"Liar" by Jan Burke

This Irene Kelly mystery really kept me guessing.  I was quite convinced the whole way through that one character I really liked was going to end up being a villain because... that happens in a lot of series to new characters I like a lot.  Happily, Liar did not go that route.  In fact, I'm hoping this new character pops up again in later books. 

In Liar, Irene Kelly's aunt dies in a hit-and-run accident that turns out to have been a deliberate homicide.  Who would want to kill her reclusive, barely-making-ends-meet aunt?  That is the question!  And, suddenly, suspects come crawling out of the woodwork.  Was it Irene's cousin Travis, son of the dead woman, who lives in a purple camper and travels around telling stories to kids at libraries?  Was it the dead woman's brother-in-law who says he's had nothing to do with the family for years?  Was it a creepy private investigator who seems to be stalking Irene now, but was watching her aunt before she died?  Or was it one of the five other people with possible motives and less than stellar personalities/alibis?  

Yup, kept me guessing, like I said.  I never did figure it out before the reveal, which is how I prefer to experience mysteries.  No wonder I enjoyed it!

I also love that each Irene Kelly book takes place shortly after the previous one, so Irene and her husband Frank and the other recurring characters are still dealing with stuff that happened before.  They tie together really naturally that way, and I dig that.

Particularly Good Bits:

Trauma runs the marathon, not the fifty-yard dash (p. 90).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: R for bad language, violence, non-detailed descriptions of murder scenes, discussions of marital infidelity and illegitimate children, and mentions of child abuse.

This is my 27th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.