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The highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful Lies.Charged with relentless intensity and kinetic action, and playing out with unnerving suspense on the streets of New York and London, Sliver of Truth delves deep into the shadowy world of Ridley Jones, a terrified but determined young woman at once hunting down a ghost from her past and running for her life.
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���Almost a year after reading the first book, BEAUTIFUL LIES (which I absolutely loved), I picked up the sequel. I had no idea there was going to be a sequel when I finished the first book. Interestingly enough, neither did the author. According to an interview I read, she said the lead character just wouldn't leave her alone, and insisted her story wasn't over yet. And oh, boy, was she ever right! I was drawn into this book from the very first page. I adored the protagonist--maybe even more this time than last time, and I didn't think that was possible. Lisa Unger writes beautifully. I highlighted a number of passages that took my breath away as I read. The book is full of plot twists, the mystery's well developed, the show more characters wonderfully empathetic. I loved it! show less
Here there be spoilers.
Another couple of thrillers with one, long story (Sliver of Truth is the sequel to Beautiful Lies). A bit more uneven than the last two like these I read and also a bit outside the bounds of reality. Sure, they’re thrillers, but the protagonist is a flake and makes some pretty stupid decisions. Also, the conspiracy and criminal activity goes pretty deep and wide, but of course never too close to home. Unlikely enemies and unlikely friends abound. I stuck with her for two books, but probably won’t read a third if one ever gets published.
Ridley Jones has had a pretty idyllic life. Well-loved by her parents she’s grown up to be a self-sufficient person making a career in freelance journalism. Part of the reason show more she can do this is the chunck of money left to her by millionaire Uncle Max who died in a car accident not long before the story opens. The only thorn in her side is her addict/street-person brother, Ace, and the fact that things didn’t work out with her fiance. He doesn’t seem to know that he’s been kicked to the curb though.
When her instincts kick in and she saves a little kid from being squashed by a beer truck, she gets her 15 minutes of fame and as a result receives a mysterious communication from a stranger that causes her whole world to implode. She’s not really the child she thought she was and her parents have knowledge of a secret world where kids are “rescued” by well-meaning adults and “sold” to rich white people. Of course in her case, it is more complicated than that.
Uncle Max is the big villain here, but I didn’t really buy it. He never showed himself until the end, and a cold smile wasn’t enough to do it. All the evidence against him was contained in little reports and files and because none of it was ever on stage, so to speak, it seemed remote and open for doubt. That Ridley came to believe it is clear, but nothing like that was conveyed to me as a reader. Esme and Zack took the stage with their evil deeds, but Max never did and so he remains distant and not much of a threat.
Ridley is one of those leading characters designed, I think, to make the reader feel smart. I found her immature with very little control of her emotions. She flew into rages or sulks or the sack with no pause for thought about how these things might affect her. She was by turns paranoid and so trusting that you could hardly feel bad for the consequences because damn, she deserved to get fucked up, lied to and screwed over. Her first person style was also assumptive and sometimes featured stilted language. No one would talk like that or write like that, but after a while I let it go and chalked it up to Ridley’s being a writer. Eh, it got me through. show less
Another couple of thrillers with one, long story (Sliver of Truth is the sequel to Beautiful Lies). A bit more uneven than the last two like these I read and also a bit outside the bounds of reality. Sure, they’re thrillers, but the protagonist is a flake and makes some pretty stupid decisions. Also, the conspiracy and criminal activity goes pretty deep and wide, but of course never too close to home. Unlikely enemies and unlikely friends abound. I stuck with her for two books, but probably won’t read a third if one ever gets published.
Ridley Jones has had a pretty idyllic life. Well-loved by her parents she’s grown up to be a self-sufficient person making a career in freelance journalism. Part of the reason show more she can do this is the chunck of money left to her by millionaire Uncle Max who died in a car accident not long before the story opens. The only thorn in her side is her addict/street-person brother, Ace, and the fact that things didn’t work out with her fiance. He doesn’t seem to know that he’s been kicked to the curb though.
When her instincts kick in and she saves a little kid from being squashed by a beer truck, she gets her 15 minutes of fame and as a result receives a mysterious communication from a stranger that causes her whole world to implode. She’s not really the child she thought she was and her parents have knowledge of a secret world where kids are “rescued” by well-meaning adults and “sold” to rich white people. Of course in her case, it is more complicated than that.
