The newest mystery from the author One of Us Is Lying, the Queen of thrillers, Karen M. McManus! When mother-daughter grifters set out on their final job, the heist gets deadly and dangerously personal.
For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie—except for the forty-eight hours when Jamie was married and Kat had a stepbrother, Liam. That all ended in an epic divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since.
Now Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight, but she has one last job—at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s birthday party. And Kat has figured out a way to tag along. What Kat doesn’t know, though, is that there are two surprise guests at the dazzling Sutherland compound that weekend. The last two people she wants to run into. Liam and his father—a serial scammer who has his sights set on Ross Sutherland’s youngest daughter.
Kat and Liam are on a collision course to disaster, and when a Sutherland dies, they realize they might actually be in the killer’s crosshairs themselves. Somehow Kat and Liam are the new targets, and they can’t trust anyone—except each other.
Or can they? Because if there’s one thing both Kat and Liam know, it’s how to lie. They learned from the best.
- Title: Such Charming Liars
- Author: Karen M. McManus
- Publisher: Penguin Books
- Publication Date: July 30, 2024
- Genre: Mystery, Thriller
- Source: Digital ARC via Netgalley / Publishers in exchange for an honest review)
- Targeted Age Range: Young Adult
- Content Warnings: Mentions of underage drinking, attempted robbery, minor injury, blood, parental death (mom, car accident, mentioned), drug overdose (mentioned, not main characters), grief, vomit, mentions of infertility, murder, death, guns, physical violence, domestic abuse (past, recounted), trauma
- Rating: ★★★
Karen M. McManus has firmly cemented herself as one of the most well-known young adult mystery/thriller authors. Such Charming Liars is her 8th release, and it delivers on things that you’ve come to expect from a McManus book — family drama, a fun mystery, and some crazy shenanigans. While not my favorite McManus book, I had fun reading this one.
I liked the heist/con artist aspect of the book as that’s not something McManus has done before. I appreciated her trying something new and I think it made the character dynamics more interesting; plus, I like somewhat morally gray characters in a mystery/thriller.
The book’s highlight for me was the relationship between Kat and Liam. I love found family and thought the two of them were so sweet. Liam, while a bit naive, especially with his father being the way he was, was my favorite character. I found him very endearing and appreciated the way that he looked out for the people he cared about. Liam was such a good-hearted character, and it was clear from the beginning that he really cared about Kat, even though it’d been 12 years since they had last seen one another. With the two growing up around liars and con artists, it was really lovely to see them genuinely trust and support one another and I enjoyed watching their bond grow.
The little trio that they developed with Augustus was so fun, and I particularly enjoyed the interactions with Augustus and Kat. Liam and Augustus were cute together and I was rooting for them, but I wasn’t particularly invested in them — they were fine, but I could’ve done without a romance in this one. However, I did appreciate that the main couple wasn’t heterosexual and that McManus didn’t find someone to pair Kat off with.
I had my theories throughout the book and some panned out the way that I expected them to. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think that’s a sign of a poorly executed novel; I always think that means the author did a good job of planting clues and concluding the story in a way that makes sense.
The downside of this for me was that the pacing felt off. It wasn’t until about 70ish percent that I felt like things really picked up. However, I will make a slight caveat to that statement with the fact that this could’ve been a me problem because I wasn’t able to read this one as quickly as I would’ve liked due to personal reasons. Normally, a book this length and type I’d read in a day or two, but it took me 8 days to finish because I didn’t have the time or energy to read. So, while the pacing felt off to me, it might not for others who are able to read it straight through/fairly quickly.
While this wasn’t my favorite of McManus’ novels, I had a fun time with the heist element of the story and found both main characters to be likable and interesting to follow. Such Charming Liars had pretty much everything I’ve come to expect from a McManus mystery, so if you’ve enjoyed her other books you’ll likely enjoy this one as well!
Links for Such Charming Liars: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Karen M. McManus is a #1 New York Times and international bestselling author of young adult thrillers. Her work includes the One of Us Is Lying series, which was turned into a television show on Peacock and Netflix, as well as the standalone novels Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, You’ll Be the Death of Me, Nothing More to Tell, and Such Charming Liars. Karen’s critically acclaimed, award-winning books have been translated into forty-two languages and have sold more than eight million copies worldwide.
