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    The Good Liar: A Novel
    The Good Liar: A Novel
    The Good Liar: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Good Liar: A Novel

    Written by Nicholas Searle

    Narrated by Matthew Brenher

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Spinning a page-turning story of literary suspense that begins in the present and unwinds back more than half a century, this unforgettable debut channels the haunting allure of Atonement as its masterfully woven web of lies, secrets, and betrayals unravels to a shocking conclusion.

    Veteran con artist Roy spots an obvious easy mark when he meets Betty, a wealthy widow, online. In no time at all, he’s moved into Betty’s lovely cottage and is preparing to accompany her on a romantic trip to Europe. Betty’s grandson disapproves of their blossoming relationship, but Roy is sure this scheme will be a success. He knows what he’s doing.

    As this remarkable feat of storytelling weaves together Roy’s and Betty’s futures, it also unwinds their pasts. Dancing across almost a century, decades that encompass unthinkable cruelty, extraordinary resilience, and remarkable kindness, The Good Liar is an epic narrative of sin, salvation, and survival—and for Roy and Betty, there is a reckoning to be made when the endgame of Roy’s crooked plot plays out.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 2, 2016
    ISBN9780062444875
    Author

    Nicholas Searle

    Nicholas Searle grew up in the southwest of England and studied languages at the University of Bath. He spent more years than he cares to remember in public service before deciding in 2011 to leave and begin writing fiction. The Good Liar is his first novel. Nicholas lives in the north of England.

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    Reviews for The Good Liar

