Every Last Lie Book Review

Every Last Lie: Book Review by Dinh.

Synopsis:

Clara Solberg’s world shatters when her husband and their four-year-old daughter are in a car crash, killing Nick while Maisie is remarkably unharmed. The crash is ruled an accident…until the coming days, when Maisie starts having night terrors that make Clara question what really happened on that fateful afternoon.

Tormented by grief and her obsession that Nick’s death was far more than just an accident, Clara is plunged into a desperate hunt for the truth. Who would have wanted Nick dead? And, more important, why? Clara will stop at nothing to find out—and the truth is only the beginning of this twisted tale of secrets and deceit.

Told in the alternating perspectives of Clara’s investigation and Nick’s last months leading up to the crash, master of suspense Mary Kubica weaves her most chilling thriller to date—one that explores the dark recesses of a mind plagued by grief and shows that some secrets might be better left buried.

Synopsis from hardcover book, 331 pages, copyright 2017 and published by Park Row Books.

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Review:

I was so looking forward to read Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica because I loved her first book The Good Girl, which was very good! (Pun intended).  Don’t You Cry, her third book was also enjoyable, though not as excellent as the first. Kubica’s second book, Pretty Baby, is on my to read list.

So going in I had high expectations.

With Every Last Lie I was expecting and looking forward to a great twisty plot and a great ending.

What did I get? A big fat disappointment. Her latest book could not be anymore disappointing.

Here’s why!

Plot

I liked the plot. It’s a straight forward premise with the question of who killed Nick? 

Nick gets killed in a car accident and it’s ruled as an accident from driving too fast. His wife Clara doesn’t think it’s an accident and puts all her effort into finding out the truth about his death.

Author’s Style

Kubica has good writing style so no complaints there.

“The grief comes at me in many ways.

I spend my mornings with sadness, my evenings in melancholy. In private, I cry. I can’t bring myself to confess to Maisie why Nick is not here, and so I’ve taken to lying, to telling the girl who stands before me with pining eyes that her father has run out, that he’s on an errand, that he’s at work.”

There’s good flow and suspense in most of her work and Every Little Lie has it too.

What worked in this psychological thriller is that it’s told with alternating viewpoints: Nick Before and Clara.This works really well as we get parts of the story a bit at a time.

There’s a build up of suspense as the new info gives the reader more to chew on. There are people that you introduced to: the neighbor, Nick’s friend and colleague Connor, Izzy the healthcare worker who could be possible suspects.

The buildup in suspense is well paced and good, with the mystery is not explained until at the end.

Characters

• Nick Solberg

I liked Nick’s character. Nick’s perspective adds an interesting viewpoint.

Nick is a good guy but circumstances changes and his luck begins to down the drain. From making one error (not telling his wife Clara about it), his situation is compounded by further events. He gets himself into more trouble and before you know it there’s not a solution at hand.

I did sympathize with Nick. He was doing his best to support his wife and kids.

It was his hopefulness that things will get better that got him into trouble.

• Clara Solberg

Well, Clara definitely gets the medal for the worse mother of the year! The things she does in the book to her children…

You do have to give her some slack because she has after-all lost her husband right when she just had a new baby. She’s grieving and not in the right state of mind.

I couldn’t get a good grasp on Clara’s personality as in most of the book she is paranoid. She is grieving and isn’t sleeping or eating so there’s an edge to her. Her state of mind determines what she is perceiving and most of the time it’s she’s suspicious of everyone.

Whilst I enjoyed the main characters, I felt that more was needed in developing supporting characters such as Clara’s mother and father, Connor and Izzy.

Ending

The ending was a big let down. The build up to the end was great but it was just not what I was expecting. I did not feel satisfied at the end and was annoyed with it.

I was waiting for the punchline that never came. I waited all the way to the epilogue… where’s my twist?!

In the end, it was an ending that surprised me, in a bad way!

The only positive thing at the end was how Clara finally tells the poor child where her daddy is.

My Final Thoughts

Kubica told a good story, one with the possibility of a murder. I felt that I had invested all that time into the book but only to be disappointed. How maddening is that? I gave the book a low rating because I felt I wasted my time reading the book and then not being satisfied at the end. I didn’t like the bitter taste it left!

If you are a fan of Mary Kubica, I would say to check it out, but otherwise if you’re new to her just read The Good Girl, it’s her best book!

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