Critical Review: "The Good Lie" by A. R. Torre

Quick Summary

Type: Novel

Genre: Thriller

Back Cover: "Six teens murdered. A suspect behind bars. A desperate father. In a case this shadowy, the truth is easy to hide.

Psychiatrist Dr. Gwen Moore is an expert on killers. She's spent a decade treating California's most depraved predators and unlocking their motives - predators much like the notorious Bloody Heart serial killer, whose latest teenage victim escaped and then identified local high school teacher Randall Thompson as his captor. The case against Thompson as the Bloody Heart Killer is damning - and closed, as far as Gwen and the media are concerned. If not for one new development...

Defense attorney Robert Kavin is a still-traumatized father whose own son fell prey to the BH Killer. Convinced of Thompson's innocence, he steps in to represent him. Now Robert wants Gwen to interview the accused, create a psych profile of the killer and his victims, and help clear his client's name.

As Gwen and Robert grow closer and she dives deeper into the investigation, grave questions arise. So does Gwen's suspicion that Robert is hiding something - and that he might not be the only one with a secret."

Read Time: 2 days

Rating: 1.25 stars

Review

After reading and enjoying a trashy thriller (The Ex) I thought I would enjoy another trashy thriller. But I didn't. The word that best describes this thriller is 'contrived'. The plot was just so busy. I thought I would get a story in which a psychiatrist and lawyer team up to find the real killer. But for most of the story, that's not at all what they do. Gwen thinks a lot about sex with Robert (like, a lot) and occasionally thinks about the BH Killer and her actual job building a profile for the killer and Robert's defense of the accused person. Robert's inaction I can forgive a little more, given the twist at the end. But Gwen does absolutely nothing. There's no following of clues at all. And honestly, there's no tenseness for a lot of the story. And the payoff, the moment we discover the true killer's identity - a complete accident. That's right, people completely unrelated to the story accidentally discover the killer's lair, and realize that the real BH killers are already dead. The reveal was completely unearned - so much so that the POV character for the reveal was an inconsequential real estate agent.

In my mind, the only redeeming part of this story was the victim's mother's POV. I actually found her chapters tense, mysterious, and engaging. I honestly wish the author had focused more on that story.

It helps that the mother's (Nita's) chapters were the only chapters where I felt the author knew what they were talking about. With Gwen's and Robert's chapters, I felt like the focus was on personal issues (like their sex lives and emotional turmoil) not because that was more interesting, but because the author had no clue how to write about psychology or law. When the author tried, the effort fell flat and I couldn't quite buy that that either of these two characters were top professionals in their respective fields.

And like I said earlier, there is just so much in this plot that the plot becomes tiring. Part of the problem is that some of story is taken up by Gwen's sessions. Some sessions are conveniently useful, while others are completely pointless. But I think I would have been more interested in the story if it had focused more on Gwen's construction of the profile and her slow realization that one of her clients matched it. The information she got from the conveniently useful sessions could have been gleaned in other ways.