A family that has everything from wealth to fame could surely want for nothing, right? Well, House of a Thousand Lies shows us that this is very much not the case. Moving through various storylines, Davis shows us the complicated history of the Wolf family and the way it affects the lives of those around them. Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes a book tries to do the most. In House of a Thousand Lies Davis works his way through the Wolf family but does so by hopping between different moments in time and different perspectives. While this gives the reader as broad a view of his story, it also runs the very high risk of confusing your reader. There is Diana, the mother, who is a confused and confusing woman, consistently torn between the picture-perfect existence she wants and the messy life she has. There is also Kerry Perkins, a cartographer who is hiding more than you might expect but is in no way prepared for what others are hiding. There are Diana's two sons, deeply conflicted, very talented, and estranged. There is the fiancée of one of the brothers, who wavers between happiness and concern. There is Pink, who is way to obsessed with the Wolf family and, despite all his oddities, my favourite character. There is also an FBI agent and probably a few other narrators I'm missing out on. It is a lot to keep balanced as a reader, especially as the skipping back and forth in time was not always signaled clearly in my e-Book.

It was hard to figure out what exactly the main story was at the heart of House of a Thousand Lies, in part due to the various narrators. Is this a story about the unraveling of the dream of a perfect family? Is it about police trying to figure out a horrible crime? Is it about two nobodies trying to find the truth? All of these stories are fascinating and there are many amazing moments in House of a Thousand Lies that totally grabbed me. A lot of what Cody Luke Davis does in this novel are things I have never read in a thriller or suspense novel before and he has a knack for that fine line between the Gothic and Suspense genres that I adore. I think the main thing that didn't resonate with me for House of a Thousand Lies is that too much is happening and attempted. A strict editor could perhaps have removed some of the elements and extra storylines and extra details that, while interesting, mainly make for a very complex novel that is difficult to oversee, even after having finished it. However, I am absolutely on board with reading more by Cody Luke Davis who absolutely has an eye for the creepy and the fascinating and the human in the dark.

House of a Thousand Lies does a lot, probably too much, but much of what it does is also excellent. If Davis sticks to a tighter storyline his next novels will be absolutely winners for me.

Will update with links once I put the review life.

This is quite a good first novel with so many twists! Every time I was sure I knew who the baddest of the bad was, something would happen to change my mind.
It was difficult to like any of the characters, though I did have a soft spot for Pink.
I almost gave up on this book several times in the first half. I found it more interesting as the story started to develop. I feel that there was too much background in the earlier parts. Having the story told by various characters as well as jumping around in the the timeline was a bit too confusing at times.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

I’m definitely in the minority with my 2 star rating but this story fell flat for me and I could not connect with any of the characters. DNF at 30%. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my review.

For a debut novel - this one certainly has some great things going for it.

I've come to life the mixed timeline way of story telling - but the jumps need to be more cohesive and easier to track. I found myself getting lost several times .

Perhaps in not the usual reader - but I really like at least one character that I can like or bond with. Diana - had a hard life - but lots of it were her fault. The boys were just horrible, spoiled excuses. The only person that was a little likable was Beau and he came on to late!

Overall a good book - even if it didn't solve the mystery. Perhaps we are set up for a series?

Diana Wolf has a dream home and does whatever she can to keep it all together. Her husband is a bit older, but it's important she keeps him interested and their sons are a bit...different. After one wine too many, Diana hires Kerry Perkins who is a conman pretending to map massive estates. Since she has already paid him, she invites him to walk through the Wolf Hall estate.

It's not long before Kerry trips on a skull with a strange engraving and the police are called in. Diana has her suspicions, but will stop at nothing to keep the secrets of the family. Kerry thinks it's best he run, but he befriends a strange man obsessed with the Wolfs and together they begin their own investigation. Soon Diana's husband and sons are under suspicion and nothing is what it seems.

