A Book A Week

This year is shaping up to be the year with books about lies. After the success of books like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, and The Girl on the Train, it seemed like every new thriller had the word "girl" in the title. I started this year with J.T. Ellison's Lie to Me, and it seems like a plethora of other thrillers have opted to include the word "lie" in their titles. I've yet to read enough of these "lie" books to know if this titling trend will have the same middling results as the majority of the "girl" books, but I'll definitely keep you posted!

In my quest to discover if these "lie" novels have any merit, I picked up a copy of Peter Swanson's latest All the Beautiful Lies. The novel sees Harry Ackerson dealing with the unexpected death of his father. The soon to be college grad hastily returns to the small town in Maine where his father shared a life with his stepmother Alice. The details surrounding his father's death leave more questions than answers. His father fell to his death during a run. Investigators are not convinced the death was an accident. Was his father suicidal or was he murdered?

At its core, All the Beautiful Lies is a character driven novel. Swanson gives plenty attention to pushing the mystery, but it is the characters and the revelations of their past that truly propel the novel. Harry has a strange relationship with his stepmother Alice. Alice has always been kind to him. Harry is is bit embarrassed by his own sexual attraction to her, not that he'd ever act on it. Still, there is something about the way that she treats him that makes him think the feelings may be mutual. When the police begin to ask Harry questions about Alice, he realizes how little he knows about the woman his father married.

Without pushing this review into spoiler territory, I think it is important to touch upon a few more details that anyone looking to read it should know. First, Swanson employs the technique of switching time periods by alternating the narrative from present day to flashbacks in each chapter. I do think the technique is overused by thriller writers, but I can't deny that it is very effective in this book. The flashbacks provide valuable insight into the characters' pasts and effectively wind the suspense as small revelations about the mystery are revealed. This also allows Swanson to make the story mainly about the development of the characters without losing the momentum of the plot.

Finally, there is a good deal of sexual content, disturbing violence, and extremely startling emotional turmoil and abuse. If you are sensitive to any of those topics, you should probably skip this novel. If you're one of those readers who doesn't mind the graphic content, this book is well worth a read. While many of the scenes where quite explicit, I never felt that Swanson included them for any reason other than to serve his characters. Go ahead and add this one to your summer reading list. All the Beautiful Lies deftly defies expectations by providing a strong depth of character and all the tension and twists of a top notch thriller, and that's no lie!

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.

(2018, 23)