Title: Lies She ToldAuthor: Cate Holahan
First Published: September 12, 2017
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Pages: 288
Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Thriller
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating:
Synopsis:
Liza Cole, a once-successful novelist whose career has seen better days, has one month to write the thriller that could land her back on the bestseller list. Meanwhile, she’s struggling to start a family, but her husband is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. As stresses weigh her down in her professional and personal lives, Liza escapes into writing the chilling exploits of her latest heroine, Beth.
Beth, a new mother, suspects her husband is cheating on her while she’s home caring for their newborn. Angry and betrayed, she aims to catch him in the act and make him pay for shattering the illusion of their perfect life. But before she realizes what she’s doing, she’s tossing the body of her husband’s mistress into the East River.
Then, the lines between Liza’s fiction and her reality eerily blur. Nick’s body is dragged from the East River, and Liza’s husband is arrested for his murder. Before her deadline is up, Liza will have to face up to the truths about the people around her, including her own. If she doesn’t, the end of her heroine’s story could be the end of her own.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
Lies She Told was a decent debut a fun read despite being a bit predictable. I liked the dual narratives switching back and forth between Liza’s real world and Beth’s fictional one, becoming muddled as the mirrored stories start to intersect. I really enjoyed this layered story within a story narrative, it kept me on my toes flying through the pages to find out what happened next. I could sympathize with both protagonists and found myself rooting for them, even when they were doing things that were questionable.
I wanted to really love Lies She Told, it had an intriguing premise and characters that I became invested in. The synopsis just gave away way too much about an already predictable plot and that took away from my enjoyment. I strongly recommend going in as blind as possible.
Quote
“I don’t protest. He’s right. Blurring fact and fantasy is my trade. I am a con artist. A prevaricator. I make up stories. So why does he think this one is real?”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Cate Holahan
Cate Holahan is a screenwriter and USA Today bestselling suspense novelist. Her work has been optioned for film and television, and she has a streaming movie in production. She is a member of The Author’s Guild, Sisters-in-Crime, and Crime Writers of Color. She graduated from Princeton University and is pursuing an MFA in screenwriting from NYU’s Tisch.
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