Three Perfect Liars opens on the scene of a building burning down in a small town in the south of England, as an unidentified person is taken away by ambulance. The beautiful, tall glass building was erected just five years before as the new offices of Morris and Wood, a successful advertising agency. Who torched it and why is the mystery at the heart of this book, beginning with the day, eight weeks before the fire, when Laura Denning, a star account executive in charge of the agency’s biggest client, returns from a six-month maternity leave to find that her temporary replacement, Mia Anderson, has been made permanent—and will remain in charge of a key client. Laura—ambitious, driven, and deeply conflicted about working motherhood—soon suspects that Mia has misrepresented herself and may have ulterior motives.
The story alternates the perspectives of three very different women: Laura, Mia, and Janie Wood, the wife of the agency’s founder and a former criminal defense attorney turned homemaker. Unexpected connections among the three women appear as their backgrounds and their work and family relationships are slowly revealed. Short excerpts of police interview transcripts separate the chapters, revealing tantalizing details about the circumstances leading up to the fire.
The presentation of working mothers and stay-at-home dads in the book’s English setting seems very old-fashioned to an American reader, but in fact, UK demographics are quite different, with many fewer mothers of young children working full-time and almost no fathers as primary caregivers. The characters’ interpersonal relationships—at Morris and Wood and with their families—are drama-prone and often dishonest. The writing is brisk, providing vivid snapshots of everyday life, although there are occasional awkward turns of phrase.
The intricate plot of Three Perfect Liars sustains its many-layered suspense from beginning to end, with surprising twists right up to the very last page.
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I am surrounded by books. Every room, every space in my large, sprawling 1750s house is full of books...
Our history and experiences can define us, inspire our actions, and as writers impact our words and stories. Mine most definitely has: my father was a small-time gangster. Really.
"My ah-ha moment came when I read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.... That was it for me – I was off to the races."
Nietzsche once wrote, “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
"Mystery books were daring and exciting, firing up my imagination and making me yearn to become a girl detective or even a secret agent. They also empowered me to make up impromptu ghost stories around the campfire for my Girl Scout troop and sneak into the cemetery at night on a dare."
Fire and Ashes, the latest Angela Richman Death Investigator mystery, is an exploration of a fatal fire. To research this novel, Viets delved into the devastating consequences of junk science and arson investigations.