Uncle Max is the big villain here, but I didn’t really buy it. He never showed himself until the end, and a cold smile wasn’t enough to do it. All the evidence against him was contained in little reports and files and because none of it was ever on stage, so to speak, it seemed remote and open for doubt. That Ridley came to believe it is clear, but nothing like that was conveyed to me as a reader. Esme and Zack took the stage with their evil deeds, but Max never did and so he remains distant and not much of a threat.
Ridley is one of those leading characters designed, I think, to make the reader feel smart. I found her immature with very little control of her emotions. She flew into rages or sulks or the sack with no pause for thought about how these things might affect her. She was by turns paranoid and so trusting that you could hardly feel bad for the consequences because damn, she deserved to get fucked up, lied to and screwed over. Her first person style was also assumptive and sometimes featured stilted language. No one would talk like that or write like that, but after a while I let it go and chalked it up to Ridley’s being a writer. Eh, it got me through. show less
Ridley Jones picks up her photos from the where they were developed. In every photo is a shadowy figure. The FBI and the CIA are after her, she is convinced the figure is her biological father, Max Smiley. Max has done some terrible things in his life and these agencies are convinced that Ridley can lead them to him. Ridley has known Max as a kindly, loving person, until she is told of the crimes he has committed. Ridley goes on the run, staying one step ahead of the FBI and CIA. Nearly everyone she contacts to help her find Max is found dead shortly there after. The search for Max goes across the ocean and finally ends where she started out. Ridley has questions she needs answers for: Is Max really as evil as they say he is?; Was his show more love her only an act?; and Why does her adoptive father maintain a relationship with him? show less
Another good book by Lisa Unger. I heard this book was a disappointment after her first novel, and I partly agree. Unger's first novel is her best, but her second is still better than most thrillers.
In this novel, it turns out that Ridley's uncle is still alive and a lot of people (good ánd bad people) are hunting him down, using Ridley as bait.
Of course she doesn't know whom to trust and she makes good and bad decisions.
What I like about the character Ridley, is that she acts and reacts in the same way any normal person would. She is not extremely gifted of heroic. She is a very real person, and this is the force of the novel. Because the story itself is farfetched. No one gets kidnapped that many times and survives it!
In this novel, it turns out that Ridley's uncle is still alive and a lot of people (good ánd bad people) are hunting him down, using Ridley as bait.
Of course she doesn't know whom to trust and she makes good and bad decisions.
What I like about the character Ridley, is that she acts and reacts in the same way any normal person would. She is not extremely gifted of heroic. She is a very real person, and this is the force of the novel. Because the story itself is farfetched. No one gets kidnapped that many times and survives it!
The prologue to SLIVER OF TRUTH starts out looking like a book that should be called "Scenes from a Marriage." A ho-hum marriage, at that. Told in third person from the wife's point of view, we hear her gripe about her husband (internally). She's a journalist. He does something else (something that doesn't matter). But all that changes by the prologue's end.
Chapter 1 puts the reader in the protagonist's head. And it's written in first person (Ridley Jones' point of view--more on her later). The story starts with a scene like something out of a nightmare. Ridley's running . . . it's dark . . . she's in Potter's Field in the Bronx. She's chasing someone . . . there's a pain in her side, fire in her lungs . . . she has a gun. She's going show more after this shadowy person. Someone else tells her, "Ridley, don't do it. You'll never be able to live with it." The chapter ends . . . well, read it and see for yourself.
Chapter 2 is where the story really starts. You have to love an opening line like, "I bet you thought you'd heard the end of me." ("But I've barely heard the first of you," I thought, and kept going.) Starting this book is like walking into a movie roughly halfway through it. Reading those first few chapters was like having someone catching me up to what's gone before, while I was watching what's taking place. A bit discombobulating at first. (I kept thinking there was too much telling, not enough showing.) But once I settled in, what followed was . . . amazing.
Ridley Jones, at some point before the story begins, has learned that the people she's always known as her parents are actually foster parents. She was placed with them by an organization called Project Rescue. This organization was founded by her beloved late Uncle Max, who was--get this--actually, her real father. These few sentences may help save some confusion for you upfront--but not all, because there's Jake, another Project Rescue child, with whom she has an on-and-off relationship. And some other guy named Christian Luna who's killed, for reasons I could never figure out. (None of these things I'm telling you are spoilers. This is all in Chapter 2, believe it or not.) Somehow all this truth comes out after a photo of Ridley is taken rescuing a small boy from getting run over by a van. A photo that makes her famous. (Still in Chapter 2.) I can't remember all the details, all of it came at me so fast and furious, I found myself turning back after reading several pages and saying, "Now, who's Jake? And what's this got to do with Project Rescue? And what does Christian Luna have to do with all this?"
