Best book off the year so far. Great characters with lots of twist and turns This author never disappoints
Thanks NetGalley for advance copy.

Like many other early readers here, I was excited about The Best Lies because of how much I LOVED Look Closer. While this novel was full of terrific writing, action-packed, and twisty, it didn’t keep my attention as much as LC did. It felt like it took a while for the main storyline to start, which caused me to start losing attention, however I am glad I stuck it out because it turned out to be an interesting, clever story.

If you enjoy legal thrillers, sting operations, political ties, etc. read this book! Not my typical trope but I did enjoy it. I think this book would make an amazing movie!!

Thanks to NetGalley & Putnam books, I received an advance review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I loved the book Look Closer by this author! I appreciate the opportunity to preview The Best Lies on Netgalley.
This thriller was also satisfying with suspense. I love the way the author writes and a few surprises are in store. I would definitely recommend to anyone who has read prior novels or new readers!

4 stars!

Look Closer by David Ellis is one of my favorite thrillers that I read last year, and so I was excited to follow up with his 2024 release The Best Lies. As someone who reads a lot of mystery thrillers it is easy for them to all blend together and start to feel the same and something I love about David Ellis is that he makes me feel really confident that I know what's going on and then completely flips everything on its head.

The Best Lies was happily no different! I continuously thought I had small things figured out only to be duped over and over again. This book is over 400 pages, but I was honestly engaged throughout every second of it and at no point was I bored or wishing it would end.

Where I struggled was the actual subject matter -I don't love books around mobs or super heavily police procedurals. But overall, I would recommend this to new and old fans of thrillers and I can't wait to read more by David Ellis!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Ok first can this please be made into a movie. I feel like this would be perfect on the big screen and the anticipation and the thrill of it all. I love books that keep me going and I love trying to figure out the ending before it happens. David Ellis really is a great writer I can’t wait to read more of his works

I was anticipating such a good smack in the face twist after reading Look Closer last year, which was one of my all time favorite thrillers! This book certainly did NOT disappoint. While it did not have quite the same level of shock factor as his last book, I was still blown away at how clever and twisty this book was. You think you know what is happening only to be completely and utterly surprised time and again! The only reason it’s not five stars is because it didn’t quite give me the same level of shock factor as his book. I thoroughly enjoyed this and was on the edge of my seat the whole time! Chef’s kiss!

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for this e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

Did I finish this book in one sitting? Yes. Yes I did.

I loved this book so much I couldn’t put it down! After reading Look Closer earlier this year, I had such high expectations for @david_ellis_author’s newest book and boy, did he deliver! The short chapters of course, were EVERYTHING. Ellis knows how to write unreliable characters and how everything came together in the end was twisted perfection!

This was my first David Ellis book, and I was NOT disappointed! I absolutely loved every single thing about it!

This is not my usual type of thriller, but it should be, because I was on the edge of my seat the entire book. This story is PACKED with twists and turns and is so fast paced. At no point did this book drag whatsoever.

This book has a decently intricate plot with a lot of characters and multiple timelines but I still found it easy to follow, and never got convoluted. Every single character was important, and every single piece of the puzzle was essential to the story.

I love the main character, Leo, and I love the subtle humor in this book. The character development was perfection for not only main characters, but support characters as well.

This book read like an action thriller film to me, and I thought multiple times throughout that this would make an AMAZING movie.

I cannot say enough good things about this book and I will be following this one up with another David Ellis book!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read this advance copy!

A very twisty thriller with an unpredictable plot. David Ellis has become one of my favorite authors and I look forward to reading more from him. Ellis is very clever, and you think you know what's going on, but then things change very quickly, and you're left stunned, rereading just to make sure you read correctly. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Title: The Best Lies by David Ellis
Genre: Crime Thriller
Pub Date: July 23, 2024

Sting Operation
Mobsters & Heists
Dirty Cops
Twisty Thriller

This one took me a while to become invested because the initial set up was a little hard to follow, but there are twists galore.
I really enjoyed Leo's character. His pathological lying helped sell several plot twists, and the addition of arithromania as a character trait was an intriguing choice, possibly indicative of an underlying OCD. He's witty, loyal, and despite the skeletons in his closet he will do anything to provide justice even if it could carry significant risks for himself.

