“Jones’s sensational debut has the bones of a thriller but reads like literary fiction: lean, shrewd, and gratifyingly real.”—Entertainment WeeklyWhen a woman conceals her sister’s death to claim their joint inheritance, her deception exposes a web of dangerous secrets in this addictive new thriller for fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins. An ID Book Club SelectionLeslie Flores … Hawkins.
An ID Book Club Selection
Leslie Flores has the perfect life—a loving husband, a happy newborn, and a New Mexico home straight out of a magazine. She’s been the perfect daughter, too, taking care of her ailing father in his final days. But Leslie has a dark secret—and it’s an expensive secret to keep. When she discovers she won’t receive a penny of her inheritance unless she finds her estranged sister, Robin, she sets out to track her down. Instead, upon arriving at Robin’s apartment, Leslie discovers her body.
Just as Leslie begins to panic, she meets a charismatic aspiring actress named Mary who bears a striking resemblance to Robin—and has every reason to leave her past behind. The two women make a bargain: Mary will impersonate Robin for a week in exchange for Robin’s half of the cash. Neither realizes how high the stakes will become when Mary takes a dead woman’s name.
Even as Mary begins to suspect Leslie is hiding something, and Leslie realizes the stranger living in her house has secrets of her own, Robin’s wild, troubled legacy threatens to eclipse them both. Fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins will relish this darkly addictive portrait of the ties that bind and the secrets we all keep from one another.
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I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars
“What if Gone Girl had three Amys?” That’s the caption that immediately caught my attention. I love unreliable narrators and the idea of multiple liars was intriguing. Throw in troubled family relationships and I was all in.
Unfortunately, I didn’t love this book as much as I wanted to. The ending was rather disappointing. It felt so anticlimactic and unsatisfying.
Mary was a captivating character. She was like a chameleon and it appealed to me. I felt like we always saw another side we hadn’t seen yet. Leslie felt like a caricature of a person. I wanted a deeper dive into her personality and how she ticks. More about how her childhood affected her would’ve been a nice touch. But I think that would have altered the genre a bit too much in one direction. It’s like this story was trying to straddle two styles and I think it fell a little short.
That said, it was still an interesting read!
Wow, this one was even better than I expected! I was drawn in by the description of Leslie getting to receive her inheritance only if she had her long-gone sister, Robin, there with her to claim her own share. Leslie finding Robin dead puts quite the damper in the plans. I thought it made perfect sense when Leslie meets Mary, an intriguing young woman about Robin’s age who is in just the right spot in her life to be able to travel back with Leslie and pretend to be Robin. She looks so much like her and no one has seen Robin in years, so what can go wrong? I mean, it’s not Leslie’s fault that Robin died, right? And sure, she can contest the will, deal with all the red tape, etc. but Leslie needs her money NOW. Why is that? Well, Mary-as-Robin is just the right person to figure that out. She’s welcomed in to the family and no one appears to be any the wiser. She takes advantage of the time until the inheritance is paid by learning everything she can about Robin, including meeting up with Robin’s old friends. Surely nothing can go wrong with that…
This is a true page-turner, and you will be dying with anticipation to find out if the girls get away with their plan. It’s hard to say anything more because there are definite twists in this tale! I can say that I’m so glad I chose to read this and I now have a new author to follow. And this is a debut! I can’t imagine what more is in store for readers in the future.
Tanen Jones’ psychological suspense THE BETTER LIAR is a knockout, a stunner of a debut that left me in awe of this new writer’s talent. Smart, fresh, twisty, and compelling, with utterly believable characters, gorgeous prose, and a storyline that kept me guessing until the final pages. You know a book is good when you wish you’d written it!
