Book Review: Gathering Lies

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Gathering Lies     Amazon US PB Amazon UK PB Amazon UK AUDIO Amazon Canada PB
Meg O'Brien
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Legal Setting   Romantic Suspense
Mira, Apr 2001, $6.50, 408 pp.

Angel, a Seattle prostitute accuses five police officers of rape. Angel turns to attorney Sara Lansing for help, but the quintet of law enforcement officials derail her case with the apparent help of some high level individuals. Someone murders Angel and Sarah is arrested on trumped up possession charges.

While on bail, Sarah decides to write a book exposing the Seattle Five. Harassment ensues and she accepts an offer to join five female writers at the Thornberry writer's retreat on Esme Island. Unbeknownst to Sarah is that she has been lured to the island so that the evidence of the DNA stocking Angel gave her can be retrieved and she can be silenced forever. An earthquake isolates the women even further, but does not stop Sarah from believing a killer has murdered someone even if everyone else shouts accident. Sarah wonders whether she can even trust the man she is falling in love with.

GATHERING LIES is a strong romantic suspense tale that centers on the action. The story line is fast-paced and filled with many surprising twists and turns though some seem unnecessarily adding more tension to an otherwise taut thriller. Sarah is a courageous lead character and the secondary cast especially on Esme Island augments the growing unease that she and the reader feel because whom does the heroine trust? Meg O'Brien has written an absorbing suspense thriller that never eases up until the reader completes the final pages.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner