Let Her Lie by Bryan Reardon 3***

First of all, thank you @crookedlanebooks and @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This started off with a great premise. A documentarian fallen from grace because of a scandal that never actually gets explained is obsessed with making a film about a serial killer. I was thrilled with the blurb because plots with serial killers are right up my alley and couldn’t wait to read it. It started off great and I did enjoy the first 20/30% of the book immensely.

Then suddenly it got really weird. I think the author was a little too ambitious wanting to outdo the twists and turns in this story and the outcome was very confusing. At least to me. During most of the story, we are in the main character’s head while he is stressed out, confused, exhausted and paranoid, not to mention obsessed with this killer he’s interviewing in prison. The outcome of that is that the reader is as confused and baffled as our MC is. Many conversations were left to your interpretation so you never quite know what the exchange really meant.

Then the book suddenly turned into a kind of noir in which all the characters were acting secretive and weird. I wish the author had made the story a little less complicated and gave us a second POV or just a hint at what was actually happening.

Even the ending didn’t quite redeem the book for me, as I felt certain important things weren’t satisfactorily explained. So although the writing and idea were good the performance was just muddled.