Feelings. State of Lies by Siri Mitchell, published by Thomas Nelson, evoked many different feelings in me.
I read in awe as Mitchell wove an intricate, tightly woven net around me, the reader, with her amazing thriller. She certainly seems to be familiar with the inner workings of Washington, DC, which made for an awesome, fast-moving, spy story.
Those were the great feelings. By the end of the book, I was living in profound sadness. I was absolutely crushed by the discovery of who the “real” bad guys were. I had picked a couple of different insidious government agents instead.
The most unexpected feelings were the surprise and disappointment as I started the book reading about a bedroom scene (even though it was between a married couple- do we really need that much detail?) I double-checked to see if I was reading the correct book. While the book was free of language, I was disappointed for this kind of book coming from what is known to be a “Christian” publisher. There was no mention of God in the book, either.
Do I only read ultra-clean books? Actually, no. But I felt like this one, coming from the publisher it does, masquerades as something it’s not. Is it a great, emotive read? Absolutely! Is it one I wholeheartedly endorse? No. Not without warning. Please don’t make me think I’m getting cake then serve me a cookie.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and CelebrateLit through NetGalley. This did not affect my opinions which are solely my own.

What an amazing book! Everything a suspense story should have is in here. Siri Mitchell twists a cunning tale with who dun it questions, heart pounding moments, and a heroine who finds a way through it all. I felt like I was along for the ride trying to figure out who the bad guys were and why they did it. Georgie knows when to take care of a problem herself and when to ask for help. Until friend and foe can no longer be separated, when she has to question everyone's motives and if what they say has any basis in truth. How far up does the problem reach? Raised on the truth, Georgie has to push through no matter the cost. Siri Mitchell created a world I would love to join. Her characters feel like neighbors I would love to meet. They are well developed, with both strengths and flaws making them that much more realistic. This book is a ride you do not want to miss! I can't wait for Siri Mitchell to come out with her next suspense book, she has knocked this one out of the park! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Wow! What a roller-coaster of a ride!
This book had me engrossed from the very beginning--I did not want to stop reading until the end. And yes, I read it all in one day!
It's a story of incredible suspense. Things are absolutely not what they seem to be.
This book is full of danger, intrigue, and espionage.
An extremely exciting suspense novel.
Disclaimer: I receive complimentary books from various sources, including, publishers, publicists, authors, and/or NetGalley. I am not required to write a positive review, and have not received any compensation. The opinions shared here are my own entirely. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

This book is unlike any Siri Mitchell book you’ve already read. Get ready for a high-stakes plat that bobs and weaves before hitting you with an unexpected one-two punch.

While I enjoyed the twists and turns of this story (and little Sam), I had a difficult time believing Georgia, a quantum physicist, was truly as clueless as to what was truly going on for the first half of the book. The woman is a genius but can’t put two and two together?

However, there are so many moving pieces and possible suspects, the mystery moves along quickly. And the ending? Didn’t quite see that coming.

The domestic suspense does get violent in places, and Georgia and her son are often targeted. Also, as others have mentioned, this book has zero spiritual content in it so it would be better categorized as a clean read than Christian suspense.

Overall, an enticing and engaging story about a coverup and how deep the involvement goes. It will definitely keep you guessing.

Content warning: While not descriptive, there are a few intimate scenes in the book with Georgia and her husband.

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

I expected this book to be Christian fiction, but I did not see any of the usual elements of faith in this book. It was a good suspense thriller, with undertones of politics and espionage, but I would not categorize it as CHRISTIAN fiction in any way. Georgie is a young wife and mother, a physicist dealing with the sudden death of her husband Sean. But all is not as it seems and the reader is hard-pressed to figure out what is really going on. The first third of the book is very fast-paced as the stage is set for Georgie to try to unravel the threads that will lead to the truth. Then the plot slows down and the story becomes a bit difficult to follow. Georgie knows that her life is in danger as she struggles to reveal the truth about Sean and her father who is about to be confirmed at the U.S. Secretary of Defense. The short chapters made the book easy to read, but the convoluted plot made it slow going for me. There was definitely a web of intrigue, but it was hard to understand what was really going on. The book is a suspense novel and it is an intense read, with lots of action happening quickly. This was my first book that I have read by this author, so I don’t know what her other books are like. I would like to try another one just to see if this is her normal style. Readers of suspense may enjoy this book, but it was just too hard to follow for me.

