The Better Liar by Tanen Jones

I received a copy of this release from the
publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Move over mediocre thrillers--and make way for this dynamite debut! As a reader, I'm willing to suspend belief in mysteries and thrillers but I need a supporting storyline. I had pretty much given up all hope on ever reading a book that could manage to do that again after the disasters I read at the beginning of 2019 (Au Pair, Bring Me Back, and Anonymous Girl come to mind).

The Better Liar caught my eye in a Netgalley email and after reading the summary I thought I'd give it a shot and if I didn't like it I probably needed to accept that the entire genre just doesn't work for me anymore. I started reading and I couldn't stop! I was hooked and thought I'd figured it out right away, but after reading more, I had doubts on my theory. As more and more secrets came to light, I had about a dozen more theories swirling around in my brain right until the very end. After I finished the last page, I jumped on a group text with my book buddies and demanded they request this title immediately.

I would recommend just diving right into this novel without reading too many reviews (since they may unknowingly reveal spoilers or details you'll want to experience for yourself.)

Goodreads Summary:

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?