Due to of the popularity of crime fiction from Australia and New Zealand authors such as Jane Harper, Chris Hammer, Garry Disher, and Emma Styles, readers have grown accustomed to gritty, gruesome and violent tales of murder in the outback. Liars is not one of them. Perhaps the lighter tone and unique viewpoint come from the fact that it was written by a comedian. Instead, this is a quirky crime mystery whodunnit set in a coastal town, and, much like another cosy crime television series set in a seaside village, it also stars an older woman as the sleuth.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2024/10/01/liars-james-ologhlin/

I have not read anything by this author previously, but will definately look out for more by him. Set in Australia, this book follows a group of friends and acquaintances in a small coastal place in Queensland. One of the girls was killed by the Blue Mountain strangler and others in the group have drug addiction problems. As the book starts, Joe returns to the house where he grew up after the death of his mother. She bequeathed 2/3s to him and a 1/3 to his lawyer older brother. Joe has just completed a drug rehabilitation programme to get out of a prison sentence and has been working with a local handywoman, Barb.
The first few chapters were quite confusing, mostly because the timeperiod was alternating between now and the present time and because the book was told from different points of view. However as the book progressed and I had sorted out who everyone was, the narrative started to make more sense and the different forms of communication did add to the plot. As we get into the book, there are more deaths and Barb, together with Seb (local police and bass player from the group) start to look into the recent events as well as the subject of Joe's podcast, the death of Sal years ago. The book is long, but tells an intricate story of relationships between the townspeople, those in the group of friends and those around them as well as their lies and secrets. Barb is a great character who asks questions that others would not dare. Seb is perhaps a little weak at first, but he does come into his own. The book gradually builds up the story and the suspense with a couple of twists in the plot and doesn't feel too long. I have given 4 stars because of the confusion I had at the start of the book, was I going to carry on with it? I`m so glad I did.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

In this sleepy coastal town of Bullford Point, Barb Young, a handywoman, has lived a pretty quiet life. Minus the one time a brush turkey tried to get onto the ferry a few years ago.
When Joe Griffiths returns from Sydney after six years of drug addiction, jail and, eventually, rehab, Barb offers him a job, hoping to help him turn his life around for good. However, whenever Karen Kemp’s body is found in the nearby bushland, who becomes the number one suspect? Yep, Joe Griffiths does. The local police constable, Seb Baxter, is definitely overwhelmed by the scope of the crimes that have been committed on his patch. The homicide detectives from Sydney quickly take over the scenes draw their own conclusions & head for home again.
Barb takes it upon herself to do her own investigating, making her realizing that things really and truly just aren't adding up. She teams up with Seb to get to the bottom of things...
I enjoyed how most of the story is told via emails, letters, text messages, and also podcast transcriptions as well. As the story goes on, we see how things from the past come to light and how that leads the ending to be absolutely thrilling, IMO anyway.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my honest review.

I struggled with this book, mainly because of the formatting in the ARC I read. It wound up being a skim read for me because I found it difficult to really get into the book. The emails/texts in the beginning were a bit much which made it even harder for me to feel connected to the story.

I feel like there was a lot of promise here though. The characters and plot were interesting. I think I would have liked it better if it had been shorter with better formatting. That said, it was a clever, atmospheric mystery.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

Barbara Young is 58 years old, has lived all her life in the same small rural town, working as the community’s handywoman, and was until very recently a comfortably married woman. She’s also one of the most appealing amateur sleuths I’ve read in years.

This murder mystery novel doesn’t follow a traditional structure, which made it very hard to get into the story. The first chapter is told by a third person omniscient narrator in lovely prose, then, for the next sixty-plus pages, there are newspaper reports, court records, emails and letters from, and to, more than half a dozen people.

To be clear, I am generally very much a fan of epistolary novels, but not so much when they read like jumbled correspondence, each piece plucked at random from a box of ephemera; most of them are too brief to provide context, and the sheer number of correspondants makes it hard to keep track, lacking any prior knowledge to anchor the exchanges to.

