The story begins when 17 year old Scott returns home after being abducted by the Bloody Heart killer, a serial killer who has already claimed the lives of 6 teenage boys. Psychiatrist Gwen Moore is retained by Robert Kavin in the defense of the main identified as the killer by Scott. The twist here is that Kavin's son was victim #6 of the killer yet he believes in the innocence of the man accused. This one was difficult to put down, I wanted to see it through to the end without taking a break. The characters are flawed, likable, and sympathetic and the story is believable, well all except Scott's story...

Dr. Gwen Moore is a psychiatrist who is an expert on serial killers. .She’s spent a decade treating California’s most depraved predators and unlocking their motives—predators much like the notorious Bloody Heart serial killer who killed 6 teenagers before being stopped.

In the Bloody Heart killer, his final victim escaped and was able to later identify him ... as high school teacher Randall Thompson.

As far as everyone is concerned, this is an open and shut case .. even the media has moved on to other things.

There is a fly in the ointment though. Robert Kavin is a defense attorney. He's also the father of a teenage son who fell victim to the Bloody Heart killer. Despite all this, he believes Thompson is guilty and will be representing him during the trial.

Now Robert wants Gwen to interview the accused, create a psych profile of the killer and his victims, and help clear his client’s name.

As Gwen and Robert grow closer and she dives deeper into the investigation, grave questions arise. So does Gwen’s suspicion that Robert is hiding something—and that he might not be the only one with a secret.

This is a stunning plot with a story line filled with twists and turns. The characters are fully developed, even the secondary characters are outstanding. The story is told by multiple voices and my only complaint is that it is hard to tell who is speaking. A character's name instead of a number would have been helpful. This did not prevent me from enjoying this compelling thriller. There are surprises around ever corner .. even a bit of a romance.

Many thanks to the author / Thomas & Mercer / Amazon Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

4.5 STARS

Six teens are dead; one victim has escaped; an accused serial killer has been arrested. Defense attorney
Robert Kavin’s son was victim number six and he has shockingly decided to defend the suspect arrested
for the murders. He seeks the partnership of psychiatrist Dr. Gwen Moore, a specialist in the niche group of criminals or those with dark tendencies, to interview and assess the suspect. What will she learn? Why is the attorney convinced the accused is not guilty? Why was the victim who escaped
spared?

My Thoughts:
An unputdownable crime story. I enjoyed every aspect of this book and will be reading more books by
A.R. Torre.

This book was awesome! The occasional perspective shifts were incredibly well utilized, and the overall conclusion was just out of nowhere! I also really enjoyed that the loose ends were tied up in a meaningful way, which we often don't see with thriller type books. Well done!

A slow burner but worth persevering!

This is my first novel by A.R. Torre, and I took a while to get into it. I think it’s because I read so many excellent books worth 5 Stars, which pull me in immediately, but for some reason ‘The Good Lie’ took a little longer.

The plot revolves around Dr Gwen Moore, a clinical psychiatrist studying the behaviour of the Bloody Heart Killer who has committed gritty, heinous murders of six high school boys. She meets the attorney Robert Kavin and there is a magnetic spark between the two of them.

There are several subplots, lies galore throughout and I agree with another reviewer that it was rather confusing from the outset. Maybe too many characters were introduced at once? I’m sure that Torre wanted to keep us on our toes because there were so many links between all the characters. It certainly is worth persevering, because after a while I found myself enjoying this grisly thriller and couldn’t wait to get to the staggering finale.

Galadriel.

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of this book to review.

The Good Lie by A.R. Torre was a terrific, twisty, addicting murder mystery. Dr. Gwen Moore is a psychiatrist who specializes in helping violent, or potentially violent, people cope with their aggressive thoughts. She basically helps murderers or would be murderers.

One of her clients and his wife are found dead. She knows her client had fantasies about killing his wife. It looks at first glance like the wife had a heart attack and her client killed himself out of grief. The good doctor is feeling off about that because her client was a pharmacist and she knows he could give something to his wife that would cause a heart attack. Gwen’s emotions were odd to me. She questioned if she herself could’ve prevented the deaths…she also didn’t seem too torn up about it.

