BALD-FACED LIAR (kindle) by Victoria Helen Stone




Published in 2025 by Lake Union Publishing.

Synopsis

Elizabeth May has lived a life based on lies ever since she went off to college. As a small child she was caught up in one of those Satanic child abuse day care cases that swept the nation in the 1980s. If you are not aware of this, the cases were almost always built upon an accusation by an angry child followed by leading questions from a series of adults that convinced younger children that they should go along with the accusations. After a while, the smaller children just believed the made up version.

Elizabeth May has ran away from her past - no one in her hometown showed any understanding of how she was also a victim, including her own family. May hides by being a travel nurse - she can move every year or even every few months. She avoids long-term romantic entanglements, she uses every possible variation of her name - Liz, Betty, Beth, etc. 

Elizabeth May has lived in Santa Cruz for about a year. She's got a great job, a cozy condo with a special deal because she keeps on eye the nextdoor vacation rental condos, and she has a network of acquaintances that stand in for actual friends.

Suddenly, her carefully constructed life gets interrupted with a series of online and in real life incidents and Elizabeth May is scrambling to figure out who is a real friend and who is an imposter from the past looking for revenge...

My review: 

The problem with this book is not the tension created from the situation, it's the character of Elizabeth May. She is basically unlikeable. She listens in to her neighbors' arguments and gets joy a thrill out of it. She uses the security cameras to spy on their romantic moments. 

In a book like this, this reader has to root for the target. Elizabeth May is hard to root for, except that you just don't like anybody that's not clearly evil to have their identity stolen and be stalked. 

This book was just off from the beginning and ended up staying off the entire time. I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Bald-Faced Liar by Victoria Helen Stone.

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