Title: First Lie Wins
Author: Ashley Elston
Publisher: Hachette
Imprint: Headline
ISBN: 9781472295330
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Pages: 376
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
It is absolutely the best feeling when a thriller delivers, because you never know with books in that genre. I think there are about hundreds of thousands of them, and well, while most start very promisingly, they also often lose steam in the middle, hurtling towards the end with great speed, and often gaping holes in the plot. This wasn’t the case with, “First Lie Wins”. It is heady, super-fast, and well-etched characters that make you want to know them more as the pages turn.
It is the usual fare – Evie Porter seems to have it all – the perfect boyfriend, the perfect life, a house in a classy neighbourhood, and a group of friends. Of course there’s a catch – Evie Porter doesn’t exist. She isn’t who she claims to be, and now another woman has come to town claiming to be her – from another life, and she must do what it takes to protect herself and her real identity.
In all of this, there is love, betrayal, the motivations of Evie Porter and her boss, her associates, and how we take on identities when there is nowhere left to go. Elston’s writing is quick-paced, though it did become a little bit of a drag towards the middle, but once again picked tempo and was at it right till the end. A good mystery or a thriller novel to my mind keeps you wanting more, keeps you on the edge, and yet also throws enough breadcrumbs for the reader to get involved in the process of unearthing information and figuring out what is going on.
“First Lie Wins” kept me turning the pages, made me feel for Evie and Ryan, and what was going on, made me reach out for a nice cocktail and immerse myself in the read, which I did.
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