This book was a slow burn for me. I'm not sure I'd classify it as a thriller because there weren't a lot of twists until the last 1/3 of the book. It was a good read though, with good story development. I like the cop couple, Nick and Annie, and might have to check out the books that came before this one. The Louisiana dialect made it a bit harder to read at times, but I think it would've been easier in physical book form than Kindle, because I could have turned to the definition pages more easily. Overall, it was an entertaining book though!

This book had a slow start for me; I didn't really get pulled in until halfway through. While reading, I felt like a little detective trying to solve three different mystery crime situations. I thought I had guessed it, but nope—I was wrong. When I got to the last 30% of the book, I couldn't put it down; I needed to know what would happen next. This story takes you on a journey involving two missing people and a dead body. There are so many hands in this pot that you won't know who to believe as the story unfolds. Talk about a mystery and fast-paced thriller once things pick up!

I also didn't know this was the third book in a series. After reading this, I will definitely be checking out more books by this author.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton, for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The swamps and surrounding environs of Louisiana set the back drop for a layered mystery. This is my first Tami Hoag book in several years and to be honest, I prefer her earlier books like the Deer Lake and Oak Knoll series. Still this is a good book. Tami Hoag knows how to craft a mystery you want to read. From the beginning the reader is flung around to many scenes in Louisiana from love to murder to despair. And just when you started to wonder what was next you were off to another scene.
Eventually the mystery started to present themselves from the first murder to the missing person (alligator bait.) All these tangled webs brings together a husband and wife law enforcement team. A capable team if books 1 and 2 in this series prove to be as deep as this one. A husband and wife beholden to different jurisdictions but brought together for justice. I've not read the other two books so it will be interesting to go back and see how the relationship built to this point.
The mystery begins with identifying the body who has been made less having his identifying pieces destroyed. Doing so leads us to the characters briefly touched on in the beginning of the story and ties together the disparate threads of the story to get justice for the interesting cast of characters. When I say interesting characters, they do start from the beginning of the book with the old neighbor who found the body and his Cajun drawl. I admit at this point to being a little lost on some of the words. Never fear, Tami does not leave readers reaching to google to understand the words, instead she added a glossary at the end of the book. Doing so allowed her to keep the Cajun flavor to keep the stage set for small town Louisiana on the edge of the swampland. In fact, I had to chuckle early on at Fourcade's partner when he joked that the killer was lazy or the swamp would have washed away the body. I'm glad it dd not because we needed that murder to get the story going and to setup the mystery to lead us threw the lives mentioned in the early going.
Again, I might have preferred the early books but this is still worth reading. Just be sure to settle in as it is a lengthy book which is common to many of Tami's books. I would give it about a 3.5 to 3.75 which translates for review purposes to a 4.
Thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The book starts with a mystery surrounding three men—one dead and two missing. The dead man’s injuries make him unidentifiable so the mystery begins, wondering if one of the missing men could be the murder victim. There are two competing law enforcement offices—the county sheriff’s and the town police department, who cross one another’s lines and step on some outstretched toes. The mystery deepens with the cast of secondary characters—an abused wife, an abandoned wife, a grief-stricken mother, a head-in-the-sand mother, a black sheep brother, and a taken-for-granted fall guy…all people whose lives barely overlap, but are all connected through the elements of the story. It is a gritty and dark tale that takes place in a deeply Cajun part of Southern Louisiana.

Bad Liar is my first Broussard and Fourcade novel and I look forward to going back and reading books 1 and 2. I found it to be a deeply layered story and I admired Tami Hoag’s ability to bring all of these complicated plot elements together to resolve the multiple mysteries within it. I admit, I was hoping for a happy ending for one of the characters and was crushed when she didn’t get it, but I get, too, that there were certain story choices involved that made the book more, sadly, realistic.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for and advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A wife and husband law enforcement duo search for a few missing men with strange connections. The search takes place in the Louisiana bayou, and the characters are intriguing.

Bad Liar
Tami Hoag
September 24, 2024

We are in Southern Louisiana’s French Triangle,a place where Cajun is the language and the people have lived in the black water Bayou most of their lives. Folks here have grown up together, played together and through it all now work together in professional jobs as well as businesses that their families have created. Drugs are a problem amongst the students and young adults.
Bad Liar is a sad tale of the local police and sheriff’s departments daily rounds. Technology is not nearly as up to date as it should be. Both are short on staff and they too have grown up with the people they must take into custody.
Bad Liar will be published on September 24, 2024 by Penguin - Random House. I was able to read Tami Hoag’s latest novel via NetGalley.
This harrowing story begins when Detective Annie Broussard and her team are called late night to investigate the spotting of a body found on the edge of the basin. He was an unidentifiable man who had been shot in the face and chest. It was presumed that whoever took his life had planned to dump him into the area where the crocs would dispose of the body. Perhaps his dead weight was too much for the slayer to put the corpse in the water. The suspense was grisly and the families involved in the inquiry were Acadian. I thoroughly enjoyed this well-written, edgy novel. Don’t miss it!

