This is a thrilling read from beginning to end, and just as soon as you think you have things figured out, the author sideswipes you from the left, knocking you for a six! Entertaining, gripping and thrilling until the very end.

I tried. I really tried to love this book, but I just couldn’t do it. The plot just wasn’t interesting and the characters ... there just wasn’t much there to love either. I really enjoyed The Murder List, but this book was nothing like that in my opinion. I won’t be posting my review on Amazon or Goodreads, but since I was given the opportunity to read this one, I thought I would be honest with NetGalley. I feel bad writing this, cause I really love the author, but I just didn’t love it,

The First to Lie is the story of a family torn apart by lies, manipulation, and self-centeredness. The characters are fully fleshed, three-dimensional, and relatable. There is plenty of action, suspense, twists and turns, and drama.

Because I read The Murder List I was a bit disappointed in The First to Lie. I started out rather confused with the chapters constantly swapping back and forth between characters without any explanation of how they related to each other and then the past was brought in to play and it became more confusing. However, it didn't take too long for me to gather what was going on, and instead of the ending completely taking me by surprise (as The Murder List did) I had figured it out for the most part. It was still very enjoyable and there were parts that I didn't figure out, so I would recommend it.

Big Pharma has always been scary but in this story it is evil and women who hope to have children are doomed when a miracle drug closes the door on their hopes! Interesting characters with numerous identities will keep you guessing until the end. Another winner for Ryan!!

Ok my head is spinning so many lies can anyone figure them all out? A pharmaceutical company is hiding side effects and the results are completely horrific and heartbreaking. Told in multiple points of views, a daughter of a wealthy and elite family who is betrayed by her own family, a widow whose betrayed in the same way, and a reporter determined to take down a pharmaceutical company that keeps pushing a drug that should never be taken by anyone. What do they all have in common? The story is told in past and present and each character has a secret their keeping, the lies are thrown around about their past and even their own identity. It’s hard to decipher whose lying and who they really are, but each one has the same motive they want to take down a billion dollar pharmaceutical company and reveal the secrets and pure evil the company is trying to cover up. I truly enjoyed this book once I could keep the characters apart, what this company kept hidden made me so angry at times, the story flowed and when the secret identities and lies came to surface my jaw dropped. I give this four stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and Hank Phillippi Ryan for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, where to start. I’ve always enjoyed Ryan’s books and this is no exception. However, keeping all the characters straight is somewhat difficult at times. Because, really, who is who? The storyline about big pharma is realistic along with the use of drugs for other than the intended purpose with possible detrimental side effects.

The story is fast-paced with lots of twists and turns. I finally realized that I needed to pay attention to the chapter titles to figure out the time frame and the point of view of that particular chapter.

There were parts that were somewhat implausible and I was asking myself why that character acted in a certain way. But, then, telling lies, does result in some weird behaviors.

There are so many lies by so many characters. Is anyone telling the truth? Is anyone who they say they are? The enjoyment comes from devouring the book to find out how all the twists and turns will be resolved.

Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC of The First to Lie, I had been really excited to read this novel, but to be honest I just could not engage with the characters or the story line
Two main characters are developed at the beginning, then more characters are added, I just got so confused.
The basis of the story is a big bad pharmaceutical company that is prescribing a drug to help women get pregnant when in fact it does the opposite
The story took so many twists and character changes that I could just not keep track who was who anymore

In the race to expose the harm being done by a drug that is supposed to help Ellie is keeping a secret. But then so are Meg and Gabe. Is there anyone trustworthy? What is the truth and can Ellie find it before someone else dies? In this thriller no one is who you think they are.

This mystery by Hank Phillippi Ryan will have you on the edge of your seat from the first page. I was hooked from the beginning and couldn't read it fast enough. The characters and the plot are compelling and just when I thought I had figured it out there was another twist making me question what I had thought was going to happen. What was truth and what was a lie? And the ending I did not see coming. Another great book by a great author.

