The Liar's Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard

The Liar's Girl

by Catherine Ryan Howard

Will Hurley was an attractive, charming, and impressive student at Dublin's elite St. John's College--and Ireland's most prolific serial killer. He stalked and drowned his five young victims in the muddy waters of the Grand Canal, and is currently serving a life sentence in the city's Central Psychiatric Hospital. Alison Smith's world imploded when Liz, her best friend, became the victim of the Canal Killer--and then her boyfriend Will confessed. Alison fled to the Netherlands and, in ten years, has never once looked back. When a young woman's body is found in the Grand Canal, Garda detectives visit Will to see if he can assist them in solving what looks like a copycat killing. Instead, Will tells them he has something new to confess--but there's only one person he's prepared to confess it to. Reluctantly Alison is pulled back into the past she's worked so hard to leave behind, only to discover that, until now, Will has left out the worst part of all.

Reviewed by zooloo1983 on

4 of 5 stars

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Welcome to my first blog tour of 2019 and I am opening the tour with the awesome Hayley at Rather too Fond of Books so make sure you check out her review! Spoiler alert, the less you know about this book…the better for sure!

Annoyingly I did not have the time to sit and read this in one sitting because I was rather hooked on this little gem. Following the story of Alison in the then and now, the then back at St. John’s College before the Canal Killer killed and the now where are there more murders. So did they catch the right guy 10 years ago?

I liked Alison, in the then we learn of her and her best friend Liz setting off to college, leaving Cork to the bright lights of Dublin. Here she meets Will, the man who would become the love of her life, the man the world would know as the Canal Killer.

In the now, Alison has tried to build a life for herself in the Netherlands. She has shut herself off from love and kept her secrets but she has her best friend Sal. Until one night the Garda detectives turn up on her door one night asking if she would help them, as the murders have started again.

Only issue is they want to speak to Will, but Will only wants to speak to Alison.


The book is so beautifully written, as the focus is on the characters to drive this book. The newer murders are not the focus, as everything is from the point of view of Alison bar a couple of unnamed chapters which is from the killer, these were a little unsettling, to say the least. I loved the way the book was set out, just as things get intense the author keeps changing the POV focus, making me scream wanting to know what was going on.

Now the hook of the book

Her first love confessed to five murders. But the truth was so much worse.

Reading the book with this in my head constantly dreading what could be worse and when you discover the truth, MY GOD, why did I not see it before! Ms Howard has a way of making of hiding the truth completely in plain sight – just epic. A true testament to some amazing writing!

This book is not a million miles a minute book, instead, it builds the tension slowly... The scenery of the book is also a driver, as you are sucked into the idyllic Dublin and Bray and the depictions by the author. Everything is described so clearly that I could be there side by side with Alison.

I really enjoyed this book, it was thrilling, suspenseful and most of all gut-wrenching twisty! I cannot wait for Ms Howard’s next book Rewind!

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 5 January, 2019: Finished reading
  • 5 January, 2019: Reviewed