Liar, Liar...

Unreliable Narrators & Characters In Fiction…

Colour inside the lines, follow the leader, don’t take risks, keep your head down…said nobody ever!

I love to be lied to, led astray. My mind toyed with. At least where my reading is concerned. Not surprising considering my reading is comprised of a substantial proportion of fiction and among those are scads of crime novels, mysteries, and thrillers.

Do we as readers not long for deliciously flawed protagonists, flagrant lies, and potently malevolent villains? For stories that unfold in uncommon and innovative ways. For an author drop us unceremoniously in the middle of the plot, making us scramble to gain our footing.

In reading there is nothing like the shiver that skims across the back of your neck when you realize nothing is as it seemed, that what you believed was the truth was an elaborate illusion all along. When you recognize that you have immersed yourself in the lives of characters whose morality is ambiguous at best. That it’s not just the people on the page that have fallen victim to gaslighting, it’s you, the reader, too.

If you are prepared to be enthralled, confounded, and outsmarted, for something that will scratch the incessant itch you have for a narrative that deviates from the usual, follow me…

And remember this; sometimes, the best parts of a book are the parts that simply didn’t happen the way we’re told they did.

Oh, What A Tangle Web We Weave…

Too Old For This – Samantha Downing

Lottie thought her crimes were behind her. Decades earlier, she changed her identity and tucked herself away in a small town. Her most exciting nights are the weekly bingo games at the local church and gossiping with her friends. When investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past, specifically her involvement with numerous unsolved cases, well, Lottie just can’t have that. Her carefully constructed life is in danger of being upended. Life lesson…never underestimate the elderly. Walker or no walker. Smart, sinister and twisted!

Julie Chan Is Dead – Liann Zhang

Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated. When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body, she seizes the chance to live the life she’s always envied. Transforming into Chloe is easier than expected. Julie effortlessly adopts Chloe’s luxurious influencer life, complete with designer clothes, a meticulous skincare routine, and millions of adoring followers. However, Julie soon realizes that Chloe’s seemingly picture-perfect life was anything but. So. Many. Lies. Razor sharp writing!

Kill Your Darlings – Peter Swanson

Thom and Wendy have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a gorgeous house, Wendy is a published poet, and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband. What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives; their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, their son’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague. All painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago. An ingenious twist on a noir classic! But I’m not telling you which.

French Windows – Antoine Laurian

Five floors. One Murder. Let the therapy begin…Nathalia, a young photographer, has been seeing a therapist. Having accidently witnessed a murder from her apartment, she finds she has lost all inspiration. Doctor Faber suggests a creative exercise. Write about the neighbours she spends hours idly observing in the building across the street. That she put her eye to an alternative means of framing the lives being lived around her. Going floor to floor, they can be true or entirely made up. With each vivid and beautifully written snapshot, the doctor wonders at the level of detail infused in each story. Has she somehow imbued them with her own fears and desires? The authors genius at unravelling the story of not only Nathalia, but each of the residents of the floors is masterful. This book was not only a sheer delight to read, but one that will linger in this readers mind.

What A Way To Go – Bella Mackie

Anthony is wealthy beyond imagination. Stunning wife, gaggle of photogenic children, French chateau, Cotswold manor, plethora of mistresses, penchant for cutting moral corners. Unfortunately for him, he’s also dead. Suddenly poised to inherit his fortune, each member of the family falls under suspicion. And that’s when everything comes crashing down…The author has assembled a gloriously repugnant cast, truly dreadful and wonderfully wicked. Think Succession but with way more bloodshed.

The Plot – Jean Hanff Korelitz

Plot (noun); A sequence of events in a narrative, as in a novel. An immoral or illegal plan. A designated section of land, as in a gravesite. Trust me on this, you will revisit more than one of these definitions in this brilliantly written novel. You will find yourself ensnared in a tangle of literary treachery and hubris populated by vivid and compelling characters. Should reading be this fun? Hell yeah!

Famous – Blake Crouch

Meet Lance. Thirty-eight years old. Works a meaningless job. Still lives above his parents’ garage. By all accounts, a world-class loser. Save for one glaring exception: He has a million-dollar face. He is often mistaken for the Oscar-winning movie star James Jansen, and for the last ten years, he’s saved his money and studied Jansen’s films, his moves, his idiosyncrasies, even the way he speaks. Now, after an unceremonious termination from his job, Lance has decided that the time has come to go after his dream of truly becoming Jansen. What could possibly go wrong.

Blood Sugar – Sascha Rothchild

Many reviewers described the opening scene of this novel as disquieting, I thought it was genius. After her first kill, at the tender age of five, Ruby waited for guilt to set in. It never did. Not the first time or any of the times that would follow. Ruby isn’t a sociopath; she feels empathy and sympathy. She cries and laughs out loud and loves deeply. But she runs into trouble with an imbedded sense of justice with the belief that if she’s not going to exact it, who will? It’s not like she’s an out-of-control homicidal maniac. Yes, she’s unrepentant, but you may find yourself hard pressed to blame her.

