Published by Corvus on March 1, 2018
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Pages: 304
Goodreads
Also by this author: Rewind
Will Hurley was an attractive, charming, and impressive student at Dublin's elite St. John's College-and Ireland's most prolific serial killer. Having stalked his four young victims, he drowned them in the muddy waters of the Grand Canal. Sentenced to life imprisonment when he was just nineteen, Will is locked away in the city's Central Psychiatric Hospital.
Freshman Alison Smith moved to the Big Smoke to enrol in St. John's and soon fell hard for Will Hurley. Her world bloomed ... and then imploded when Liz, her best friend, became the latest victim of the Canal Killer-and the Canal Killer turned out to be the boy who'd been sleeping in her bed. Alison fled to the Netherlands and, in ten years, has never once looked back.
When a young woman's body is found in the Grand Canal, Garda detectives visit Will to see if he can assist them in solving what looks like a copycat killing. Instead, Will tells them he has something new to confess-but there's only one person he's prepared to confess it to. The last thing Alison wants is to be pulled back into the past she's worked so hard to leave behind. Reluctantly, she returns to the city she hasn't set foot in for more than a decade to face the man who murdered the woman she was supposed to become.
Only to discover that, until now, Will has left out the worst part of all ...
✮ My Review ✮
Welcome to my first blog tour of 2019 and I am opening the tour with the awesome Hayley at Rather too Fond of Books so make sure you check out her review! Spoiler alert, the less you know about this book…the better for sure!
Annoyingly I did not have the time to sit and read this in one sitting because I was rather hooked on this little gem. Following the story of Alison in the then and now, the then back at St. John’s College before the Canal Killer killed and the now where are there more murders. So did they catch the right guy 10 years ago?
I liked Alison, in the then we learn of her and her best friend Liz setting off to college, leaving Cork to the bright lights of Dublin. Here she meets Will, the man who would become the love of her life, the man the world would know as the Canal Killer.
In the now, Alison has tried to build a life for herself in the Netherlands. She has shut herself off from love and kept her secrets but she has her best friend Sal. Until one night the Garda detectives turn up on her door one night asking if she would help them, as the murders have started again.
Only issue is they want to speak to Will, but Will only wants to speak to Alison.
The book is so beautifully written, as the focus is on the characters to drive this book. The newer murders are not the focus, as everything is from the point of view of Alison bar a couple of unnamed chapters which is from the killer, these were a little unsettling, to say the least. I loved the way the book was set out, just as things get intense the author keeps changing the POV focus, making me scream wanting to know what was going on.
Now the hook of the book
Her first love confessed to five murders. But the truth was so much worse.
Reading the book with this in my head constantly dreading what could be worse and when you discover the truth, MY GOD, why did I not see it before! Ms Howard has a way of making of hiding the truth completely in plain sight – just epic. A true testament to some amazing writing!
This book is not a million miles a minute book, instead, it builds the tension slowly.
I really enjoyed this book, it was thrilling, suspenseful and most of all gut-wrenching twisty! I cannot wait for Ms Howard’s next book Rewind!
Check out the book trailer below and some reviews from other bloggers if you don’t believe me!
Keeper of the pages says
The Liar’s Girl is a slow burner, less pacy than Distress Signals, but equally gripping because the intrigue is
there –the want to know what happened then, and what is happening now. And this novel isn’t withoutit’s reveals either – I thought the conclusion was very clever, wrapping everything up in a very satisfying ending.
Novel
Deelights says (and check out her stop on the 14th Jan)The Liar’s Girl is a thoroughly enjoyable and well-crafted slow burner of a psychological thriller. I really enjoy Catherine Ryan Howard’s writing and in this case, her ability to take a topic that’s been done numerous times and give it a refreshing makeover.
Ronnie Turner says
Alternating between chapters headed Alison, Then and Alison, Now, this book is a spectacularly addictive read. It’s about love, loss and life-altering lies. But more than anything, I think it’s about the facades people wear, those that can be broken down, inch by inch, to reveal something shocking, something so disturbing you wonder how you ever could have missed it. The characters in this book are beautifully captured and really pulled me into the story.
Thank you so much to Anne at Random Things Tours for the tour invite and the author and publisher for a copy of this book in return for my honest and unbiased review
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
jenchaos76 says
Crazy, crazy book! It sounds good to me.
Zoe says
It really is such a good book! i wanted to read it in one sitting but couldn’t but it was so so good.
likeherdingcatsblog says
This looks great . Fab review. I’ll be adding it to my ever growing list ?
Zoe says
ha ha Yes read it! It was so so good! I don’t think I have done it any where near the justice it deserves though! x
likeherdingcatsblog says
I’ve already guessed the twist but we’ll dee
Zoe says
Have you started to read it? Eeek
likeherdingcatsblog says
No. Just from the review ?? it’s likely I’m wrong
Zoe says
ha ha There are a couple of reveals! I can’t wait until you read it now! x
likeherdingcatsblog says
??
annecater says
Huge thanks for this amazing Blog Tour support Zoe x
Zoe says
Thanks for having me 🙂 x
Janel - Keeper of Pages says
I’m so glad you enjoyed this book! And I like that you’ve included a what other bloggers said, and not just because you quoted me (thank you!), I might incorporate that into a few of my reviews ?
Zoe says
Ha ha I just wanted to add something different. I have also been trying to add the book trailer when there is one! Glad you stopped by ?