State of Lies by Siri Mitchell was mind blowing! This is the first book by this author that I have read and I am not disappointed at all. There were so many twists and turns that kept me guessing in this book. I held my breath so many times that I had to remember to breathe in each chapter and that does not happen very often. Lol. The story kept pulling me in and every time I was going to put it down something else happened and I had to keep reading! I also loved the way it was written! I highly recommended this book and I hope that Siri writes another thriller/suspense in the future.

I was given a copy of this book for free via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! Don’t start this one in the evening if you want to get any sleep at all! I couldn’t put this one down until I was finished. The tension, suspense and intrigue in this incredible book will grab your attention off the top and not let go until the end. Georgie is a physicist, a career that would certainly leave me in the dust, even though I did well in high school physics. Her brain works in clear lines with everything having an answer that must be found. With this in mind, she doggedly pursues the truth after her husband, Sean, is killed in a hit and run. Too many things just don’t add up. Her tenacity in this search for what is right puts both she and her son in danger.

Espionage, treason, Russian spies and murder are just some of the excitement in this page-turner set in the Washington, D.C. area. The author has done a fabulous job of taking us behind the scenes in political circles, in Iraq and Bosnia. Who really is telling the truth and who can she trust with their safety?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, finding myself trying to figure out what horrible thing could possibly happen next and hoping for a happy ending. My nails, however, did not fair so well. I certainly will be watching for more suspense/intrigue from this author!

I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley and CelebrateLit. The five star rating is in no way solicited and all comments, impressions and opinions are my own.

While this book seemed to have all the ingredients of a thriller, I found it a little tiring. The thing is, it's decently paced, there are twists, lots of secrets - even for the protagonist, but I think it's the subject matter. It seems very targeted to the 'Washington/national security families' crowd. There are moments when the protagonist speaks to characters who were in the war, and they go into what might be too much detail. Not so much that you don't understand — the book is incredibly easy to follow and see where it's going — but I think that it ends up being a hint dull. To me, the ending also seemed to happen really quickly.. All in all, something to get you through a few days — maybe less, if you're really into the subject matter. (I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.)

There was a whole lot to love about Siri Mitchell's latest! I love that she stepped into a new genre. From the opening scenes, this was a gripping story with plenty of twists and turns. I read it in a couple of days and loved the non-stop action. Though I saw the biggest twists coming (and I do feel like there was a fair amount of coincidental stuff), there were other spots that definitely surprised me. I loved the D.C. setting. And that cover is fantastic!

The main thing that kept me from giving this five stars is simply that I never truly felt emotionally connected to the main character...these huge things would happen and yet, the emotion stayed really surface level with quick reactions and then boom, we were on to the next thing. I don't really feel like Georgie changed or grew as much as simply reacted to the things that happened to and around her. That said...I don't read a ton of suspense or thrillers so maybe this is the norm for action-y genres and I'm just not used to it. But yeah, I would've loved to "feel" a little more as I read this. Other than that, it was a fast-paced and fun read!

I was hoping to enjoy this book more than I did. It appeared to have all the ingredients for a great book; politics, scandal, trust issues, and spies. However the story was not believable at times and some plot twists such as losing her job and having more time to investigate, were too convenient. Overall it was an ok book but I think it had potential to be more.

STATE OF LIES is a remarkably engrossing political/military/governmental/domestic thriller. Yes, all those categories! I could not break away. This novel is a conspiracy theorist's dream landscape, because what is better than a conspiracy come true? Events in this powerfully impacting story prove the slogan of The X-Files: "TRUST NO ONE." Really, how well can you ever know your friends, colleagues, or family. Sociopathy wears many guises, as does psychosis, and doing wrong things for the right reasons. I seldom view a book as movie potential, but in this case I can see the appeal as film or mini-series

In a genre inundated with unreliable and unlikable narrators, it was refreshing to read State of Lies and find myself immediately rooting for the heroine. Set in Washington D.C. and revolving around the highest levels of the American government, this novel serves as a timely reminder of just how precious and fragile democracy really is.

It’s a typical weekend for the Brennans, which means they have too little time and far too many errands. It’s ordinarily Georgie who does the home repairs but since their son Sam is sick, it’s her husband Sean who runs to the hardware store that afternoon to pick up supplies to fix a leaky faucet. Many hours later, after she has put Sam to bed, Georgie sits anxiously on the couch still waiting for Sean’s return when the police come to the door and advise her he has died in a car accident.

