First Lie Wins Book Review

This book proves that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Just when you think you have it all figured out, a curve ball is thrown to prove that you don’t. There are layers to this book that all come together masterfully in the end.

If it weren’t for the book’s summary, one would think that Evie was just a woman running away from something in her past. We’re thrown into her already established relationship with Ryan Sumner as they’re getting ready to throw a dinner party for Ryan’s friends who are meeting Evie for the first time. While the dinner party is mostly a success, one of Ryan’s friends is suspicious of Evie. For me, this made me establish sympathy for Evie almost immediately. Fortunately, we do get a glimpse into who the woman actually is and how she came into the work she does.

The story goes back and forth between who Evie is now and who she’s been in the past, including her original identity. It’s through these glimpses into her past that we learn two things: how she got into this business and her true motivation to continue. To be quite honest, I found her motivation to be a bit underwhelming. I don’t want to give anything away, but she’s been so far removed from her original identity that living forever as someone completely different wouldn’t exactly be hard for her to do. We end up learning that another person in her line of business can’t get out of it because of a threat over her sister. That seems like higher stakes than Evie’s.

As the story progresses, little twists pop up that throw Evie off her game. She’s decided that she wants to uncover who Mr. Smith is so that she can get out from under his thumb and it often feels like he’s one step ahead of her throwing her curve balls until she decides to use some of those curve balls to her advantage. What I appreciate about this part of the story is that only enough information is provided to clue us in to what’s going on, but the important pieces are revealed in one shocking go that I’m pretty sure made my jaw drop just a little.

“The first lie has to be the strongest. The most important. The one that has to be told. The only one who cares about me is me.”

In the end, Evie exposes Mr. Smith and everything that we learn about Evie’s past is masterfully leveraged in her present in such a way that allows her to accomplish her true mission of getting out from under his thumb. She does make a sacrifice to get there, but it’s a sacrifice worth making. There’s only one part of the ending that I didn’t particularly care for, but it does allow her to get the life she was envisioning for herself.

First Lie Wins is one of the best thrillers I’ve read in a while. It’s fast paced, action packed, and suspenseful with twists I didn’t see coming. I was thoroughly impressed once I finished reading because I feel like there are so many thrillers out there that it’s difficult to find one that actually thrills. This is one thriller that’s definitely worth the read.