What a great read! This was a really good reset read for me.

It had mystery wrapped up in a small town storyline. It brought heartache and grief to addiction and loss. I loved the two main characters in this book and their story! I am going to go back and read this series!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Duncan for this ARC for my honest opinion.

#BadLiar #NetGalley #TamiHoag

I really enjoyed this detective mystery page turner! Annie and Nick are very likable and perfect “good cop” characters. The Louisiana setting was so perfectly done, it added a ton of interest to the storyline. It’s 3rd in a book series but the story does a great job of filling in the blanks if you don’t read the first 2. Such a great who did it, murder mystery read!
4.5 stars rounded up

Bad Liar by Tammy Hoag is a wonderfully written Louisiana mystery story. Several plot lines run concurrently involving family dramas, long ago sins and deceits, and redemptions. The crimes and resolutions play out throughout the book - some as expected and some with surprises. Truly a winning combination!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the opportunity to read this ARC.

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

Married Detectives Nick Fourcade and Annie Broussard are back investigating the murder of a semi decomposed and unidentifiable body that was found in the Bayou as well as a the disappearance of a drug addict who had seemingly recently gotten his life back on the right path.

3.5 stars.

I love Tami Hoag and have been reading her books for literally decades. This was a little long and a little slow for me, unfortunately. It felt like there was just a lot of spinning wheels in the investigation for at least the first half of the book and I couldn't get interested in what was going on. The story somewhat redeemed itself at about 60-65%, and I felt like things picked up a bit and I found myself getting more interested in the outcome, which was not one that I would have guessed. Overall, a good/decent book, but not my favorite from her.

Pros- good plot lines for Annie and Nick that intersect at times. I thought the author did a good job with Robbie’s life and the horror of addiction, not only on the addict but on the family.
Cons: I don’t have any. I wish I had read books one and two before this one, but it isn’t a must for the novel.

While this could probably be read as a standalone novel, it is likely best to read them in order, since this is part of a series. I didn't read the prior books, so perhaps that is why I had a bit of a struggle connecting with the characters and staying engaged. I found it repetitive. The pace was also slower than I expected. Thankfully, there were a few unexpected twists. The latter half of the book is definitely better than the beginning. I would consider checking out other books in this series.

I love Tami Hoag and was so excited to see another one out by her because it has been years! This one starts with a body found. There are also two people missing that could fit the description of it. We got through all the twists and secrets this town has to uncover who this person is. We also need to find out who is behind their murder.

I thought this book was too slow and not a lot happens that keeps me turning the page until the end. I have read the other two books in the series and The Boy is still my favorite!

Another winner by Tami Hoag. We have three seemingly separate crimes happening - a missing favorite son (at least by his mother), a missing addicts (again, by his mother) and a dead body. Is the dead body one of the missing? As the story progresses, we come to discover that there may be more linking these together than we thought. Family support is in the forefront here, sometimes misplaced. Peer support is here, again, perhaps misplaced. I found this to be a solid read that kept my attention and kept me riveted. As always, I look forward to the next installment and will generally read anything by this author.

New York Times best seller, Tami Hoag does not disappoint with her latest book Bad Liar. In a small Bayou town in Louisiana a dead body is found, but it turns out there is more than one missing man, so who is the dead body in the morgue? Detectives Broussard and Fourcade are on the case navigating the small town where everyone seems to know everyone's business, or do they?

Fourcade and Broussard, much improved.

4.5 stars rounded up.

A male corpse with a gunshot wound to the head that makes it hard to identify him is found in the Louisiana swamp. The gruesome murder leads detective Nick Fourcade to discover that a local hometown hero is missing. Meanwhile his wife, detective Annie Broussard, back on the job after a traumatic incident, stumbles upon her own missing persons case - a young addict who may or may not have been in recovery at the time of his disappearance. It soon becomes apparent that the three cases are connected by a web of lies.

