First Lie Wins
Ashley Elston, 2024
Mystery, thriller & crime Contemporary fiction
A woman who builds a life from other people's expectations meets a man whose friends ask too many questions, and her carefully staged romance starts to leak. The voice is dry and amused, moving quickly through staged identities and social performance, with an undercurrent of danger.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy witty crime stories about a woman who builds a life from other people's expectations and keeps her real self hidden. It may also suit you if you like a contemporary setting with a satirical edge rather than a grim police procedural.
Why read it
A good pick when you want a crime story with a dry, satirical eye on identity and social performance; it keeps the tension in the gaps between who people seem to be and who they are.
A page from the book
What if the story of how you met was designed by the other person?
Amused that any person would have watched another long enough to know that he always filled up at that truck stop for gas on Thursday evenings after spending the day in his East Texas office. That someone knew he favored the pumps on the west side of the building, and that his eyes almost always lingered a little too long on any female who crossed his path, especially those dressed in short skirts. And that same someone would pick up on little things, like the LSU baseball cap in the back seat or the frat tee showing through his white dress shirt or the country club sticker in the bottom left corner of his windshield, to ensure when they did meet there would be things to talk about. That someone would hold a nail just so in a valve while the air whistled away. Ashley Elston.Ashley Elston wrote several YA thrillers before First Lie Wins, her adult debut; Reese Witherspoon chose it for Reese's Book Club in January 2024.
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Questions readers ask
- Is First Lie Wins for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy witty crime stories about a woman who builds a life from other people's expectations and keeps her real self hidden. It may also suit you if you like a contemporary setting with a satirical edge rather than a grim police procedural.
- What is First Lie Wins like?
- The voice is dry and amused, moving quickly through staged identities and social performance, with an undercurrent of danger. About identity and death.
- What should I read after First Lie Wins?
- If you liked First Lie Wins, try The Inheritance Games (Jennifer Lynn Barnes), Dear Debbie (Freida McFadden) and Storm Front (Jim Butcher).
A taste of the feed
A question about leaving, answered with damnation and a wine list.
Where are you going?” I asked him. After everything it has taken to get to this point, he couldn’t just walk away. “To hell, eventually,” Jameson answered. “Probably to the wine cellar, for now.
The Inheritance Games · Jennifer Lynn Barnes
A domestic-help column for the wife who has run out of patience.
The next time your husband wakes you up from his snoring, take your pillow off the bed, and hold it over his face. Then with your hands, apply medium to firm pressure over the center of the pillow.
Dear Debbie · Freida McFadden
What paranoia looks like when it keeps being proved right.
Paranoid? Probably. But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that there isn’t an invisible demon about to eat your face.
Storm Front · Jim Butcher
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