Gwen goes to their funeral and visits a dive bar afterward to decompress. There she meets Defense Attorney, Kavin. They start chatting, and it turns out that Kavin was also at the funeral. Gwen’s client was his son’s pharmacist. They have sexy times (although there’s no spice, this isn’t that kind of book!) and Gwen learns that Kavin’s son is one of six young men that have been murdered by a serial killer. The serial killer is known for torturing good looking, white, wealthy, young men for weeks, then carving a heart in their chests and leaving their dismembered bodies to be found. Pretty gruesome stuff, and poor Kavin is a grieving father on a mission to find his son’s killer.

Victim number seven miraculously escapes death, runs home and immediately points his finger at a local high school teacher as the killer. His story keeps changing and there’s something off about him, too. Even his own mom recognizes that something is wrong with her son. Kavin doesn’t buy any of it either and decides to defend the accused killer, pro-bono. He hires Gwen to build a psychological profile of the killer in an effort to prove it’s not the guy in custody. This is her dream job and she’s giddy to get started.

I loved this book!!! I couldn’t put it down. I was kept guessing for quite awhile and even when I put most of the story together, it still held some crazy surprises. Gwen has one scary, messed up brain. Kavin has his own deep secrets. They’re super attracted to each other AND they don’t trust each other. Not. One. Bit. I inhaled this book. It was a refreshing fast paced break from my normal romance reads. Grab it!

The Good Lie by A.R. Torre

The Bloody Heart Serial Killer has kidnapped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered six handsome male high school students. Scott Harden, the seventh kidnapped victim, has just escaped and has managed to make it home when the story begins. What he has experienced is horrific and has changed him but that is just the beginning as there is much more to come.

What I liked:
* The intensity of the story
* The skillful writing style
* Dr. Gwen Moore: a psychiatrist who has clients that have violent thoughts and see her to prevent thoughts becoming actions.
* Robert Kavin: lawyer who lost his son to The Bloody Heart Killer and seeks justice for Gabe and others who died – he also decides to defend the man accused of being the killer as he feels the man is innocent.
* Scott’s parents and how they were there for him
* The look at a few other patients Gwen was seeing
* Finding out who the serial killer was
* That it was dark, gritty and felt real in emotions, descriptions, and interactions
* How twisted the story proved to be
* That nobody came through unscathed
* Thinking about what the future held in store for more than one character in the story
* Reading a new-to-me author I thoroughly enjoyed.

What I didn’t like:
* Knowing that there are depraved killers out in the world as bad as or worse than the Bloody Heart Killer
* Thinking about the pain that must be experienced by the murder victim, the victim’s family, the friends of the victim, and the impact on everyone that comes in contact with the crime.

Did I like this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

I LOVED Ms. Torre’s last book so I definitely wanted to read this one! And if it’s possible, I think I love this one even better!! Book begins with Scott Harden, a rich teen who has just escaped being kidnapped by the Broken Heart serial killer and has identified a high school teacher, Randall Thompson, as his abductor. Dr. Gwen Moore is a psychiatrist who treats patients with “dark thoughts” and is approached by Robert Kavin, a handsome lawyer who doesn’t believe Thompson is the killer. Gwen is shocked when Robert wants her to create a psychological profile on the BH killer, because Roberts’s son was a victim. This book was so smartly written and twisted! When I read the last few chapters I wanted to yell FINALLY an original twist! There were things I didn’t see coming and if I said anymore, I’d be giving away the best parts of this book. Read this and just enjoy what a fantastic ride this will take you on! It’s unlike anything I’ve read in the thriller genre. I cannot wait for her next book!

What could be more welcome than a kidnapped teen escaping and making his way home? Scott Harden was taken by the Bloody Heart Killer, and when he stumbles up his family driveway, they’re too relieved to see him to question the miracle.

Gwen Moore, however, a psychiatrist specialising in the most violent clients, is about to be contacted by someone who wants to do just that – the father of another victim. When another of her patients turns up dead, she has to wonder if she really knew what she was letting herself in for.

The Good Lie has a lot going on, and initially I was worried there was just no way to wrap everything into one cohesive storyline. A.R. Torre does it, though – each of the many elements introduced at the start has a part to play, somehow all managing to come together into a didn’t-see-it-coming ending that delighted me as much as it took me by surprise.

Gwen herself is an excellent main character, intelligent, confident, and unapologetically independent. True, she may not be making all the best decisions, but that just adds another layer of realism to an already believable protagonist. Though the book does focus on the central mystery, the reader is allowed to see her having a personal life – friends, a pet, the occasional bar night. It’s quite the tangle she finds herself in at the start of the book, and it all had me rooting for her right from the start.