Tanen Jones’ debut novel The Better Liar introduces an intriguing premise: Can we ever really reinvent ourselves, or are we inevitably constrained by our inherited traits and upbringing? The book begins as Leslie Voigt concludes her search for her runaway sister when she finds the woman dead in an apartment in Los Vegas. Robin had snuck out over ten years prior, and her death by apparent drug overdose-while unsurprising to her older sister-is particularly inconvenient at that moment. Their mother died when they were children, and their father has also just passed away recently. His will specifies that both daughters must be physically present during its reading for either of them to collect their inheritance. The reader remains in the dark about why Leslie is so impatient about getting her share, but she is obviously desperate to get her hands on the money. When she encounters a young woman resembling Robin at a restaurant near her sister’s apartment, she sees a potential solution. Leslie tries to persuade the stranger to accompany her to Albuquerque so she can impersonate her sibling at the lawyer’s office. Mary is an actress and just happens to also be looking for some easy cash, so she agrees to collude with the fraud for an equal share. Leslie soon discovers, however, that she may have aligned herself with a dangerous and unstable person who has her own nefarious agenda in mind. Filled with outrageous coincidences and implausible events, The Better Liar stretches a reader’s credulity to the limit. The book is certainly exciting and has some interesting plot twists but suffers from uneven writing and some confusing diversions that occur throughout. Jones also ambitiously takes on the delicate subject of Postpartum Depression, despite admitting in the afterword that she has no direct experience with it. While experience is not always necessary for an author to appropriately address an issue, the portrayal here rings false and might even be potentially offensive by those who have suffered from this devastating illness. So, while the underlying ideas and objectives of The Better Liar are admirable, their execution unfortunately fall far short in this initial effort.
Thanks to the author, Ballantine Books/Random House and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
I love debut novels because it means that I might have found a new author that I love! The Better Liar is an example of an excellent debut novel. So, hooray for me, I found a new author that I love. I hope that you will enjoy the writing of Ms. Jones too. The Better Liar is cleverly written and more than delivers that difficult to achieve suspense, thriller, and mystery aspects. The character development is well thought out and perfectly developed. Ms. Jones gives us just enough to keep the pages turning without giving away too much. So be prepared to be confused, shocked, and even a bit heartbroken.
Things we know to be true:
Leslie and Robin are sisters.
Leslie has been estranged from her sister for ten years.
Robin is dead.
Leslie has a loving husband and a beautiful one-year-old son, but she has secrets, and theses secrets run deep.
Their father has recently died, leaving the sisters an inheritance.
There is just one catch; both women must be present to claim the inheritance.
The Better Liar is told from the three distinctly different perspectives of Leslie, her dead sister Robin and Mary. Leslie is the good daughter; she has stayed in Albuquerque to care for her sick father. When he dies, Leslie travels from Albuquerque to Las Vegas to find her sister. Leslie does find her sister; unfortunately, she finds Robin shortly after she has overdosed. While in Vegas, Leslie meets Mary, who is a down on her luck wannabe actress. Leslie convinces Mary to pose as her sister, help her collect her part of the inheritance, and in return, Leslie will give Mary Robin’s share of the money. So, Mary becomes Robin. Leslie and Mary, who at the very least develop a weird, complicated relationship. What could go wrong? This is where the book gets fascinating and bizarre at the same time. The Better Liar will tie your mind up in knots until you don’t have a clue what is going on. You will have a difficult time telling who is telling the truth and who is lying. But isn’t that part of the fun?
The Better Liar did grab me from the beginning; however, it is a slow burn where Ms. Jones slowly and methodically delivers tidbits of the story until you are ready to explode, trying to figure out what is going on. It would be amiss of me, as a reviewer, to tell you, the potential reader, anymore of the plot. So, I will have to say read the book; you won’t be disappointed. I will tell you there are secrets, betrayal, twists, and turns, none of which I saw coming.
Amid all the deceit, deception, and mystery in The Better Liar, Ms. Jones delivers a powerful message about one of the essential relationships women have in their lives, specifically the unique relationship between a mother and her child. I highly recommend you read the author’s note at the end of the book, and I think you will get the same feeling that I did; this author wrote this book from deep within her heart and soul.
*** I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley/publisher/author. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. ***
The story is told from three different points of view, Leslie, Mary and Robin. Leslie and Robin are sisters and their father died leaving them $100,000 to split, but they must show up together to claim their inheritance. Leslie has not seen Robin for 10 years and goes to Las Vegas to find her. When she does find her, she has just died from an overdose. As Leslie contemplates how to get her half of the inheritance, she meets a young woman, Mary, and hatches the plan to have her pose as her sister long enough to claim her inheritance. I really liked this book from the beginning but by the time I got to near the halfway mark, it had become convoluted and confusing and I struggled to get through it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will give it 3-1/2 stars.