First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.
The identity comes to Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the target: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.
Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes–especially after what happened last time.
Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to—her real identity—just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher–but then, Evie has always liked a challenge…
My Review
What a page turner this was! Reading with my fellow ‘pigeons’ on The Pigeonhole online book club was a real detective-fest. We all had our theories, but with a book like this, it’s not a good idea to peak too early. You know the goal posts will move nearer to the end.
Evie Porter is a con artist. In fact it’s not even her real name. Each time she gets a job she is given a new identity, a location and a mark. And finally the job. But does she have a conscience? Or does she just do as she is told? Her boss is the mysterious Mr Smith, whose identity is kept hidden – his voice disguised by one of those voice changers. I wasn’t even sure if Mr Smith was a man or a woman. Evie has no idea either.
But the jobs don’t always go to plan. It might help if she didn’t keep trying to double cross Mr Smith. Is she cleverer than him? We shall see.
The latest job is going to be her biggest challenge to date, because Ryan Sumner is different from the others. She’s falling for him, and that will complicate things. And he has his own secrets.
I loved this book so much. It’s twisty and clever and my only criticism would be that you keep going back to Evie’s previous jobs, which was absolutely necessary, but I wanted to move forward as I needed to know what was happening next.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Ashley Elston is the author of several novels, including The Rules for Disappearing (a finalist in the Best Young Adult Novel category of the International Thriller Awards) and 10 Blind Dates. Her work has been translated into 23 languages. She graduated with a Liberal Arts degree from Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Ashley worked for many years as a wedding photographer before turning her hand to writing. Ashley lives in Louisiana with her husband and three sons. First Lie Wins is her debut adult thriller.
