Review: The Perfect Liar

The Perfect Liar by Thomas Christopher Greene
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Thomas Christopher Greene for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

Mild spoiler alert.

The Perfect Liar is anything but perfect and I’m getting tired of these mediocre thrillers sucking me in with a promise of being more than what they are. If I am reading a serial, than I expect a certain formula that the author has laid out in previous books. I turn to those when I want something where I know what to expect and don’t expect anything more. I wouldn’t say mind-numbing but more like comfort food. I don’t expect macaroni and cheese to be a braised lamb shank. But sometimes you want mac and cheese and it’s delicious and satisfying. But when I choose a thriller that is billed as fast pace with surprises that keep coming, that’s what I expect. I know, I know. Why do I believe the hype? Because I want to - I want to be taken on that ride.

I don’t like to know too much beforehand, because I want to go into clean. Ready for whatever ride the author is going to take me on. The only thing I knew from the blurb was that there was a married couple who receive a threatening note. Both are lying - to each other and to the world. Then all the usual hype of be ready for shocks and twists and turns. Great. Told in alternating perspectives between Susannah and Max, I dive in. So there is a happy couple and the note happens right away. Both think the note is for Max. In their own chapters we get flashbacks from before they knew each other, to how they met up until where we are currently in their lives. We learn early on that Max did something bad and is hiding it. But never throughout the whole book do we learn about anything bad that Susannah did. Yes, she had a difficult life and made some really bad choices, but nothing like Max. I kept waiting to see how she was lying to the world around her. Plus, Max was not the perfect liar. So many people found out about his lying along the way, including his wife, who always seemed to know when he was lying. So no big surprise there. So the big reveal was anything but a big reveal. The writing was okay and the characters had some development, although I’m not sure about their likability factor. Even Susannah’s son was rude and unlikeable and yes, teenagers are rude and ungrateful, but I never got a glimmer of a close and loving relationship with him. It all seemed one sided.

So, I’m sure many people might like this book, but I wanted more. I expected more. The only perfect liar in this bunch was the PR person who wrote the blurb.

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