(Please note that this is a review for the publisher’s ARC provided through NetGalley, which had terrible formatting; it’s possible, even likely, that some of the feeling of disorientation I felt for most of the first part of the novel comes from the jumbled paragraphs, non-existent section breaks, and so forth–it is to be hoped the final digital edition doesn’t have any of these issues.)

I am very glad I persevered; in Chapter 10, the author goes back to the third person narrative, from the points of view of several characters; since we are allowed their interior dialogue, it’s a lot easier to become invested in their fates, and soon thereafter, we are off to the races.

Beware: drug addiction; suicide; alcoholism.

Bullford Point is a very small rural community in New South Wales, some distance from Sydney; most young people who seek higher education leave the former for the latter, and few of them return home to live.

A few years prior to the events in the book, a group of friends from the town formed a musical group, which did fairly well for a while. At some point, one of the band members disappeared, her body found months later in a rural area in the West of Sydney; eventually, the police would determine that she had been the third victim of the so-called Blue Mountains Strangler. That murder changed everything; for Joe Griffith, it was the start of self-destruction via drugs.

After several years of drugs and the crimes that supported the habit, Joe is finally clean, and back in Bullford. It is not all clear sailing; when the remains of a young woman are found, the police is quick to suspect the local man with a record.

And when Joe is found dead of an overdose, they’re even quicker to close both cases by declaring it a suicide; supposedly because “he knew we had him” and/or “he felt guilty”.

It could all have ended there, but Barb isn’t convinced; first, Joe wasn’t all that worried about the police investigation. Second, there are several minor details of the scene that just don’t add up to suicide. And third, there are several people who had good reasons to despise Joe and to want him dead, and who knew just enough about his addiction history to disguise a murder as self-harm.

There’s Viv, Joe’s older brother; a lawyer with money woes that Joe’s death has solved, and a people-ing problem nothing can fix; the text is never clear on this, but he’s likely on the autistic spectrum. There’s Dev, the real estate developer on the razor edge of a financial cliff, who needed Joe’s property to stave off disaster. There’s Tom, the local plumber; well liked if not particularly bright, it was his girlfriend that Joe was suspected of having murdered. There’s Sue, the local eatery’s owner, whose daughter Joe had led to drugs, then abandoned to the streets in Sydney. There’s Leanne herself, still in love with Joe, and resentful when he spurns her–again. There’s Gary, the successful television personality with a large investment in Dev’s proposed real estate deal. And there’s Seb, the local constable and former band member.

Or Joe’s death could be connected to the other recent murder; if he had learned something from the victim that threatened someone back in Sydnay, that would wident the suspect pool considerably. Or it could be that Joe had found a new angle or new evidence in his investigation of the murder of band member Sally McIndoe, that pointed to someone the police had never suspected at the time.

One of Barb’s strengths is that she pays attention to people–what they say, what they do–and when she takes the time to think things through, all the little nagging inconsistencies jump at her. Her instinct is to find logical explanations, and to look for secondary confirmation when she does. Sometimes, it’s as easy an internet search. Sometimes, you just have to ask people the right questions.

“How do you know that?” “The internet. Literally everything’s on it, and I’m using “literally” correctly.” (Seb and Barb, chapter 10)

As the narrative switches points of view, the reader gets the impression that they know more than Barb about the suspects; however, every time she’s on the page, it becomes clear that she has a good handle on everyone involved. People tend to dismiss her because of her age, her manner, and her appearance–the mild, middle aged nobody–but Barb's matter-of-fact pragmatism gets the best of her interlocutors every time.

Barb manages to push, prod, and manipulate people into helping her find the information she needs–often through the judicious use of baked treats–while keeping a running tally of who had means and opportunity to kill Joe, and how that may or may not tie in with the previous murder, or the real estate deal, or the podcast. Her not-quite-willing helpers include a drug-debt collector from Sydney who had known Joe there, the now-retired lead investigator in the Blue Mountains Strangler case, and the local constable, good old Seb.

