The Last Lie by Alex Lake

This was a thriller I picked up in passing from the library, and absolutely devoured. The author writes under a pen name, and appears to use "they" pronouns, which makes me wonder if this is a case of that phenomenon where male crime writers are pretending to be women because female writers have been more successful in the crime genre recently.

At any rate, that's not so important— what's important is that even though this book's plot wasn't the twisty, complex story I was hoping for, it really kept me hooked. The characters were rather straightforward as well, with Alfie Daniels as a textbook definition sociopath, down to the animal abuse in childhood. His wife, Claire Daniels, is a little bit of a cliché rich girl, a little naive, and used to getting her way.

And yet, even with these stock characters, I don't know why exactly, but I still found myself itching for one more page, one more page, until the whole thing was done.

So I'd recommend it— not as deep literary genius, but as a straight up good read.

3.5 stars / 5

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