writer | Kathy's Book Bag

Book Description:

Published: September 12, 2017

Format: Audio/OverDrive

Sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

Liza Jones has thirty days to write the thriller that could put her back on the bestseller list. In the meantime, she’s struggling to start a family with her husband, who is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. With stresses weighing down in both her professional and her personal life, Liza escapes into writing her latest heroine.

Beth is a new mother who suspects her husband is cheating on her while she’s home alone providing for their newborn. Angry and betrayed, Beth sets out to catch him in the act and make him pay for shattering the illusion of their perfect life. But before she realizes it, she’s tossing the body of her husband’s mistress into the river.

Then the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. Nick’s body is dragged from the Hudson and Liza’s husband is arrested for his murder. Before her deadline is up, Liza will have to face up to the truths about the people around her, including herself. If she doesn’t, the end of her heroine’s story could be the end of her own.

Review –

Manhattan author, Liza Cole, the protagonist of this engrossing psychological thriller from author Cate Holahan, is under pressure from her editor, Trevor, to write a romantic suspense novel that will get her back on the bestseller lists. In the past, Trevor has settled for a rough idea; now he wants an outline, which Liza has never done, and he has given her exactly thirty days to produce one.

On the personal side, Liza and her lawyer husband, David, are trying to conceive a baby, and their sex life has suffered. In addition, David’s best friend and law partner, Nick Landau, has been missing for a month and is almost certainly dead.

Over the next month, as her deadline approaches, Liza draws on her suppressed emotions and memories to create the heroine of her new book, Beth, a young mother who suspects her husband of being unfaithful. Beth’s story line soon takes turns that echo sinister developments in Liza’s own life. Holahan keeps the suspense high by leaving it unclear who’s telling the truth and who’s lying until the surprising denouement.

I’m not going to tell you what happens but it’s a roller coaster of a ride with a great and satisfying ending.

Loved it!

Product Description:

Published: October 24, 2006

Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband, Scott, two years ago, after a twenty-five-year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey had to learn from him about books and blood and bools. Later, she understood that there was a place Scott went — a place that both terrified and healed him, that could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it’s Lisey’s turn to face Scott’s demons, Lisey’s turn to go to Boo’ya Moon. What begins as a widow’s effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited. Perhaps King’s most personal and powerful novel, “Lisey’s Story” is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love.

Review –

This was my second reading of this Stephen King novel and this time I chose to listen to it and I found I enjoyed it even more.

There are multiple stories being told, the first being Scott Landon, a writer who dies two years ago. he had a very bad childhood and would “go” to place when things got to bad or to heal. The second store is about Lisey’s sister, Amanda, has a history of cutting and metal problems and has been aware of Scott’s paranormal powers. The third story is Lisey’s, which involves the first two and a crazy man who calls her MRS. and huts her very bad physically and she “goes” to Scott’s safe place to heal and figure out a way to get rid of the tormentor. A wonderful story of love, loss, and madness.