The tone of the narrative changes to suit each point of view, which informs character development; interestingly, Barb’s conversations with other people are mostly narrated from her interlocutor’s point of view, which makes her seem more self-assured than perhaps she may be in the moment. Conversations between her and Seb are often hilarious.

As Barb continues to uncover the secrets that the lies people tell–themselves and others–cover, things start moving ever faster, until the investigation seems to be in free fall, with almost too many plot threads and characters to keep track off. Bits and pieces from the avalanche of correspondence in the first part of the novel start to fit into the overall puzzle; when the solution is presented, the clues hidden in plain sight throughout the story become obvious.

Beyond the ARC formatting mentioned before, there is only one thing that bothers me about the story: the dates given for the action in the present range from late August to November of this year, 2024. I can’t make up my mind whether there’s a hidden message or joke there, or a copy editing issue.

Liars gets a 9.25 out of 10.

Thank you Netgalley, Echo Publishing and James O'Loghlin for giving me early access to this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ok I need to apologise, this has nothing to do with the book, but it's important, vital information!!
Like many other readers, I found myself with an extensive number of books on my physical TBR, suddenly everything was too much and it took me ages to pick up this book. Then I saw it was 400+ pages long and I thought "ok, I'm not gonna manage to read this on time" . Excuse me, what 400 pages? This book flew by. I didn't even feel the first 100 pages! (So it's technically 300 pages)

I loved this! James O'Loghlin did such an incredible job at keeping the story entertaining! He gave us texts, email exchanges, letters, police reports... everything I could wish for. I love (love love) reading exchanges like this.

My only regret is not having picked up this book sooner, go read it!

This is a bit of a WOW book for sure. A book about Truth and Guilt which will have you in suspense and guessing throughout. Can Joe Griffith get past his past, will he always be suspected of the crime, his he telling the truth!? So many questions. And what sort of secrets does the town of Bullford Point try to keep hidden?

There is a lot going on in this book so you really do have to have your wits about you while reading it but it is a great read and a great story. But it isn't always full on and there are some lighter moments to counteract the darker ones. It is a well balanced and well written book and I enjoyed it and was definitely entertained by it. A great read.

Thank you NetGalley and Echo Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read adn review this book.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. As other ARC reviews have noted the electronic copy formatting was not great and it was difficult to read different font sizes in different colors in addition to a lot of spacing errors. Despite this, there is a decent plot and some interesting characters. I am not a fan of cozy mysteries and the tone of this seemed off.

With his second crime novel, Liars, James O’Loghlin has produced a deceptively complex murder mystery. With elements that can only be described as a whodunnit that combines a classic cozy mystery with the structure of a police procedural, this is a small town crime novel that is filled with intrigue.

In the small NSW Central Coast town of Bullford Point, life seems pretty quiet with the usual small town issues marking as exciting as things get. There’s a certain bucolic quaintness about the beachside town, but that feeling is rudely shattered when Karen Kemp’s body is found in the nearby bushland.

And then recently rehabbed drug addict Joe Griffiths is discovered in his bed, dead from an overdose. The fact that Joe, who was secretly meeting with Karen behind her boyfriend’s back, was the prime suspect for Karen’s murder is a notable feature in what appears to be a remorse filled suicide.

The local police constable, Seb Baxter, is a little overwhelmed by the scope of the crimes that have been committed on his patch. The homicide detectives from Sydney quickly take over the scenes, draw their conclusions and head home again. Seb was once good friends with Joe, while saddened and disappointed with what’s happened, is prepared to accept his colleague’s findings.

It’s not until Barb Young, a middle-aged local woman who had employed Joe in her handyman business, takes it on herself to investigate the deaths. The classic “things just don’t add up” sets her on her path and she teams up with Seb to get to the bottom of the mysteries. She turns out to be the scene stealing star of the piece, kind of reminiscent of The Thursday Murder Club’s Joyce (if you’ve read the books) with her penchant for baking and pressing her delicious cakes on otherwise hard nosed criminals.

