The Liar’s Lullaby by Meg Gardiner

The Liar’s Lullaby (Jo Beckett, #3)

by Meg Gardiner

When you have to take on the White House there's only one woman to call – Jo Beckett.

When a rock singer is killed onstage during a concert, Jo Beckett is called in to perform a psychological autopsy. But Tasia McFarland's death causes Jo all kinds of problems, because Tasia is the ex-wife of the President of the United States.

The White House pressures Jo to declare Tasia's death an accident rather than a homicide. The media and conspiracy nuts rant that Tasia was knocked off to silence her, for unknown reasons. Fringe extremists seethe about taking direct action to "save America" from the president and his administration.

Jo learns that an obsessed fan was apparently stalking Tasia. The stalker may have killed her and escaped in the panic at the concert.

As the media and conspiracy frenzy grows, the White House leans harder on Jo to close the case. When she won't, Gabe Quintana finds his military orders suddenly changed, and he's called up to active duty in Afghanistan… in 72 hours.

Jo discovers the identity of the stalker. It’s someone who's obsessed with Tasia's new boyfriend, a famous country singer. Jo calls the police but she's too late. The stalker stabs the singer to death.

The police kill the stalker. The case seems to have come to a spectacular conclusion. But Jo doesn't think the stalker in fact murdered Tasia; the facts don't add up. She fears that Tasia was killed for other reasons. And she's nervous, because the President is coming to San Francisco to attend Tasia's memorial service…

Reviewed by ibeforem on

3 of 5 stars

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I had to start this book twice. I had the audio version, but the narrator really rubbed me the wrong way. She used the same amount of intensity for everything, and it made the book hard to follow. So I ended up getting an ebook and read it that way.

This was an improvement over the last Meg Gardiner I read (the previous book in this series). She still relies too much on similies, but it’s not as noticeable as it was in that book. I like Jo as a character, even if she does need to lighten up and let herself have some fun sometimes.

As far as the plot goes, I think there was a little too much going on. Mental health issues combined with government conspiracies and domestic terrorism makes quite the smorgasbord.

Gardiner does a good job with ramping up the tension and the action, and that’s enough to keep me interested in her writing. I’m sure I’ll continue with this series, as well as her Evan Delaney series.

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  • 24 July, 2019: Reviewed