Title: The Better Liar
Author: Tanen Jones
Publisher: Vintage

[Synopsis]

When 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.

“Like most of the dead, I want to be remembered.”

Robin Voigt is dead. If Leslie had arrived at her sister’s cramped Las Vegas apartment just hours earlier, this would have been their first reunion in a decade. In the years since Robin ran away from home as a teenager, Leslie has stayed in New Mexico, taking care of their dying father even as she began building a family of her own. But when their father passed away, Leslie received a rude awakening: She and Robin would receive the inheritance he left them together—or not at all. Now her half of the money may be beyond her grasp. And unbeknownst to anyone, even her husband, Leslie needs it desperately.

When she meets a charismatic young woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Robin—and has every reason to leave her past behind—the two make a reckless bargain: Mary will impersonate Robin for a week in exchange for Robin’s half of the cash. But 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, babysitting her newborn son, and charming her husband has secrets of her own, Robin’s wild, troubled legacy threatens to eclipse them both.

An electric, twisted portrait of sisterhood and the ties that bind, The Better Liar is a stunning debut with a heart-stopping, twist-after-twist finale that will beg the question: How far would you go to get what’s yours?

[My Review]

The Better Liar is a twisty psychological read which is told through multiple narratives, all by narrators who don’t seem to be completely honest…

At the start of the book we see Leslie going to visit her sister Robin, who she hasn’t seen in years, and finding her dead in her room. After fleeing the scene in shock, she meets a lady called Mary who looks like Robin, and asks her to pretend to be Robin in order to claim the inheritance their dead father has left to them, which can only be accessed by Leslie if both sisters are there in person.

The book is split into three perspectives, which do jump around in terms of timeframe, moving from the present day back to long before Leslie discovered Robin’s body. Therefore we read Leslie’s perspective, that of her ‘fake’ sister Mary, and some chapters from Robin’s point of view, so we can better understand the events leading up to her death. I loved this switching of views; it offered a bit more mystery and confusion as you’re never sure who is the most ‘reliable’ of the narrators (as hinted at by the title of this novel). Also, I found I didn’t hugely connect with Leslie or Robin, but Mary felt a lot more engaging as a character, so it was nice to see different perspectives, not just Leslie’s.

There’s some dark parts to this story, and lots of secrets. I really enjoyed reading The Better Liar – it’s clever, twisted and, most of all, an entertaining read.

[Rating: 4/5]

Many thanks to the publisher, Vintage Publishing, for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.

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