Joe Lynch is a teacher with a son named William, age 4. He is driving his some home from school when William sees his mother’s car turn into a hotel. William loves cars and recognizes all the makes. He points it out to Joe and insists that they surprise Mummy and show her the special certification he got at school today. They park in the underground parking garage and follow Melissa into the hotel. The find her talking to Ben Delaney, the wealthy husband of her best friend, Beth. Ben appears to be very angry. Joe follows Ben and Melissa back down to the parking garage and before he can say anything to Melissa, she drives off. Joe sees Ben heading to his car and stops to ask him what was going on inside the hotel. Ben gets angry and a scuffle ends up with Ben falling, hitting his head, and passing out. When William sees the altercation, he becomes upset and starts having a severe asthma attack necessitating Joe take his home for his inhaler. Returning to see if Ben is OK, he finds him and his car gone. Problem is, Joe’s cell phone is gone too. Did he drop it in the scuffle?

When Melissa comes home, Joe tells her he saw her, but she lies and tells hims that she was playing tennis. Joe doesn’t know why she is lying. Later, she tells him that Ben needed her human resources advice on an employee of his who was cheating him.

Joe never finds his phone and has to get a replacement. Although he tries to call Ben to see if he is OK, he can’t get in touch with him. When he talks to Ben’s wife, Beth, she says that Ben has been very angry and violent lately, hurting her physically. She adds that Ben has been cursing about Joe to her. He then took a gun and left.

No one has seen Ben but Joe is worried not only for himself and his family but for Beth and her daughter, Alice, as well. He tries to look for him but then texts and other threatening messages begin coming into him from Ben. What is going on and where has Ben gone?

This is a good story with an ending that caught me totally unaware. Wow! I didn’t see that one coming. I know readers will enjoy this book.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy. I am voluntarily leaving a review. This is the story of Joe, a happily married man, father and teacher. His life is turned upside down one day when he spies his wife driving into a parking garage. He becomes the prime suspect in a murder without a body. He doesn't know who to trust and it seems like whoever is doing this to him is always a couple of steps in front of him. The story is all told in Joe's POV. I found him to be a little too naive and trusting but OMG, the twist at the end I did not see coming.

This book kept me guessing until the end! The story centers around Joe, who is a loving husband and an active participant in his son's ,William, life. After William spots his Mom car going into a hotel parking garage, while being driven home by Joe. Joe makes a life altering decision to follow her into the garage; what transpire will set off events that Joe never imagined!!!

What Joe thinks he knows about his wife, Mel, and his seemlingly perfect life is a lie. When their friends Beth, Ben, and Alice are thrown in---the shenanigans only increase! This book was a fast-paced read and a thrilling whodunnit! The reason why I rated the book 5 out of 5, because all the theories I had about how the book would end was wrong! The way T.M. ended the book was SO much better than my theories!!! I highly recommend giving this book a read!!

Thank you Netgalley & T.M. Logan for providing me an ARC of this book.

Lies is a fast-paced psychological thriller for the first half of the book. I was sucked in feeling sorry for the main character who did nothing wrong and was being blamed for Ben’s disappearance and possible death. As the story continued, it dragged on and on and as the end approached and the truth was revealed it was just blah...I no longer felt for the main character. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the copy to read and review.

Lies was a captivating read from beginning to end. It was so twisted and I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen until near the end. It definitely left me guessing and I wasn’t suspecting that ending!

Joe is your average dad and husband. Maybe a little bit above average for being a dad. As he doesn’t mind he’s working part time and taking care of his son for the rest of the time. He has the perfect life. The perfect wife. The perfect son. The person marriage or so he thinks. When an unspeakable thing happens his life takes a turn for the worse. Everything he thought he knew turns upside down and his life is about to take an awful turn.

I had a love/dislike relationship with Joe. I respected him for being a great dad and even a good husband. But he was also a wimp and not very smart. We watch him try to solve a mystery that will destroy his life. He’s so dumb sometimes. When things were obvious for me, the reader, things weren’t so obvious for him.

I didn’t know what to think of Mel. She seemed a little disconnected with her son. Maybe because she works late and is always at the country club playing tennis. We don’t get much insight about her.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was suspenseful, addicting, and I couldn’t put it down. This is my first book by this author and it won’t be the last.

Clearly I'm in the minority at this point - the book was just published a day or two ago - but I had to stop reading at about the halfway mark.

The premise was great! Husband and young son spot mommy out at a hotel with another man, a confrontation, and then some weird things start happening and his life begins to unravel.

Unfortunately, the execution completely failed for me. Joe, the husband, can't seem to use logic and observation well enough to fight his way out of a paper bag. The author lays out so many clues about what's going on but Joe misses everything - even when he's practically hit in the face with information.

I found Joe's behavior and lack of common sense maddening and the story, in general, too predictable to continue with. I think the author counted on readers not caring or completely missing huge holes in logic or that we'd forget major events - like a bracelet gone missing - and then be surprised later when they come back as part of the evil plan.

Many other people are enjoying LIES but it wasn't my cup of tea.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review the book.

Joe is a school teacher and father who catches his wife in a lie and his whole life unravels. In a matter of days he becomes a suspect in murder. Social media and spyware are featured and because of hacking and Photoshop you can't always bribe your eyes. The dialogue is strong and there is suspense from the beginning. The story falls apart at the end when the pieces are being forced together. A strong read up until then.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

For me, this book was a chore to read, one that I struggled through and pushed myself to finish, not because it was a difficult read or anything like that (in fact, I found the writing on this one a bit too simplistic), but rather, I felt that the story never really took off. The premise had potential, as there aren’t too many books out there nowadays that incorporate modern technology (in the form of smartphones, tablets, laptops) and social media (i.e. Facebook) into a crime thriller – the technology in this case was front and center and in some instances, even became one of the focal “characters” in the story. Unfortunately, the execution didn’t really work for me – I felt that the plot was a bit all over the place (especially in the second half of the book), the characters were one-dimensional and written in a way that made all of them unlikable (with the exception of the kid William), and too many elements of the story just seemed implausible. Throughout most of the story, there just seemed to be way too much “explaining” going on by various characters, especially as it related to aspects of technology and social media, things that I felt were common sense enough in this day and age that such thorough explanations felt unnecessary. Parts of the story were also bogged down by what I felt were details that didn’t matter (for example, one of the characters taking out their smart phone, swiping over to an app, opening file manager, going through each folder, pulling up a file, closing it out, etc.) – it felt tedious, and for me, detracted from the telling of the main story.

I went into this book initially expecting it to be an “edge-of-your-seat” thriller and admittedly, the first couple chapters did pique my curiosity. However the story slowed considerably and started to drag quite a bit in the middle, to the point that by the time I got to the “twist” at the end, it felt anti-climactic (though it probably didn’t help that I already figured out most of the ending already by then so the surprise element wasn’t there). I also felt like I had to suspend disbelief a bit too much throughout the story – yes, the title of the book is Lies and there are plenty of them in the story, but it seemed like only the main character Joe was the one constantly being lied to….he came across as a little too naïve and clueless until the end when he suddenly figured everything out, which seemed just too implausible to me. Joe’s reaction to things that happen in the story also felt a little off, emotionless almost, which made it hard for me to connect with that character (technically all the characters to be honest), though I think this has to do more with Joe also narrating the story from his own first person point of view. I guess I’m just not a fan of fictional stories that are told in 1st person because the viewpoint is so limited and unless the author is trying to achieve a particular purpose with the story, it’s a skill that I feel is hard to get right.

While I don’t regret reading this one and some parts of it truly were entertaining, it just wasn’t enough for this to feel like a satisfying read to me. Overall, I felt the content was good, just didn’t really like the execution. With that said, I do appreciate all the research that went into the book and I actually did learn a bit more about social media and technology than I knew before, which is why I decided to rate this 3 stars, even though it was technically closer to 2.5 stars. It looks like I’m in the minority with this one though, as everyone else seemed to like it more than I did, so I would recommend checking out those reviews to get a more balanced opinion.

Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley

What happens when an innocent request by your child winds up turning your whole life upside down? This is what happens to Joe. As he witnesses an argument between his wife and a male friend of theirs he’s quite perplexed. To remove his son from a potentially upsetting situation his wife speeds out of the parking garage, confronting the friend who then tries to attack him. He pushes the friend out of the way, injuring him. Before he can decide how to help him, his young son has a life threatening asthma attack, causing him to speed home for the inhaler which seems to be missing from Will’s backpack. When he goes back to check on Ben, both Ben and his car are gone. In approaching his wife about the situation, the lies begin. This is a great psychological thriller with complex characters. My suspicions about some of the situations changed throughout the book and the ending was spectacular. A great read!

Also reviewed on B&N and Kobo under the name IrishEyes430

Lies by T.M. Morgan was the first book I read by this author and was one I truly enjoyed. Joe Lynch’s life is good and he is happy. But all that changes when he unexpectedly witnesses his wife, who is supposed to be at work, arguing with a family friend. In one moment, everything in his life changes!

Though I like Joe very much, he was also so naïve. Suddenly he is learning everything he thought was true may not be at all! I found myself wanting to know what would happen next and how would it all end! Lies by T.M. Morgan was intriguing and suspenseful and I look forward to reading more from this author!

Happy reading!

This book captured me right away. I could not put it down. Then, for a wee bit of the middle, I was thinking "enough already"! But that went away.

Just enough plot twists to keep you interested. I would recommend as a light read. Great for a flight or road trip.

What if everything in your life turned out to be a LIE? For Joe, it all started on a Thursday afternoon when his 4 year old son, William, spotted his mother, Mel's, car and wanted to know where she was going. What follows is a mind boggling, twisty, and gripping search for the truth. How well do you really know those closest to you? What if being the "good guy" isn't enough? And, lastly, what happens when that "good guy" is pushed too far?

I was equal parts intrigued and appalled by how those with knowledge (I'm talking to you, tech nerds!) can manipulate data to their own advantage. This part of the story made my heart race just thinking about the possibilities for evil, and it definitely provided an element unique from other thrillers I've read. Yikes.

While I was compelled to keep reading -- and I definitely had to know if sweet, endearing Joe would survive this nightmare -- I'm giving this one 3.5 stars, instead of a solid 4, because I felt like some questions were left unanswered. I did, however, love the engaging writing style and look forward to more from this author!

I received an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Location: London, England

Ben was playing head games, having an affair with his wife, taunting him online, on his phone. His life was falling apart.
What was real? Could he be sent to jail for murdering a man who was still alive? What is reality? Is he losing his mind?
You will never see it coming.

When I graduated high school and set off to college, I did so with one goal in mind — to become a teacher.

Partly because teaching was the only profession that I had spent much time observing— albeit through the relatively unobservent eyes of a student — and partly because I knew I wanted to read and write and get paid for it, I settled on this job and entered college with my major in place.

I, unlike many, never changed my major - I am way too change avoidant to choose a different destination while already chugging down the highway.

No, I graduated with a teaching degree and, for a time, taught middle school English.

This is not to say that I didn't have any concerns about teaching as a profession.

Sure I did.

Who wouldn't when electing to enter an occupation known for miserably low pay and a notoriously high workload.

But, of the concerns I had, one of them was never the prestige of the job.

I knew teaching wasn't prestigious.

And I didn't care.

On this, the protagonist of this London-based thriller and I agree.

Fortunately, however, this is where the similarity between myself and our leading man Joe end — Because, in this novel, Joe has a pretty fucking shitty go of it.

As the novel opens, Joe is driving his young son, William, home from school. Like most adults at the end of a long day — especially most teachers who have dealt with more than their fair share of shit — he’s largely oblivious to the world around him.

Unfortunately, as it would turn out, his son isn’t so oblivious. As William is engaging in one of his preferred pastimes — watching the vehicles jet by in the stream of busy London traffic — he spots his mom’s car. Excited about a certificate he got at school, he convinces his dad to follow his mom into a parking garage and surprise her.

And his decision to relent to his sons demands is one that will change Joe’s life forever.

When he gets into the parking garage, he finds that his wife, Mel, has already left the safety of the garage and, presumably, went into the hotel to which the garage is attached.

This is pretty much the point at which most adults would be saying, “Mkay… this doesn’t look good… Normal adults don’t meet people at hotels for non-nefarious purposes… We are gonna go ahead and abort this mission.”

But that’s not what Joe does. Instead, he takes his son with him into the hotel lobby. When he arrives, he finds his wife, Mel, arguing with Ben, a family friend and the husband of one of Mel’s best friends from college.

At this point, Joe kinda comes to his senses and does what he should have done before — takes his son and tries to get the hell out of there.

So Joe goes back down to the parking garage and straps his son safely in his car seat — a process that any parent knows can be an arduous one.

But instead of driving away, Joe decides to sit and wait.

With William distracted by a round of Angry Birds on the iPad, Joe watches. Before long, he sees his wife comes back into the garage, looking upset. Then, moments later, the elevator opens again, and he sees Ben emerge.

Thoroughly confused, he goes to Ben and tries to ask him what was going on. The response he gets is both aggressive and cryptic and, what was supposed to be a simple inquiry, quickly escalates into a conflict.

Unfortunately, it’s not a very evenly matched fight and, when the much larger Joe tries to push the smaller Ben away, Ben falls and hits his head.

As Joe’s luck would have it — because this does seem to be a relatively epicly unlikely day — William has snuck out of the car. Seeing his Dad in this conflict has, understandably, upset the anxious little guy and, worse yet, triggered an asthma attack.

Suddenly finding himself without an inhaler and with a child who desperately needs one, Joe reluctantly flees the parking garage, leaving Ben still unconscious on the pavement.

To assuage his guilt, he promises himself that, after he has Wills sorted, he’ll go back. But, when he does return, he finds that Ben is gone.

When he asks Mel about the encounter later that evening, she lies.

To make matters worse for poor old Joe, he quickly finds that not only has he not seen Ben since their encounter in the parking garage, neither has anyone else. And, as the last person to see him — and because their meeting wasn’t so friendly — he’s in the police’s crosshairs as the prime — and only — suspect.

So this simple event — this last minute decision to do a surprise on Mommy — turns Joe’s life completely upside down. His wife, who he has always trusted implicitly, has proven that she can’t be trusted, and his world rocked.

The only person he knows he can trust is himself, and what he knows he needs to find is the truth.

With short chapters and clean prose, this T.M. Logan debut was an easy read. And the inclusion of a mini-cliffhanger at the conclusion of almost every chapter made it difficult to put down.

Another thing that propelled me through this rather-thick-for-a-thriller book: the promise of a twist.

From the moment I started this book, I was looking forward to an unexpected plot turn. I mean, it had been promised right on the cover, with a teaser line penned by the prolific Lee Child that read, “Compelling and hypotonic…with a twist I guarantee you won’t see coming.”

So, IMO, putting a guarantee like that right on the front of the fucking book is a bit of a risk. When I see such a fervent statement in which a respected individual says, with no equivocation, that I absolutely won’t figure something out, I tend to take it as a bit of a personal challenge. Because I had been challenged, I did spend a large part of my reading time in my thinking chair, assembling a map of clues in my head and trying to divine the ending.

Despite this effort, I must admit that I wasn’t successful in figuring it all out before I reached the end.

As promised — and to my delight — the twist did comes as a surprise to me.

So, perfect pacing + perfect cliffhangers + perfect twist = perfect book, right?

Meh, not quite.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of an issue with the main character that persisted for the majority of the book.

Because this was a character-driven thriller — one in which you had one main character, fighting not just for his liberty but, perhaps, even for his life — a lot of how successful it was or wasn't hinged on whether you cared about said character. And... Here's the problem... I'm not sure I did.

To me, Joe just seemed like too much of a lovesick puppy. He was too willing to initially accept things — things that, mind you, were clearly utter bullshit. He spent too long believing what his caught-in-not-just-a-lie-but-instead-in-many-lies wife told him.

In fairness, though, this could be a bit of a preference thing. I do tend towards the less emotionally available — the more brooding. I do have a predilection for the Mr. Darcy, really. Those guys who, on the exterior, are wholly unaffectionate but, on the inside, are a bubbling spring of complex emotions.

Sorry... Got distracted there.

Moving on.

The second issue I had with this novel was also character related: I felt like something more was going to happen with the son, William, and it just never did.

Specifically, I felt as if the author was setting William up as a character who had autism and I felt like, at some point in time, that was going to be revealed and come in to play — perhaps even somehow being part of the twist.

Here’s the thing, the author never said William had autism, but he did make a point of mentioning a whole lot of behaviors that, when appearing together, could indicate the presence of this condition.

My noticing of them, really, is probably an occupational hazard. As a former teacher I think I’m predisposed to looking for signs. And, because I noticed them, I assumed that there must have been a purpose.

After all, why describe, in such detail, how Wills likes to play airport parking garage, lining up his cars by color again and again? Why tell us about his “I don’t want peas on my plate” mini-fit? Why include the scene in which he saw a man smoking and — because he knew smoking killed you — he expected him to fall down, dead, right that very moment?

Because these things didn’t drive the plot in any meaningful way, I assumed there must have been some purpose.

But there wasn’t.

And now, having finished the book and seeing that nothing came of these “red flags” I felt like I was so smartly spotting, I presume that they weren’t deliberately included to indicate anything but were, instead, just an attempt to fatten up this character.

Ultimately, Lies was an engaging thriller with a surprising ending. Though some issues with characters contained in the novel did hinder my enjoyment — slightly — readers looking for a clean and tidy thriller will likely find that this debut fits the bill.

It gets a satisfying 3 out of 5 cocktails.

I was pulled in by the story and there was an unanticipated page turner. Loved the beginning but was not a huge fun of the end.

Joe's naivety drove me crazy at points. The story starts when his son, William, spots his wife's car while on a drive back from school. William wants to say hi to his mom, and Joe decided to follow her. And pretty much all the hell starts from there... he is pulled in in a crime that he did not commit and no one believes him.. His lovely wife Mel, admits that she cheated on him, and apologies but things don't add up. Joe's life becomes a nightmare that won't stop quickly enough...

Overall I am giving it a 3.5 Stars because I truly enjoyed it. It could have been a perfect psychological thriller if not for Joe's unconvincing naivety..

Sometimes the ending of a book can completely turn around how you feel about it. I had felt rather ambivalent about this, having read rather too many domestic suspense thrillers, and books with Lies in the title, this year, but requested it based on multiple good reviews from trusted bookfriends, and with publication date nearing, needed to get on with it. I think that may have been part of my problem - the right read, at the wrong time. It started well, but I got increasingly frustrated with the hero, so for most of the book was not enjoying it, but then wham, the brilliant reveal - despite the twist being mentioned by almost every reviewer, I still didn’t work out what was going on - and I read a LOT of mysteries, so my congratulations to the author for keeping me in the dark.

Amiable English teacher Joe Lynch is driving his four year old son home, when they spot his wife Mel’s car turning into a hotel car park. Deciding to surprise her, they follow, but when he sees her in an argument with her friend’s husband, Ben, Joe retreats, unseen, not knowing what to think. Then Ben appears, spoiling for a fight, and Joe, defending himself, knocks him to the ground. Joe wants to help, but his son’s sudden severe asthma attack takes priority, and he is forced to leave quickly. When he returns to check on him, Ben is gone, but it soon becomes clear that he is not happy, and is out to get revenge by destroying Joe’s career, reputation, marriage, and even freedom, by using his advanced IT and telecommunications skills and considerable wealth.

