This Is How I Lied

“If you don’t understand how things die

How can you understand how they live?”

As soon as I see the title/cover and the synopsis I was super intrigued to read this story. But unfortunately, I was ended been disappointed.

This story is about a murder that took place in a small-town in Grotto, Iowa. Twenty-five years ago, the body of sixteen-year-old Eve Knox was found in the caves near her home in small-town Grotto, Iowa. The body was discovered by her best friend Maggie and her sister Nola.

At that time there were a handful of suspects, including her boyfriend, Nick, and the lawyer where Eve used to babysit his children. But without sufficient evidence, the case ultimately went cold.

After 25 years, a child found a missing boot of Eve near the grotto caves, and with the new evidence, police have to reopen the cold case. The current lead detective on the case is Maggie who happens to be the daughter of the retired chief. She is seven months pregnant and having difficulties finding new leads while coping with her bitter past. Maggie's Dad was the investigator in charge of the case all those years ago. But failed to find the murderer and everyone in town lost hope and having second thoughts about whether Maggie can bring justice to Eve. Will she able to bring justice to her best friend?

The story flows from multiple POVs of Maggie, Eve, and Nola and one of those stories with multiple possible murder suspects. Readers will swing through these multiple suspect’s time to time.

Was it the abusive boyfriend, Nick, or the predator father and the lawyer, Cam of her babysitting charges or her psycho younger sister, Nola? Or Maggie’s Husband Shaun, who happens to be a friend of Eve? At one point I suspected Maggie’s Brother, colin.

This story looks so much promising. But went downfall after revealing the possible murderer.

The overall plot seems to be unbelievable. Especially the major plot twists. All the characters have some kind of issues, mostly the character Nola.

I really enjoyed the authors writing style. But it did not hit the 5-star mark and generally, this turned out to be an okay read for me. This is my first reading from this author and I'm interested to see what other stories this author has to offer.

Finally, I still enjoyed reading this book and suggest to give a chance, if you are into small-town mystery/Thriller stories.