Thoughts on...Telling Lies by Cathi Stoler

I love the idea behind this book and I really want to tell you that I loved it but I can't. A woman on vacation bumps into her friend's dead husband. A man with a meeting in one of the twin towers on 9-11 who's body was never discovered. A missing 15 billion dollars. A painting rumored to have been stolen during WWII.

I came to 50 pages and still plugged on. By the time I hit 100 pages, I knew I could finish the book. The book should have grabbed me from the beginning. I don't know why it didn't. Everything was there but I just wasn't feeling it. Good writing, good characters, great story line. Maybe the characters where too pat. The boyfriend she's on vacation with? He works in NYPD's Identity Theft. His best friend? FBI's Art Crimes Team. The women that introduced the boyfriend/girlfriend? P.I.

Maybe it was just reading to a deadline but it took me three weeks to read the book which is an indication that while I may have liked it, I didn't love it.

Will I re-read the book? No.
Will I try Ms. Stoler's next one? Yes.




Telling Lies
A Mystery about Stolen Art and False Identities
by Cathi Stoler

Camel Press
April 2011
paperback
ISBN: 978-1603818438
female detective, 9-11
270 pages



Product Description:

How many lies does it take to get away with murder?

When a chance encounter in Florence’s Uffizi Museum plunges Women Now editor Laurel Imperiole and private investigator Helen McCorkendale into an investigation of missing persons and stolen Nazi art, the women find themselves ensnared in a deadly maze of greed and deceit.

Could the man Laurel bumped into have been Jeff Sargasso, an art dealer and friend who perished in the World Trade Center on 9/11? Was it possible he was still alive and had disappeared without a trace?

Laurel, who was vacationing in Italy with her boyfriend, Aaron Gerrad, a New York City detective, is thoroughly shaken by the experience of seemingly meeting a dead man. Sargasso was supposedly killed that day during a meeting regarding the sale of a 150 million dollar painting between a Japanese billionaire and a Wall Street tycoon. Determined to get to the bottom of things, she and Helen investigate in Italy and in New York.

As she delves deeper, Laurel leaves the truth behind, telling lies to Aaron about her actions and the liaison she’s formed with Lior Stern, an Israeli Mossad agent with an agenda of his own. One lie leads to another, entangling everyone and everything the women encounter, including murder and the painting at the heart of the affair.

Searching for answers, Laurel and Helen thread their way through a sinister skein of lies that take them on a whirlwind journey that could end in death.

This title is available in print as well as several ebook formats: Kindle, nook, and at Smashwords


Disclaimer: I received a complimentary review copy of this book without any obligation to write a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are mine and may differ from yours. Book information courtesy of the author's website.

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