First Lie Wins
The addictive Sunday Times Thriller of the Month with a devious twist you won't see coming
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4.1 • 287 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
🔥 You meet a stranger at a party. She looks like you. Even has your name... 🔥
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The No. 1 New York Times bestseller, Sunday Times Thriller of the Month, and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Soon to be a major TV series.
'Riveting!' LUCY FOLEY
'This has everything you could want in a thriller' REESE WITHERSPOON
'Twisty and exhilarating' SUNDAY TIMES
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Everything she is about to tell them is a lie...
Evie Porter has everything a girl could want: a doting boyfriend and a house with a picket fence. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn't exist.
First comes the identity. Once given a name and location, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark. Ryan Sumner.
The last piece of the puzzle is the job. But this job feels different. Ryan has gotten under her skin. And when a woman walks into town using the one thing Evie has been desperate to protect - Evie's real identity - she can't afford to make a mistake. As Evie's past begins to catch up with her, can she stay one step ahead to save her future?
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Real readers are GRIPPED by this pacey cat-and-mouse thriller:
'Boldly dynamic, terrifically suspenseful' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Heartpounding - Definitely one of the best books this year' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Twisty and engaging' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Suspense fans rejoice - this is phenomenal' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Not your ordinary mystery' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'An addictive, wild ride' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Perfect for a book club' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
At the centre of First Lie Wins is its narrator, a woman who is not who she seems—and definitely not who she has claimed to be to her boyfriend and his friends. Does that mean the reader shouldn’t trust her either? Even while we wondered just that, we found ourselves rooting for her all the same. Quickly, the urgent, page-turning question becomes whether she will make it out of their small Louisiana town with her relationship, her freedom and her life intact. As the shady job that brought “Evie Porter” there becomes an existential threat, this fraught thriller offers up an impressive succession of twists and handbrake turns.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The anonymous narrator of Elston's ingeniously plotted adult debut (after the YA novel 10 Truths and a Dare) has long relied on charm and physical strength to complete a string of lucrative, increasingly dangerous missions from her mysterious boss. For her latest assignment, as in the past, she's been given a fresh identity ("Evie"), a destination, and the name of her mark, about whom she's supposed to learn everything and await further instructions. But the closer Evie gets to hunky Louisiana financial adviser Ryan Sumner—before long, she's his full-time girlfriend—the more unusual this job seems. Things get especially bizarre when one of Ryan's oldest friends shows up with a date who looks nearly identical to Evie and introduces herself by Evie's actual name. Might Evie's boss be setting her up? Is Ryan in on it? With the clock ticking, Evie and her MIT dropout/computer whiz sidekick, Devon, scramble to unravel what's really going on. Though a few plot elements, particularly those concerning Devon's hacking feats, strain credibility, Elston whips up plenty of suspense and delivers a satisfyingly serpentine finale. This promises more good things from Elston to come.
Customer Reviews
Thoroughly enjoyed
Great twists and turns
Fantastic
Great twists that keep you intrigued, loved this book
Love the way you lie
3.5 stars
The author is American wedding photographer turned novelist with several successful YA titles to her credit. This is her first adult novel.
Essentially, it’s an expanded version of the 2015 movie ‘Focus,’ starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie. The protagonist is a late 20s/early 30s female con artist/thief named Evie (short for Evelyn) Porter when we meet her. Orphaned when still in her teens after her parents died in a car accident, she left her hometown in rural Alabama and “wandered around” for a while before hooking up with a 30-something Ryan, a financial planner in a small town in western Louisiana not far from the Texas border. Everyone knows everyone else, and Evie must win over several of Ryan’s old friends (female, although not with benefits as far as we know) from high school and college if she’s to maintain the persona she has created.
Evie’s real name is Lucca Marino and she’s from North Carolina, not Alabama. She got into scams while at high school to help support her single parent Mom, who is dying of cancer, and with whom she shares a single wide trailer. When the cops catch her with a credit card scammer, a shady detective recruits her to work for a much bigger time scammer. Yada, yada, she does well, but her mysterious boss, who calls himself as Mr Smith, and whom she has never met just spoken to on the phone (he uses a voice concealer), is the suspicious type, frequently testing her loyalty. Our gal has passed all his tests so far, but when a chick who looks a lot like her turns up in town using the name Lucca Marino, she gets spooked.
Twists and turns aplenty follow as Evie and the boss try to outwit each other, which in her case includes working out who he is. The third person narrative alternates between the present day and her past capers by to fill in backstory. The author’s YA roots show through at times, but the prose is easy to read, the pacing good. If they make a movie, I’m thinking Jodie Comer or Aubrey Plaza for the lead, rather than Margot.