The Book:
A River of Lies by John Crossan
Published January 25th 2022 by DartFrog Books/DartFrog Plus
Date read: March 8, 2022
The Characters:
Carmen, the suspect
Timothy Pickering, his lawyer
Adrian Watson, the PI
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
When his girlfriend, Jillian Russo, washes up on the shore of the Merrimack River in Essex County, Massachusetts, Carmen Vaughn immediately finds himself the main suspect in her murder investigation. Desperate, he turns to his college professor and former criminal prosecutor, Timothy Pickering, for help clearing his name and figuring out what really happened.
Against his family’s wishes, Pickering decides to help and recruits Adrian Watson, a private investigator who’s worked other government cases in the past. Despite their diligent work, the prosecutors on Jillian’s case manage to stay one step ahead as lead attorney Victoria Donovan conspires to bury vital evidence that could acquit Carmen of the charges. As the investigation progresses, Pickering and Watson suspect that someone else was dating and likely killed Jillian . . . but knowing it and proving it are two different matters, and time is running out.
The Ending:
The state trooper Erikson was the murderer. He was the other man that Jillian was seeing. He was also dating Victoria Donovan, the prosecutor on the case. So much cheating! Victoria helped him cover up evidence, but when she was found out she turned on Erikson. She told her boss that he was abusive and threatened her if she didn’t help him. Carmen was acquitted. Victoria was just slapped on the wrist, and Erikson went to prison.
The Review:
A River of Lies is a twisty, suspenseful legal thriller that takes place in Massachusetts. I lived in the Boston area for years and still have a lot of family there, so it’s fun to read about places I know well.
This story was a very quick read. The plot was fast-paced, engaging, and suspenseful. Adrian and Tim were quite the team! It was a lot of fun to read about their professional relationship, and I would have liked to read about them in their heyday.
What the heck was up with the romantic relationships in this story?? Everyone was cheating on and lying to their significant others, and every relationship seemed extremely toxic. Carmen and Jillian’s relationship was the worst of them! I loved how Pickering told Carmen to take a break from dating at the end, since he is clearly too immature for a relationship. These questionable couples were a lot of fun to read about and added a lot of interesting drama to the story.
I liked that even though Jillian was tragically killed, she wasn’t idealized after her death. Often when a white girl dies, she instantly becomes an angel who could do no wrong. Jillian was an awful person in life, and her “friends” and acquaintances weren’t afraid to say so after she died. She didn’t deserve what happened to her, but she certainly wasn’t an angel.
I do think that the case came together almost too easily for Adrian. Many of his discoveries seemed to just fall into his lap. This book is short–under 300 pages–so I would have liked to see a few scenes where he couldn’t get his head around something. For a case being covered up by the police, he broke through it with no trouble at all!
A River of Lies was an interesting story with a good twist and satisfying clues along the way. Any fan of police procedurals and legal thrillers should add this book to their list!
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