By Jamie Mason
ISBN: 9781476774459
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: 2/3/2015
Format: Other
My Rating: 4 Stars
From the acclaimed author of the “ripping good” (The New York Times) debut novel Three Graves Full comes a new thriller about a woman who digs into her unconventional past to confirm what she suspects: her husband wants her dead. Dee Aldrich rebelled against her off-center upbringing when she married the most conventional man she could imagine: Patrick, her college sweetheart. But now, years later, her marriage is falling apart and she’s starting to believe that her husband wants her gone…for good. Haunted by memories of her late mother Annette, a former covert operations asset, Dee reaches back into her childhood to resurrect the lessons and “spy games” in which she learned memory tricks and, most importantly, how and when to lie. But just as she begins delving into her past to determine the course of the future, she makes a discovery that will change her life: the money that her mother left behind. Now, Dee must investigate her suspicions before it’s too late and untangle conspiracy from coincidence, using her mother’s advice to steer her through the blind spots. The trick, in the end, will be in discovering if a “normal life” is really what she wanted at all. With pulse-pounding prose and atmospheric settings, Monday’s Lie is a thriller that delivers more of the “Hitchcockian menace” (Peter Straub) that made Three Graves Full a critical hit. For fans of the Coen brothers or Alexander McCall Smith, this is a book you won’t want to miss.
My Review
A special thank you to Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Jamie Mason’s MONDAY’S LIE, is a mixture of quirky, wacky, and think "old detective spy movie," for a humorous and an "off the beaten path" wild crazy ride, contemporary mystery thriller.
Poor Dee loves the days of the week, and each one has a meaning connected to her memories and future. She thinks Monday her marriage will be over, as her mother always said never to keep a man for more years than you could count on your fingers (sounds about right). However, her mom lost some of her fingers along the way.
As a child there would be stories of daring stunts in exotic backwaters and then twenty minutes later, her mom would be helping her with her algebra. Clues, and more clues…..she teaches her children how to be good spies.
Needless to say she did not have a normal childhood with Dee and younger brother Simon (now a cop). Her late mother Annette, was a former covert operations asset (CIA) where she learned many spy games and tricks and how to lie at an early age. (Some wild events happening here).
Her mom left her money and she thinks her husband, Patrick (her college sweetheart) wants her dead. Her brother had told her years ago that Patrick was a boring dork who would build a picket fence, knock her up with 2.3 children, and buy a golden retriever. At the time she thought it sounded perfect. She thought if you had a boring life it would be normal, which is not what her childhood was. Anything but.
Now that Annette has been gone for years, Dee is still trying grasp how all will be worked out, to solve the mystery while a blue sedan is tailing her and texts from Angela, and all sorts of strange things happening. The burglary at the yoga studio, the insurance? Something is not right. “If clues waved flags and blew trumpets, baby girl, we’d all be Sherlock Holmes.”
Mason has some imagination. From past to present; let the games and the suspense begin!
This is a hard one to review, as there are so many humorous one liners with this array of eccentric characters. You will not be sorry, stay with it, as it all comes together by the ending. If you have not read Three Graves Full, would recommend. Both books are like "no other"!
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