A Good Liar (Denise Mina)

The publisher’s presentation

Blood spatter expert Doctor Claudia O’Sheil’s evidence put a killer behind bars – or so everyone thinks. Since the trial, Claudia has learned a horrific truth: her evidence and her testimony were wrong.

Now as she takes the stage to give a speech before London’s elite specialists, Claudia has to choose: keep lying and leave the wronged killer behind bars or stand up, tell the truth and rip her life apart.

My reading review

Denise Mina is back with another great read. Her powerful writing style gives life and pace to this story.
It is probably a book that one needs to read in a short time because it is complex. Although the start and end points of the book are happening within the same half hour or so, it then goes back and forth between times and characters. It definitely tests the reader’s attention.
This also contributes to the sensation of disruption and confusion that goes on in the life of our main character Claudia. She struggles in her life with the grief from her husband’s passing – not as accidental as she originally thought -, her sister’s addiction and their complex relationship, her sons upbringing on her own and how protecting them caused her to lower her moral standards and how she tries to keep doing her forensic specialist job in a professional way.
And the latter is where the heart of the story lies, with her realisation, through a colleague’s testimony, that her forensic methodology has flaws and that people may have been wrongly convicted as a result. She has to make tough choices and the passing of her friend Charlie in the same circumstances as her husband is what brings her complex internal struggle to a head.
This novel kept me captivated with the personal quest of Claudia and also the bigger picture of the established system and its protagonists, wondering how true could this story be in real life and hoping that there are real life people like Claudia, ready to call it out.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Random House UK Vintage for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.