Review: Lies She Told by Cate Holahan

Title:Lies She Told 

Author:Cate Holahan

Published:September 2017, Crooked Lane Books

Format:ARC E-copy, 288 pages

Source:Netgalley

From the author of the USA Today bestselling novel, The Widower’s Wife, comes an electrifying story of love and deceit.

The truth can be darker than fiction.

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.

My thoughts:This is the first book I’ve read by Cate Holahan, and let me tell you – it certainly won’t be the last! This book is twisted, crazy and kept me frantically flipping the pages. This is a great psychological thriller/mystery that really blurs the lines between truth and fiction – that whole concept of book within a book comes into play here and I loved it!!!

I have to admit – I went into this book thinking it was going to be one thing but it turned out to be way more complicated and involved. The story is very cleverly crafted – having it alternate between Liza, the writer who is desperately trying to get her next book written and Beth, the heroine in Liza’s story. It’s a little confusing at first to understand that you are reading what is supposed to be real life (Liza’s chapters) and then chapter’s in Liza’s book (Beth’s chapters), but once you get a little bit into the book, it moves back and forth quite seamlessly and I actually found myself enjoying both parts of this book.

But this is also where it gets very tricky – we see what is happening in Liza’s book start to mirror what is happening in her real life. Is she doing this on purpose or is she not realizing this? This is where things start to get a little confusing and where you start to get chills as you are reading. 

The
characters are so vivid and flawed that you can’t help but want more of
them – even those that are part of the book within the book! And while
the pace is slow at first, it ramps up in the second half of the book to
a crazy finish. I’m telling you, this is a book that you will not stop
thinking about once you start reading it and even long after you finish
it.

Every time I thought I had things figured out, the author throws a curve ball at us and the lines between truth and fiction – the real story of Liza’s world and her book –  were blurring. I’m telling you, this book really kept me on edge. While I did figure out parts of the mystery, it in no way detracted from my enjoyment of this book – I wanted to know how it all transpired, and boy was it good! This is actually one of those books that I think is worthy of a reread now that I know the ending – can I see from the start how it plays out? Either way, I definitely know one thing – I will absolutely be reading more of this author!