    3.5/5

    94 ratings13 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Roy has a history of duping people out of their money. He’s now in his eighties, and has set himself up with Betty, a rather gullible but affluent elderly woman. He just wants to be taken care of. But inwardly, he wants one more big fling; one more big con. Betty’s grandson, Stephen, doesn’t like Roy and suspects he’s up to no good.The author methodically creates a man who is able to give readers the creeps. Searle peels back the layers of this man piece by piece, going from his most recent past to his early past. Yet he never lets us forget the present time – what is Roy planning now that he has successfully weaved his way into Betty’s life?Present tense was used for some of the scenes which had existed in the past. If this was purposefully done, I thought it a bit odd. The characters were fascinating and well crafted, but I had a difficult time relating to any of them. The mood of the storyline was dark and foreboding. Yet, curiosity carries the reader forth to a rather satisfying ending. Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
    • 4/5
      "We die of old age from the inside out, rotting gradually as we get older."Roy, an octogenarian con man is looking to make one final coup. He meets septuagenarian Betty through a dating app and intends to defraud her of he life savings. But is Betty as naïve as she seems?It is hard to say too much about this book without giving the ending away. Enough to say that the book follows Roy’s attempt to con Betty interspersed with time shifts to his eventful and somewhat nefarious past. In some respects this a hard book to review. Roy's past is revealed bit by bit in reverse so each turn is fairly well signposted before hand yet I also really engaged with some parts of it. I quite liked the basic idea, some of the techniques used and I liked the ending even if I had worked out many aspects of it beforehand. However, I was expecting something like a Tom Ripley character, charming but ruthless, but frankly Roy just wasn't that likeable and lacked any real menace. Ultimately I found this an engaging but flawed novel. In the end felt that it read rather more like Tessa de Loo's 'Twins' than Ms Highsmith's renowned novel. However I would still read another book by this author. Now I'm off to see the movie.
    • 2/5
      Found this a little slow and an end twist you could see coming if you looked. Not recommended though I hear it's about to become a movie.
    • 4/5
      This is the story or Roy Courtney an elderly Conman who meets Betty. Roy is after her money, Betty isn't to gullible though and is planning to do the same to Roy. The book jumps back and forth to when Roy is a young man and tells the story of earlier con tricks. Roy is actually Hans who was young German informant just before the outbreak of World War II. He reported the Schroder family a wealthy family with 4 daughters and his own Parents. It was bleak for people who got reported to the Gestapo. The youngest Schroder girl survived the war and made it all the way to her 80s she was now known as Betty, she planned the whole thing with a bit of help to bring down Roy. Beat him at his own game. Good book easy to follow, I guessed the outcome quite early but I still enjoyed this story.
    • 3/5
      I had trouble following this book at the beginning. The middle really picked up. I'm still not sure about the ending. It left me dissatisfied.
    • 3/5
      Nicholas Searle’s debut novel is simultaneously unsettling and gripping. Roy is an elderly gentleman with firm ideas about how things should be done. Betty is younger but widowed, and already retired from her academic job. They meet through an online dating agency and seem to get on well. So well, in fact, that within a very short time Roy has moved into Betty’s house, to the slight consternation of her family.Roy divulges very little of his earlier life to Betty, though it gradually emerges that he has a past … in fact, several pasts. Alternating chapters in the book take us steadily further back in his life, revealing a history of dodgy deals and a career of opportunism and seized chances.Searle develops the tension adeptly, toying with the reader’s sympathy so that it switches to and fro between Betty and Roy. In addition to the carefully constructed plot, the book also offers a sensitive (yet also humorous) portrayal of ageing, and a rogue’s reluctant acknowledgement of the gradual curtailing of his powers.
    • 4/5
      Outstandingly well-plotted debut novel with a thoroughly reprehensible and unreliable narrator: the eponymous hero, Roy Courtney. Starting from today and the set up of a con on Betty, the back story of the main characters is interleaved in alternating chapters. The twist can be deduced by the reader, but sublimely we are ahead of the characters, so even guessing whodunit does not diminish the reveal. I look forward to more reads from this author.
    • 4/5
      The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle is a 2016 Harper publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I’m still at a loss for words here in regards to this book. Categorized as a mystery thriller, I was ready to dive into a what seemed like a good, complex, and smart novel. All of those elements are here, but I must warn anyone interested in this title, that this book is nothing like the typical suspense thriller. If you are looking for a run of the mill whodunit, or even the usual murder mystery with a psychological thriller element, you will not find that here. It started off with what is obviously a swindle type set up by an aging con, who calls himself, Roy, looking for enough cash to see him through his final years comfortably. His target: Betty, a financially comfortable widow he meets online, hoping to rob her of her life savings. The only trouble he foresees is her grandson, who keeps a close eye on her, making his plan a bit risky. But, once he has ensconced himself in Betty’s home, the game moves along quite smoothly for old Roy and so the author gives us a bit of Roy’s history to keep us entertained while Roy sets his plans to rob Betty in motion. I must admit, I really, really, really struggled with this book all the way up to about the sixty percent mark. Roy’s incredible past, which is repugnant to say the very least, alternates alongside the present day swindles he is cooking up for poor Betty. I knew there had to be a reason for this trip back through history, but it just wasn’t adding up for me. To say this novel is understated is, well, an understatement. However, once the fog began to thin out, the story flowed much easier and moved along at a slightly faster pace, and as a result it held my attention. Still, the author doesn’t get in any hurry about explaining things or locking in the final pieces to the puzzle. Typically, this ploy works very well when ratcheting up the suspense level, but frankly, that gimmick fizzles here because by the time I got to the really good part, I was already more than a little exasperated at the pacing, so I was tired of playing coy and wanted him to just spit it out, in order to finally be done with it. Because I was expecting something entirely different when I started this book, I was taken off guard by it, which is what lead to my overall frustration with it, but the concept is not lost on me now that I have completed the book. Despite moving at a snail’s pace, it is a very clever plot, written in such a way that the reader doesn’t guess at the outcome early on, and looking back on it now, I see the genius in writing it this way. So, now that all is said and done, my feelings are a little conflicted. I understand the slow pacing now, but still think it went on far too long. But, despite having to wade through murky water, the wait was worthwhile. I can’t lay out the plot, or go into the characterizations in detail because to do so would give too much away. I wasn’t sure what to think about the choices made by some of the characters, but in the end I was pleased with the result.If you decide to give this book a try, exercise patience, and stick with it all the way to the end, and don’t give up on it. This is certainly a well thought out novel, and one that had me thinking over the details long after I had turned the final page. In hindsight, I have respect for the layout, am impressed with the details, and maybe, someday, now that my attitude towards the book is much improved, I may even attempt to re-read it with a more positive perspective going in. Overall this one gets 4 stars
    • 4/5
      Roy Courtnay has been working one scam or another all his life. Now in his mid-70s he’s turned his hand to internet dating as a way to prey on wealthy widows. When he meets Betty she seems just his type—pretty and a bit ditzy. He provides her with welcome companionship and even opens up with his own concerns about his pension and how to stay financially afloat in these trying times. Does she ever worry about such things? Thankfully, he has a very good investment advisor who can help them both, but only to talk; he would never dream of interfering in her finances. Roy is The Good Liar, Nicholas Searle’s eponymous debut novel. As his plan progresses, we come to see, in chapter that go as far back as the 1930s, that whatever lies Roy is telling now they don’t compare to his truth.Searle sets up The Good Liar as seamlessly as Roy does his con. Very little in the opening chapters are as they appear, but just as a good grifter gently lures their mark into compliance so Searle does with pages that blend small glimpses of honesty with life’s trivialities. Modern technology is confusing, the old days were better, joints ache, as does loneliness. It isn’t until the pages of the past assert themselves and begin to form a more complete picture that doesn’t mesh with Roy’s description of his “humdrum” life that the reader gets an idea of just how far the game reaches. With no way of seeing what we see, it seems likely that the guileless Betty is bait for the shark that is Roy.The genius of The Good Liar is in the fact that even for skeptics or the readers who figure out everything early, it doesn’t matter because the key characters do not. And so, there is the building tension that someone (but who?) is going to be very unhappily surprised by the end. Searle builds the suspense beyond the current mystery  with the lives lived by Roy and Betty. In moving from now back to then, he makes the past more critical to the future than the present and makes The Good Liar anything but a con game.
    • 5/5
      Roy has been a con man for much of his life. It comes natural to him. He’s good at it and he enjoys his work. However, Roy, now in his 80s, decides it’s time to retire from the con game — but he wants to pull off one last job. All he needs is to find a wealthy widow.Roy’s life story unfolds backwards, decades at a time, alternating with his plan to con Betty, a woman that he met on an internet dating site, out of her life savings. But Betty seems a bit too easy a mark. Her grandson, who you would expect to be protecting her, goes along with her relationship with Roy a little too easily. Soon it becomes apparent that Betty has a hidden agenda of her own.While this was not a fast-paced novel, I still found it gripping. As the story progressed, the tension increased. It took a little more work to follow than a linear story, and it wasn’t always immediately evident where we were heading and the significance of newly introduced characters, but it was worth the effort. I often found myself reading a little slower than usual so as not to miss any detail — there were many clues as to where this story was heading. The flow could have been a little smoother, but overall this was a great story with a satisfying ending.
    • 4/5
      The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle is a highly recommended novel of suspense, secrets, and betrayals.

