Linwood Barclay's books are a pleasure to read with all it's twists and turns. The Lie Maker is a story of Jack Givens budding author with two books in his kitty and his third not getting a publisher yet. While struggling with this new book, he gets an offer from U.S. Marshals which is too good to refuse. This is where starts the chase to find his dad who was also taken a years ago by the U.S. Marshals.

As always, Barclays books pull you into the book from the very first page. With every page turn, we get to know more about Jack and his girlfriend Lana Wiltshire. The chapters are narrated by Jack interspersed with an unknown voice. The beginning of the book is slow but soon picks up the pace as we near around 30%. The ending of the book is absolutely thrilling; one would be sitting literally at the edge of the seat. It has a small pool of characters but none were as interesting to hold the reader's attention. The plot came with a lots of twists and red herrings. Compared to Barclays's previous books this had a little less joy, but I will be waiting for author's next book.

My rating is 3.5 stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and HQ for the copy of the review copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed the suspense and intrigue in this one. Linwood Barclay has nailed the art of writing books that make you speed read as you just have to know what happens next. I flew through this one with its gripping narrative and likeable main character.

Jack is an author whose career seems to have stalled, and he takes on a job as a 'lie maker' for witness protection. I found this angle fascinating, and I enjoyed seeing how the process might work.

If you are looking for fast paced, twisty and entertaining, then I'd highly recommend The Lie Maker to you.

Another solid book from Linwood Barclay. Having read many of his previous books, and I do call myself a fan, I would say that this isn't quite as strong as predecessors.

The plot is decent, and the characters are well developed as always. However, there weren't as many surprise twists, and I found the few twists were more predictable than usual. I also felt that there was a little too much over explaining (tell rather than show type writing) and it meant I was making links and connections in my head only to be told them explicitly in the next few pages. I prefer working it out myself and things being alluded to than being told every single detail.

But, all in all, a good time and enjoyable book. Received as an eARC via Netgalley.

I gave The Lie Maker 3.5 stars out of 5.

By the end I did enjoy this book overall but after an engaging opening, I felt it got a bit slow for much of the story. It felt like a very long, substantial book - I read it on my kindle so not too sure- and because the middle chunk of it was slow it took me ages to get through it. The storyline of the main character, Jack, developing fictional life histories for people living in a witness protection programme was very original and interesting so I liked this aspect.

I was looking forward to reading it as I’ve read a couple of Linwood Barclay books before and really enjoyed them. I just felt this one dragged a bit too much for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for providing an advance copy in return for my honest opinion. I have also published this review on Goodreads.

An interesting story with good pace and some unpredictable twists, as a writer tries to find his true father and some unexplained deaths are uncovered. Very tense and exciting finish!

I am a huge Linwood Barclay fan; whatever this man writes, I will read! So to say I was pleased when I was offered an ARC copy is definitely an understatement. However, this one did not captivate me as his novels usually do.

To be completely transparent, I was recovering from a few months of sickness, so it’s possible that my head was not in the right space. It’s a shame that reviews are limited by the timeframe in which you read a book, because we all know that our opinions can be influenced by outside factors. So yes, please do keep that in mind when reading this review, because I was left quite disappointed.

Jack Givins’ has grown up knowing the reason his father was taken into witness protection was that he had killed people. Now as an adult, he’s found himself with his own struggles, mainly how far he can stretch his royalty cheque to before things get really desperate. So when he’s approached by the U.S. Marshals with a unique job opportunity, he can’t really turn them down. Will this be his opportunity to reconnect to his lost past, and maybe see his father again?

I really loved the concept of the novel, but I found it very slow to engage me. It did pick up; however, it wasn’t until probably half way through that I actually found myself wanting to know about Jack’s story, and by then, the damage was done as the boredom had set in.

Personally, I just feel it lacked the intensity and suspense you would normally find in a Barclay novel, and I didn’t find myself having any real emotional connection to the characters until it was really too late. Unusually, I found it over descriptive and a little stale, where I was being given way too much of the information I didn’t want, and nothing of what I did.

The Lie Maker does not have the spark of his older novels, and I’d rather wait longer for a really good read, rather than him churning out mediocre stories to hit faster deadlines, as this was nowhere near the quality I expect from him.

I found it lacklustre, predictable and really disappointing.

Jack knows his father is a bad man because he tells him, just as he is taken away into witness protection. Years later when Jack is writing back stories for people who need to be protected he sees this as a way of reconnecting with his dad. But he has just gone missing and has a lot of enemies as Jack will find out. Not all as it seems which is a trope of the Barclay novels - super plotting and pacy writing pulls you through this excellent thriller

This book was everything I've come to expect from the author, fast paced, realistic, high octane thrills. Following dual timelines and multiple points of view we follow several people impacted by a hitman and his boss over 30 years later.

With several links to witness protection and a child feeling the weight of his father's decisions I was hooked from the beginning. I would highly recommend this book and others from the same author.