Now, Seb and Joe went to school together, along with Sal, Viv, Gary, Leanne and Dev. Together they formed a band, led by Sal, and ended up heading to Sydney during their university days with the hope that they might be able to make it big. Just before their big break, Sal disappeared without explanation and moved to the Blue Mountains and was then strangled to death in her home. The death had been counted as the work of a local serial killer, the third in the string of murders at the time.

This little bit of background serves to essentially give us a group of five potential suspects to sift through as we try to work out who the killer is.

A good portion of the story early on is told via emails, letters, text transcripts and podcast transcripts between members of the Bullford Point and surrounding area community. This carried on for an overly long portion of the book, at least the first 12% and was, quite frankly, an onerous read.

This is a double murder mystery solved by a combination of an amateur sleuth and a junior small town police constable. Events that took place more than seven years ago are crucial to solving the case and we’re given a healthy list of potential suspects

Once past the “correspondence” section of the book, things flow far more quickly and in a linear fashion with a solid mystery slowly unfolding to tantalize. The events from the past are cleverly brought to light in a believable way and while there are a few conveniently accurate conclusions drawn based on even more conveniently provided pieces of evidence, things move to quite a thrilling ending.

I found Liars to be an entertaining small town murder mystery that did a good job of balancing the lighter, more cozy moments with the darker, far more dangerous criminal elements.

My thanks to Echo Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC to read, enjoy and review this book.

Thanks to NetGalley, the Publisher and the Author for the ARC.
The e-book I received had formatting issues. The chapter headers were missing, in some places, there were no page break or paragraph break for chapter changes. The text was also mixed up. I hope these will be fixed before the final publication and my rating is not based on the book formatting.

The first 20% of the book is full of text messages, emails. Thankfully it ended soon and the story progressed, unlike Janice Hallett's Appeal (which got 1 * rating from me). I didn't realize it was a cozy mystery, until a middle aged lady started using her delicious cakes to lure hardened drug dealers to open up all their secrets.
This was a fairly interesting detective novel. But it failed to hold my attention. I am not a fan of the narration style too. I dont think I will be reading any more books by this author.

CASUAL CRIME? ‘LIARS’ BY JAMES O’LOGHLIN
As an ABC Radio listener for many years, I was quite familiar with presenter James O’Loghlin’s voice and his wry humour. This is the first book of his I’ve read, and I will be returning for more. Liars is a great read.

Set on the NSW Central Coast, where several of my family members and friends live, the story plays out in what is somewhat familiar territory for me (though it was slightly unsettling to read about the local drug dealer in Woy Woy – perhaps based on similar real-life characters?)

One of the central characters is Barbara, a middle aged handywoman who is recovering from the shock of her husband walking out after many years of marriage. She finds herself drawn to two recent deaths – startling in a small quiet coastal town – which the Homicide team feel have been solved, but Barb is not so sure.

Also not sure is Sebastian, the local cop. Detectives have pointed to his old school friend, Joe, a recovering drug addict, as the perpetrator of one of the deaths. Then Joe himself is found dead and it’s ruled a suicide, the result of guilt. Seb just can’t see Joe, for all his faults, as a murderer.

Barb and Seb team up and begin their own, off the books, unauthorised investigation. Joe and Seb were part of a tight-knit group in high school and the years immediately following. One of those six friends was killed seven years ago, and although that (unsolved) murder was judged likely to have been one of several committed by a serial killer, it begins to look like Sally’s death, too, is somehow connected to these more recent ones. But how?

Each of the five remaining friends has something to hide, and as Barb and Seb dig deeper, there are more complications waiting to confound them. Liars is a very appropriate title for this story.