      Roy Courtnay has met his latest target through a dating website and is having lunch with Betty McLeish, a wealthy widow. As the novel unfolds it becomes unmistakable that Roy, a lifelong confidence man now in his eighties, has chosen Betty as his latest and last target and plans to try and swindle or deceive her in some way. Quickly he inserts himself into Betty's life and moves in with her.

      Roy's intentions are not good. This is distinctly evident because most of the novel deals with Roy's life. Searle alternates chapters from the present day with Roy and Betty to Roy's past, starting with the more recent past and going back in time. Roy's character, or lack thereof, is clearly portrayed over time. He is a con artist, but he is also a sociopath. The lies he has told are enumerated, his manipulation of others is revealed, his ill-intentions over the years are uncovered, and the scams he has pulled over the years are disclosed.

      But Betty, when talking to Stephen, her grandson, makes remarks that leave subtle hints of an agenda of her own. It is not until Roy's story goes back far enough that Betty's hidden agenda is disclosed.

      There is suspense in the present day story with Roy and Betty, but most of the novel is a character study of Roy while it divulges his past sins and schemes. The structure of The Good Liar, telling Roy's life story while moving back in time, is clever and interesting, but it started to drag-out too long for me and made the pace feel too slow. For me, the chapters dealing with Roy's past schemes could have been abbreviated and I would still have the information I needed about his character.

      I found the current day situation between Roy and Betty much more intriguing than the numerous cons in Roy's past. However, the ending is well worth the wait and the final revelations are unexpected. Betty is the far more interesting character, but we learn so little about her until the end.

      The writing is quite good in this debut novel. Fans of historical fiction may also enjoy this novel of suspense because of the flashbacks in time in Roy's life.

      Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher and TLC for review purposes.

    • 3/5
      It was a disappointingly slow start, but the character of Roy began to grow on me.
      His interesting life meandered backwards and forwards, but all in all it was a good read.
      I was given a digital copy of this story by the publisher Viking via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
    • 5/5
      The Good Liar – A Great Debut ThrillerNicholas Searle makes his debut with the much spoken about book The Good Liar a book that will grip you and horrify you in equal measure, but make you smile at the end. This book could also be described as the continuing fight of good versus evil; a good heart verses a dark heart, which makes for an intriguing read and a quite compulsive thriller.Roy has been a conman for as long as he can remember, his working life since the war has been about grifting, it is something he is good at. He likes the long con, none of this modern internet con with Roy, he likes to pick his mark, set up a team and take the con to its conclusion and a payoff for himself.Roy is setting up his final con, he has his mark and he is going to meet a beautiful widow, he hopes to woo and then take her life savings while disappearing in to the sunset for the final time. His mark is Betty a widow, and she is pleased to have met Roy, a man in his eighties, a tall smart man, and she is a few years younger than him.As we see Roy build up Betty for the con, we also get to travel back to see what made Roy become a trickster and how he has managed to get away with things all his life. We see that Roy does not really look back at those who he has fleeced in his quest for money, they are dead to him. What we get are his cons in England and the reader works back to Germany pre-war and sees what makes Roy tick. The book also asks us has Roy really done all his homework on this con, has he really prepared his path to walk away with the money.There is plenty of dry humour within the book especially as we see that Betty is not quite the easy target that Roy thinks she is. What we find that the aging process has not been kind to Roy or his body and so what he thinks may be a perfect plan may not be as perfect as he thinks. What drives the reader is whether or not Roy will succeed and what will happen to Betty afterwards.The great thing about this thriller is that Nicolas Searle leaves just enough crumbs in the plot for the reader to have a wow moment as the various strands of the story and flashbacks come together for the final time. What helps draw the reader in is the author’s use of prose and how he uses it to create a brilliant romp across the years. The underlying question of examining good versus evil asks some painful questions, especially when looking back at events from history and one of its darkest periods. What we get is that cruelty and compassion can be strange bedfellows that should never work. But in The Good Liar is works and is magnificent.Nicolas Searle has written a stunning debut that delivers a wonderful romp across the years, in an entertaining read. I actually read this in one sitting so gripped was I by the story, the thrills and wanting to see how the story ends, and asks are there any real winners. The twist and turns help to make this a truly engrossing read.