The mystery itself – the less said, the better for future readers, of course – sneaks up on you. The stakes are high, certainly, the victims suffering horrible fates. But the reader comes in at the tail end of the series of kidnappings, and it initially reduces the tension, before the revelations start coming to crank it right back up to 11. It lent everything a much different pace than we normally see in books of this genre – and I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. It makes the book more reliant on the author’s skill to keep the reader engaged, rather than pulling us through the pages just to find out what happened.

An excellent read with a deadly sting in the tail – The Good Lie certainly lives up to the name.

This psychological thriller from A. R. Torre was a really riveting read. Gwen Moore is a Los Angeles-based psychiatrist. One of her patients is highly disturbed John Abbott and one morning she misses several calls and texts from him. Soon after, he is found dead alongside Brooke, his wife. At the Abbot's funerals, Gwen meets Robert Kavin, a widower and attorney. Defence attorney Robert is still traumatised by the death of his son who was killed by the Bloody Heart serial killer along with five others. Another victim escaped and identified the Bloody Heart killer as Randall Thompson who was arrested but Kavin is convinced that Thompson is innocent. Kavin enlists Gwen to create a psychological profile of the actual Bloody Heart serial killer.

This is a compelling and engrossing tale with a wickedly good and clever plot. Very swiftly paced it had many twists I did not foresee. The characters are well created and developed and there is plenty of drama, with certainly no room for tedium or boredom. The tension alert level is on overload here and the whole package is explosive. I found this well worth reading and I'm glad I opted to read it. I will definitely be reading more from Alessandra Torre.

Disclosure: Thank you to Thomas and Mercer for providing a digital ARC of The Good Lie by A. R. Torre via Netgalley for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Like nearly every other woman in the world, during my time in quarantine I have finally succumbed to the temptation of the murder shows. So when the television wasn’t available, what better reading option could I possibly find than a book about a serial killer?

The story here is about the “Bloody Heart” murders – six Abercrombie-style teenage boys who were taken captive, tortured, and left mutilated for the authorities to find. It’s also about the one that got away. And the dad of one of the victims. And a psychiatrist who specializes in people who fantasize about killing their family members. And the teacher who has been accused of committing the crimes. It’s tons of bloody fun.

Fair warning, if you are unable to suspend your disbelief you will have an instant gag-reflex type of reaction to this story. You see, said dad mentioned above just so happens to be a criminal defense attorney who decides that he’s going to represent the aforementioned accused killer. I know, I know, I know . . . . Obviously in real life such a severe conflict of interest would never allow for something like that to happen. But here in fiction world sometimes it’s okay for stuff like this to fly and at the end of the day you might wind up saying . . . . I LOVE TRASH!

Books like these are my type of poolside read. They offer a total escape from reality and also make people want to remain socially distant from you even before the time of the ‘Rona when they see you like to get down with the stabby-stabby : )

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

When I think of Alessandra Torre, I think of contemporary romance. Not anymore. She can definitely write a psychological thriller.

Dr. Gwen Moore is a psychiatrist that specializes in clients with violent tendencies. Imagine Dexter going to therapy. She hit the lottery when Defense attorney Robert Kavin hires her for a psychological profile on a serial killer. A serial killer who has tortured and killed 6 teenage boys. A serial killer that is now locked up and she has access to interview him. A serial killer who killed the DA's own son.

This was a very creative story that had great characters. With twists and a surprising ending, this was and addicting thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and A.R. Torre for a copy of "The Good Lie" in exchange of an honest review.

I really enjoyed this story.
It's about a serial killer targeting teenage boys, holding them captive for weeks before dumping their mutilated bodies.
The main characters are a shrink who is asked to make a profile on the suspect that's currently in police custody, a lawyer who decides to represent said suspect although he's very deeply and personally involved in the case, and a teenage boy who's the first and only one to escape the killer.

There are quite a few twists and turns, but what I enjoyed most is that I had no idea who the killer is. I was totally taken by surprise with the big reveal and that is always a big plus for me in murder mysteries. There's a small detail right on the last page that I wasn't happy with, but I choose to ignore it since it's kind of left open anyway.

10/10 would recommend.

