No Lie Lasts Forever: A Thriller

The premise of No Lie Lasts Forever drew me in almost immediately. A serial killer slinks off into the night for 15 years without getting caught. Convinced he has somehow cured his urges that led to the killings in the first place, he's reasonably incensed when a new murder is added to his tally. Determined to set the story straight, he leashes an infamous reporter into proving another killer is at play. The novel does ultimately deliver on this premise, but it stumbles a bit on the way there.

Only after sitting down to write this review did I really catch the musical notes filling each of the letters on the cover. It's a very nice touch considering how important classical music is to one of the main characters and to the plot. I wonder if the sheet music shown even matches one of the often mentioned artists this character enjoys so much.

The first chapter of No Lie Lasts Forever is fast-paced, and sets the reporter looped into helping the serial killer on a distinct arc. That swiftness makes the next bit drag more by comparison. I am used to novels written in the present tense moving a little more. Part of this is because of scope. Many of the characters are nuanced and multi-layered, but the cast feels too large to really enjoy them. Juggling all the names and institutions they belong to gets even harder considering how many also have nicknames.

The writing style felt—jumbled—for lack of a better word. Description mostly matches the sparseness of a noir mystery/thriller then delves into randomly elongated character attributes. This strange mix is further enhanced by how crassness that feels out of place to the larger work. I might have made a face at “upright wink” alone. The premise of the novel needed cemented character motivations to truly work. I think some of the meandering in plot happens because the purpose of some characters does the same thing.

If you can get through a few of the more mired down sections, No Lie Lasts Forever becomes worth the read. I recommend the novel to fans of twisty thrillers and morally gray to dark point of view characters.