Months later, Georgie sets out to fix the problem faucet and makes a startling discovery. The part Sean claimed he was taking to the store with him is still there which means that he lied to her about where he had been going that day. Georgie has been in a survival fugue until that moment, trying hard not to think about all she’s lost but she suddenly finds herself wide awake and questioning everything she’s been told about Sean’s accident. A look at the police report reveals the crash couldn’t have happened the way it purportedly occurred because the street the hit and run driver was on doesn’t intersect the street Sean was on. Favorite items that Sean routinely carried with him were never returned by the coroner. An additional search of his possessions reveals that Sean’s computer is missing from his attaché case, along with the security badge for his job at the Department of Defense. Georgie makes phone calls, and sends emails to try to track down answers, but the enigmatic responses she receives just leave her with more questions. More importantly, they paint a very different image of the last few months of Sean’s life than the one he had given her.

Frustrated but uncertain where to turn for the truth, Georgie is contemplating what to do next when Sam leads her to an important clue. While he is running around the yard with a friend, she realizes that the spider lilies they had planted as a family have been removed and replaced with fall crocuses, a  type of flower she despises. Digging them up reveals a metal box containing a cryptic notebook with jottings written in Sean’s hand.

No longer certain of who her husband was and concerned as to what he’d been involved in, Georgie determinedly seeks answers to the numerous questions raised by his death. Before long she makes two startling discoveries - she can trust no one, not her friends, her neighbors, not even her politically ambitious parents. The second shocking revelation? Someone is willing to kill her to keep her from learning what Sean was up to.

State of Lies gripped my attention from the start and didn’t let it go till the very end. Ms. Mitchell does a marvelous job of creating and maintaining an atmosphere seething with peril and perplexity. She weaves doubt into Georgie’s every relationship, skillfully isolating her in a menacing, eerie world where she begins to question every aspect of her reality. There is a romance here, which I can’t talk about because of spoilers, but even that contributed to the heroine’s danger and sense of solitude since we aren’t sure we can trust the hero. As I mentioned before, I liked that from the start Georgie was a reliable narrator; it gave me a rope to cling to as I fell down the rabbit hole of high stakes international intrigue with her. I also liked how the mystery was set up: it was obvious once you looked for it but it was so common place and so well blended into the fabric of everything happening around it that it was literally hidden in plain sight.

While this novel is published by a Christian publisher, the text contains sex scenes and makes no mention of faith aside from Sam saying prayers before bedtime. Ms. Mitchell used to write inspirational historical romance so this is a departure from her usual fare.

For those in love with the current psychological thriller market, I should warn that this is not the typical story of the post Gone Girl era, where deeply dysfunctional people take us on a bizarre, terrifying journey into the darkest parts of the human psyche. Georgie is sane, kind, intelligent, honorable and highly moral. The villains here are average people driven by typical desires like greed or need, and while their behavior is horrifying it is also understandable. They aren’t mentally ill, just selfish and I found that chillingly realistic.

On the other hand, I found several other facets of the tale simply unbelievable.  One aspect in particular, which I can’t go into here for spoiler reasons, broke my suspension of disbelief. It took a bit for me to get back into the flow of the story after that event because I found it so implausible. The ending also has a twist that borders on preposterous and had me once more eyeing the text with extreme skepticism.

While those imperfections kept me from awarding this novel DIK status, they didn’t keep me from thoroughly enjoying State of Lies. The story reminded me of beloved classic romantic suspense novels written by Sandra Brown, Tami Hoag and Lisa Gardener, so if you are a fan of novels by those ladies, I would urge you to give State of Lies a try.

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This is the first book I've read by Mitchell, but I've heard positive things about her books for years. The book grabbed me from the start, and the active pace kept me engaged. There were some unexpected twists, and I enjoyed how the author slowly revealed things throughout the story. The chapters are short, which added to the fast pace of the novel. I was expecting more of a religious element than what I found, as it's considered Christian fiction, but it is definitely a "clean read." Mitchell's writing style is one I enjoyed, and I'll certainly keep an eye out for her books in the future.

I really enjoyed this book and thank Thomas Nelson Fiction for the advance copy. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
The story as the title implies is about lies whether big or small and how they affect everything in our lives. It’s hard to go into detail without spoiling the book but it definitely keeps you reading till the end.
Highly recommend this book.

State of Lies by Siri Mitchell is a departure from her previous novels, which are mostly historical, with a few contemporary early novels. With State of Lies, Mitchell moves into a new genre of political suspense.

The story begins with a Washington D.C. couple, who both work in or for the government. They have one son and a dog, and seem like a typical family. The death of Sean in a car accident, leaves Sam without a father and Georgie struggling to move on as a young widow. Eight months after Sean’s death, Georgie begins to notice some strange things going on. It becomes clearer and clearer that Georgie didn’t know who her husband really was, and that Sam doesn’t believe his dad is really dead.

