The Liar's Girl

Title: The Liar's Girl
Author: Catherine Ryan Howard
Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
Source: Kindle Ebook
Rating: 3.5 out of 5




A young woman's body has been found in the Grand Canal in Dublin.  The body is that of a female student at St. John's College.  The local Garda detectives believe it is the work of a copycat of the Canal Killer, 10 years ago, so the visit the original serial killer.  He tells them he will talk, but only to his ex-girlfriend Alison.  Alison thought she left all of this behind her when she moved to the Netherlands, but once the Garda show up on her doorstep, she knows she needs to help.  Alison and Detective Malone work together to put the pieces together to stop the current killings and possibly free an innocent man.  Alison is forced to relive her past and face the demons she has been hiding from.

I am not sure what made me pick up this novel.  It spoke to me for some reason. Once I started reading it, I could not stop.  I couldn't get enough of them.  I felt as if I had known the characters personally and wanted to wrap my arms around Alison.  It is a clever use of today's technology and the dangers associated with sites like Facebook or twitter.  It really stands out form other novels in this genre, and is a fast paced read.  If you love thrillers, you would definitely love this one as well.


The premise is appealing to me, lately I have gotten into thriller/mystery novels a lot.  While it really stands out from others, it doesn't seem to compare with some of the other novels I have read.  Catharine Ryan Howard is a phenomenal story-teller.  She knows just how to grasp her readers and hold them hostage until the very end.  She gets into her readers minds and sets up camp, but I almost feel like more could have been done.  Some aspects were almost too predictable and a few things that drew away from the enjoyment factor of this novel.  One of which being that the murderer wasn't fully fleshed out.  His motive of teach women a certain lesson didn't seem all too plausible because how would they know that that was his motive.


While the book is a page-turner and held my attention  until the very end I still was wondering on a few things, like if Alison was careful to not post on the web and kept herself secret, how did the Garda find her in the first place?  The cops seems a little inept at their jobs and were more interested in flirting with Alison (at least Malone was), they didn't contribute anything to the case other than what Alison provided them.  She was a better detective than the actual detectives.  One thing I did enjoy was that there was nothing gory or sexual.  It was a clean mystery which I highly enjoyed.


Overall it was a good novel, I enjoyed the story and felt like I was helping to piece together the puzzle.  I would recommend it if you enjoy this genre.