But like I said, after I kind of got an understanding of what was going on, the book really gripped me and never let me go--sometime after the FBI questions Ridley about a series of photos of her in which a shadowy figure keeps appearing. They think the shadowy guy is her Uncle Max, but her Uncle Max is supposed to be dead. But then Ridley gets these weird phone calls with just static and breathing, then the caller hanging up. Plus there's a spooky scene in her uncle's apartment (really creepy!). Lisa Unger's eye for detail and her ability to build suspense with it, really got under my skin. And next thing you know, people are dying. And Ridley ends up in trouble over her head.
I read somewhere that thrillers and suspense stories should have a roller coaster storyline. But this narrative wasn't a roller coaster. It was more like a freight train. Barreling downhill, full throttle. With no brakes.
The entire review is online at http://thebookgrrl.blogspot.com/2009/04/sliver-of-truth-gets-under-your-skin.htm... show less
Chapter 1 puts the reader in the protagonist's head. And it's written in first person (Ridley Jones' point of view--more on her later). The story starts with a scene like something out of a nightmare. Ridley's running . . . it's dark . . . she's in Potter's Field in the Bronx. She's chasing someone . . . there's a pain in her side, fire in her lungs . . . she has a gun. She's going show more after this shadowy person. Someone else tells her, "Ridley, don't do it. You'll never be able to live with it." The chapter ends . . . well, read it and see for yourself.
Chapter 2 is where the story really starts. You have to love an opening line like, "I bet you thought you'd heard the end of me." ("But I've barely heard the first of you," I thought, and kept going.) Starting this book is like walking into a movie roughly halfway through it. Reading those first few chapters was like having someone catching me up to what's gone before, while I was watching what's taking place. A bit discombobulating at first. (I kept thinking there was too much telling, not enough showing.) But once I settled in, what followed was . . . amazing.
Ridley Jones, at some point before the story begins, has learned that the people she's always known as her parents are actually foster parents. She was placed with them by an organization called Project Rescue. This organization was founded by her beloved late Uncle Max, who was--get this--actually, her real father. These few sentences may help save some confusion for you upfront--but not all, because there's Jake, another Project Rescue child, with whom she has an on-and-off relationship. And some other guy named Christian Luna who's killed, for reasons I could never figure out. (None of these things I'm telling you are spoilers. This is all in Chapter 2, believe it or not.) Somehow all this truth comes out after a photo of Ridley is taken rescuing a small boy from getting run over by a van. A photo that makes her famous. (Still in Chapter 2.) I can't remember all the details, all of it came at me so fast and furious, I found myself turning back after reading several pages and saying, "Now, who's Jake? And what's this got to do with Project Rescue? And what does Christian Luna have to do with all this?"
But like I said, after I kind of got an understanding of what was going on, the book really gripped me and never let me go--sometime after the FBI questions Ridley about a series of photos of her in which a shadowy figure keeps appearing. They think the shadowy guy is her Uncle Max, but her Uncle Max is supposed to be dead. But then Ridley gets these weird phone calls with just static and breathing, then the caller hanging up. Plus there's a spooky scene in her uncle's apartment (really creepy!). Lisa Unger's eye for detail and her ability to build suspense with it, really got under my skin. And next thing you know, people are dying. And Ridley ends up in trouble over her head.
I read somewhere that thrillers and suspense stories should have a roller coaster storyline. But this narrative wasn't a roller coaster. It was more like a freight train. Barreling downhill, full throttle. With no brakes.
The entire review is online at http://thebookgrrl.blogspot.com/2009/04/sliver-of-truth-gets-under-your-skin.htm... show less
The most striking thing about this book is the very conversational style of writing. It is as if the main character and first person narrator is sitting with you in your living room and telling you all about what happened to her. This can be very engaging, but can also be a little bit jarring, particularly when her asides take you out of the story and her endless analysis of her choices in a specific moment. Foreshadowing is also a little heavy-handed as well as frequent. ("If I had known what was going to happen, I might not have done what I did next.")
