"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.