Vindication Never Felt So Good
It seems the women of the prestigious Falcon Academy in affluent Falcon Valley, Colorado, have three options: 1) tell the truth, 2) run away, or 3) lie like their lives depend on it. In author and screenwriter Annie Ward’s newest thriller, THE LYING CLUB, the only viable choice is number three—lie.
Natalie Bellman is an administrative assistant at Falcon Academy, a private school for kids from the affluent community of Falcon Valley’s Big Elk Estates in the mountains near Denver. Natalie can’t believe how pretentious and demanding the mothers are—it appears money gives them permission to misbehave. But she has her own secrets, so she keeps her mouth shut.
Asha Wilson is a high-powered realtor whose daughter, Mia, is a star on the soccer team. Asha worries that her husband, Phil, is losing interest in her, and that maybe her frenemy, Brooke Elliman, is trying to seduce him. Brooke has wealth, beauty, and privilege, but lost her husband, Gabe, because of it. Adding to the animosity, Brooke’s daughter, Sloane, is also a soccer-team star—the girls have been competing together since they were six.
Handsome Nick Maguire, Falcon Academy’s assistant athletic director and soccer coach, trains Mia and Sloane and is involved in their college prep. He also charms his way into the lives of Natalie, Brooke, and Asha.
When the janitor finds a body in the gym, detectives investigate who had the most motive and opportunity to kill. As Natalie tells them in her interview, “Every single last one of them had a reason to hate the other.”
This riveting thriller depicts the disparity between the haves and the have-nots and keeps readers guessing who murdered whom until the very end. Besides an exciting storyline, Ward tells us there are important messages and profound issues raised in the novel.
Read the rest of my review and interview in The Big Thrill.
