The Lie Maker by Linwood Barclay

Synopsis: Your dad’s not a good person. Your dad killed people, son.

These are some of the last words Jack Givins’ father spoke to him before he was whisked away by witness protection, leaving Jack and his mother to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives as best they could.

Years later, Jack is a grown man with problems of his own. He’s a talented but struggling author, barely scraping by on the royalties from his moderately successful first book. So when the U.S. Marshals approach him with a lucrative opportunity, he’s in no position to turn them down. They’re recruiting writers like Jack to create false histories for people in witness protection–people like Jack’s father.

The coincidence is astonishing to Jack at first, but he soon realizes this may be a chance to find his dad. Only there’s one problem–Jack’s father hasn’t made contact with his handlers recently, and they have no idea where he is. He could be in serious danger, and Jack may be the only one who can find him.

But how will he find a man he’s never truly known? A man who has done terrible things in his lifetime and made some deadly enemies in the process–enemies who wouldn’t think twice about using his own son against him.

Review: I really like Linwood Barclay’s novels, so I was very curious to discover this one.

Jack saw his father leave when he was younger. But he didn’t just leave his mother, he got caught up in the witness protection program and his wife refused to go with him. Jack is now an adult, yet this story still haunts him. A writer of little-known novels, he’s trying to find work and wasn’t expecting the offer he was about to receive: to create a past for people in the witness protection program. Only one thing: he’s not allowed to talk about it. Jack sees this as an opportunity to ask for a reunion with his father, whom he hasn’t seen for a long time.

I had a really good time with the novel and was quite curious to find out all about his father: what he had done, what had become of him… As for Jack and the plot, I knew very quickly what it was all about, so I wasn’t surprised. I still had a great time with the characters and I particularly liked his partner Lana.

This was a great novel of revenge and redemption that I really enjoyed!