One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline
St. Martin's Press: 4/11/17
eBook review copy; 368 pages
ISBN-13:
9781250099563
One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline is a highly recommended thriller.
When Chris Brennan moves to Central
Valley, a small town in Pennsylvania, he lets us know right from the
start that he's not who he says he is. His name is not really "Chris
Brennan." His impressive credentials as he applies to teach at the high
school are fake. He's an assistant coach in baseball, although he's
never coached before, so he can find the perfect teenage boy. Chris has
some kind of secret plan that involves a making a bomb with ammonium
chloride fertilizer and it looks like he wants to find a teenage boy to
help him pull his plans together. He's only planning to be in Central
Valley for a week and he is looking at a boy from the baseball team to
assist him.
There are three boys Chris is looking at, and Scottoline follows the
point of view of the mothers of these boys and Chris in their
alternating narratives.
Susan Sematov's son, Raz, is a member of the team. Her whole family is
suffering because their father died a few months ago. Is Raz vulnerable
enough to be the one Chris is looking for?
Heather Larkin is a single mother raising her only son Jordan, who is a
rookie on the team. Jordan is reserved, but growing up without a father
might make him susceptible for Chris's plan.
Mindy Kostis's son Evan is the star catcher of the team. They are a
wealthy family. Her husband is a surgeon, Mindy leads the baseball
boosters. Evan has grown up without need, was recently given a new BMW,
and has a sense of entitlement. Could boredom lead him to look for
something more dangerous?
The opening chapters of One Perfect Lie are pretty grim and there
is an ominous, dire feeling as you read them wondering what are Chris's
real plans and what boy is he going to pick to use to accomplish what
must be some nefarious activity. Meeting the mothers of the boys adds to
the tension and the backstory of the boys and their home life. Just
before the half way point of the novel, the narrative does a huge double
flip twist that will shock and surprise you. After the twist, things
take off at a break-neck pace to the exciting conclusion.
The characters are all well-developed and finely drawn with a depth of
emotion and reality that is nice to see in a thriller. We know Chris's
inner thoughts and those of the three mothers. The family life of the
boys is explored and depicted in a realistic manner. Scottoline captures
the difficulties of raising teenagers today and the realistic struggles
many families go through.
The writing is excellent. Scottoline will really throw readers for a
loop in this one, especially with one of the
twists. Some of the others were easier to predict. This is a thoroughly
enjoyable thriller and is a perfect stuck-overnight-at -the-airport book
which will keep you entertained for hours.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of St. Martin's Press.
1 comment:
Nice review -- not sure I could read this one as domestic thrillers are sometimes too stressful for me!
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