Two Truths and a Lie Review

Title: Two Truths and a Lie (Book 3 in the Lying Game Series)

Author: Sara Shepard

Release date: 29^th May 2012

Publisher: Harper

MY KILLER IS STILL OUT THERE.

AND MY SISTER MIGHT BE NEXT.

Two months before I died, my best friend’s brother disappeared. I have no idea where Thayer went or why he left, but I know that it is my fault. I did a lot of horrible things while I was alive, things that made people hate me, maybe even enough to kill me.

Desperate to solve my murder, my long-lost twin, Emma, is pretending to be me and unravelling the many mysteries I left behind – my cryptic journal, my tangled love life, the dangerous Lying Game pranks I played. She’s uncovered my friends’ darkest secrets, but she’s never had the chance to dig into Thayer’s past – until now.

Thayer’s back and Emma has to move fast to figure out if he’s after revenge… or if he’s already taken it.

SECRETS, LIES AND KILLER CONSEQUENCES.

Still pretending to be her twin sister after Sutton was mysteriously murdered, Emma is no closer to finding out the truth. Emma has heard the rumours about Sutton and the mysterious Thayer Vega but up until now, Thayer has been missing. When he arrives with no warning in Sutton’s bedroom, Emma becomes convinced that he is Sutton’s killer. Can she discover the truth before she ends up like her twin?

I’ll be honest, I’ve been really neglectful with this book. After writing my review for ‘Never Have I Ever’ (Book 2 in the Lying Game series), I had ‘Two Truths and a Lie’ waiting on my bookshelf, put to the bottom of the ‘to read’ pile… that was in 2013! That is no reflection of the series – just my own disorganisation! So I was a bit apprehensive about jumping straight back into the series without rereading the previous two novels. I didn’t have to worry. Despite a little bit of struggling in the earlier books to get to grips with who the characters are and how they fit in to Sutton’s life (just like Emma has to), I found that I didn’t really have this problem this time round. Emma is becoming more familiar with the characters and so am I as a reader.  Not only this but for the first time in the series, we get to see Emma publically being Emma whilst also pretending to be Sutton. What I mean is that Emma’s kind nature and also love interest, Ethan, play a big part of Sutton’s life whereas in the first two novels, Emma has been scared of merging her personality with Sutton’s character for fear that she would be found out.  

What was also different about this book was the increase in insight from Sutton, who narrates the story from beyond the grave, attached to her sister’s life presumably until the killer is found. Sutton has more flashbacks that actually lead somewhere, meaning the reader has more (quite important) knowledge than Emma about what has happened leading up to Sutton’s death, though this isn’t for long as Emma’s detective skills are becoming more honed.

As always, with Sara Shepard’s novels, the reader is offered romance, family, friends and a huge handful of danger thrown in to engage us and keep us hooked. Once again, we end up asking more questions than we get answers for but this is part of the charm of the series as we are learning about Sutton’s past alongside Emma’s investigating and Sutton’s remembering.

I think this novel could stand on it’s own as Sara Shepard is really good at reminding us what has happened, through a brilliant blurb and killer prologue. However, for me, it has to be read as a series (you definitely couldn’t not read book 4 after this!) and I would have missed out on so much of the mystery if I hadn’t read the previous 2 novels. I enjoyed this book and it is another great addition to the series.

4.5/5 If you haven’t started reading the Lying Game series already then you should!!!!