THE BETTER LIAR

5 stars out of 5

In an ocean filled with thousands upon thousands of novels, it's got to be hard to write one capable of coming up for air, much less rising to the top. Beyond that, staying afloat requires coming up with a different concept and writing it in an enticing manner. This one did all that and more, and I'm happy to say we got along swimmingly from beginning to end.

The official description makes the story sound complicated - and in a very real sense, it is. But while I'm not a big fan of chapters that flip back and forth among characters and time frames, used here the technique really works (although I admit to occasionally flipping back to the start of a chapter to remind myself who was doing the "talking.") Really, though, there are only three to keep straight: Leslie, who is dismayed to learn that she must split her father's inheritance with her younger sister Robin, who ran away from home a decade earlier; a woman named Mary; and Robin.

Leslie is upset at being forced to share the inheritance - she and Robin will get $50,000 each - because she desperately needs, and expected to get, all the money because she took care of her ailing father for years. Left with no alternative, she sets out to find Robin, now in Las Vegas - only to find her sister dead of an apparent drug overdose. Her father's will specifies that unless both daughters split the dough, neither of them gets any. So now what is she to do?

Fortuitously, she runs into a stranger named Mary who bears a strong resemblance to Robin - and it doesn't take Leslie long to come up with the answer. No one has seen Robin for years, and this woman is a (non)dead ringer. That leads to another question: For $50,000 - Robin's half of the money - is Mary willing to impersonate Robin long enough to allow both women to cash in? Mary's answer is yes, so back they to to Albuquerque, where the "new" Robin stays with Leslie, her loving husband Dave and their infant son Eli while they wait for the funds to be released.

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Mary isn't the only one keeping secrets. Each chapter reveals another layer of their past and present lives and the reasons they would do just about anything to escape both (more than that I can't say without giving too much away). All in all, it's a riveting ride - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

The Better Liar by Tanen Jones (Ballantine Books, January 2019); 307 pp.