As reporter Irene Kelly investigates her Aunt Briana's death, she learns all about the longstanding feuds between several branches of her extended family and becomes the number one suspect in a murder case. Kelly's part of the family split with her Aunt Briana and her husband decades ago for reasons that Kelly has never really understood, but which involve bigamy, murder,illiteracy, and of course, money. Kelly's first task is to locate her cousin Travis, who she hasn't seen since childhood, and inform him of his mother's untimely death. Next, Kelly has to protect him from whoever murdered his mother. While investigating the case, Kelly encounters a violent man in a wet suit, a slightly unhinged inventor, a storyteller named Cosmo, and some unsavory residents of a trailer park - and learns that she is distantly related to most of these odd characters.

This is Jan Burke's sixth book about the adventures of Irene Kelly, a sassy journalist who lives in sunny southern California with her husband (a police detective), drives a Karmann Ghia, and seems to be a magnet for trouble. In this case, the trouble is that everyone is lying, even people with good intentions. Kelly's cousin is a capable and seasoned liar, a skill that comes in handy in several sticky situations. When deceit isn't enough, Kelly's best friend Rachel leaps to their aid with flying fists and tough talk. Fans of mysteries by Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky are likely to enjoy Jan Burke's writing. Irene Kelly is a likeable, approachable heroine - an ordinary middle-aged woman who manages to get the best of the bad guys by relying on her wits and her friends. -Jill Marquis


From Kirkus Reviews
Who's buried in the grave Irene Kelly's sister Barbara had already picked out for herself in the family plot? Realizing that it's her long-unseen aunt, Briana Maguire, a file clerk who became a hit-and-run victim two weeks ago, leads Irene into only deeper mysteries. Why did Briana disinherit her rolling-stone son Travis in favor of Irene, who hadn't seen her for 25 years? What exactly did the family quarrel that kept Irene and Briana apart have to do with Briana's bigamous husband, Arthur Sperry (ne' Spanning), or the murder 20 years ago of Arthur's first wife, sugar-beet heiress Gwendolyn DeMont? Why is the DeMont murder, so long dormant, now threatening Irene's life via fires and bombs? Who is Harold Richmond, the unscrupulous private eye who's been stalking Irene, working for? And how can the rifts--chasms, really--in the DeMont and Spanning and Maguire families be mended after all the suspicion and distrust over adultery and bigamy and murder have festered for all these years? The questions are reminiscent of Ross Macdonald at his thorniest. But Burke, whose return to straight detection after the imperiled-hostage scenario of Hocus (1997) produces the biggest and most complex of her six novels, has Macdonald's sense of family doom without his control of subplots and clues or his economy in managing revelations. The result is a warmly detailed extended-family portrait that conveys a constant sense of menace without providing a compelling payoff or, in retrospect, a strong central premise. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.



"Ms. Burke keeps things moving, spinning an intricateyarn...riveting and wholly enjoyable."



"A gifted storyteller who can hold her own with any writer inthe genre...including Cornwell [and] Crichton."



"The best Kelly adventure to date."


The Snooper
"A thriller of a ride...So riveting, I couldn't put it down. Jan Burke only gets better. The pace is fast and never slows down, each layer of the mystery is revealed artfully and...the believability factor is high. Irene and the gang held me in their grasp."


St. Petersburg Times
"The best Kelly adventure to date."


Mystery News
"A deliciously convoluted story that kept me turning the pages."



"A winner...The best book in this wonderful...series."


Amazon.com
"A gifted storyteller who can hold her own with any writer in the genre...including Cornwell [and] Crichton."


Chicago Tribune
"Ms. Burke keeps things moving, spinning an intricate yarn...riveting and wholly enjoyable."


Book Description
Investigative reporting has its hazards, but trouble hits home for Irene Kelly when her estranged aunt is murdered--and Irene becomes the leading suspect. With the police hot on her trail, Irene sets out to find cousin Travis, her dead aunt's son, convinced he's the next target. But when Irene finds Travis, a camper-driving children's storyteller with suspiciously deep pockets, things blow up--literally. It takes several brushes with death, staying one step ahead of the law, and a few not-so-sweet reunions for Irene to untangle a complex web of family secrets and long-held grudges, and discover just who is killing off the Kelly clan--and why.


Midwest Book Review
"A winner...The best book in this wonderful...series."


About the Author
Jan Burke is the recipient of the Macavity Award, the Ellery Queen Mystery MagazineReaders Award and the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Contemporary Suspense. She lives in Southern California with her husband, Tim, and Cappy the devil dog. She is currently at work on the sixth Irene Kelly novel.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Intrepid sleuth/reporter Irene Kelly barely has time to recover from the shock of learning that her estranged aunt has been killed before being blindsided by an even bigger surprise - she's the number one suspect! Irene searches for her aunt's son, Travis - a young man who wants nothing to do with Irene or any of the Kelly clan. The seeds of contention sown by family members no longer living are now being reaped by the next generation in ways no one would ever have expected. As deeply buried family skeletons are unearthed, the line between stalker and stalked becomes increasingly blurred, with dangerous consequences for Irene. She casts her lot with Travis, who she believes is the killer's next target, but her efforts to protect him place her squarely in harm's way. Now Irene must dodge not only the arm of the law but also the reach of a killer who appears to want to settle the score of an age-old family grudge.

FROM THE CRITICS

Jeri Wright

Page-turning suspense and tight plotting kept me riveted....[I]t is the characters and the relationships that make this book, and this series, such an outstanding one....The plot is nicely complicated, with the connections between past and present adding to the intrigue. All in all, Liar is excellent; a wonderful read and just what I have come to expect from this series. —The Mystery Reader.com

Jeri Wright - The Mystery Reader.com

Page-turning suspense and tight plotting kept me riveted....[I]t is the characters and the relationships that make this book, and this series, such an outstanding one....The plot is nicely complicated, with the connections between past and present adding to the intrigue. All in all, Liar is excellent; a wonderful read and just what I have come to expect from this series.

Kirkus Reviews

Who's buried in the grave Irene Kelly's sister Barbara had already picked out for herself in the family plot? Realizing that it's her long-unseen aunt, Briana Maguire, a file clerk who became a hit-and-run victim two weeks ago, leads Irene into only deeper mysteries. Why did Briana disinherit her rolling-stone son Travis in favor of Irene, who hadn't seen her for 25 years? What exactly did the family quarrel that kept Irene and Briana apart have to do with Briana's bigamous husband, Arthur Sperry (ne' Spanning), or the murder 20 years ago of Arthur's first wife, sugar-beet heiress Gwendolyn DeMont? Why is the DeMont murder, so long dormant, now threatening Irene's life via fires and bombs? Who is Harold Richmond, the unscrupulous private eye who's been stalking Irene, working for? And how can the rifts—chasms, really—in the DeMont and Spanning and Maguire families be mended after all the suspicion and distrust over adultery and bigamy and murder have festered for all these years? The questions are reminiscent of Ross Macdonald at his thorniest. But Burke, whose return to straight detection after the imperiled-hostage scenario of Hocus (1997) produces the biggest and most complex of her six novels, has Macdonald's sense of family doom without his control of subplots and clues or his economy in managing revelations. The result is a warmly detailed extended-family portrait that conveys a constant sense of menace without providing a compelling payoff or, in retrospect, a strong central premise.