Dark. Very dark. Usually mysteries clearly delineate the good from the evil. Not so much here. That may be a spoiler. Let's just say I was torn and this book is not really a mystery or a thriller at all. And I won't be reading the rest of the series. ( )

Maggie Barbieri's Once Upon a Lie is a suspense-laden mystery that takes many unexpected twists and turns. Not the typical police procedural, this compelling whodunnit is a fascinating story that I found impossible to put down.

Lead protagonist Maeve Conlon is one of the most complex and well-crafted characters that I have encountered in a very long time. On the surface, she is a typical harried divorced mom juggling the demands of caring for an aging parent, raising her teenage daughters and trying to keep her bakery in the black. She has a dry wit and off beat sense of humor that kept me giggling off and on throughout the story. Her patience with her father is never-ending and this part of the storyline is quite poignant and a little bit heartbreaking. Maeve is fiercely protective of her daughters and I just had to laugh at the lengths she is willing to go to in her attempts to keep them out of trouble.

But there is a dark side to Maeve that has its roots in her tangled past with Sean. Bits and pieces of her traumatic childhood are slowly revealed throughout Once Upon a Lie and although I had a pretty good idea of what Maeve's secrets might be, the complete truth is still pretty shocking. What, if any, impact these past events have on the present remains unclear for most of the story and even with full knowledge of Maeve's past, I was absolutely stunned by not only her actions, but the novel's dramatic conclusion.

Once Upon a Lie is a riveting murder mystery with a well-developed and sympathetic cast of characters. The plot is unique and full of surprising twists and I cannot wait to see what Maggie Barbieri has planned for future installments inthis innovative and intriguing series. ( )

The first in a fantastic mystery series, readers meet Maeve Conlon, a baker whose bakery is struggling, a mother whose ex-husband has a new wife and baby, and daughter whose father is falling into the depths of dementia and possibly worse. When Maeve's brutal cousin dies under alarming circumstances, police start to be interested in her father as a prime suspect. This fast paced mystery with quite the twist ending is sure to grab readers!

Sarah M. / Marathon County Public Library
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This book was provided through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

When I requested this book, I thought I was getting one of Barbieri's Murder 101 series, which I've enjoyed from the very first book. But this is a stand-alone, possibly the beginning of a new series (although it doesn't seem to lend itself to a series); in this book, Maeve's cousin Sean has been murdered, and her father, who's slowly falling into dementia. Maeve is less interested in finding the real killer than she is in proving her father's innocence.

I think I like this book even better than the Murder 101 books. It still has the lightness and humor of those books, but there's also a distinctly darker thread in exploring Maeve's relationship to her dead cousin. I highly recommend this, and if there are more in a series, sign me up! ( )

I received this as an Early Reviewer and was delighted by the tale. I would go into more detail but other reviewers have done that for me. Suffice it to say, I am already recommending it to others to read and, as I work in a public library, have it on a list to share with patrons. ( )