A gothic Victorian murder mystery set on a remote island where an excavation offers refuge to a natural scientist besmirched with scandals his daughter can only guess at. But Faith's faith in her father is absolute until his sudden death and her discovery of his most precious and impossible specimen, the Lie Tree. It will show her the truth, but first she has to feed it lies and those lies must be believed. Faith slips into a cunning maze of deception that borders on madness, but will the Lie Tree save her and her family or will it destroy her utterly?

A dark, brooding, delicious book of exceeding cleverness that challenges our various notions of fathers and daughters, of heroism and devotion, of doing the right thing and of doing bad things to achieve a good end. Hardinge racks up the tricks and twists and tensions. Faith starts out as a typical protagonist, innocent and curious and good, but quickly descends into corruption and anger and bitterness in her quest not so much for the truth but for a way out of the trap of lies closing around her, fighting lies with lies because it's the only tool she has, the only power, though it comes at a terrible cost. Excellent.