The Liar of Red Valley

Life in Red Valley is simple if you follow the rules:

Do not trust the Liar
Do Not go in the River
Do not cross The King

In the Liar of Red Valley, Walter Goodwater mixes equal doses of urban fantasy with other worldly horror and a blisteringly paced plot to write a thoroughly entertaining book.

The book starts off with the death of The Liar, and her daughter, Sadie, coming to terms with the death of her mother. However, The Liar keeps all the town???s secrets and makes the lies that they tell come to be reality. This may be a little lie, like I am not going bald, to even bigger lies, and Sadie needs to know how to be the Liar, quick!

With the death of her mother, Sadie inherits the power of the Liar, and all that that means. She discovers that the position of The Liar was given to her family by The King, an all powerful being who walked the cosmos eons before the coming of the human race, generations ago in order to keep the lies of The King and the people safe.
In the course of the book, she discovers the power of Lies and what it can do. However, everyone wants that power, and she discovers that people will do anything to get the power of the lies for themselves as she is chased, threatened, arrested and reviled for her powers. It seems that everyone wants to know what lies Sadie???s family have been keeping and they will stop at nothing to discover the truth.

Sadie finds herself chased by the Laughing Boys, a gang of addicts who let demons reside in their head instead of using drugs. Harassed by the local Undersheriff who says that he wants to depose the King???s reign and let Red Valley govern itself. However, one thing that they all have in common is that they will use whatever means necessary to obtain the power that is stored in her family???s ledgers.

I have to say that I enjoyed this book immensely. It is filled with monsters, a time traveling house, Cthuluesque leviathans and all sorts of madness in between. Sadie is a good character, who develops as the book moves on. Initially beginning the book as a dormouse and transforming into a snarky lion that is able to navigate her own destiny. On the whole the plot moves at a frenetic pace as Sadie. is forced to come to terms with the death of her mother, and then know how to use her powers whilst at the same time traversing the strange and murky waters that is Red Valley. You watch her grow and she is aided by a supporting cast that at times, are a little one dimensional, but they adequately buoy the story along to get Sadie to where she needs to be.

Added to that a plot that introduces twists and turns that is both unpredictable and blisteringly fast paced. I also found the setting of Red Valley and its plethora of strange residents that add a rich vein of strangeness, immersive and vividly written as the book runs towards its climactic ending.

Whilst this is a standalone novel, I would love to see some more of this world that Walter Goodwater has crafted and hope for more stories set in Red Valley in the future as I think that this could be cracking ongoing series.

Going into The Liar of Red Valley I had certain expectations. Maybe this would be some kind of American gothic Eldritch horror tale about how Sadie, suddenly dealing with gaining this primaeval blood magic, crosses the King, an entity as old and shadowy as the land itself. However, Walter Goodwater has instead crafted a story that refuses to be boxed in by genres, for better or for worse. 

 Sadie the Liar

Sadie is our protagonist and she doesn't have too much in life. She lives outside of town with her mother in a broken-down old house, working as a waitress at the diner in town and has one friend, Graciela. I really liked Sadie as a character, she's spicy. She stands up for herself when she needs to and won't back down from doing what she perceives to be the right thing, but she will hide when she recognises it's necessary.

Her mother is the hated and feared Liar, who contains the power to rewrite truth. For instance, changing somebody's hair colour, taking away a terrible memory, or even bringing back a beloved pet - though all of these things are not real, by giving a little of their blood and paying the Liar's Price which takes time off their lives for every lie told, everybody in Red Valley believes the lies, they become the truth. It's tough to describe but it makes sense in the book, trust me. 

When Sadie's mother dies suddenly, she finds herself needing to work out how to be the Liar, and fast, because the ledgers that contain everybody's lies are wanted by forces that Sadie cannot deal with on her own. She does not want them to fall into the wrong hands, which she fast learns are basically everybody's but her own. Rightfully so, she is afraid, but also stubborn. 

Atmosphere is Everything

My first impressions of The Liar of Red Valley were that it was almost as though Neil Gaiman wrote True Blood, and I think that is still partially true having finished the book. It has a very gothic dark fantasy vibe, and Goodwater has the strange imagination that Gaiman also holds, with just a hint of magic and wonder that I was not expecting. He's very good at setting a scene and the whole book is very atmospheric.

“Telling a Lie will become easy, with time. Too easy. Never forget that once it is told, there's no taking it back. Once it escapes from your head into the world, it has a life all its own.”

 Of Magic and Monsters

Too Fast or Just Right?

Coming to the End (No Spoilerinos)