Blog Tour & Review: This Is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf

Title: This Is How I Lied

Author: Heather Gudenkauf

Published: May 2020, Park Row Books

Format: ARC E-copy,

Source: Netgalley via Publisher

Summary: 

Gudenkauf proves
herself the master of the smart, suspenseful small-town thriller that
gets right under your skin.” —Gilly Macmillan,
New York Times
bestselling author of
The Nanny

Everyone has a secret they’ll do anything to hide…

Twenty-five
years ago, the body of sixteen-year-old Eve Knox was found in the caves
near her home in small-town Grotto, Iowa—discovered by her best friend,
Maggie, and her sister, Nola. There were a handful of suspects,
including her boyfriend, Nick, but without sufficient evidence the case
ultimately went cold.

For decades Maggie was haunted by Eve’s
death and that horrible night. Now a detective in Grotto, and seven
months pregnant, she is thrust back into the past when a new piece of
evidence surfaces and the case is reopened. As Maggie investigates and
reexamines the clues, secrets about what really happened begin to
emerge. But someone in town knows more than they’re letting on, and
they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried deep.

My thoughts: I’ve read a few books by Heather Gudenkauf and I know when I pick up a book by her, I am in for a thrilling ride and that was exactly what I got here. This latest book clearly proves she is a master at her craft.

This book opens with such a haunting scene that it hooks you right away and it never really lets up. The intensity of this book, the characters that all have their own secrets, and as we come to find out, lies about what really happened the night Eve Knox was killed, will chill you to the bone. This book is such a layered, multi-dimensional psychological thriller that you will not be able to put it down once you start reading it. It’s the type of book that totally gets under your skin and I love books like that. Every time you think you have it figured out, something new comes to light to change what you are thinking.

I loved the way it was told, alternating between the present and the past, so that slowly you get a full picture of what ultimately happened. You begin to understand who these characters are and just what they have been carrying with them since that fateful day.

I could not flip the pages fast enough, and all the while the tension was building to bring us to what can only be described as a brilliant ending. I cannot recommend this book enough – it is the perfect book to binge-read. Heather Gudenkauf is definitely on my must-read list and while I now wait for her next book to come out, I will reading the few books on her backlist that I somehow missed.