Another fabulous thriller from one of my favorite authors.

Dr. Gwen Moore is a psychiatrist that specializes in killers. She helps tame their thoughts to hopefully prevent them from killing anyone. And it has worked… for the most part.

Robert Kavin is a defense attorney whose son was killed by one of the most sought after serial killers known as the Bloody Heart Killer.

But when an arrest is made Robert is quick to defend the man behind bars and hires Dr. Moore to make psychological profile of this killer. Huh?!

A.R. Torre knows how to write a tense gripping thriller that is unputdownable. And since she is also known for her romance novels, you know there will be some heat within the pages!

I ❤️ all her books – under both her pen names. I cannot wait to what she has in store for us next!

Posted to: https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend...

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer.

Author has created some really horrible characters but they are so compelling! This is one of those books where the characters matter a lot so it is great to see them developed in a way which makes their personalities and their relationships clear. The story itself crams a lot in and a lot of it is pretty dark so bear that in mind when picking it up.

This was my first book by this author and I really, really liked it. I am not a huge fan of thrillers, because, well they are scary and they stick in my mind long after I finish reading. But the writing was SO good and the characters were SO well developed that I pushed through the scary/gruesome parts because I was definitely invested in the story. Very hard to write a complete review without providing details that would ruin the ending for other readers. Suffice it to say - read this book- then consider; the one person who knew who the BH killer was also knew that he was holding Scott in his house, BUT they just watched the house. They didn’t go to the police and try to save Scott’s life. And yes, they had reasons for this, but it was just a detail that bothered me. But this is only one of the questions in this book of how far someone will push their moral limits. Bottom line, this is a great book, great story and an ending that was ultimately very satisfying. Whew, I think I got through that without a spoiler! I received an ARC from the publisher Thomas & Mercer, through NetGalley, and I appreciate the opportunity to read this book.

SHUT UP this book was ahhhmazing. I love the author in whatever pen name she uses but this book was a … home run !! this was amazing! I want more in this category of book. it was thriller and psych thriller and intrique and murder and mystery it was delicious .

sit down with this book when you have time to binge.. you will regret not binging

Have you ever read a book where you had no idea what was happening or why people were being introduced into the story, only to find out how it all ties together so neatly in the end?

The Good Lie is that kind of book. You get to see different perspectives, between Gwen, an expert on killers, and the mother of a boy who escaped from the Bloody Heart Killer. We keep getting tidbits from two of the clients that Gwen sees, and the entire time I kept wondering how they played into the bigger picture.

Meanwhile, Gwen is questioning her ability to do her job, while being intrigued by lawyer Robert Kavin, who lost is son to the BH Killer but is now representing the man that could be behind it all.

I loved that this book kept me guessing until the end, and when it all came together it suddenly made sense even though most of the book I couldn't quite put my finger on what was goin on.

This book is a page turner that will keep you guessing until the very end.

This is not my usual genre but I love this author’s work. The plot was executed with perfection and I was left with a huge book hangover. I had difficulty keeping up with the point of view at first because Gwen’s portion is first person and the other chapters are third, but this is a necessity to fully understand the plot. Each character adds depth and an extra layer to the story so that you are left guessing who the real villain is. Perfectly done!

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
3.5 stars
M/F Thriller

Dr. Gwen Moore is not one to discuss her job openly. She deals with clients who have violent imaginations. Her job is to assess whether or not they are truly a danger to themselves or someone else. Most of the time, it's simply fantasy. Dr. Moore helps them develop different outlets for their violent ideations.

Robert Kavin is a grieving father and an attorney. He wants to find the person responsible for his son's death as much as any parent. When that person is named, Kavin has a difficult choice to make. Does he represent them? Does he stand by and watch someone else represent his son's alleged killer?

As the Bloody Heart Killer's story unfolds, you'll be compelled to continue on the journey, but also wanting something a little more. Do the police have the right man? Did Dr. Moore drop the ball or was she doing her job? Could one of her clients be the killer or just another person who thinks about killing, without ever pulling the trigger?

This story is full of twists and turns. It's compelling on the crime storyline, but I felt that the romantic line this story took was almost filler. Yes, it created some interesting conflicts of interest, but for the most part, I think this would've been more enthralling had there been more about Dr. Moore's clients. Maybe that's just the crime show addict talking in me though. Overall, I enjoyed the story.