The first section of the novel is told almost completely through text messages, emails and other documents by and between the five friends. Later, we hear snippets of recordings of interviews done by Joe, canvassing people’s memories of the time leading up to Sally’s death. It’s a clever technique to illustrate the differences in what people remember, and the way recollections are often flawed, or even deliberately obfuscated.

The aspect of the story that I found most alarming was the almost casual way in which some killings were carried out. There are paid ‘hits’ of course, but also murders committed not because of a deep desire to kill, but simply as a means to an end, a way to solve a problem. The murderer does not see themself as a ‘psycho’, as someone who loves killing. They kill because they can’t see an alternative solution.

The novel is well paced, the characters and setting realistic, and the plot kept me guessing until the end. I enjoyed Liars very much; and I’m happy to add James O’Loghlin to my list of good Aussie crime writers.

Liars is published by Echo Publishing Australia in July 2024.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced review copy.

LIARS - First, the formatting made this book a difficult read. I did like the way the story began with texts, etc. Kept the wordiness down since the rest of the book is extremely wordy. Interesting story lines and good characters did make for a good read but this isn't a book that can be quickly read. Hopefully, the formatting will be corrected when published. I am interested in reading more by Mr. O'Loghlin.Three star rating is not a bad but an average rating. The formatting and wordiness dropped the rating one star. Source: Netgalley. 3*

I really tried to get into this book. Like really really tried and I just couldn't. I'm not sure if it was the e-book formatting but there were several times when the story changes narrators and there was zero indication that it had changed. This made it difficult to follow sometimes. I made it through chapter 15 and gave up. This may be an amazing story for lots of people but it just wasn't for me.

A mystery set in Australia involving not one but at least 5 murders!

As the author focused on each of the characters in this thriller - most of whom belonged to a flash-in- the-pan semi-famous rock band during the gang's university days - you start to scratch your head and wonder: each and every one of these people make very likely suspects, but Who really Dunnit?!!!

James O'Loghlin's sense of humour, coastal setting and colourful characters keep the reader's interest engaged, despite several repetitious patches here and there: Joe's podcast more or less rehashed the same events over and over during each interview, and this got fairly tedious after a while.

Fortunately, that action packed ending made up for those less exciting passages.

Overall I would rate this thriller a 3.5 out of 5. I rounded down to a three because the female lead, Barb Young, did all of the work to keep the investigation open (no spoilers here!) and just about solved the entire mystery, but SEB, who had his own skeletons to hide, got the glory and the promotion! WHAAAAAT?!!

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, author James O’Loghlin and Echo publishing for the ARC and opportunity to review this book.

The first 12% was incredibly difficult to get through. So many emails and texts and conversations that it was difficult to follow who was who or even why they were emailing. I feel these emails could have been more strategically placed through the book instead of all lumped in the beginning. I was at the point of deciding to DNF this book but thankfully the next page I turned to was actual plot.

On my kindle the fonts were different colours and the light one was hard to read. There was no spacing between paragraphs or even in the dialogue which also made it difficult to follow. Hopefully just an ebook issue that will be rectified when the book is published.

There seems to be missing parts/sections, again could just be a kindle problem but frustrating nonetheless.

Having said that once I got past the endless text dialogue the book took a much better turn. It became a page turner that kept me in so much suspense. There were twists I didn’t see coming and I was totally wrong on who the killer was.

There were quite a few storylines going on in this book but it all tied up nicely. It was gripping in some places and became a page turner right to the end.

The one character involved in the ‘investigating’ was a little too far fetched for me. I would have liked it better if it had been another police detective and not just a random woman who knew the victim. I understand why the author chose her but for me that part was a miss.

This was my first book by this author and I’d like to read more as he absolutely can be a 5 star author!

Overall 3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Speak your truth. Or at least the truth you want others to believe. Everyone is guilty of something! Good book! Wow there was a lot going on in this one! There was suspense, intrigue, action, murder, mystery, plenty of secrets, a fantastic who done it and some crazy twists and turns! The storylines was very interesting and kept me glued to my kindle! I highly recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!