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After a long day of work, it’s often nice to escape the stress and pressures of the outside world with a light, fluffy novel—something easy-going and entertaining. But if you’re in the mood for something deeper and darker, you’ll want to seek out author Emily Carpenter’s haunting mystery, The Weight of Lies.
The story follows a troubled young woman on a quest to uncover long-buried secrets. Meg Ashley has lived her life in the spotlight as the daughter of bestselling author Frances Ashley, whose debut thriller, Kitten, is a cult classic. Tired of her mother’s selfishness and manipulation, Meg agrees to write a tell-all memoir that’s sure to sever all ties for good. To research the book, she travels to Bonny Island, Georgia, to visit the place—and the woman—who inspired her mother’s bestseller. But as she attempts to uncover the truth behind her mother’s fiction, her own story quickly spins out of control.
The Weight of Lies starts out as just the struggle between a mother and her grown daughter—a daughter who can’t seem to fight her way out of her mother’s oppressive gravitational pull. After a lifetime of red carpets and photo ops and new stepdads, Meg just wants her own life—away from her mother’s glitzy circus—but, no matter how hard she tries, she just can’t escape. While she doesn’t really want to get even more caught up in her mother’s past, it seems like the only way to break free once and for all.
Once Meg arrives on Bonny Island, though, the story shifts from a kind of tabloid-worthy celebrity family drama to a tense and eerie Gothic thriller. Meg’s frustrations give way to a murder mystery set in a big, nearly deserted old inn that’s inhabited by Doro Kitchens, the girl who inspired Kitten, and her three remaining staff members. And the story that unfolds is even more haunting than Meg’s surroundings.
As Meg begins to uncover secrets—and as she learns more about Doro and the trouble that Frances’s book brought her—the story becomes more and more gripping. The murder mystery that inspired Kitten is still unsolved, and there’s a good chance that Doro and Frances are still keeping some lethal secrets. It’s all so disconcerting—and the characters often so chillingly unhinged—that it’s impossible to tell who’s telling the truth and who’s just crazy. But it’s sure to leave readers guessing while devouring the final chapters.
Dark and layered and absolutely gripping, The Weight of Lies is the kind of novel that will keep you reading long into the night. It’s far from a fluffy beach read, but this haunting mystery is a must-read for thriller fans.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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