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

OMG!

Edge of the seat suspense. Riveting. Masterfully pulling the various parts of the story together to weave a tapestry difficult to unravel.

Who's lying? The grieving widow? The reporter looking to "create" a story? The Dynamic Family Matriarch who always knows what's best?

Hard to figure out the lies, and where they start and end, if they even do.

So many characters, twists and turns, plots and sub plots coming together in ways that you would never even imagine.

Hank has done it again! A superb job! Guaranteed to keep you turning pages until the surprising end!

Definitely a brilliantly told story. I can't wait for what Hank will come up with next.

:Loved every minute of the thrilling read!

Revenge, secrets, betrayals...this one has it all and will take you for one thrilling and twisted ride!

Review #22 The First to Lie by Hank Phillippi Ryan and reviewing for Net galley.
Good story but I spent the first half of the book trying to figure out who all the female characters were. Later, it made more sense but became a bit unrealistic. Still a decent read. ★ ★ ★ Three stars.

This book is super hard to review without any spoilers so I’m going to keep this short. I loved it, loved all the plot twists and loved the MC Ellie! It was fast paced, gripping and mysterious. With as many twists and turns the book has, I was happy I got 3 out of my 4 guesses correct. I recommend everyone pick this up and read it!

The First to Lie is a well written book. The premise is intriguing, but after a while it was ridiculous. It felt a little slapstick which took away from the importance of going after a big Pharmaceutical company for inappropriate actions.

I was ready to give this 3.5 stars up until about ~90% of the way in. Frankly, I would give this only 1 star if it hadn't been written so well (putting aside the weird time jumps that were difficult to follow that an editor hopefully will clarify in future revisions).

I always anticipate having to suspend a little reality when reading a thriller, but this one relied *way* too heavily on this. The "Meg" character was utterly insufferable and I can't understand how "Ellie" accepted any of her actions for the majority of this book and just accepted it, moved on, and continued to be close to her. Their profession was also highly implausible; this news station was revamping and the ending article was posted online, not during a newscast? If the first newscast was that evening, wouldn't "Ellie" have been working? Plot holes galore.

I have nothing nice to say about the ending, which makes me want to not even write anything, but this novel seems to rely on the premise, what, that everyone got face altering surgery so they were unrecognizable? I am dumbfounded that these people all didn't recognize one another and save me 300 pages of frantic thoughts assuming everyone is every character they aren't.

I've enjoyed Hank's previous works, but I don't know if I will give her another shot after this. It was that much of a mess, in my opinion.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a note: aside from the usual typos that would need to be corrected, it seemed like many of the pages that ended in the middle of a sentence/word completely cut off and did not continue onto the next page. Not sure if this was a glitch in my download or in the entire ARC; I played with the font size and nothing seemed to fix it. Made it a bit annoying to miss dialogue or sentences.

Really great book. Good characters, and great story. This book really makes you think about big pharmaceutical companies and what they don’t really tell us. A few big twists that I was not expecting. Even as I tried to figure out the who, I was not sure if I was right. Turns out, I wasn’t. Well done Hank Phillippi Ryan! This was the first book I’ve read by this author, but it will definitely not be my last! Thank you Netgalley and Ms. Ryan for the early read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story centers around a big Pharmacy company and the wealthy family that owns it. The company is pushing a drug to help women desperate to conceive a baby. But they omit the fact that there could be catastrophic side effect for a few who take it. The story is told from three points of view. I found this easy to follow, and it was interesting to jump in and out of the character's different POV. As others have stated, there are a lot of twists and turns. If you enjoy fast paced unfolding drama you may really enjoy this story.

My problem with the story was two-fold, and I am in the minority here, judging from other reviews, so take it accordingly. I figured out most of the twists very early on, and therefore what were supposed to be shocking surprises fell flat for me. My other issue is that while I want a good story, which this was, I also seek character driven stories, and in this one I failed to connect with any of the characters. Lastly, I found the final reveals were just too implausible. Again, this was just my personal opinion and plenty of others loved the story for it's fast pace, twisty reveals, and constant action.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me a free copy of this book for this honest review.

