The Lies I Tell, by Julie Clark, is a social manipulation thriller. This is exactly the kind of suspense novel I like to read, full of tension and secrets, with no guts or gore.

Meg is a successful con artist, with a string of alternate names and men with emptied bank accounts behind her. She’s back in California for one last, big con (OMG I love last-heist stories), taking revenge on the man who hurt her family.

Kat, a struggling journalist, was seriously hurt while investigating one of Meg’s previous cons, which makes her even more determined to expose this one. She sets out to break the story and ruin Meg’s life in return for what happened to her.

Meg chooses her targets carefully, though, and does plenty of research to keep her cons successful. We see Meg’s path from cadging a free dinner to floating millions in shady real estate deals, and it’s all done with a little social research, smiles, and letting men underestimate here.  I’d read another book all about Meg targeting scum and leaving with their cash! But Kat’s an interesting character too, and while she seems like a single-minded investigator, Kat’s got someone very close to home with his own trust issues and financial problems.

I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say The Lies I Tell is full of lies, half-truths and secrets, which leads to a page-turner with no blood or gore.

The Lies I Tell, by Julie Clark, will be published by Sourcebooks Landmark on June 21, 2022.  Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, all opinions on my blog are my own.