Part of my problem with this, most of the way through, was believing that Ben would sacrifice his own company and personal life, just to get one up on someone, and also that Joe could be so stupid, stumbling from one revelation to the next, desperate to believe any lie that will repair the situation, but making things worse at every turn. The police investigation also seemed completely inept and implausible. These criticisms were all negated by the ending, and while there were subtle clues throughout, the plot was like a game of snakes and ladders. I’m very glad I did persist with this - mainly because I really wanted to know what the much hyped twist was. 3.5 rounded up for the hype being justified, and also for the author sticking with traditional first person past narration (rather than the annoying first person so prevalent in modern thrillers.) I’ll be looking out for more from this author.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a voluntary honest review.

4.25-4.5 STARS

Upon reading the premise of "Lies" by T.M. Logan, I was immediately intrigued. Boasting a unique concept that kept me guessing most of the way, I found "Lies" to be a very compelling story from start to finish. Distinctive, gripping and suspenseful, “Lies” is a psychological thriller that doesn’t disappoint.

Engrossing! Engaging! Frightening!

🎵Lies lies lies yeah (they're gonna get you)
Lies lies lies yeah (they won't forget you)
Lies lies lies yeah (they're gonna get you)
Lies lies lies yeah

Oh you know I know🎵
Thompson Twins 1982

This song went through my head every time I picked up this book, so I thought I’d share with you all! And you’re welcome if this song runs through your head the rest of the day... 😝

This book pulled me in right from the start and did not let go until that unpredictable ending! One small inconsequential decision can alter the course of a life irreparably... if you go to Red Lobster instead of Red Robin perhaps you Will meet the man of your dreams... if you had made a left instead of a right perhaps you would not have got in that car accident... or in the case of this book perhaps if Joe hadn’t followed his wife’s car when he saw it, he wouldn’t have ended up in the middle of a murder investigation....

Joe has the perfect life a loving wife, and an adorable little boy, but as in all good psychological thrillers things aren’t always as they seem.... One day on the way home from picking up his son William from school they see his wife’s car turning left ahead of them... prompted by his son who is eager to share his recently acquired award with his mom, Joe chooses to follow his wife.... and his life will never be the same again!

This book kept me on the edge of my seat and had me quickly turning those pages, I just had to know what in the world was going on! And the ending? Did not see that coming... all my speculating never took me in the direction that this book ultimately went in... but the scariest thing in this book was the part that technology and social media played.... how hard it is to dispute something that has been posted on social media... or your location when a cell tower pinged when a message.... was sent from your phone.... in this book technology and social media both helped and hurt Joe, and I’m not sure if it was worth the pay off... but it did truly make you think about social media and how much that has altered today society and our perceptions....

Absolutely recommend two fans of good suspenseful edge of your seat psychological thrillers!

*** many thanks to St. Martin’s Press for my copy of this book ***

Joe is in a mess. Someone is sabotaging his whole life. Job, family, everything is going down the drain. He cannot figure out why!

This book starts off with a bang. There are actual places in this story I said, out loud, “OH SH*#!”

I enjoyed the anticipation this novel creates. However, the story bogs down in the middle. It is the continuation of all of the tragedies happening to Joe. It just keeps on and on.

The characters are a little lacking in this read. Joe is a little bit of a wimp in my book. I expected more out of him. I wanted him to be more angry, with more fight to keep what he has earned. He just didn’t have it in him. And then there is his wife! She is a piece of work! I wanted to beat her within an inch of her life.


But any book which creates this kind of reaction to the characters can’t be all bad. And it is not! it is a lightening fast read with plenty of gasp worthy action.

I received this novel from St. Martin’s Press via Netgalley for a honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! I was a little disappointed while reading because I was convinced I had figured everything out, but the ending wasn’t at all what I expected. If you’re in the mood for something that will keep you guessing and still surprise you at the end then this is the book for you!