This is a complicated story told by multiple pov and many seem to be unreliable. It's a great first effort by Cody Luke Davis! If you like family secrets, gothic-style stories and unreliable narrators, then House of a Thousand Lies is for you! #CrookedLaneBooks #NetGalley

Overall, I did not enjoy this book.
There were some pros:
• A look into a serial killer and his family life
• Fast paced
• Plot was interesting
However, the cons outweigh the pros:
• Not one likable character
• The ending did not tie up any of the plot lines, but was not big enough of a cliffhanger that it would make me want to read a second book.
• There were too many plot lines going on at the end of the book
• Some may find some of the descriptions or use of language to be too disturbing.

Thank you @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks for allowing me to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

House of a Thousand Lies
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 8/9/22
Author: Cody Luke Davis
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Pages: 320
Goodreads Rating: 3.73

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing a copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: When Diana Wolf hires a cartographer, Kerry Perkins, to survey and map her estate in rural Tennessee, she pulls back a frayed corner of the lie that is her fairytale life. On his first night at Wolf Hollow, Kerry stumbles across a dead girl buried in the woods. A week later, the cops are digging in her backyard and her nagging self-doubt returns for the first time in years. She’s not the only one with questions. Kerry Perkins can’t shake what he saw in the woods that night. He suspects that Diana recognized that symbol, that she lied to the police; that someone is watching him, and that whoever it is, they desperately want him to keep his mouth shut.

My Thoughts: The story is told through multiple narrators through their POV, however they are unreliable, which can make for a good read. This is a debut novel from the author and for a debut, it was good. There were times that the book was a slow burn, not all of time but at different points throughout the novel, and there were sometimes I would have to push through. While the plot was intriguing, it seemed a bit stretched and unrealistic. The characters were developed but I would like to have seen more so I could connect with them. I did enjoy the book and cannot wait until this author puts out more books.

I am giving this book a two stars because it was entirely too confusing. I think that the basis of the story has potential, but the author was just trying to do way too much within one book. I kept thinking that this HAD to be the last point of view, but then another one would appear along with another timeline.

In short, this book felt like a run on sentence that meandered on for too long. Was I surprised by some of the turns? Yes. Did I also want them to stop? Yes.

Diana Wolf has woken up from an alcoholic blackout regretting it again. And, as usual, she has spent an exorbitant amount of money on something she doesn’t need. But since she can’t remember what she bought, this could be interesting.

Cue Kerry Perkins, the cartographer she hired while in her haze to map out their estate. Kerry arrives and realises it will take some time, as the estate is very large. Diana needs to hide him somewhere for the week to do the work as her rock-star husband won’t be happy with her latest drunken purchase.

On the first day, Kerry comes across a buried skeleton, and carved into the skull is a picture of two wolves. When he calls Diana in to see this, she feigns surprise, but Kerry can see that she has recognised something. Enter the police and investigators and things start getting very weird when family secrets involving the sons, Cy and Jonah, are revealed for the deep lies they are. Not only in actions, but also in bonds.

Kerry becomes suspicious that the body was not just a random stranger and starts doing some investigating of his own. This leads him to Pink, an obsessed stalker of the Wolf family, who knows far too much about them. Together, they uncover horrifying information about the family as very often, where there is one body, others might follow.


I have to admit that I pushed through this book. It started off well and grabbed me, then in places I’d want to skim as the jumps between characters and time became confusing. This made the book feel longer than it actually was, and not in a good way.

I did enjoy the constant questioning of what was real and what wasn’t, whether it was an incident or a connection to someone. However, the main plot that held the book together branched out so much at the end that it went from being believable to being too far-fetched. I was with it through most of the way, nodding my head, and then went NOPE. Just NOPE. Plus, added to that, the ending came so suddenly it was like the author knew where he was going, but had spent so much getting there that he ran out of steam to bring it together smoothly. There were two parts to the ending that I felt stretched believability too much. This was disappointing, as in places I thought I had the tone of the book and felt comfortable knowing that the ending would be plausible.

I didn’t connect with any of the characters and I felt as though the author made them deliberately not likeable so that there were no “heroes”. I think the part I felt the strongest about involved a dog… I’ll leave it at that. I was glad that the story had no major grammar and punctuation errors, as this made for an easy reading experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an ARC of House of a Thousand Lies by Cody Luke Davis!

