The Lie Maker is a novel by best-selling Canadian author, Linwood Barclay. Just when two-time novelist Jack Givins is jobless, his third novel rejected by his editor, his car has torched and with very little money in the bank, his editor hands him a cell phone that represents an opportunity. It seems the US Marshal Service deems him suitable to create back stories for those protected by witness security.

He meets with Gwen Kaminsky, learns the requirements and accepts an assignment. His girlfriend, Boston Star journalist, Lana Wilshire is curious about his new source of income, but Jack can’t reveal what he’s doing, no matter what her educated guesses land upon. Lana’s digging into possibles is derailed when she reports on the recent, somewhat baffling, drownings of a retired judge and an ER doctor.

When Gwen severely critiques his first draft, Jack asks to meet the witness so he can do a better job, but the experience strikes him closer to home than he expected. He reveals that his own father, a contract killer, went into the program when Jack was just nine. He begs Gwen for contact with the man who used to be Michael Donohue.

She cites numerous reasonable objections, but eventually reveals that the Marshals have lost contact with him. For the sake of Michael’s safety, or perhaps that of the public, if he has returned to his former career, they’re now relying on Jack to trawl his memory for any clues that might lead his father.

One or two things, though, don’t quite add up, and when Lana manages to get hold of a lead to Michael’s whereabouts, Jack borrows her car and heads out on his own, without telling Gwen…

Once again, Barclay gives the reader a very cleverly plotted tale with a hefty body count in which not much suspension of disbelief is required. His main protagonists are smart, resourceful and appealing: Lana proves feisty when the situation requires. Very entertaining crime fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harlequin Australia HQ Fiction.