Burn After Reading – Catherine Ryan Howard

A year ago, former professional cyclist Jack lost his wife in a fire at their home. But the nation's sympathy turned to anger when it emerged that she had died before the fire started, in a violent attack. Although Jack has never been charged in connection to her death, a suffocating cloud of suspicion hangs over him and he's become convinced that the only way out is to tell his side of the story. When Emily is offered the gig as his ghostwriter, she soon discovers that the story he must tell isn’t the one she expected. Something she may not get out of. Sounds like a Dateline episode!

Big Little Lies…

The Ghostwriter – Julie Clark

The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who k illed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets. Ghostwriter Olivia has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write. After fifty years of silence, he is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night. Exquisitely twisted!

Havoc – Christopher Bollen

Eighty-year-old widow Maggie has escaped her grief to travel the world, taking up short term residence at luxury hotels and sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong. She justifies her meddlesome behavior by telling herself she is just trying to ensure that others know the kind of love she had with her husband. Is she supposed to just stand by and refuse to intervene when she sees someone in pain? If she exaggerates a little, or plants some evidence of naughty deeds, where’s the harm in that? One morning, a new arrival catches her in an act of bad intent and a battle of wits ensues. Blackmail notes begin to arrive at her door, someone has clearly been in her room, snooping, searching, and has someone changed out her medication? Has Maggie met her match? Diabolical!

With A Vengeance – Riley Sager

Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train for an overnight journey. Her goal? Confront the people who’ve wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. Justice will at last be served. But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge, and that they won’t stop until everyone else is dead. A clever mashup of two of the greats; Murder on the Orient Express & And Then There Were None.

The Confession – Charolette Bigland

Elizabeth is not making good choices. Someone knows that she is killing people. And for reasons she can’t begin to fathom, other people are confessing to her crimes. All of them. Every time. She knows that she will eventually have to face the consequences of her actions. Punishment may have been delayed by these inexplicable admissions of guilt, but it’s coming for her. Shocking and disquieting twists and turns follow the reader through this standout thriller, but none more so than the last one. Diabolical. I loved it! I dare you to pull your eyes from the page from this addictive page turner.

Yellowface – R.F. Kuang

Juniper Song is an unabashed liar. Deluded and narcissistic, she even manages to fool herself. She is also a fledging writer, ravenous with ambition. When her bestselling author friend Athena chokes to death one night when they are hanging at her fancy schmancy apartment, Juniper steals her just-finished masterpiece. A masterpiece she hasn’t whispered a thing about to anyone. June claims it as her own, sloughing off her culpability, I mean she had to do a lot of editing so now it’s really hers, right? And publishing already picked Athena has their darling, lavishing her with praise and money. Now it’s her turn, right? Who said she wasn’t a good storyteller.

Follow Me – Elizabeth Rose Quinn

After her twin sister goes missing at a mom-fluencer weekend, Adrienne is determined to find her no matter what it takes. It’s been a year, the authorities have no answers, and her brother-in-law is useless in the matter. Following in her sisters’ footsteps, Adrienne goes undercover, infiltrating the same influencer retreat. The remote ranch in Northern California is certainly welcoming, in a cult-adjacent kind of way. A charismatic leader, communal crafts, fixed smiles, and a lot of dead eyes. Going on gut instinct and chasing a wild theory, that her sister never left, Adrienne is determined to uncover the truth before the too-perfect-to-believe women figure out who Adrienne really is: a threat to be eliminated. Heathers meets The Stepford Wives in this creepy tale!

We Are All Guilty Here – Karin Slaughter

North Falls is your typical small town, a place where everyone knows everyone. Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites. For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help, and now she must bring her home. But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did. Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?

Serial Killer’s Guide To Marriage – Asia Mackay

Hazel and Fox are an ordinary married couple with a baby. Except for one small thing: they're murderers. Well, they used to be. They had it all. Then Hazel got pregnant. Now, they’re just another mom-and-dad-and-baby. They gave up vigilante justice for life in the suburbs: arranged play dates instead of body disposals, diapers over daggers. Hazel finds her new life terribly dull. And the more she forces herself to play her monotonous, predictable role, the more she begins to feel that murderous itch again. When one kills someone without telling the other, everything starts to unravel.

The Other People – C.B. Everett

Forget what you think you know. Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who, or what, lurks in the cellar? Twisty and brilliant!