There is a lot that I enjoyed about this book. I thought the suspense was good. Once I hit about 65% of the way through I didn’t want to stop reading and have to go on with my day. I thought the relationships in the book were believable, but also tinged with a bit of uncertainty as to who Georgie could really trust. I thought the mystery element was good, it touched on historical events and issues in the news today, but without being political. This is not the kind of book that is so close to the current political situation that it will be offensive to half the readers. I thought that it was very skillfully, and neutrally, written given our political climate.

I thought the way Mitchell did a good job at slowly revealing the truth so that it upped the suspense. There were a few things I guessed, but also a lot of surprises. I don’t want to say too much about the plot, because it very quickly gets into spoiler territory. Suffice to say, I hope she writes another book like this, because I can’t wait to read more. My only complaint was that the chapters were very short (written in the Dan Brown style, with a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter). There were several chapter breaks in the middle of a scene that I thought deflated the tension, rather than raised it. The short chapters felt a bit like a trick to try to raise the suspense and keep the reader reading, but it didn’t really work for me.

Overall, I do recommend this book very much. Siri Mitchell has always been one of my favorite authors. She does a really good job with first person narrative and with writing about place, so that no matter where the book is set, I feel like I am right there. And Mitchell’s characters always feel very multidimensional to me, even if we don’t know that much about them. This book is no different. State of Lies was the perfect way for me to dip into a political thriller with one of my favorite authors.

I am rating this book at 4 stars, because, while there was a lot to love about the book, the short chapters took it down a star for me (sorry if this sounds a bit picky, but I really don’t like the Dan Brown-style of writing). I did get used to the short chapters by the end, but too often it interrupted the tension and suspense and brought me out of the book as I contemplated if this is where I should stop reading. Also, at the beginning, this short chapter style felt a little bit like an excuse not to give us too much detail, which I think was also a bit of a weakness. While the point of this type of suspense novel is not to reveal too much at the beginning, the story still felt a bit too thin to me for the first quarter of the book.

I was given a copy of this book for free via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book grabbed me right from the beginning, and kept pulling me in, with my heart in my throat, and fear for those I cared about. Whom do you trust here, and I felt like I was watching the evening news, yes, this story could be true.
A little boy and his Mom dealing with the loss of their beloved Dad/Husband, and why?
Be aware you will be up late trying to find out the answers here, and the bombshells keep dropping right up to the end, even locked doors won’t keep out the evil.

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Thomas Nelson, and was not required to give a positive review.

Wow -- what a ride! This was a fascinating political thriller and I stayed up late to finish it.

As an aside, I wouldn't consider this to be Christian fiction. I thought that it would be based on previous books by this author. I have no problem that it wasn't but just want to mention that in case people are expecting it. It is a clean book although there are some implied intimacies between the heroine and her husband. I didn't bat an eye at it but I can see it might catch someone offguard.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

State of Lies by Siri Mitchell is the first book by this author that I have read. It was a quick, fun read although at times you really had to stretch your imagination. It was an enjoyable enough read but was just missing something for me.

Georgie and her son are devasted when her husband Sean is killed in a car accident. Months later she learns that he had lied to her about where he was going. Combined with the missing computer and strange things starting o happen around her she decides to look further into his death. She soon realises that she knew very little about who her husband was and wonders who she can really trust? Can she find out what really happened without putting herself and her son in danger?

Thanks to Thomas Neilson and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

I haven't read any of Siri Mitchell's other books, but I’m so glad I read this one! The details and intricacy of the plot are incredible, and the author draws you deeper into the questions and intrigue in a way that makes you feel totally invested in the story. Each page seems to bring a new revelation or clue that makes it hard to put the book down! Georgie is a strong character - she's a quantum physicist, and she is on a quest to find truth, both at her job and in her search for answers about her husband's death.

This book is marketed as Christian fiction, but there wasn't as much of a faith element as I was expecting. It was still a clean read, without language or excessive violence. I think this book would appeal to a wide audience, from Christian fiction readers to fans of secular thrillers. It’s part suspense, part political thriller, and totally engaging, with a shocking conclusion - don't miss it!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I’m usually not a big fan of political thrillers but State of Lies had me hooked. With a compelling plot and endless twists and turns, it kept me intrigued enough to read it in one sitting. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We're immediately introduced to Georgia Ann Brennan, a quantum physicist, raised in a good-old southern military family and her husband Sean, a former military man himself. One night, Sean leaves home to run a quick household errand but was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident, leaving behind his grieving wife and son. Eight months later, a mysterious series of events have Georgie questioning if she really knew her late husband, her neighbors, and even her family.

This novel was full of suspense, conspiracy and trust issues - all good things in a political thriller.