Publisher's Weekly Review of "Who Is the Liar"

Who Is the Liar

Laura Lee Bahr. Little A, $16.99 trade paper (284p) ISBN 978-1-6625-2903-0

Bahr (Haunt) makes the most of a devilish premise in this addictive 1980s-set thriller. At the outset, 10-year-old Topaz receives shocking news from her bullying older sister, Ruby, who claims she’s tracked down and captured a child serial killer that local media has nicknamed “the Beast.” The Beast, Ruby claims, is actually Brother Johnson—a pastor who teaches Topaz’s Sunday School classes—and she’s holding him captive in the basement of their home. Though Topaz suspects the often-deceitful Ruby is pulling her leg, she heads to the basement and finds Johnson bloodied and bruised with his hands and feet bound together. Johnson insists on his innocence and implores Topaz to free him, but she can’t bring herself to oblige. She’s forced, in the following days, to guard Ruby’s secret and decide whether she should let her sister starve Johnson to death or risk unleashing a dangerous criminal. Bahr keeps her cards close to the vest, gleefully toying with reader expectations via the first-person perspective of her young and conflicted protagonist. This one’s difficult to put down. Agent: Priya Doraswamy, Lotus Literary. (Aug.)

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