That being said, everything else about this book was just fabulous. The plot twists, secrets and revlations were riveting, and heart-pounding. The main theme of whether (and how much) show more who a person is is influenced by who her parents are was quite philosophical and pulled the book together, lifted it slightly above your average mystery/thriller.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
As this is the sequel to "Beautiful Lies" in which Ridley finds out that her parents are not her parents and that she is actually the biological child of her "Uncle" Max and a woman who was murdered when Ridley was little, as well as the fact that Max was an associate of organized crime, I would really recommend one read that first. I hadn't read it in a while, and my memory was refreshed quite expertly, without a lot of boring exposition, but I don't know that one would be able to follow along well if they hadn't read it at all.
Go get the pair of them and read them now. Thanks. show less
That being said, everything else about this book was just fabulous. The plot twists, secrets and revlations were riveting, and heart-pounding. The main theme of whether (and how much) show more who a person is is influenced by who her parents are was quite philosophical and pulled the book together, lifted it slightly above your average mystery/thriller.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
As this is the sequel to "Beautiful Lies" in which Ridley finds out that her parents are not her parents and that she is actually the biological child of her "Uncle" Max and a woman who was murdered when Ridley was little, as well as the fact that Max was an associate of organized crime, I would really recommend one read that first. I hadn't read it in a while, and my memory was refreshed quite expertly, without a lot of boring exposition, but I don't know that one would be able to follow along well if they hadn't read it at all.
Go get the pair of them and read them now. Thanks. show less
This is the second novel that I have read of Lisa Unger's, the first was [Darkness My Old Friend]. She has a real gift for weaving an interesting and complex mystery story and holding my interest, while concealing the solution to the mystery right up to the very end. [Sliver of Truth] is written in a first person narrative which I also appreciated.
And, I do not think it likely that I will read any more of her work. In fact I read this book to uncover my dissatisfaction with her style and have identified what did not sit right with me. She is repetitive to the point of distraction; where an occasional review is appreciated, Unger drives it in over and over, not unlike an ex-husband's rehash of a 20 year past argument. I felt too, that show more there are gross incongruities and an overall immaturity in her characters and their development. I'm glad to have been exposed to her work - we just aren't a good personality match. show less
And, I do not think it likely that I will read any more of her work. In fact I read this book to uncover my dissatisfaction with her style and have identified what did not sit right with me. She is repetitive to the point of distraction; where an occasional review is appreciated, Unger drives it in over and over, not unlike an ex-husband's rehash of a 20 year past argument. I felt too, that show more there are gross incongruities and an overall immaturity in her characters and their development. I'm glad to have been exposed to her work - we just aren't a good personality match. show less
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Lisa Unger was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1970, but grew up in the Netherlands, England and New Jersey. She received a degree from the New School for Social Research. Before becoming a full-time author, she had a career in publicity. Her works include Sliver of Truth, Die for You, and Fragile. Beautiful Lies was selected as an International show more Book of the Month and Black Out won the Silver Medal for popular fiction in the 2008 Florida Book Awards. She has also written books under her maiden name, Lisa Miscione. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Lisa Unger is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
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- Canonical title
- Sliver of Truth
- Original publication date
- 2007-05-02
- People/Characters
- Ridley Jones; Maxwell Smiley "Uncle Max"; Jake Jacobsen; Ace Jones; Ben Jones; Grace Jones (show all 16); Dylan Grace; Esme Gray; Nicholas Smiley; Grant Webster; Zachary Gray; Alexander Harriman; Race Smiley; Lana Smiley; Elena Jansen; Myra Lyall
- Important places
- The Bronx, New York, New York, USA; East Village, Manhattan, New York, New York, USA; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Covent Garden, London, England, UK; Paris, France
- Dedication
- FOR OCEAN RAE
Who, even before her arrival, changed me in ways I never could have imagined...
Who has brought more love and joy to Jeffrey and me than we knew existed.
Just the anticipation of her was the most mag... (show all)nificent gift...
even when she was just the glow of sunshine on the water.
We are blessed by her presence in our lives.
DECEMBER 25, 2005 - First words
- She wondered, is it possible, maybe even normal, to spend twenty years of your life with someone, to love that person more than you love yourself sometimes, and then sometimes to truly hate him, so much that you think about t... (show all)aking your new cast-iron grill pan and bringing it down on the top of his head?
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Because there was something I didn't understand until the moment I saw him disappear: In death, the ghost is already home.
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