The Lies You Wrote

The double murder of a married couple in a small Washington town draws FBI forensic linguist Raisa Susanto into an investigation that mirrors a decades-old crime. Twenty-five years ago―to the day―Alex Parker murdered his parents, then took his own life, leaving behind a note admitting everything.
The story is told from two viewpoints that alternate between chapters. Between these points of view parts of the story are revealed as extracts from diaries, letters, newspaper articles, lectures, message threads on a true crime web forum and a true crime podcast. The chapters move backwards and forward in time but while a bit hard to manage at first, soon begin to really enhance the tension of the investigation into a multiple homicide in show more this small town in rural Washington that appears to be a copycat of a family murder-suicide in the same town twenty-five years ago.

The story starts with Raisa Susanto, a young FBI agent with a strange specialty: she’s a forensic linguist who works a magic that her colleagues have difficulty trusting, but which she is passionate about. Her specialty is far from the most unusual thing about her. She’s a kid from the care system who has fought her way to both academic success and begrudged but real prominence in the FBI. She’s a loner with trust issues has guilty secrets. Just about everyone in this story has secrets of some type.

Then there is Delaney Moore, a content moderator with the website, "Flick". She draws the FBI’s attention to the video of the aftermath of the murder that the killer has posted. She too has an unusual set of talents and secrets from her past that she needs to keep hidden. She’s obsessive about hunting sexual predators online.

As Raisa struggles to solve the copycat killing, she starts to question whether the police who closed the original case, and determined it to be a murder-suicide, had made a big mistake and if that mistake provided the killer to commit the current murders on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the original ones?

There was a lot to like about this book. I became completely engaged in the story. It's a story that the reader needs to slow down and let yourself think things through instead of rushing to the end to find out who had done what to whom and why. One thing I found that may have had a big impact on the outcome of the story was that almost all the action is driven by women with very strong personalities and have had a poor experience with, and opinions of men.

If you are interested, and I was, you will learn some interesting things about forensic linguistics, especially the concept of idiolect, the unique way in which an individual uses language. This was my first novel by this author, and I have to say that Brianna Lubuskes is a very talented writer. I liked the plot development, the character construction, and the amount of action that was well balanced, with an insight into the personal life of the agents. I will certainly be looking for more like this one. show less

'The Lies You Wrote' is the fifth Brianna Labuskes book that I've read and I think it's one of her best.

By now, I know what to expect from one of her novels but that doesn't diminish their impact. It just gives me a reason to keep coming back. Her thrillers are a rollercoaster ride for the reader. They launch you into a bizarre situation, populated with larger-than-life characters and then toss you around curves in the plot that keep me off-balance but also keep me excited and curious.

'The LIes You Wrote' is an excellent example of what Brianna Lambuskes can do and I strongly recommend it. 

The story is told from two points of view that mostly alternate between chapters. Still, between these points of view chapters, parts of the show more story are delivered as extracts from diaries, letters, newspaper articles, lectures, message threads on a true crime web forum and a true crime podcast. The chapters move backwards and forward in time but are anchored to and enhance the tension of an investigation into a multiple homicide in a small town in rural Washington that seems to be a copycat of a family murder-suicide in the same town twenty-five years earlier.

The story starts from the point of view of Raisa Susanto, a young FBI agent with a strange speciality: she's a forensic linguist who works a kind of magic that her colleagues have difficulty trusting but which she is passionate about. Her speciality is far from the most unusual thing about her. She's a street kid from the care system who has fought her way to both academic success and begrudged but real prominence in the FBI. She's a loner with trust issues and she also has guilty secrets. Just about everyone in this story does.

The other point of view comes from Delaney Moore, a content moderator with the website Flick. She's the one who draws the FBI's attention to the video of the aftermath of the murder that the killer posted. She too has an unusual set of analytical talents, secrets in her past that she needs to keep hidden. She's also obsessive about hunting sexual predators online.

As Susanto struggles to solve the copycat killing, she starts to question whether the police who closed the original case, determining it to be a murder-suicide, had made a mistake and whether that mistake provied the impetus for the copycat murders on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the original crime.

There was a lot to love about this book. First and foremost, I became completely engaged in the mystery and had to make an effort to slow my reading and let myself think things through rather than rushing to the end to find out who had done what to whom and why. I stayed up late to finish this one and when I did, I went: "Wow! That makes perfect sense but I didn't see it coming*.

I admired Brianna Lubuskes' storytelling skills. She switches points of view, moves backwards and forwards in time and changes media and yet I was never confused Instead I was just drawn in deeper. There was no clunky exposition here, just what seemed to me to be a cheeky challenge to the reader: "Pay attention and try to keep up."

I loved that almost all the action in this story is driven by women who have very strong personalities and, on the whole, a fairly poor experience with and opinion of men.

