The Better Liar
A Novel
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
“Jones’s sensational debut has the bones of a thriller but reads like literary fiction: lean, shrewd, and gratifyingly real.”—Entertainment Weekly
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.
An ID Book Club Selection
Leslie Flores has the perfect life—a loving husband, a happy newborn, and a New Mexico home straight out of a magazine. She’s been the perfect daughter, too, taking care of her ailing father in his final days. But Leslie has a dark secret—and it’s an expensive secret to keep. When she discovers she won’t receive a penny of her inheritance unless she finds her estranged sister, Robin, she sets out to track her down. Instead, upon arriving at Robin’s apartment, Leslie discovers her body.
Just as Leslie begins to panic, she meets a charismatic aspiring actress named Mary who bears a striking resemblance to Robin—and has every reason to leave her past behind. The two women make a bargain: Mary will impersonate Robin for a week in exchange for Robin’s half of the cash. 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 has secrets of her own, Robin’s wild, troubled legacy threatens to eclipse them both. Fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins will relish this darkly addictive portrait of the ties that bind and the secrets we all keep from one another.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jones debuts with a taut, twisty thriller. For the past two months, Leslie Voigt Flores, an accountant, wife, and mother in Albuquerque, N.Mex., has been desperately trying to track down her little sister, Robin Voigt the black sheep who left home 10 years earlier at 16 so that Leslie can collect $50,000 from their father's estate. Under the terms of the will, no funds can be dispersed without both siblings being present, a condition designed to force the two to reconcile. After hitting an apparent dead end in Nevada, Leslie runs into a vivacious young woman with an eerie resemblance to Robin, a server/actor wannabe who introduces herself as Mary. The pair return to New Mexico to play out a two-handed con, with Mary pretending to be Robin. The author sneakily builds suspense via a trio of narrators Leslie, Mary, and Robin none of them reliable. Though the novel falters at the finale when its big reveal comes across as less convincing than the characters' previous lies, readers won't feel cheated. Jones arrives with an undeniable splash.
