Party of Liars by Kelsey Cox
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
Party of Liars is just my kind of Thriller/Domestic Suspense. This story follows multiple perspectives over the course of the narrative and I loved watching all of the connections and dirty laundry be exposed.
I do love a ‘Rich People Behaving Badly’ type of story and I would argue this definitely falls into that category. The story revolves around Sophie Matthews’ Sweet 16 Birthday Party, at her Dad’s lavish estate in Texas.
Sophie’s parents, Ethan and Kim are divorced, and Ethan has remarried a much younger woman named Dani. The couple now have their own infant daughter, Charlotte. Kim is somewhat disgruntled about the way Ethan has chosen to move on, as you can imagine.
All of their friends are in attendance, in addition to Sophie’s friends. Drinks are flowing, the music is pumping, and things heat up quickly.
The party ends in a death, with the who and why revealed very late in the story. I loved the build-up and was sitting like a patron in a theater, totally entranced as all the juicy details came to light.
Orlaith the superstitious Irish nanny turned out to be my favorite character. She was hired to help with Charlotte and I loved how insightful her perspective felt.
She wasn’t really a part of this world, like all of the other characters involved, so it felt like her perspective was giving us a pretty clear outline of all that was going on. People never seemed to notice her, or take her seriously, which allowed her to observe a lot.
At the same time, there was something almost fantastical-feeling about her position there. She reminded me a bit of a fairy godmother. I just loved that she was included.
I really enjoyed the full cast audio and would recommend that as a format for taking in the story. Having the different narrators for the varying perspectives helped to keep everything straight, and helped bring the action to life.
I’ve never read from Kelsey Cox before, but I’m looking forward to more!