her husband’s lover into the river and burying the murder weapon. Back in Liza’s reality, the body of Nick has just been dragged from the river and the case is stacking up to be eerily similar to the story she’s writing. Can Liza determine the lines between fiction and reality in order to reveal the truth about what happened to Nick? Will she survive the secrets she uncovers along the way?

The past is always hiding behind the present, threatening to peek out and drag everything down.

Cate Holahan creates a binge-worthy piece of crime fiction with LIES SHE TOLD. The reader is instantly submersed in a novel written as a book within a book, as Holahan alternates chapters between Liza’s narration and chapters in Liza’s manuscript. Quickly it becomes clear that there are many similarities between the two tales and at times it can be hard to distinguish fact from fiction. While I was able to figure out the plot to this novel early on, this knowledge didn’t stop me from sitting at the edge of my seat and flying through page after page to get to end. For me this book wasn’t so much about the answer to what happened to Nick, but getting to understand Liza’s life through both her work of fiction and the reality she narrates. Sometimes it’s not about the whodunit, but the why and this novel is a perfect example of that. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone looking for a lighter, fast-paced, suspense filled take on crime fiction.

Another fabulous pick for the #nerdybynaturebookclub!