I liked that is was seldom clear who, if anyone, was one of the good guys and that my understanding of the situation and the people in it altered again and again as new information was revealed, yet I never felt as if I'd been tricked, I just hadn't put all the pieces together yet.

I also learned some interesting things about forensic linguistics, especially the concept of idiolect. the unique way in which an individual uses language. As I came to understand the concept, I realised that my ideolect manifests as all the words, phrases and sentence constructions that Grammerly keeps telling me I should edit out of my writing. Once I started to listen for ideolects, I found them everywhere and I was even more impressed when I realised that Brianna Lubuskes had created ideolects for each of her main characters.

'The Lies You Wrote' is the first book featuring Raisa Susanto. The second book 'The Truth You Told' will be released in September 2024. I already have it on pre-order. show less

Raisa Susanto is FBI forensic linguist. Together with forensic psychologis Callum Kilkenny she investigates a series of murders related to a case that was closed 25 years ago. Delaney Moore, a content moderator at Flik, is the first to see the connection between cases. Raisa and Callum are part of a bigger task force, but they get to investigate quite independently. Their main focus is in the old murders. The story is told alternating between Raisa and Delaney, who is also part of the task force even though she's a civilian. In between chapters there are old diary entries, news articles and documents from 1998.
It was so interesting to get a glimpse of the world of linguistics, and see how written and spoken word can contain patterns show more that can be studied to identify people who use them. Unabomber and his Manifesto was mentioned often.
This was a story full of twists and action. Abundant cast of characters was sometimes confusing, but in the end I was familiar with them all. The ending was one big twist-fest. I had so much fun reading this. This is first book in a series. I am intrigued in finding out what Raisa and Callum will do next.
Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an e-arc of this book. show less

Absorbing and suspenseful crime thriller.

This is the first in a new series featuring FBI Linguist Raisa Susanto and it grabbed me from the beginning. She and her partner, forensic psychologist Callum Kilkenny, are investigating what looks like a copy cat crime from a situation 25 years ago when a son murdered his parents and then committed suicide. In this present day case, a couple who was friends with the previously murdered are killed in a similar fashion. Since the perpetrator of the former is dead and posthumously convicted of the crime, who is carrying the torch now and why. Could the FBI have made a mistake thinking that Alex Parker killed his parents?

Raisa examines the language and ideolect of all involved in both cases to try show more and determine if previous confessions and current messages can help her and Callum find the truth. Meanwhile, the killings don’t stop. Who is next on the murderer’s list?

I confess that I had no real understanding of the term, ideolect, and the role of a linguist in crime investigation. It was very interesting to hear how Raisa worked and identified the tells that clearly indicated the author of the writing samples. The plot was also quite interesting with some really great twists along the way — some predictable and others not so much. I enjoyed being surprised and shocked. I really like the way this author writes and her use of language to express a thing or a thought. There are quite a few memorable lines and quotes along the way.

I liked this so much that I immediately found the second in the series and have already started reading it. Highly recommend. show less

The Lies You Wrote by Brianna Labuskes
Raisa Susanto #1

Riveting read – twists and turns aplenty – first time I’ve read this author but won’t be the last!

What I liked:
* Raisa Susanto: FBI Forensic Linquist, orphaned young in life, foster system graduate, brilliant, sees patterns in words, resilient, survivor, intriguing, would like to learn more about her
* Callum Kilkenny: FBI Forensic Psychologist, widow, wife killed by serial killer, brilliant, profiler, guarded, loner, not easy to read, intriguing, would like to learn more about him
* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing
* The tie-in of two murders a quarter decade apart and what they have in common
* The police procedural aspect of the story with the slow unveiling of one show more puzzle piece at a time
* The growing relationship between Raisa and Callum
* The twists, turns, and unexpected surprises
* Wondering how much nature vs nurture played a part in three of the characters lives
* The finale and wondering what will come next
* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant to dislike
* Thinking about how many people let too many things slide and the impact it had on more than one in the story
* Thinking about the heavy psychological load more than one in this book was carrying

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Definitely!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars show less

The Lies You Wrote is a psychological suspense novel with a great cast of characters. It features FBI forensic linguist, Raisa Susanto, along with true-crime podcaster, Janna Shaw, investigating a murder that mirrors a decades-old crime. The author, Brianna Labuskes, handles the material well; trickling out clues, red herrings and surprise twists, all the while playing fair with the reader.

Book 1 of Raisa Susanto series. "Features FBI forensic linguist Raisa Susanto investigating a new double murder in Washington state that mimics a notorious 25-year-old case. Raisa and psychologist Callum Kilkenny must uncover if a copycat is active or if the original crime was a frame-up." Really liked the idea of a forensic linguist. Page-turner. Mystery held together.