At Least SOMEONE Can Write A Good Mystery

Trust Me When I Lie by Benjamin Stevenson

Pages: 352 Genre: mystery

Rating: 4 Star

Kindle Notes and Highlights

Eliza Dacey was murdered in cold blood, and Curtis Wade was convicted without much of a debate. Until four years later, when Producer Jack Quick decides to shine a light on the case and, more specifically, the shoddy evidence that was used to get Curtis locked away for the past four years. Through Jack's storytelling, the country begins to agree: it was police bias and incompetence that led to Curtis' conviction. There's a retrial, and Curtis walks free. And then another victim turns up dead. Jack, who can't help but feel somewhat responsible, decides to return to the quiet vineyard town where everything began in order to face the truth.

I'm a huge fan of Stevenson's Ernest Cunningham books, but those are highly stylized, so I was really excited to see how his work held up in a "normal" mystery setting. And I actually really liked this book. The sense of humor and artful reveal of held-back information are familiar enough while still being its own distinct story. It's a good, solid mystery.

Jack was a really engaging protagonist. The "secrets" that we learn about him build out his character incredibly effectively, and I found it really easy to root for him despite his moral ambiguity. He's not perfect, but he ultimately is trying to be a good person, which makes his internal conflict feel real and interesting.

As he was largely an avenue to critique true crime, his moral dilemmas were very relevant to the overall story. The points were always well-executed, although sometimes it seemed like we were more focused on the messages than the plot. I don't think the messages themselves were too overt — again, exploring the negative impact of true crime through Jack's in-canon behavior helped smooth the delivery. But I would've preferred it if Jack had done a little bit more investigating and a little less internally fighting himself.

That's not to say Jack was an inactive protagonist. I just think the investigation needed to be cleaned up a little. We learned a lot of details from people and were constantly developing our bank of clues, but the investigation didn't really move forward until the very end. That being said, I like the way Stevenson weaves clues into his stories. They were well-placed and subtle enough without being entirely hidden. And I like the moments where we loop around a fact: we learn half of the truth and we loop back around to the rest of it later. It's hard to accomplish, but I find it to be very rewarding as a reader. It's like he's giving me little wins, letting me discover new details constantly. I just wish a little bit more was related to the main story.

This is just a good story. The conclusion was satisfying and captivating. While there were some moments that I got lost in, overall this was a fun book but an author who really knows his way around a mystery novel.