In keeping with my mystery/ thriller theme lately, I was pleased to receive and dive into Lies by T.M. Logan. Lies is a mystery about an average guy who is happily married and living his life until one day, after seeing his wife’s car parked in a hotel parking garage, everything changes and his world shatters around him.
While this sounded intriguing, I was turned off by this book pretty quickly. I wanted to like it and kept reading hoping it would get better. But unfortunately, Lies fell short for me.
Sometimes while reading a book I find that I can’t get into the story or connect with the characters. That was the case with Lies. First of all, in order to enjoy a mystery/ thriller, I need to have someone to cheer for. The protagonist doesn’t have to be perfect (and he or she usually isn’t!) Often, the protagonist is flawed, unreliable, and suspect. That’s one of the reasons I get so drawn into the story. In the case of Lies, however, I couldn’t get on anyone’s team and cheer for them. The main character is an average guy. Can you guess his name? Joe. Yes, the main character is literally an average Joe. That alone was cliché and bugged me. While Joe’s a decent guy, I didn’t find him too likable. He’s naïve and frankly quite boring. I think that was the whole point – his average world gets shaken up and turned upside down. The problem is that I as a reader didn’t really care because the character just didn’t work for me. There was a lot of telling and not much showing. Basically, I didn’t get drawn into Joe’s world.
The other element that I need in order to make a suspense story satisfactory is, well, suspense! I need surprises and twists and turns. But Lies was pretty predictable as it unfolded. There were no bombshell surprises, even though I had read about a twist at the end that I would never see coming. But you know what? I did. The chapters are short and just a few chapters in, I had a feeling of what was to come and “whodunit.”
So overall, this was a miss for me. It was too predictable with not enough suspense, surprises, or character development to keep me interested. I have, however, read several favorable reviews of Lies in which readers sing its praises as suspenseful and a great mystery. So I guess everyone just needs to read it for themselves and draw their own conclusions.
I received an advance reader copy from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Kaitlin Scirri