Two For The Price of One!
4 out of 5 stars
Lies She Told begins with the protagonist, Liza Cole, a suspense writer who is struggling to complete a thriller before her publisher’s quickly approaching deadline while her husband’s best friend and law partner, Nick, is missing. As if that might not be traumatic and distracting enough, Liza, whose marriage seems increasingly strained, is also working with a fertility specialist in hopes of conceiving with her husband.
Alternating chapters tell the tale Liza is crafting for her own protagonist, Beth, in what seems like real time–as she writes, we read. Beth, a new mother, discovers her husband has been unfaithful and does the unthinkable when she confronts his mistress. Both women question whether their decision making has been influenced by hormonal shifts and both women wonder about their husband’s fidelity.
In short, this story is a thriller about a thriller writer and her thriller. A bit confused there? You might find yourself similarly perplexed while listening if you decide to give this one a go, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This book initially felt like I was getting two stories for the price of one, which I found especially exciting seeing as I purchased it on sale.
As I continued to listen, the two stories became more intricately intertwined and, despite the dual narrations for the two female leads, the boundaries between the stories blurred and I found myself confusing what had happened to Liza and what was happening to Beth. While some readers might find this frustrating and consider this aspect of the piece a negative, I think Holahan deliberately created this confusion to highlight just confounded Liza had become. The effect was impressive and heightened my emotional reaction to the characters, increasing my sympathy, particularly for Liza as she struggles to understand what happened to Nick and who might be responsible.
I’ve given Lies She Told 4 out of 5 stars because it felt a bit cliche and predictable at times but was overall enjoyable. There were enough twists to hold my interest and the use of two narrators, one for Liza and one for Beth, enhanced the dichotomy between the two and helped to reinforce the idea that this story really was “two for the price of one.”
Book Description:
Lies She Told by Cate Holahan
Narrator: Amy McFadden, Lisa Larsen
Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
Published by Blackstone Audio on September 12th 2017
Pages: 288
Format: Audiobook
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Sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.
Liza Cole has 30 days to write the thriller that could put her back on the best-seller list. In the meantime, she's struggling to start a family with her husband, who is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. With stresses weighing her down in both her professional and her personal lives, Liza escapes into writing her latest heroine, Beth.
Beth is a new mother who suspects her husband is cheating on her while she's home alone caring for their newborn. Angry and betrayed, she sets out to catch him in the act and to make him pay for shattering the illusion of their perfect life. But before she realizes it, she's tossing the body of her husband's mistress into the East River.
Then the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. Nick's body is dragged from the same 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 herself. If she doesn't, the end of her heroine's story could be the end of her own.
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