The Liar’s Girl is my third read by Irish author Catherine Ryan Howard. She’s a new-to me author and I just love her writing style. Like the previous two novels I’ve read by her (The Nothing Man and The Trap) The Liar’s Girl is a fantastic high-adrenaline psychological thriller.
Opening sentence: It’s 4:17am on Saturday when Jen comes to on a battered couch in a house somewhere in Rathmines, one of those red-brick terraces that’s been divided into flats.
The Liar’s Girl was actually my Jolabokaflod read: I settled down on Christmas Eve and devoured it. Jolabokaflod is the wonderful Icelandic tradition of spending the day before Christmas pleasantly reading with your friends and family – find out more about it here.
Meet Alison and Will
Back to the story – this is a dual narrative: our lead character Alison is now 29 and lives in Breda in the Netherlands. Ten years prior, in 2007, she was at a Dublin university and met Will – they became an instant couple. We get chapters from both points of time, to understand why present Alison feels the way she does.
You see, in 2007, her loving boyfriend Will was charged with murdering five women – all students at their university. He is now in a secure psychiatric hospital and Alison fled to the Netherlands, where she has been ever since.
New evidence
The thing is, in 2017, two more women are murdered and dumped in Dublin’s Grand Canal – it has a starring – if sinister – role in the story and here for your reference:
But as Will is locked up, this means it’s either a copycat or… the real killer. Will claims he is innocent and to have information to share about this new chain of events BUT he will only tell it to Alison. So the police pay her a visit in the Netherlands, asking her to come and help them solve these new murders, and her past comes crashing into her present.
I was a keeper of secrets. There was no one in my life who knew all of me. I liked it.
Is the man Alison was in love with a serial killer, the victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice or a very clever liar? You absolutely have to pick up this book and find out! I promise you will not be disappointed.
A brilliant psychological thriller
I love how Catherine Ryan Howard creates a version of Ireland that all the characters from across the books I’ve read, so far anyway, inhabit. For example, I had heard of the infamous canal murders of this story in the previous books I’d read, as those books were published after this one, so were referring to events of the past.
The Liar’s Girl is just everything I love in a psychological thriller: a super-clever plot that delivers a carpet-pull moment at just the right moments, a realistic lead character you care about and a villain who may or may not be what he seems. Can’t wait to read more of her back-catalogue.
- 19-1-24-liars-girl-book-review”>Get your copy of The Liar’s Girl here
- Published by Corvus 2018;
- 323 pages;
- Book review rating:
Books on the 7:47 
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