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Trust No One…

Next To Heaven – James Frey

New Bethlehem, Connecticut. Picture-perfect lawns, manicured hedges, multi-million-dollar homes. But beneath the designer atheistic and country club memberships lies a darker reality. In this world of excess, Devon and Belle have it all, beauty, money, status. But they want something more. Something dangerous. Something that makes them feel alive. Their solution? A party. A meticulously curated gathering of elite neighbors, from a desperate ex-NFL quarterback to a hockey coach with a penchant for married women, and a ruthless Wall Street “closer” who wields his wealth like a weapon. One night that will shatter the carefully constructed façade. One night that will ruin everything. And everyone. Gleefully trashy!

Exiles – Mason Coile

The human crew sent to prepare the first-ever colony on Mars arrives to find their brand-new base in disarray. The machines have formed alliances, chosen their own names, and picked up some truly disturbing beliefs. Each must be interrogated. Their stories analyzed. But one of them is missing. In this barren, hostile landscape, even machines have nightmares, and the line between human and artificial intelligence blurs. The astronauts will need to examine their own stories and wrestle their own demons before it’s too late. Brilliantly taut and utterly terrifying!

Joy Moody Is Out Of Time – Kerryn Mayne

Strange things are happening behind the bright pink facade of Bayside’s premier laundromat, Joyful Suds, home to Joy Moody and her twin daughters. For much of their lives, Joy has been lying to Cassie and Andie. What started as a colorful tale to explain how the twins came to live with her grew over the years and was always something she meant to set straight. Joy really did think she had more time. The girls have long believed they are vital to the future and must stay hidden to stay safe. Joy has told them that their impending twenty-first birthday is significant; they will step into their roles as leaders of a revolution and life as they know it will change. Joy was right, everything will change, just not in the way they expected. Quirky and irresistible!

My Murder – Katie Williams

What if the murder you had to solve was your own? Lou is a happily married mother of a baby girl. She is also the victim of a serial killer. Recently resurrected by a secret cloning project, she is struggling to reconnect with those that once loved her. Therapists tell her she both is and isn’t the woman she believed herself to be. That woman had died. And she had been grown from a sampling of her cells. She merely a copy. But what if she feels like her? The other one? The one from before? After all, all she knows are the stories people tell her about herself. As she struggles to adjust to her new/old life, she joins a group of other cloned victims of a serial killer. The same serial killer in fact.

Vantage Point – Sara Siglar

Clara can’t remember when she learned about the family curse. There was no big reveal, nobody came out and said, Clara everyone thinks your family is irrevocably doomed. Clara and her brother Teddy grew up on a small island in Maine in the shadow of their parents’ tragic deaths. Years later, with Teddy married to Clara’s best friend, Jess, and both believing they have put their turbulent past to rest, things start to fall apart in spectacular fashion. An intimate video of Clara has leaked online, and the most frightening part, she can’t recall any of it. And that’s just the beginning. As things start to pile on for all of them, the reader will be pulled alongside as they frantically try to navigate a path they could never have seen coming. And no one is to be trusted!

The Editors – Stephen Harrison

Aim for Neutrality. We Need Better Sources. Anonymity is Fundamental. Keep Developing. The editors know these principles. They follow them every day, usually. The editors may not be recognized on the street, but they craft the information that is seen on nearly every internet search. Through Infopendium, a global, crowd-sourced internet encyclopedia, the editors influence the world. If you’ve googled, scrolled, or browsed online you will be…unnerved. At least.

Jenny Cooper Has A Secret – Joy Fielding

Reeling from her husband’s death and best friend’s dementia diagnosis, seventy-six-year-old Linda is feeling lost and alone. Her beloved daughter Kleo and son-in-law Mick move into her house to keep her company, but the constant bickering quickly turns their presence into just another thing on Linda’s long list of worries. Eager to escape the tension at home, Linda goes to visit her friend at Legacy Place, a Memory Care facility for the elderly, where she meets Jenny Cooper, a ninety-two-year-old dementia patient who makes a shocking confession: she kills people. Linda initially dismisses the so-called secret as the confusion of an ailing mind, but soon she can’t deny that Jenny seems strangely lucid.

The Killing Circle – Andrew Pyper

When Patrick, a journalist, single father and failed novelist, decides to join a creative writing circle, it seems a perfect spark for the imagination. Then a murderer begins striking at random, leaving his victims’ bodies mutilated and dismembered, and taunting the police with cryptic notes. Influenced by the atmosphere of menace and fear, the group begins to read each other their own dark, unsettling tales. One, Angela, tells a mesmerizing story about a child-stealer called the Sandman. Patrick, though, finds fantasy and reality becoming blurred. Is the maniac at large in fact the Sandman? What does Angela really know? And is he himself being stalked by the killer? Whatever the answer, I’m not telling.

The Tenant – Freida McFadden

Blake is riding high, until he's not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancée, he's desperate to make ends meet. Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She's exactly what Blake's looking for. Or is she? Because something isn't quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets...