Quick fun read, though I did enjoy his other book, Her Every Fear, a bit more. A good mystery, quick plot, just a bit hurried and forced at the end.

Although I’m sure I’ve said this before, Peter Swanson cannot write a bad story. He writes from a plain, bold, matter-of-fact perspective that lends impartial brutality and tension to every scene. This one may have been a bit too sexy for my taste, but this didn’t stop me from flying through those pages to see just where the hell the mystery was going. If anything, I can confirm it may have ended a little abruptly. Nevertheless, I’d be surprised to see a day where I decline to pick up another Swanson tale. He’d have to try really hard, that’s for sure.

Harry's father Bill falls of a cliff and his step-mother Alice is behaving oddly. Soon more people die. It's a rather obvious book and although I didn't for see one of the bigger twists, it was still mostly a dud. I didn't like any of the characters and the plotting was weak.

I'm going to differ to the original synopsis here on this one, because I have typed and backspaced multiple times and keep staring at my screen trying to figure out what I can say that will not qualify as a spoiler. This is one of those novels that the twists and turns and lies start to unravel fairly quickly in the beginnings of the plot, making it tricky when someone asks you "hey, what was that book about?". Just trust me. It's a great read!

In a snapshot-- Harry's father has passed away. Death looks like accident but detectives suspect foul play. Harry's stepmother is grieving and super needy and a little too flirtatious. Harry's starting to learn a lot about his father and isn't sure why everyone around him seems to be lying. 

★  ☆  ★  ☆ ★  ☆ ★  ☆ ★  ☆ ★  ☆ ★  ☆ ★  ☆ ★  ☆ 

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It is told through multiple perspectives, both in a current (now) and previous (then) timeline. The past timeline follow's Alice's story, and the current timeline largely focuses on Harry's POV, but we get an assortment of other characters mixed in as well. There's an over-arching theme throughout the novel in regards to romantic and sexual relationships with very large age differences. I like that it gives perspectives from multiple POVs, making you almost sympathize with the creepy relations at certain points and then cringe that you ever thought that when it shifts to a different POV. It's a very interesting juxtaposition of character viewpoints.

Now, I will be up-front. I did figure out the main/major 'plot twist'. I make connections early on and was not proven wrong. I was really hoping that I was going to be incorrect and be completely taken by surprise, but it fell short in that area. However.. if I predicted the plot twist and the book still gets a strong, solid four stars, then it must be awesome and absolutely worth the read. 

This book has a 'second ending' of sorts and it was completely unpredictable, twisty, and quite dark... which really helped make up for that predictable twist, in my opinion. Swanson has this way of making you both love and hate (at the same time) the darkest and nastiest characters, so at the close of this novel I was feeling all the conflicting emotions.. I really wasn't sure how to feel, other than utterly satisfied with another of Swanson's fantastic endings.



Thank you to Peter Swanson and William Morrow providing me with a DRC of this title via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review!

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I mean, it was pretty interesting while it lasted, but...

Pros:

Interesting commentary on sexual predators. The layering of then/now helped add to the interest by starting with Alice, then moving to Jake and how he was affected in his younger years, only to continue the cycle, while throwing Harry in there for good measure. Only wish the author had done more with Harry to show the possibility of breaking the cycle? But maybe he was trying to be subtle.

Alice had potential to be a fascinating character.

Spoiler

Those sociopathic traits.

Her physical beauty/attractiveness. The mystery and inaccessibility. The weird, goosebumpy talking-herself-out-of-responsibility. Ahhhh. She was shaping up to be a real fun mystery.

Cons:

Harry’s relationship to Grace, then Caitlin, feels a little forced. It was explained with Caitlin fairly well (

Spoiler

Grief makes you horny, nobody else understands what we’ve been through

), but it felt weird. Is Harry just as strange as Alice in his propensities toward the opposite sex and personality in general? A lot of mystery for a main player.

The ending was meh. I think it was a cool idea, but lacked the drama that the setup demanded. Fell flat for me. Even just her disappearing into the mist would have been cooler.

A lot of things just didn’t go anywhere.

Spoiler

Harry sleeping with Alice, then just...thinking it was cool and definitely not a problem?? Why did John leave Caitlin alive after murdering other people - he seriously just got tired??

And Alice was wasted as a character. Way too passive for somebody with such cool potential. Oh, and what was with why Alice even married Bill in the first place? That was mentioned but then...dropped. Didn’t feel like a real motivation.

Conclusion: Disappointed. Maybe it was the lackadaisical ending, but after all those switchback setups, the book fell flat. The part in the middle when the plot was thick was fun (and kinda gross), but then...meh. Oh well.

"Why do you think you like mysteries so much?" Harry asked.

"I’m deeply skeptical of any book that doesn’t begin with a corpse."

Harry had heard his father say these exact words, or something close to them, many times. "No, really. Why?"

His father frowned, thinking. "It’s a religion, I guess, since I don’t have a real religion. The world is chaos, and then a detective comes along and restores order. Or he doesn’t, and that’s really my favorite kind of mystery story.”

All the Beautiful Lies does indeed begin with a corpse -- that of Harry's father, Bill, who has fallen off a seaside trail. Did the middle-aged bookseller have any enemies? Is Harry's young stepmother somehow involved? What about the mysterious young woman who appears at Bill's funeral?

This is my third Peter Swanson novel and I'm seeing a theme here. He writes about sociopathic women -- women who refuse to play the victim role. And I find myself rooting for them, even though I'm not sure that's what Peter Swanson intends. What does that say about me? What does that say about him?

Mr. Swanson is clearly a fan of old-fashioned noir mysteries, and that vibe infuses his novels, but they also have a certain modern sensibility. This one contains several taboo relationships between adults and adolescents, which are a bit uncomfortable to read, especially when combined with characters who have no feelings of compassion or remorse. While there's not a lot of gore, this one isn't for sensitive readers.

Overall, I find Swanson's novels to be fun, cheap thrills -- twisty and turny, but plausible, with just the right amount of smut. This one does not disappoint.