The lie maker : a novel /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this twisty, fast-paced thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Find You First and Take Your Breath Away, a man desperately tries to track down his father--who was taken into witness protection years ago--before his enemies can get to him.

Your dad's not a good person. Your dad killed people, son.

These are some of the last words Jack Givins' father spoke to him before he was whisked away by witness protection, leaving Jack and his mother to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives as best they could.

Years later, Jack is a grown man with problems of his own. He's a talented but struggling author, barely scraping by on the royalties from his moderately successful first book. So when the U.S. Marshals approach him with a lucrative opportunity, he's in no position to turn them down. They're recruiting writers like Jack to create false histories for people in witness protection--people like Jack's father.

The coincidence is astonishing to Jack at first, but he soon realizes this may be a chance to find his dad. Only there's one problem--Jack's father hasn't made contact with his handlers recently, and they have no idea where he is. He could be in serious danger, and Jack may be the only one who can find him.

But how will he find a man he's never truly known? A man who has done terrible things in his lifetime and made some deadly enemies in the process--enemies who wouldn't think twice about using his own son against him.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Hit man Michael Donahue turns state's evidence on a crime boss and vanishes into witness protection. His wife won't go with him, so neither will his nine-year-old son Jack. Twenty-five years later, Jack is a writer, two novels published to praise, but kudos don't pay the bills. He needs a day job. He gets one, but the offer is pulled away unexpectedly a day later. Then, out of nowhere, he's offered another--very hush-hush. He'll work for the U.S. Marshals, creating background profiles for witness protection candidates. The pay is $1,000 a day. Jack's boss questions him about his background, and he tells her of his father. She promises to help Jack find him. Meanwhile there are two deaths, a judge and a doctor, both related to Jack's father's betrayal of his old boss. Someone's seeking vengeance, and Jack's boss starts to look creepy. Is she using Jack to ferret out his father? What follows is a twisty tale of skullduggery that puts Jack, his girlfriend, and his father at risk. VERDICT This is Barclay's (Take Your Breath Away) 26th crime novel: he's a pro. Some may find it overly convoluted but will still root for Jack to prevail. For mystery lovers.--David Keymer

Publishers Weekly Review

Barclay (Look Both Ways) nails this riveting standalone thriller about a washed-up writer's search for his long-lost parent. In a wrenching prologue, nine-year-old Jack Givins is separated from his father, who enters witness protection with blunt parting words: "Your dad's not a good person. Your dad killed people, son." In the present, Givins is a broke novelist hungry for whatever writing work he can get. After an offer to edit advertorial magazines falls through, he gets an even more lucrative opportunity when he's approached by the U.S. Marshals Service to create fictional backstories for individuals in the federal Witness Security Program. The position gives Givins the idea to seek out his father's whereabouts after decades of silence between the two. His efforts coincide with some high-profile disappearances, and he soon discovers the authorities have lost track of his father, sending Givins blindly on his trail. Barclay expertly knits the strands together and constructs a fully realized everyman in Givins. Crafty plotting and rich characters make this a winner. Agent: Helen Helller, Helen Heller Agency. (May)

Booklist Review

Jack Givins, an author with a couple of unsuccessful novels under his belt, gets a new job: writing fictional backstories for people who were given new identities by the U.S. government's witness-protection program. The job pays well and, as it happens, dovetails nicely with Jack's own personal history. He's kept a secret from his new boss, but it turns out he's not the only one keeping secrets. The latest thriller from Barclay (following Take Your Breath Away, 2022) asks the reader to accept a slightly out-there premise but delivers a tightly plotted, surprising novel that winds up explaining why the premise wasn't really so out-there at all. It's the kind of thriller Barclay does so well: a story that constantly changes direction and forces readers to reconsider their notions of what the book is actually about. We soon find, when reading Barclay, that it's better simply to put ourselves in the author's hands and enjoy the ride, because trying to guess what's going to happen is a fruitless exercise.

Kirkus Book Review

Struggling Boston novelist Jack Givins exploits an unusual writing job for the U.S. Marshals Service to track down his father, a reluctant hit man who vanished into witness protection when Jack was 9. The father, Michael Donohue, was whisked away 25 years ago after turning state's evidence on his boss Galen Frohm, the corrupt operator of a nationwide chain of cheap motels. Frohm ordered Michael to kill the owner of a linen company in Chicago who was making noise about the payoffs he was required to make to Frohm to service the Sleep Tight Tonite motels. Jack's mother refused to leave with her husband, staying behind with her shattered son. "Your dad's not a good person. Your dad killed people, son," Michael told Jack, words that would haunt the boy through the years. Now, scuffling for employment after failing to sell his third novel, Jack is hired by a U.S. marshal to concoct a convincing backstory to be used by a man being placed in witness protection. After Jack's car is torched amid other mysterious occurrences, including the disappearance of the judge who presided over Michael's trial, Jack and Lana Wilshire, his dogged newspaper reporter girlfriend, find themselves in the middle of a revenge plot to kill Michael, wherever he is. For most of the book, Barclay does a bang-up job of mixing and matching characters and plotlines and building suspense. A big reveal badly stretches credulity, though, and for a fiction writer, Jack proves to have a limited imagination. But Barclay's latest is a fun ride nonetheless, with dips and swerves that should delight his fans. A relentless mystery with an affecting dose of father-son intrigue. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Linwood Barclay was born in the United States, but moved to Canada just before turning four years old. He received a B.A. in English from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. He worked for the Peterborough Examiner before joining the Toronto Star in 1981. He held such positions as assistant city editor, chief copy editor, news editor, and Life section editor, before becoming the paper's humor columnist in 1993. On June 28, 2008, he wrote his last column announcing his retirement from the Star. He is the author of both fiction and non-fiction works including Last Resort; Bad Move; Bad Guys; Lone Wolf; Stone Rain; No Time for Goodbye; Too Close to Home; Fear the Worst; and Never Look Away.

(Bowker Author Biography)