"The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls" - Edgar Allan Poe

3.5 Twisty, love is blind stars ⭐️ for The Perfect Liar

After being widowed in her 20s with a young son, Susannah meets Max at a work party. Max lies about who he is to gain access to the exclusive event. He is handsome, charismatic and knows how to read/work people. He instantly charms his way into Susannah's heart and they are married within six months of that fateful meeting.

Susannah and Max are in love and happy. Max's career has taken off and the family relocates to a small town in Vermont where he will be a visiting professor. Everything is going their way. All seems perfect - until the first note arrives.

"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE"

Anxiety runs rampant and we begin to see that all is not what it appears within this family. There are desperate actions taken to assure their security. Just when Max think he can relax, another note appears, shortly followed by a third. Who is responsible? What do they want?

We begin to see that there is much more than meets the eye with this family. Lies seem to come as easily as the intake of breath. So who exactly is The Perfect Liar? Is it Max - the man who will go to any lengths to get what he wants and keep it? Or is it Susannah - the seemingly dutiful wife with her own secrets and demons to hide?

The story had an addictive quality to it with its frantic pace and short chapters. The author is definitely imaginative - unfortunately you have to really suspend your belief to fall in line with some of the twists the plot takes. Some of it proved too much of a stretch for me. I enjoyed the book overall and I definitely liked the aspect of a wolf in sheep's clothing and not all being what is seems despite my inability to fall in line with some of the plot points.

Thank you to Thomas Christopher Greene, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this book.