Liar, Liar

Starred review from June 4, 2018
Twenty years after celebrity impersonator Didi Storm disappeared in Las Vegas with her young twins, abandoning her teen daughter Remmi, a woman dressed to look like her jumps to her death from a San Francisco building in this twisty, suspenseful romantic thriller from bestseller Jackson (Ruthless). The apparent suicide of Didi’s look-alike, which Remmi witnesses, follows the publication of a true crime tell-all chronicling the events of Didi’s disappearance. With the help of her long-ago flame, Noah, Remmi desperately attempts to uncover what happened to both her vanished mother and her twin siblings all those years ago, while Det. Dani Settler with the SFPD reopens Didi’s cold case. Their separate investigations reveal a tangled web of lies, money, and familial betrayal. As Remmi gets closer to Noah and narrows in on the truth of her past, an unnamed marksman hunts her in her present. The many threads of this action-packed, female-driven mystery are tied together by the mesmerizing, larger-than-life character of Didi Storm, who haunts the book to its final pages. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House.

June 1, 2018
Fame came 20 years too late for Didi Storm. While Didi enjoyed a modicum of notoriety working as a celebrity impersonator in Las Vegas, she never broke through to the top tier of fame. Then she vanished one night after a mysterious explosion in the desert outside Las Vegas, leaving her daughter, Remmi, without a clue as to her whereabouts. Now, decades later, a scandalous tell-all biography of Didi, along with the suicide leap of a woman everyone thought was Didi but who was, eerily enough, someone impersonating her, has brought Didi back into the spotlight. As Remmi and SFPD detective Dani Settler begin searching for evidence explaining what exactly happened to Remmi's mother, they discover that the trail leads all the way back to that dark and deadly night in the Mojave Desert. Best-selling Jackson jam-packs the plot of her latest nail-biting novel with plenty of unexpected twists and turns, making Liar, Liar a terrific choice for readers who enjoy their literary adrenaline fixes on the darker side of the suspense spectrum.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 1, 2018

In the Mojave Desert, 15-year-old Remmi Storm observed her Vegas showgirl/celebrity impersonator mother, Didi, exchanging money for one of her newborn twin half siblings. The next day, her mother and other sibling disappeared without a trace--until 20 years later when Remmi witnesses a woman who resembles her mother in full Marilyn Monroe regalia leap to her death from a San Francisco building. Could the recently published tell-all book about Didi's life and the mystery surrounding her disappearance be connected? A shaken Remmi, convinced that the victim isn't her mother, heads to the SFPD to talk to the detectives in charge of the case, unaware of the Pandora's box that just opened. Jackson's (One Last Breath) latest offering is a fabulous fast-paced, tightly plotted thriller with so many twisty angles, no Vegas bookie would make odds. The character development is superb, and the police investigation and Remmi's need for answers ring true. The author's managing of the past and present separately is an effective method of clue dangling to keep readers in the dark until the huge OMG reveal. VERDICT Fans of Lisa Gardner, Paula Hawkins, and J.T. Ellison will devour this one-sitting nail-biter.--Debbie Haupt, St. Charles City-Cty. Lib. Dist., St. Peters, MI

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