Editorial Content for The Better Liar
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Reviewer (text)
How do we repress and distort our childhood memories? In THE BETTER LIAR, Tanen Jones explores how adult siblings remember their earlier times together. She also ventures into spooky territory, as the story is told using three different first-person narratives.
One is Leslie, the older sister. The other two are Robin, the younger sister Leslie found dead in Las Vegas just after their father left them a joint inheritance --- either both are there together to accept it, or neither gets it --- and Mary, who Leslie meets by chance and who agrees to impersonate Robin so they can get the money.
"[E]ven when Jones reveals part of the truth, there are still more twists to be unraveled."
But as with all good mysteries, we get the sense from the start that all is not as it appears to be. Once Leslie and Mary travel to Leslie's house, frustration kicks in when they don’t immediately get the inheritance. They can't see the lawyer for a week. Mary then begins to realize that Leslie is hiding something, and she wants to know what it is. Why does Leslie need the inheritance so badly? From outward appearances, she has everything: a husband, a lovely home, a baby, a job. Then why did she lie about losing her job? Why does Leslie's husband hide secrets from her?
Mary is a puzzle, too, and Leslie doesn't trust her. She disappears all day, although she has no car, no friends and nowhere to go. What is Mary doing?
Then we hear from Robin, whose body Leslie found at the beginning of the book, drug-ravaged and skeletal. Robin tells us about their past, and it's quite revealing. The story raises some powerful questions. How far will someone, especially a child, go to please and win approval from an older sibling?
As secrets build on secrets --- some of which are pretty horrifying --- readers will begin to suspect what is really going on here. But even when Jones reveals part of the truth, there are still more twists to be unraveled.
Teaser
Robin Voigt is dead. If Leslie had arrived at her sister’s 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. But when he 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. When she meets a charismatic young woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Robin, 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.
Promo
Robin Voigt is dead. If Leslie had arrived at her sister’s 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. But when he 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. When she meets a charismatic young woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Robin, 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.
About the Book
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?
Audiobook available; read by Lisa Flanagan, Karissa Vacker and Kristen Sieh
