My Mother the Liar by Ann Troup #bookreview

Title: My Mother the Liar

Author: Ann Troup

Publisher: HQ Digital

Publication Date: February 12, 2018

Page Count: 384

My rating:  2 1/2 stars

About the book:

Every family has a secret…

Two dead bodies. A lifetime of secrets.

When Rachel Porter’s estranged mother dies, she returns to her family home filled with dread about having to face her past, and the people who populated it.

Little does she know that there are dead bodies waiting to be discovered, and a lifetime of secrets are about to unravel.

Secrets kept by her mother, the liar.

From the author of The Lost Child, and The Forgotten Room. Perfect for fans of The Secret Mother and Linda Green.

My Mother the Liar is the second book I’ve read by Ann Troup and unfortunately for me instead of an improvement in the positives I had for the first book this one seemed more towards my negatives. The story is a bit of a family drama with a bit of murder thrown into the mix that was only slightly suspenseful to me.

The book starts out following Rachel who has been estranged from her family for years but when her mother passes her sister summons her back to the family home. The sister had been having a huge clean out not leaving much for Rachel to do but when two bodies are found on the property the police get called in.

At that point of the story is really where it begins to fall apart for me. The biggest problem I believe is simply the style in which the author writes as I think for the most part I connect to first person narratives a lot easier and without that the story needs to be a lot more focused than this one is. After the early pages it begins to hop around from character to character and do a ton of just telling instead of showing which to me leads to a disconnect.

Also, while there are tons of secrets and lies buried within this family anywhere from incest to murder as the story went on it began to feel a bit repetitive running down the who did what to whom. Everything is a bit jumbled and hard to keep track of as it was but with so much to keep going through I just wanted to rush to the end. In the end I just found that this one isn’t my cup of tea leaving me to rate it at 2.5 stars although it did again have some interesting ideas within.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon