Review: Truth-Stained Lies by Terri Blackstock
When truth doesn’t make sense, will lies prevail? Cathy Cramer is a former lawyer and investigative blogger who writes commentary on high-profile homicides. When she finds a threatening note warning her that she’s about to experience the same kind of judgment and speculation that she dishes out in her blog, Cathy writes it off as mischief . . . until her brother’s wife is murdered and all the ‘facts’ point to him. The killer has staged the crime to make the truth too far-fetched to believe. Working to solve the murder and clear her brother’s name, Cathy and her two sisters, Holly and Juliet, moonlight as part-time private investigators. Juliet, a stay-at-home mom of two boys, and Holly, a scattered ne’er-do-well who drives a taxi, put aside their fear to hunt down the real killer. Stakes rise when their brother’s grieving five-year-old son is kidnapped. As police focus on the wrong set of clues, the three sisters and their battered detective friend are the only hope for solving this bizarre crime, saving the child, and freeing their brother.
I think this may have been my first Terri Blackstock book, though I know I have at least one other in the house [however, my TBR stack gets bigger and bigger… and there’s lots of books still in it… including that one…].
The book was more of a suspense with a bit of romance. Most suspense books I read tend toward “romantic suspense” where the two threads share more equal time. Regardless, I enjoyed Truth-Stained Lies and getting to know this family. It seems to be the first in a series and I hope to see future books and get to know them better.
The twists and turns will keep you guessing until the very end. I did guess “whodunit” fairly early on – it’s possible others could have guessed sooner, but I did pick it up on the first relatively big clue. Other twists kept me guessing until the very end.
I look forward to the next next release, Distortion, comes out next spring. It’s definitely on my “to look for on NetGalley” list!
Overall rating: 8.25 out of 10 stars