⭐️ 3.5/5

I can't say that Crime Thrillers are my favorite genre as I'm not huge on gangsters and FBI/sting operations, but having said that the writing style was easy to read, I enjoyed the interactions between characters and I couldn't have guessed most of the twists. Overall an interesting read and I'll happily read works by David Ellis in the future, but maybe I'll read the BLURB next time 😅

Thank you so much NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the digital review copy.

5/5! The amount of moving parts that came together to produce an ending that will blow you away was incredible!

Multiple POVs and multiple time lines work together to reveal the right information at the perfect time. You will have to sit with this ending to wrap your mind around everything that went into it!

Leo is a clever attorney with an affinity for numbers and helping the innocent. The author allows for Leo’s sarcasm to bleed through in the best way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC!

David Ellis did it again. Look Closer was the best thriller of 2022, and The Best Lies is an amazing follow-up. Ellis is a masterful storyteller from page one to the end, and continues to take you on a funhouse of twists and turns. Wow. This is a must-read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jumps around a bit between characters and times but not hard to follow in my opinion.

Really enjoy the author, you’re in for a twisty ride with crime, action & of course lies!!

4.25 stars.

If you're interested in this because you loved David Ellis's Look Closer, I think you will enjoy this, but note that it is more of a mobster/biotech heist/FBI thriller than it is a domestic one. It's shorter than Look Closer by about 100 pages and I read it in one day. There are multiple POVs and multiple timelines, so I think it would benefit from reading in large chunks of time to keep everyone straight. I was surprised by several revelations. Still, might be one too many moving parts.

I did think the "prime number" schtick was overdone in the first third of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam/Penguin Group for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Expected publication date: July 23, 2024.

Look Closer is my favorite book, one that I recommend to anyone looking for a thriller when I saw that David Ellis had a new book coming out I had to read it. David Ellis is a storyteller. I love the pace of his books, the intellect behind them and they always have plenty of twists. The Best Lies did not disappoint, this book has it all -multiple points of view, a dual timeline, murder, an unreliable narrator, crooked agents, a layered plot, plenty of twists, romance AND an excellent ending. This is going to be one of the best books of 2024 so definitely add it to your TBR

Whew this was a ride! Leo is accused of killing a notorious human trafficker, but then a crooked FBI agent tries to get him to play both sides to catch the big boss. But when the big boss Nico is found dead at the bottom of a lake, Leo is in the fight for his life...or is he?

Liars can lie, but who lies best?

Overall this book isn't for me.

It's definitely a slow paced novel, I did DNF due to my being able to get into it. I don't like any of the characters. I read about 40-50% and was still not enjoying it, so I decided not to finish it. I do plan to read his other novel and I'm very excited to read it as I've heard so many good reviews.

I think this book will have a good audience, I'm just not one of them.

This had more twists and turns than a snake! Leo is an attorney that does the right thing “most”of the time. When a woman approaches him and tells him that she was kidnapped when she was younger by a man that sex traffics a lot of women, he decides to take the case but things get way out of hand! Especially when she is found dead. The Best Lies by David Ellis comes out in July. Thank you to Netgalley for the early read! 4.5 stars

ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS!!!

Whip-smart, fast-paced, and suspense-laden!!! My first David Ellis novel and I finished it in a day…

Characters are well-developed, intelligent, & realistic. They resonate as people that may actually exist—and who doesn’t love an endearing attorney who is also a pathological liar????

This is a MUST-read!

Special thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for the amazing digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

#thebestlies #thriller #suspense #action #goodbooks #mustread #072324PubDay @david_ellis_author @bookshell_f

I enjoyed Ellis’s newest but it’s hard to compete against one of my favorite thrillers ever, the author’s previous book, Look Closer.

A pathological liar as an MC…genius. Talk about unreliable narrator. Plus, Leo is snarky and smart. I had the most fun with his POV and learning his backstory. Unfortunately, the other characters/pov’s were less intriguing to me.

There were a few twists that made me gasps but I felt like I predicted others. Overall, I think I’ll be in the minority for this one but it just didn’t “wow” me like I hoped.