The Good Liar

On an October morning in Chicago, a gas explosion rips apart an office building, killing five hundred and thirteen people and injuring more than two thousand. A year has passed, and filmmaker Teo Jackson is filming a documentary about the tragedy. Among those he interviews is forty-three year old Cecily Grayson, whose husband, Tom, was one of the victims. A second woman, Franny Maycombe, informs Teo that among the individuals who perished was her biological mother, Kaitlyn Ring. According to Franny, Kaitlyn gave Franny up for adoption shortly after giving birth to her.

"The Good Liar" is a complex psychological thriller in which Catherine McKenzie effectively uses flashbacks and alternate points of view to tell her intriguing story. show more Cecily describes her shock at losing Tom so suddenly. She was supposed to meet him in his workplace on the day of the disaster, and survived only because she was running late. Like others in this intricate tale, Cecily has secrets she is determined to keep hidden. A second narrator, Kate, left her family in the United States and is living in Montreal. Finally, in Teo's revealing conversations with the enigmatic Franny, she comes across as a sly young woman who craves love and attention.

This is a skillfully constructed, fast-paced, and suspenseful tale of domestic angst; betrayal; a budding romance; and fascinating (if not always likeable) characters who grapple with tough decisions. At first, McKenzie doles out limited information, but as the narrative progresses, the author discloses additional details that shed new light on the proceedings. In "The Good Liar," McKenzie demonstrates the toxic effects of duplicity; corrosive nature of guilt; and the impossibility of fully understanding what goes on in the minds and hearts of another human being. show less

Later, the incident would be called “Triple Ten” – on 10th October at 10 o’clock a Chicago office building is ripped apart by an explosion killing more than 500 people. Cecily becomes the picture of the tragedy because a photograph of her staring at the building in disbelieve was taken as the most striking image to visualize the people’s feeling. She lost her husband in the tragedy, and now she and her two kids are alone. But why was she there, at all, at her husband’s work place, at that time of the day? Another woman’s life is also altered by the event, but Kate has seen it as a chance – and seized it to escape her old life and to leave the country. Now, she is in Canada, observing from across the border what happens show more at her former home, the place where her husband and her children mourn her death. But a couple of months after the events, things take a different turn and this brings both of them back to the day of the tragedy – and back to the lies they told.

“The Good Liar” is a cleverly constructed mystery novel centred around three women. At the first glance, they seem to be the average wife with an ordinary life. But as soon as you get to look under the surface, you stare into an abyss of lies, of fraud and betrayal. None of them is the pitiable victim, they all contributed to their fate – but who of them is really evil and who just acted out of desperation?

The many twists and turns make you assess the situation anew over and over again. It takes some time to understand the links between the three and then you eagerly start to develop your theories about what had happened before. For some of the characters, this is a bit foreseeable, for others it isn’t and that’s what I liked best.

Catherine McKenzie is a brilliant writer who knows exactly how to pace her story which keeps you read on and on and on to find out what happened actually. And at the same time, you are always asking yourself: what would I have done in her place? A perfect psychological thriller which does not offer any easy black-and-white explanations but points out the different shades of grey. show less

I enjoyed the twists and tangles later on, but this one was harder to get into for the first half. The back and forth in timelines with different characters didn't help, especially since there wasn't any identification of the tense or flashback before reading. The back and forth for some of the characters kept up the entire book, and I'm just not that gung-ho for flashbacks in general unless they serve an important point. One of the characters is viciously detestable, and not every point of view is as interesting as others. The twist didn't surprise me - I never guessed it in advance, but it had to lead somewhere with a twist and the suspect pool was already small. I liked the ending and the "surprise", but with the simplistic writing show more style the journey there was a bit jagged.

Full review to come. show less

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

A year after a gas explosion destroys an office block in Chicago, killing hundreds of people, Teo is making a documentary about how it has affected three families. Cecily lost her husband Tom and she and her children received generous compensation. Joshua lost his wife Kaitlyn (Cecily's best friend), but there have been issues with the evidence proving she was among the dead, so his compensation has been delayed. Finally there is Franny, the child Kaitlyn gave up for adoption 20 years ago, but about whom she never told either Joshua or Cecily. An additional thread features Kate, who fled the explosion and ran away to Montreal, where she works as a nanny. This thread is show more worked in to the main narrative fairly early on.

I found this novel gripping and well-written. There are revelations throughout which make the reader re-evaluate what is true about the characters and about how they are connected to each other. I found Kate rather an opaque character, whose actions made little sense to me. Cecily on the other hand was easier to identify with and I enjoyed the chapters featuring her with her children and/or Teo. There were also parts of the story told by way of scripts from Teo's interviews and these worked well to vary the narrative voice.

I am deducting a star for the ending.

SPOILERS

Franny having caused the explosion seemed to me an unnecessarily dramatic twist, and I was also confused about why Franny's sister claimed so vehemently that Franny was not adopted. I feel like this should be a matter of incontrovertible public record. show less

There are all kinds of lies - that small lie of omission, that little white lie, and then there are major lies that affect not only you but the people around you. This is a book about 3 women with lies that they are keeping from others. It's a page-turner of a book as the lies are exposed and their secrets are reveled. In my opinion, it's Catherine McKenzie's best book yet.

The novel starts a year after a huge explosion in Chicago killed over 500 people and follows the lives of three women whose lives were affected: Cecily, mother of two whose husband died in the explosion and who is the poster child of the survivors because of a photo that was taken right after; Kate, who ran away from the explosion and her family and has moved to show more Canada to keep her identity hidden and Franny who is looking for her birth mother when the building goes down - with her mother in it. These three women are all hiding something from the world - will they be able to keep their lies hidden or will the real stores come to light in the glare of the publicity and the documentary that's being made? It's a roller coaster of a book and will keep the reader's attention until the very last page.

Thanks to the publisher and the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own. show less

This is a thought-provoking psychological thriller that will stay with you long after it is finished. Told in a mix of first person, third person and interview transcripts this is one engaging novel filled with complexity and depth. Unpredictability is one of this book’s qualities, hard to see some of the twists and turns coming.

The story alternates between the perspectives of three women: Cecily, Kate and Franny whose lives were impacted by tragedy. In downtown Chicago a building exploded killing 513 people and injuring many more. In the aftermath, Cecily became an iconic symbol when someone took a picture of her on the scene. Fast forward a year, Cecily’s story intertwines with those of Kate and Franny and they find themselves show more confronting their sins of the past as the memorial approaches. The fast moving plot reveals more dramatic secrets and more lies you can imagine. With a handful of well-crafted secondary characters, these three women, who could not be more different, are the driving force that propels the story forward.

This engaging story is definitely an amalgamation of lies, deceit and regret. Once into its gripping pages it is one book hard to put aside. Ms. McKenzie can always be counted on to spin a good tale, this latest is no exception.

I received this ARC for review from the Simon & Schuster Canada via NetGalleys show less

The Good Liar was an unexpected surprise. It got my undivided attention from the beginning and kept me guessing to the unexpected end. I had not read anything by Catherine McKenzie previously but she is now on my radar!

I received this book from Goodreads in exchange for an unbiased review.