I was given an ARC from Netgalley and Minotaur books in exchange for an honest review. 2 stars. Honestly, I was pretty confused during this book. Perhaps it was hoe the book was translated or my unfamiliarity with Swedish culture/geography. I don't know- I just couldn't get into this one. I did like the character of Kouplan- he was relatable to the character and was the person you were rooting for during the book, as the other character's stories didn't seem to add up. The book covers a lot of important topics such as mental illness., human trafficking, and sexual abuse, which I thought was good. However, overall, it wasn't my favorite.

I didn’t hate this but I didn’t love it either. I’m not sure how I felt about this one. It held my interest but maybe it was the storyline. I didn’t feel like this was really a crime mystery novel.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Truth Behind the Lie.

To be honest, I did not have high hopes for this book due to the few negative reviews I had read posted here already.

But you know what they say about only a few reviews? Don't trust them.

This was a surprising read and better than I expected.

Kouplan is a young Iranian refugee hired by a mother, Pernilla to find her missing daughter. He is inexperienced but he is determined and resourceful.

But something about Pernilla's story doesn't feel right yet Kouplan pursues his leads and finds himself coming a bit too close with some very bad people.

When he discovers the truth behind the missing girl, Kouplan's quick mind is able to save the life of a child without risking his illegal status.

I liked Kouplan; he is relatable, smart and sympathetic, and his fear of being discovered by immigration officials is something we can all understand, especially given our current political climate.

There is a note by the author at the end of the book that said her inspiration for Kouplan came from her time working with Iranian refugees, which gives the story a more personal touch.

The twist is a familiar one but it works here because the reader is focused on the missing child, not on the little clues we miss along with Kouplan.

We search for the child along with him and when he realizes something is amiss, we sense it, too.

There are many triggers here so be warned: human trafficking, pedophilia, sexual abuse and violence, and mental illness.

This book was a pleasant surprise, including the ending.

I look forward to more books featuring Kouplan.

I didn't quite enjoy this one. I don't like the books about missing children but I thought maybe this one would catch my interest because of the description. However, it was too odd. I liked the twists and the psychological suspense, but it didn't stand out for me in any way. Well-written for sure, but I can't say the plot is outstanding. Good writer and I will read her again.

Weird, odd, different and confusing. I was confused at the beginning tat I went and reread from the beginning and I was still confused but at least understood I didn't miss anything. There was something in the story that drew me to finish it. In the end I didn't understand what happened... a very disconcerting experience. It's not bad and clearly many others got it and liked it so I'll take some blame as the reader...

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC to review, that did not influence my review in any way.

This was more of a psychological story. then a mystery. I don't understand all the negativity surrounding it because it wasn't that bad. It was written very differently and I really did like the characters, perhaps because they were so well written,
Kouplan is a refugee who is hired by Pernilla to find her missing 6 year old daughter. Right off the bat as the reader, you know something is not right about Pernilla's story. She has a history of mental illness. Now mind you Kouplan is pretty inexperience in this line of work and I wonder if Pernilla did that purposely......

There are some triggers here, human trafficking, sexual abuse, pedophilia and mental illness.

This is a solid 3.5 stars from me. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Pernilla’s daughter has vanished without a trace, and Kouplan is an expert at living and working off the grid. He’s the perfect PI to help… but something in Pernilla’s story doesn’t add up. She might need help that he can’t offer...and a little girl’s life hangs in the balance.

While I've seen this book listed under mystery/crime/and thriller, I'm not sure what I'd label it. Maybe psychological, but I wouldn't add anything else with it. As far as mystery, it was pretty clear from the beginning.

This book wasn't necessarily one of my favorite stories, but it was fairly original.

The Truth Behind the Lie is weird, alarming and a strangely different thriller. I was pleasantly surprised that I genuinely liked this book after reading some of the negative reviews. A six year old girl disappears, her mother has her reasons for not calling the police so she contacts a private investigator for help in finding her. The story structure is excellent and the characters are fully developed. This was a Intense, compelling, and wholly original novel. I liked it. My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

An interesting novel with lots of surprise twists and turns. The main characters Pernilla and Kouplan are well developed and both very interesting. Pernilla hires private Detective Kouplan when her 6 year old daughter Lily goes missing one afternoon. Both of these characters have a lot of interesting past history. Pernilla had been committed at one time and Kouplan escaped from Iran. As Kouplan begins trying to solve the mystery he finds out many interesting things about Pernilla, her past and also who is running a child trafficking system.}
Both characters learn a lot about themselves and each other as the novel progresses and Kouplan is able to save someone from a horrible experience.

This is an incredible book. For about the 1st 25% I was confused, but intrigued! At first I thought my confusion was solely to do with the translation and my unfamiliarity with life on Sweden, and yes those were a factor, but as solely adapted to those factors I discovered the author was intentionally dropping little things in which were "huh?", then eventually provided a twist or explanation which made it make sense. This continues thru the whole book and is such a delight! Her structuring of the story is superb. Her characters fully realized. Cannot recommend more highly!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher Martin's Press for the opportunity to enjoy this book.

When a six-year-old girl disappears and calling the police isn’t an option, her desperate mother Pernilla turns to an unlikely source for help. She finds a cryptic ad online for a private investigator:
“Need help, but can’t contact the police?”




Thank you to net galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book it was a great experience first time reading anything from this author

I was pleasantly surprised after reading a couple of mediocre reviews but this was such an oddly different novel that I persevered and ended up really liking it! Kouplan is a very young PI who advertises his specialty as being able to help someone who doesn't want to involve the police. As an Iranian refugee who is trying to blend in and not be deported, he eagerly responds to a young woman whose six-year-old daughter, Julia has disappeared at a local mall. She fears the worst and Kouplan sets out to discover whether it is child abduction or something even more sinister and widespread. With few leads and more questions than answers, Kouplan sets his sights on the truth and continues to search until the shocking conclusion. Satisfying and different!

This book is no for me. It’s poorly written, slow and repetitive, almost painful to make sense of. I can’t even think of how to go into how to explain it. There seems to be too many characters popping in all of a sudden, out of context, and misplaced. The plot was a good idea, but was not executed well. It lacks depth, jumps around too much, and the chapters don’t make sense. The twist is a good one, but not worth the read.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

How does a woman live whose child has gone missing? This story started out just okay for me. As I kept reading, I found myself confused, lost, and questioning what in the world I was reading. I kept hope though that it would turn around so I continued to push through it. The writing style didn’t work for me in this book, and the story was just plain weird. There seemed to be a frequent discussion of food, which was so out of place in this type of story. I didn’t like the characters. I didn’t like the storyline. I’m a sucker for a good ending so I didn’t give up. I should have though because the ending was super weird. It felt forced and I didn’t even understand the point of it. I think it was meant to be this big shocking moment but it fell flat and didn’t sit right.

This quote from the book eerily explained how I felt about this novel: “Kouplan’s notebook has dog-eared pages and a bent cover. Notes are randomly distributed with arrows pointing every which way. They’re in Persian, Swedish, and even some English.” This story kind of made me feel dumb. I couldn’t follow it. I couldn’ connect to it. It felt incoherent, all over the place, and not in a good way.

If your TBR is as long as mine, skip this one and avoid the feeling of being unfulfilled. Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the opportunity to give my honest feedback on this ARC.