Thoroughly enjoyed this read. It was fast paced and with enough action to keep the plot moving along. I thought the concept was quite unique (but no spoilers). Witness protection and all the emotions, feelings, resentments etc that goes along with that makes this a compelling read. Covid was intertwined and , in the way Linwood Barclay always does, other seemingly unrelated incidents slot fully inot the final reaveal.
I read this quickly and enjoyed every second.

The second half of this book I couldn't put down! I was fully invested, it was like a John Wick film, but instead of revenge for killing his dog he's helping his son save his girlfriend. However, I've got to admit Jack was a pretty stupid guy, it was kind of obvious who you couldn't trust in this book, although their reasoning for wanting revenge wasn't immediately clear to me so some twists did land! Overall I did enjoy it though. I've read Linwood Barclay before and I will do so again!

Linwood Barclay has been one of my favourite authors for many years and apart from one particular book I have never come away feeling disappointed after reading his books. This one was no exception.
Jack Givins (an author) obtains a very lucrative job writing fabricated back stories for people in the witness protection system. This then makes him wonder if he can trace his father who left 10 year old Jack and his mother to enter said system.
Unfortunately, everything and everyone is not what they seem and it’s not just Jack that’s trying to track down his father. Lots of twists and turned as per usual in this thoroughly enjoyable book.

Would highly recommend this book, it is a must read , loved it from start to finish. Have read other books by this author and they just get better and better , so many twists and turns and brilliant characters you just can’t put the books down , right to the end you are surprised, just loved this book.

I have read several of Linwood Barclay's previous books and found them pacy, engaging reads. This book, which I received as an ARC, was just as I'd expected. The narrative in this book passes between Jack and various other individuals to whom he's connected, but it's not so much Jack's story that is being told here as that of his father (a hit man who has been living under an assumed identity since Jack was small) and of the families of Jack's father's victims. Hard to say more without revealing key elements of the plot. The version I received had some strange formatting issues which made it a little hard to follow at times but it was otherwise a well-written and well-delivered concept

This was a great story that kept me on the edge the whole way through. Some good characters and a compelling storyline. The conclusion was something else and totally enexpected.

Linwood Barclay is in my top 5 fave authors, I’ve read all his books and am obsessed and with this one again it’s easy to see why! Another original plot, fabulously thrilling twists and turns and the person you always think did it never does it! I am very tired after staying up to finish it but don’t regret a thing. Auto buy author that should be on your list too for completely unique gripping thrillers that will have you hooked!

Another gripping thriller from Linwood Barclay, full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing till the end.. Very good characters especially Jack and Lana. I would highly recommend this book. Thank you HQ and Netgalley for this ARC.

I loved this one and in the interests of full disclosure I'm a bit of a fan of the works of Linwood Barclay.

A thriller written from the perspective of the various characters dating back to a time when the father of our main character has to go to witness protection after giving evidence against his former boss.

While there are many twists and turns throughout I was about two thirds of the way through when I had fathomed what was happening however it was still an extremely enjoyable read.

I can recommend this to anyone familiar with and who enjoys the writing of Linwood Barclay or to anyone who hasn't read previous books but enjoys a good thriller.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my advance copy for review purposes.

Many thanks to NetGalley, HQ and Linwood Barclay for my ARC of 'The Lie Maker' in return for an honest review.

Jack, a struggling author is recruited by the US Marshalls to create background stories for people going into witness protection. Jack knows his father went into witness protection and views this as a means to find his father.

An absolutely brilliant twist storyline which kept me engrossed from beginning to end. This is my first read of this author but will not be my last.

Brilliant and highly recommended.

A cleverly multi-layered plot with fast, tense action! This book kept me enthralled following along the racy pace, never knowing who to trust.

This story has several timelines - Jack as a young child at the time his father disappeared; the build up to dad’s disappearance and the present time.

As the settings moved around, I found myself travelling with the story and experienced every nuance of the senses alongside Jack and Lana.

Despite there being a lot of characters in the book, it was never difficult to place them as they were richly brought to life, authentic and well-rounded, each with their own backstories, not seemingly connected.

I found myself rooting for Jack and also developed an affinity for Lana, his journalist girlfriend.

Each time I suspected people, I was thrown and the plot twisted more than a corkscrew and filled with lies and surprises.

It is an action-packed thriller with considerable danger and pulse raising action, particularly in the second half of the novel.

Jack Givens was only 9 when his father, a hit man, went into Witness Protection. Jack's mother refused to join her husband therefore Jack was brought up without seeing his father again. Jack is now an author but is struggling to get his latest book published. He's approached by Gwen, a US Marshall who asks if he'd be interested in writing back stories for people going into the Witness Protection programme. Jack sees this as an opportunity to try and track down his father.
I thought this was an interesting, though unlikely, premise and did enjoy reading the book which had a few twists and turns along the way as is usual with Linwood Barclay's books. However I almost gave up reading as the formatting of the book was all over the place. The publisher's name kept appearing sometimes more than once on the page. The font kept changing from very small to large with gaps in the sentences. Not a good reading experience!