I just couldn’t really connect with this book. I don’t know why. It has everything I like in a book but something about it didn’t work for me.

Thank you for the opportunity to read House of a Thousand Lies. Unfortunately, I struggled to get into the story and I didn't like any of the characters.

DNF - I could not make it past the first 5% of this book & therefore will not be leaving any detail in this review. I didn't enjoy the writing style & found the hint as expressing oneself as though through a third party perspective, tedious & begning.

Horrific. This a slow build thriller that reaches an intensity after the first third of the book and just never seems to come back down to let you breathe!

Character driven, it focuses on three members of the Wolf family: Diana, Cy and Jonah. It delves deep into familial bonds, what you're willing to look past, or sacrifice. But at the end of the day, are these sacrifices made for the sake of your loved ones, or for your own mental health?

I felt so much reading this. Sickened, despairing, worried anticipation, loss, betrayal.

I was not personally a fan of the ending, though I understand & approve of it. It felt a little abrupt; the pacing felt like it was leading up to something, but then just gave up or lost interest. It's just a little awkward? Otherwise a fantastic read.

Psychological x Crime x Thriller

QUOTES:
- Therapy is dangerous for liars. When you can get someone else to tell you the lies you want to hear, they're a lot easier to believe.
- Nobody's happy all the time. That would defeat the purpose of happiness. It's a moving goalpost. A carrot on a stick.

so at the beginning I got a bit, just a bot, board and confused witch I think was because of the frequent time change? but as I kept reading it got better and better, and it ended really good. the characters were well described, there was no questions left unanswered and the ending was nicely executed, I enjoyed this one much,
Thanks to NetGalley for providing my copy in exchange for an honest review.

A new thriller about families and secrets they keep. I struggled to get into this one. I often like multiple narrator books but I think I just didn’t connect with any of them here.

If you like books with perfectly wrapped ends, stop here. I still have so many questions after reading this book.

With that being said, it was definitely fascinating. It’s the story of washed up country music star, his naive wife, and his psychopathic sons - one of which may or may not be the world’s worst serial killer. This book shows that, with the right amount of money, one can commit any number of heinous crimes without consequences.

This book was sent to me electronically for review by Netgalley. Murder and intrigue…the protagonist is likable…love and romance…family…a skeleton…who did the murder? Who can you trust? Who not? Enjoy this quick read and try to discern the ending before it comes…

Not that engaging, although I did make my way through it. Didn't much care for the characters or the plot.

This is a debut novel by Cody Luke Davis. In this one we have Diana Wolf, on the verge of turning 54, who in the beginning discovers that she wondering what she purchased after another alcohol black out. This time she learns that she spent 13k on a cartographer land survey. The purchase is non-refundable and it will take Kerry Perkins: The cartographer a week to do the survey. That's just great because now she has to hide him from her husband for a week as he surveys the thousand acres of Wolf Hollow: their property.

Kerry Perkins starts surveying the land and and soon Boom: He finds a dead girl with two wolves carved into her skull. And so begins a twisty ride as Perkins starts to investigate what is going on at Wolf Hollow. And it's a pretty crazy ride!

Pros: Book was twisty. There are plenty of characters that you can't really trust or believe. Kerry Perkins thinks that Diana knows who the girl is and soon there is a police investigation. It was entertaining.

Cons: So, in my opinion, I don't think the book was very well written. I think the plot and pace were done well but I just thought the execution was choppy. The ending wasn't as good as I would have liked as well.

Overall, I recommend reading. I like thrillers with unreliable narrators but I can't give this one five stars.

Book was given free for a honest review.

This story has so much potential. It’s dark and mysterious. There’s peeks into the mind of a psychopath and the ultimate question of why…. The family dysfunction is very relatable and realistic.

What I didn’t like was the numerous plot holes and disappearance of characters. While some of these add to the mystery, there’s no real direction giving you the ability to infer what may have happened to them. And the reasoning behind all of the chaos and death was… insufficient.

Ultimately, I feel like this book has the ability to be really good with weeding out some of the characters and tying off a lot of the loose ends.