The Lie Maker by Linwood Barclay - Review by David Smith
I have written before of this man’s ability as a thriller writer. I still recommend “No Time for Goodbye” as his best novel but this is not far behind.
Jack Givins is a struggling author whose agent has found an intriguing new option for him. He has been recruited by the US Marshal’s office to write backstories for people who have had to go into witness protection. Jack’s own father had to do this and, despite his father’s criminality, Jack has always wanted to meet up with his father and connect with him again.
Jack believes that the US Marshal’s office has accidentally employed him and know nothing of his father’s past.
Meanwhile, Jack’s journalist girlfriend, Lana, has become intrigued by the disappearance of a retired judge and a woman doctor and is certain that these two events are connected.
After competing his first profile with some success, Jack asks his contact at the US Marshal’s office, Gwen, to help him find his father. And it is this act that puts Jack, Lana and his father in deadly danger.
Jack’s father, now calling himself Michael Donahoe, turns out to have been a hitman for a corrupt businessman which means he is in lethal danger if his cover is blown and his son could turn out to be that instrument.
As always with Barclay, various characters are found to be not what they seemed, several trifling incidents turn out to be vitally important for the denouement and the pace of the action intensifies towards the end.
I feel that to reveal more would compromise your enjoyment of this novel.
I do recommend it wholeheartedly as it gripped me so well that I read it in less than three days!