The Liar by Steve Cavanagh is the THIRD excellent legal thriller I’ve read in the last few months. In my reviews of both A Criminal Defense by William L Myers Jnr and Say Nothing by Brad Parks, I commented on the fact it’d been a while since I’d read any courtroom dramas / legal procedurals, but I’ve certainly been getting my fix recently and it’s reminded me how much I loved early work by Scott Turow and Steve Martini.

The Liar
by Steve Cavanagh
Series: Eddie Flynn #3
Published by Hachette Australia, Orion
on May 16th 2017
Source: Hachette Australia
Genres: Thriller / Suspense, Legal Procedural
ISBN: 9781409152378
Pages: 384

Goodreads

When wealthy businessman Leonard Howell's daughter is kidnapped, the police jump on it straight away. But Howell knows this won't be straightforward - he needs someone willing to break the rules.

Once a con artist, now a hotshot lawyer, Eddie Flynn's learnt that fast talk and sleight of hand are just as important in the courtroom are they are on the street. Knowing what it's like to lose a daughter, he'll stop at nothing to save Howell's.

With a client on trial for his life, and the body count rising, Eddie Flynn is starting to fear that the whole thing was a set-up from the very beginning.The only question is who is deadlier - the man who knows the truth, or the one who believes a lie?

I’ve not read any of Cavanagh’s series featuring Eddie Flynn before but I’m keen to rectify that now as I really enjoyed this novel, the third in the series.

He’s not your typical lawyer, though they never are, are they? But while Eddie’s happy to skirt the rules where necessary he’s essentially a good guy, who believes in justice.

Cavanagh’s created a likeable and complex character in Eddie, but I also really REALLY liked the plot. Well plots, I guess, because questions are being raised about an old case Eddie inherited from his practice’s previous owner.

And of course things which should be pretty straight forward (ie. paying off kidnappers, releasing old files for an appeal), are far from that.

We’re given information via a couple of players from the old case, which involves arson and the death of a baby, so we know what’s coming and how things connect before the players in the book. As an aside, I occasionally forgot that they didn’t know and wondered why they couldn’t see the linkages, which frustrated me just a tad.

Cavanagh is seriously adept at the art of misdirection because in this outing he – along with Eddie – offer up many twists and turns and surprises than one could poke a stick at. If one was the type of person who poked sticks, that is.

Just when we think we’ve got it sorted in our minds we’re thrown off-kilter by a new revelation. I read the second two-thirds of this book in a sitting when I was planning to read but briefly. But I kept going and going, keen to unravel the complex mystery. Or two.

So, just in case I haven’t been clear, I loved this book. I loved Eddie Flynn and the adventure on which Cavanagh takes us.

The Liar by Steve Cavanagh was published in Australia by Hachette and is now available.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.