I received an ARC from NetGalley to read and review. The below is my honest, unbiased opinion. Thank you, Catherine Ryan Howard, the publisher, and NetGalley, for allowing me to review.

THE LIAR'S GIRL is a standalone psychological thriller written by Catherine Ryan Howard. Will Hurley is an attractive, charming, and impressive student at Dublin's elite St. John's College. He's also Ireland's more prolific serial killer. He stalks and drowns his young victims in the muddy waters of the Grand Canal. When he was nineteen, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, locked away in the city's Central Psychiatric Hospital.

Alison Smith is a freshman at St. John's, where she fell fast and hard for Will Hurley. Her best friend, Liz, was the latest victim of the Canal Killer, and she discovered the boy she'd been dating (and sleeping with) was the killer. Unable to come to terms with the twists and turns thrown into her world, Alison fled to the Netherlands and never looked back.

A decade later, a young woman is found in the Grand Canal, and detectives on the case question Will, hoping he will help them solve the copycat killing. Instead, Will offers a confession of his final secret, but there's a catch. He will only tell Alison, who has no intention of being dragged back into the life she ran away from. Reluctantly, she returns, discovering that Will's secret is far worse than anyone could have imagined.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. It was so good. It's perfect for fans of the television show THE FALL. Catherine Ryan Howard did a fantastic job building truly dynamic characters and vividly describing the world (with just the right amount of detail) so you feel like you're experiencing the characters' pain, joy, and deceit. I loved the twists and turns thrown in, and I found myself clinging to my Kindle, itching for the next chapter. I read this rather quickly and in one sitting, because it was so good.

I highly recommend this one if you enjoy a great psychological thriller with mystery elements.

Good read. It keeps you riveted to what the outcome will be and who is really guilty. I found the ending very interesting. I also enjoyed the description of living in everyday Dublin, and the way the story is told in the past and the present.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for an advance copy of The Liar's Girl, a stand alone psychological thriller set in Dublin.

10 years ago Alison Smith's boyfriend Will Hurley confessed to murdering 5 women and was imprisoned for it. Alison ran away from the shame to The Netherlands and never returned but now there are 2 Gardai at her door, not only asking her to return but to try and prise the information from Will that he says he has about a spate of copycat killings.

I enjoyed The Liar's Girl which has many twists and turns and kept me hooked from start to finish. The novel has 2 timelines, helpfully titled Alison, now and Alison, then with the odd chapter titled Will, now. Alison, now covers the events after her return to Dublin which take some very unexpected turns. It makes for interesting but slightly implausible reading. Alison, then covers her relationship with Will and her deteriorating relationship with best friend Liz, ultimately Will's last victim. The reader needs the background which is doled out sparingly to make sense of the present. I'm not generally a big fan of this approach but in this case it works extremely well.

The final twist to the novel is clever. I had suspected something but not what it turned out to be - it's well disguised.

Alison is an interesting character. It is never overtly stated but the general impression is that she has not had another relationship since Will, as she found the fact that she did not have a clue about his murderous impulses totally mortifying. Her mother accuses her of never moving on from the event emotionally and making it more important than it actually was. There's a lot of truth in that as there doesn't seem to be much difference between then and now. I found myself getting impatient with her as she is now and her inability to move on.

The Liar's Girl is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

This was a great thriller with an awesome premise! When Alison meets Will in college she falls hard for him and they spend all their time together...until her best friend Liz becomes the fourth victim in a serial killer's spree and Will is suspected and actually confesses. Fast forward years later as detectives contact Alison informing her that Will--confined to a psychiatric facility--has something to say but will only confide in her. What follows is past and present alternating chapters detailing what really happened. Is Will the Canal killer or was his confession coerced? Can Alison move on with her life, or is she doomed to live with the guilt and darkness that shadows her tortured soul? Kept me turning pages so fast! A must-read for fans of thrillers!

This is a fascinating, fast paced psychological thriller. The suspense builds slowly from the beginning, ratcheting up as new details are revealed. The storyline alternates between past and present. You try to piece together the details of the past as the author expertly weaves them into the present. Alison has done her best to put her past life behind her, but a new series of murders will bring her face to face with her biggest fear, a ghost from her past that she can never outrun. Her ex boyfriend Will, currently waiting out his days on death row in a psychiatric facility, has promised to help the police in their investigation, but he will only tell his information to Alison. She reluctantly agrees to meet him, but she will soon find out that her life will be forever changed by this encounter.

Early on in the book we are given a chilling glimpse into the mind of the killer as he stalks his next victim. The police are desperate to discover any clues that will bring them closer to stopping the killer, using Alison any way they can to get Will to cooperate. When new clues emerge, Alison takes it upon herself to investigate the possibility that the police had it all wrong from the start. She soon finds herself in danger as she gets too close to the truth, leading to a riveting conclusion and a huge plot twist that will leave you stunned.

I would recommend this book to fans of suspense and psychological thrillers. I received this as a free ARC from Blackstone Publishing on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alison Smith believed she’s left her ugly past behind her, but a murder pulls her back to Dublin and the nightmare she endured in college. Back then, Alison fell hard for a charming fellow student, Will Hurley. She believed she’d met “the one” only to discover behind his mask, Will was a serial killer, and one of his victims was Alison’s best friend. Put away for his crimes, that should have been the end of it, but 10 years later, another woman is found murdered, the MO matches Will’s signature killing style. Will agrees to tell everything, but the only one he will tell is Alison. This is a high octane thriller, I stayed up late to read it, then could fall asleep after I finished it