March 24, 2016 / Leslie

Book Review: The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle

A Rapid Review

GoodLiar Publisher: Harper | February 2016
Format: Hardcover | Rating: 4½ stars
Genre: Mystery

Roy is a conman living in a small English town, about to pull off his final con. He is going to meet and woo a beautiful woman and slip away with her life savings. But who is the man behind the con? What has he had to do to survive a life of lies? And who has had to pay the price?

Roy has been a con man for much of his life. It comes natural to him. He’s good at it and he enjoys his work. However, Roy, now in his 80s, decides it’s time to retire from the con game — but he wants to pull off one last job. All he needs is to find a wealthy widow.

Roy’s life story unfolds backwards, decades at a time, alternating with his plan to con Betty, a woman that he met on an internet dating site, out of her life savings. But Betty seems a bit too easy a mark. Her grandson, who you would expect to be protecting her, goes along with her relationship with Roy a little too easily. Soon it becomes apparent that Betty has a hidden agenda of her own.

While this was not a fast-paced novel, I still found it gripping. As the story progressed, the tension increased. It took a little more work to follow than a linear story, and it wasn’t always immediately evident where we were heading and the significance of newly introduced characters, but it was worth the effort. I often found myself reading a little slower than usual so as not to miss any detail — there were many clues as to where this story was heading. The flow could have been a little smoother, but overall this was a great story with a satisfying ending.

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Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
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