This is the third case featuring detectives Fourcade and Broussard, who are now married and have a five-year old son. While these may work as standalone books, I previously read the first book in the series, „A Thin Dark Line“, and that definitely helped to understand the characters better. On the other hand, I couldn’t find the second book in my local library, so I skipped that one before diving into the last installment and didn’t feel like I missed a crucial part of the story. Some things from that past case are alluded to and, when necessary, spelled out (like the cause for Annie’s PTSD), and as a result, I had no trouble picking up where the previous case left off (bonus points for not completely spoiling the second book in the follow-up, so I can still go back and read it at some later point).

While the author’s writing has always been good, I’ll admit that I wasn’t crazy about the series’ initial installment, „A Thin Dark Line“. However, I am happy to report that the series has much improved. For starters, „Bad Liar“ is a lot more concise - the story, while still providing some atmospheric background from the bayou, moves along quickly and doesn’t drag unnecessarily. I also much appreciated the character overhaul Detective Fourcade received. And while the couple now has a young son, I found it refreshing how much of a - barely featured, in fact - side character the child was; it didn’t distract from the detective work.

The book features some heavy topics, namely drug abuse / the opioid crisis, and domestic violence. While I wasn’t too thrilled to read a domestic violence victim being described as „a cute, sassy little thing with a flirty smile“ who „goaded [her husband] a little“, for the most part, those topics were broached sensibly. The heartbreaking, all too real storyline of Robbie Fontenot, an up-and-coming high school athlete who was derailed by an injury only to slip into drug addiction, was especially well done.

Finally, while the identity of the faceless murder victim wasn’t hard to guess, the author still did a very good job of keeping up the suspense, weaving the different threads together into a satisfying conclusion.

An engaging, well-crafted police procedural with depth. I am looking forward to reading the next installment!

TW: domestic violence, sexual assault (attempted), drug abuse.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

„Bad Liar“ is slated to be published on September 24, 2024.

First want to give a huge Thank You to Penguin Group - Dutton publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy of Tami Hoag’s “ Bad Liar”. I am an auto-buy for this author and was on pins and needles awaiting her next release. I devoured this book.

Tami’s writing style is beyond unique. The way she can weave a story and keep you, the reader, locked in is a talent not many posses. I tend to loose interest quickly and do not normally enjoy a back and forth story line between multiple characters. HOWEVER with Queen Tami, I have zero issue staying the course! It’s seamless.

This story has several twists and turns, lots of action taking place, with it all linked together by past history, jealousy, family bonds and drives to succeed.

A small town, with lots of history. A brutalized body found by the swamp, unrecognizable, sets the wheels in motion. A desperate Mom looking for her lost son has the detectives on the look out for not one, but several missing persons. Folks missing, a body found that has been brutally disfigured and zero way to obtain identification. Is it Robbie, battling a bad drug habit for years, whose mom reported him missing? Is it Marc who is the Home Town Hero, gone missing with a jealous brother and unhappy wife? Who is it and why was this person murdered? So much going on within this never ending roller coaster of a tale and I promise you, you won’t see it coming. I could not put this book down and now I am going to be so depressed while I wait for her next book. However, you don’t need to be as coming to a bookstore soon, this one will be waiting for you! Enjoy!

Release date is 9/24/2024 and I recommend you Pre-Order this baby so she can be on your doorstep that day!

The was my first but not last Tami Hoag publication. I already have a few friends eager to read it once released. Thanks so much!

Marc Mercier left home for a weekend hunting trip and hasn’t been seen since.

Robbie Fortenot has been missing for 8 days.

As Annie and Nick investigate the cases, the hit many brick walls in the form of family secrets, jealousy and unhelpful local police force.

A straight forward police procedural in Louisiana which I absolutely loved. It will grab your attention from the very first chapter.

RECOMMEND

Thank you #NetGalley for the complimentary copy of #BadLiar in exchange for an honest review.

Tami Hoag has always been one of my favorite authors! I haven't read anything from Tami in a long time, soI was so excited to see this book available on NetGally for review! I was even more excited to see that I was approved for an advance copy! I was unaware when I signed up for this book that it was the 3rd book in a series. I can't say if having read the first 2 books would have helped my rating in this book or not. I didn't feel like I was missing any information by not reading the first two.

Overall, the book was just ok. it starts out with a body being found. It's unable to be identified without forensic testing due to the nature of death. As we progress through the book, we find out that more than one person fits the description and is also missing. The majority of the book is slow moving. It gets more interesting in the last third of the book. I don't know if I would have kept reading had I not made a commitment to do so. If the whole book has been like the last third, it would have been a 3 or 4 star read for me.