Roy is not too hard on the eyes for a man in his 80’s.  He can carry on a friendly conversation and he knows how to put someone at ease.  When he meets Betty through an online dating service, that is exactly what Betty see’s in Roy.  A nice polite older man that she would not mind spending time with. In fact, much to Betty’s family surprise, Roy is soon living with her.

There is of course more to Roy than meets the eye.  Roy is a long time con artist.  He has spent a lifetime of finding ways to separate people from their money and if he does say so himself, he is good at it.  Betty is financially set and thankfully Roy thinks, she is not a bad looking woman for her age which is a little bonus while he works his way into her finances.

Betty is just happy to have someone to spend her golden years with.  She is willing to overlook the little things, like the mess that Roy makes just about every time he uses the bathroom, or how he disappears to take long walks when ever she is cleaning up around the house, and even how her grandson has a feeling that something about Roy isn’t quite on the up and up…

 

 

 

Words that come to mind:  Disconcerting, page turner, twisted.

Entering in to the pages of The Good Liar I felt I had an idea of what it was about and where it would go.

I was wrong.

While I encountered a story of deception and lies, I truly had no idea as to what length this would go in.  Roy is one of those people that ooze dishonesty.  He truly is a perfect unlikable character.  He has no qualms in who he hurts to achieve his goals and is one of those people who for the most part remain emotionless.  I am pretty sure there were many parts of this book I real with a scowl on my face.  Boo! Bad guy!  Boo!

But…

there is more to this story.

I found the book to be engaging.  I turned the pages quickly wondering where the story would go.  As the story unfolds many of the chapters take you back in time to Roy in previous years, in previous scams…. some of these chapters in the way they were written I found to be a bit choppy.  The time line was not always disclosed and especially in the earlier chapters as I was getting a feel for the read, I found it would take me a page or two into a chapter t get where this was taking place and when.  As I tend to like a faster paced read (mostly), there were parts of this book that felt as though it was more wordy than it needed to be.   That said, I still found The Good Liar to be worth my time.  It is the type of story that you hear about happening in real life; however I have never read any fiction based on this story line.

That, I found refreshing.

 

 

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper (February 2, 2016)

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for allowing me to

spend time in a bit of a twisty turny world of Roy and Betty.