The First to Lie is the newest book and third standalone in a row from Hank Philippi Ryan after last year’s very popular and award nominated The Murder List. As in the past three books, The First to Lie is full of fun, suspenseful twists that keep the reader excitedly reading and guessing.

Ellie Berenson is working in a new job as an investigative reporter at a new Boston television station. She’ll do anything to gain information on Pharminex, a pharmaceutical company that may be using one of their drugs in an unapproved way to help women become pregnant. Unfortunately, that drug apparently sometimes leaves them unable to have children at all, a risky problem the doctors and drug company don’t like to share. Meg West is Ellie’s overly helpful and somewhat nosey assistant who often goes out on her own in mysterious ways that don’t always seem too helpful to Ellie. Both newly hired, they end up living in adjacent furnished apartments set up by the television station. Ellie has some secrets that she doesn’t necessarily want to share with Meg, but the readers soon get to learn some of them.

Pharminex is led by an old Boston area family that wants to protect themselves from bad publicity but has also had issues with the miracle drug that even had negative impact on their own family members. Just how far will they go and how upset are the impacted family members, is one of the mysteries the reader will wonder about while reading this book.

Since the perspective as well as the time period changes for each chapter, the name of the lead character is included in the title of that chapter. This helps the reader understand about the character and the time period and also provides some hints about some of the twists to come. Remember the title of the book includes Lie and there’s lots of that to figure out. Not only who is the “first to lie” but who also is not telling the truth. I guessed correctly and incorrectly along the way. Some is a bit hard to believe but that’s often true of suspense and thriller books.

This is the fourth book I’ve read by Hank Phillipi Ryan, having read her last three and one other. I was always impressed by how nice she was to everyone at the Bouchercons. At the 2018 Bouchercon, I particularly liked what I was hearing about Trust Me plus the pins she gave out at the convention in 2018. That led me to pick up a copy at the convention bookstore and start to read it on the flight home (as if I needed any more books). I’ve been a fan ever since and now have a nearly full TBR pile of older books by her. Although I’ve read the one older book, I’m not really able to compare the differences in the newer more twisty suspense books to the more traditional mysteries in her earlier books. I’m sure fans of her early books are still fans and everyone would enjoy these new ones.

I want to preface this by saying that Hank is one of my favorite writers - and an absolute sweetheart. That’s why this review is so tough to write.

I did not enjoy this book. I just could not get into it (it took me weeks to get half-way through when I usually read a book every two-three days), there were sooo many characters (who all turned out to be the same people, which was strange), and even though I have personally dealt with infertility, I just couldn’t make myself care much.

I feel horrible saying all of that, which is why I won’t be sharing my review anywhere but here. I don’t want to discourage sales just because I didn’t enjoy it. 😞 It was written well, it just didn’t work for me.

Hank Phillippi Ryan does it again. The First to Lie has so many twists and turns that it will keep you guessing till the end. There are so many duplicitous characters. At first it is hard to keep them straight but the more you read, the easier this becomes. Several characters are leading double lives. To complicate matters further, the story jumps between different time settings as well. Need a chart to keep it all straight? You just might. Once the story gets going and you figure out who everyone is, the book moves along quickly and is hard to put down. Your mind is always working trying to figure out who is lying, who are the good guys, who aren't? You think you have it figured out or at least some of it figured out and BAM, another twist throws that theory out. Classic Hank Phillippi Ryan!! Towards the end there was a reveal that took a little stretch of the imagination as to how that person could have kept secret who they were from every other player in this dance of lies but, overall, it is a very satisfying read which has you turning the pages and not wanting to stop until the very end.

I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for my unbiased review. Thank you NetGalley.