Logan’s edge-of-your-seat suspense novel keeps the reader guessing what comes next in the mystery.
T. M. Logan
Novel | 432 Pages | 6.4” x 9.3” | Reviewed: Digital ARC
9781250182265| First Edition | $27.99
St. Martin’s Press | New York City | BUY HERE
One of the most common tropes in media is the “woman scorned” storyline. It’s common because it’s a real-life problem to which many people can relate, so it’s a way to feel emotionally connected to a story. But as common as this is, the flip side of the “scorned man” is not explored as much in movies or literature. This is a side that T. M. Logan delves into in the book Lies.
“Would things have turned out differently if I’d just driven home?”
Meet Joe Lynch, a happily married father living a perfectly normal life. He’s not an ambitious man, content in a part-time teaching job and with his wife, Mel, and his young son, William. His perfect idyllic life comes to a crashing halt on a normal Thursday afternoon when his son spots his wife’s car driving to a hotel where she shouldn’t be. Making a snap decision to follow her, Joe sets himself on a path that threatens not only his happy marriage but his very life.
Joe is thrown into a world where he doesn’t know truth from lies and has no way to find any answers. The only clues he has are mysterious messages from Ben, the wealthy businessman whom his wife met at the hotel. She swears that the meeting was for perfectly innocent reasons. Soon, however, stories become unraveled, revealing the harsh reality of infidelity and obsession that can destroy everything Joe knows.
“We were in uncharted territory: my marriage was shipwrecked, and I had been washed up on some strange shore where I didn’t speak the language.”
In one week, Joe’s life takes a drastic turn. Trying to salvage the scraps of his marriage, he’s also contending with Ben stalking him and making threats. But at the same time, Ben has disappeared and is presumed dead, with Joe being the only one still in contact with him. More and more it seems like Joe is being framed for a crime he didn’t commit and he’s sure didn’t even happen.
Twists and turns fill almost every page of this book. The story starts off very simple, almost plain. Things change early on with a confrontation between Joe and Ben and don’t stop until the very end of the book when the final twist is revealed. This is a story that keeps the reader guessing to the point where no one is quite sure what is happening or what is coming. This edge-of-your seat suspense is quite an accomplishment for a mystery novel.
Morgan creates a compelling story here with a twist on a familiar idea. Maybe this version, with the man being cast in the role of scorned lover, isn’t explored as much because it’s seen as a slight against masculinity, but it’s refreshing to see a story where the tables have turned. The action doesn’t revolve around the “wrong, crazy, hysterical” woman dealing with infidelity, but takes a deeper look at what happens when the perfect life isn’t what it seems.
