Three Perfect Liars

Three women, one man, and then a fire that burned down the entire building two of the women work in.

We meet Laura, Mia, and Janie.

Laura had a high profile position and even worked on her advertising campaign while she was on maternity leave. When she returns, she finds Mia has taken over the entire campaign and her desk.

Mia is a temp now turned permanent and loved by the office staff and her boss. Mia is doing a marvelous job on the campaign that Laura was in charge of, but she keeps something secret about why she needed and wanted this job.

She doesn’t tell anyone about her personal life or where she lives because she lies about that.

Janie is the wife of the owner of the company where Laura and Mia work, unhappy in her marriage, and show more has something from her past she would like to forget.

The building where Laura and Mia work was a building no one wanted in the city before it was even built. When it burns down with one casualty, was it arson or just an accident?

There is jealousy, hatred, and a sinister undertone from the opening page…all good traits for a thriller.

You will be on the edge of your seat every time you see Laura and Mia together battling things out in their minds and wondering just what could really be the reason for this tension between the two women. Sure it is work, but there seems to be something else.

And then the party at Harry's happened - it got loud as Laura let loose on Mia and called her a liar.

THREE PERFECT LIARS was quite tense and oh so good.

If you enjoy not knowing what is really going on with the characters because you know something is….

….if you enjoy knowing one of the characters is the biggest fake and troublemaker and everyone is not seeing it….

….if you enjoy knowing the characters don't seem to be who they really are and know most are hiding something, telling lies, and have secrets, then this book will check all the boxes. 5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

When Laura returns to her job after six month of maternity leave, she expects Mia, who substituted her in this time, to be gone. Yet, the young woman is still there, at Laura’s desk and with Laura’s most valuable customer and: she got a permanent contract. Laura is furious and soon convinced that there is something wrong with that seemingly sympathetic colleague who makes friends with everybody easily. The more Laura digs into it, the more paranoid she gets, neglecting her husband and young son, her mind only circulating around how to dethrone the enemy. Mia actually has something to hide and yes, there was a reason why she rushed to this rural area and wanted explicitly to work in this company. Janie, Laura and Mia’s boss show more Harry’s wife, on the contrary, is a full time mom and at the moment totally frustrated. It is not just that she has given up a splendid career, something is nagging on her and slowly destroying her marriage. When one evening, the offices burn down, all three of them seem to have had good reasons to destroy the company. But, did they also count on killing somebody inside the building?

Heidi Perks’s mystery is a marvellous story which hooked me immediately and keep me reading on as soon as I had started. Three female protagonists are very different from each other and hard to see through at the beginning. But the more you see them interact with each other, the more suspicious you get and while I was reading, I was constantly shifting sympathies since every piece of information added to the picture and slightly changed it.

At first, I felt compassionate for Laura. Coming back after months at home now struggling with her new role as mother and having a career at the same time. Her husband’s constant criticism – even though completely justified – and having somebody younger and attractive stealing her post while her boss lacked supporting her: I could easily understand why she felt like losing all confidence in herself and increasingly getting obsessed with Mia. I didn’t really like the later at first, mainly due to the fact that she was presented through Laura’s point of view, she seemed like an intruder with evil intentions. Yet, there was also another side which she kept from the office and which told an entirely different story. I didn’t know what to do with Janie, was it just lamenting at a very high level? Having a wonderful family and lots of money, what did she have to complain about? It was herself who suggested giving up her career. She was certainly the character least tangible of the three and her motives of ending her marriage remained quite blurry until the end.

A brilliantly crafted plot with a very female and perfidious fight between the three. There was also something really tragic about the story when the motives were finally revealed which kept me pondering about the fact that how easily you put together an allegedly coherent picture of a person or a situation while you might be totally wrong. show less

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review here and on my blog Samwise Reviews. I enjoyed this book and there was nothing wrong with it, but it didn't blow me away. It had a gentle, meandering plot and I liked that the perspective kept switching between the three women. At each chapter we are given a bit of the police report with the other staff of agency and I found it definitely helped to draw suspense and show the tension between the different parties. Overall I wasn't able to guess most of the secrets and the ending did catch me by surprise, it just wasn't the roller coaster that I had expected.

The book begins with a building burning to the ground, and someone who set the fire watching it. Then the rest of the book tries to get you to guess who set the fire and their motive for doing so.
There are 3 primary suspects:
1. Laura Denning - new mom, returns to work to find that her largest account has been pulled from her
2. Mia Anderson - supposed to be a temp account director, but she is holding something
3. Janie Wood - CEO’s wife, no longer in love with her husband
All three of these women have motive, but who set the fire.
There are a lot of clues and twists set forth in this novel to keep you guessing, but some of it was too obscure. I didn’t like the constant guilt that Laura felt for being a working mother. I thought that show more was way overdone. I also thought it was unbelievable that a 3 story 5 year old building could burn so completely and so quickly. I also didn’t find it credible that the person who committed the crime could pull it off.
Thanks to Edelweiss for a copy. All opinions are given freely.
#threeperfectliars #HeidiPerks show less

Laura returns to her position with an advertising agency after giving birth to Bobby. As if she isn’t conflicted enough leaving Bobby, she finds that Mia, her temporary replacement, has no intention of leaving and has, in fact, taken over her major account. Is she paranoid about Mia or does the woman have some hidden secrets? And what secret is Janie, wife of the owner of the agency keeping to herself? A fatal fire that destroys the agency brings these three together……

The book’s timeline shifts back and forth between the action in the weeks prior to the fire and the police interviews following it as what really happened is finally revealed. As has become a popular literary device, the story is told from different points of show more view.

Despite it getting bogged down a bit, it was an engrossing read with good character development, although I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likable. show less

Heidi Perks’ latest thriller is a slow burn (pun intended) with a great payoff. Parts of the story require suspension of disbelief, but it was interesting to follow how each woman chose to deal with her problems, whether it be domestic strife or office politics. The detective interview transcripts interspersed between chapters also helped to build tension within the story. In many ways, Three Perfect Liars reminds me of the ABC show Desperate Housewives and Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies in its examination of female relationships after a horrific crime ripples through the community. Four stars.

Many thanks to Goodreads and Gallery Books for sending me an advance reading copy of this book! Three Perfect Liars will be available in show more stores on June 9, 2020. show less

The Short of It:

Exactly what I wanted. A good story that was hard to put down.

The Rest of It:

When Laura left her high profile job at Morris and Wood for six months of maternity leave, she had no idea that when she returned, the temp that she personally hired would still be there, sitting at her desk, working with her most important client. Turns out that Mia has done such a great job while she was away, that her boss Harry Wood has decided to keep her on.

At first, Laura is confused. Surely this is a mistake. Once she’s up-to-speed, things will return to normal but that’s not the case. Everyone in the office seems to love Mia and although Laura makes her feelings known, Harry doesn’t agree. Mia will continue to work with Laura’s show more previous client and Laura will work on other accounts.

As the tension mounts and Laura tries her best to balance her workload and the challenges that a new baby brings, she is convinced that there must be more at play. Why is Mia even there? Yes, she hired her but she was a temp and clearly not looking for a long-term position, or was she?

The pacing of this story was excellent. Perks quickly pulls you in. There’s a lot more than just workplace rivalry going on and although it’s immediately hinted at, it’s not immediately apparent what is going on. Perks keeps you guessing. I found this to be a solid story and loved how quickly I needed to turn those pages. It did remind me a little of the movie Baby Boom and those of you who have seen that movie might see some similarities in how the office is run but the similarities stop there. If you need a solid read that also happens to be a page turner, pick this one up.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less