Customer Reviews

The Liar's Diary

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The Liar's Diary is an excellent story of secrets and truth-telling. Jeanne Cross's life seems to be perfect: a secretary at the local high school, se is married to Wonderful Dr. Gavin Cross and has a seemingly normal teenage son, Jamie. That year, Ali Mather comes to the town to teach music at the high school. She has an uncanny effect upon men, and her arrival in town sends shock waves through the community and especially through Jeanne and her family. Both women keep diaries, but it is only Jeanne's that we ever see. It seems that everyone is this tight, fast-paced, dark, and haunting novel has a secret to conceal, and it is only at the very end that those secrets are revealed. This is an absolute must-read that kept me guessing until the very end.

This debut novel by poet Patry Francis begins quietly enough. Jeanne Cross is a suburban housewife and mother who works as secretary at Bridgeway High School. She's wed to Gavin, a bit of a jock, and is mother to 16-year-old Jamie who tends to the pudgy and suffers from dyslexia. Jeanne is not particularly thrilled with her life as is revealed in the rather staccato way she describes it.

Things change with the arrival of Ali, a violinist and composer with a lust for life and men. She comes to Bridgeway High to teach music and soon beds the married shop teacher. Outward appearances would indicate that Jeanne and Ali are polar opposites, yet they soon become fast friends despite the disapproval of Gavin. Ali, of course, has the upper hand in this relationship as Jeanne is attracted to her new friend's amoral lifestyle. It seems exciting, exhilarating, fun - everything she does not find in her own world and home.

As the story unfolds and grows darker Jeanne reveals snippets of herself, long held secrets. Then tragedy occurs and the key to a murder is to be found in a diary. Which diary holds the truth?

Voice performer Marie Caliendo (remembered for her narrations of the Nora Roberts O'Hurley series) gives a sterling reading of this story of a dysfunctional family and the puzzles of a human mind.

- Gail Cooke

Definitely a page turner, but, ultimately, a disappointing one. This novel begins with great promise, as a closely observed study of a suburban community--but soon gives way to cliched melodrama as it evolves into another expose of "darkness" beneath the surface of suburbia.

Much of the dialogue is overwrought. This is a novel where characters, supposedly in casual conversation, say things like, "I had fallen into a troubled sleep. It had been a bad day, one that had persistently challenged my thin veneer of sanity." Oh yes, the old thin veneer of sanity. The novel is also way over-narrated, its heroine subjecting you to every detail of her many "duh" conclusions.

It's too bad because Francis is a gifted storyteller who can create nerve-wracking suspense and her portraits of this dysfunctional crew are filled with precise insights into family life. She needs to ratchet up her language ambitions, tho, learn how to write more realistic dialogue, and move beyond this novel's "Lifetime: Television for Women" tone.

For a much better novel with similar themes of obsession and the dissolution of a family, read Zoe Heller's NOTES ON A SCANDAL.

You better set yourself aside a good chunk of time when you pick up The Liar's Diary (the stunning debut novel by Patry Francis) because I can tell you from personal experience that once you start reading, you're not going to want to stop until you've finished.

On the surface, this is a book about the seemingly perfect Cross family, living their slightly flawed lives out in the suburbs (the only flaw appears to be the superficial flaw of the son who is overweight) and the woman, the unwanted element, who enters their lives--Ali Mather. Below, the surface, however, this is a book about betrayal; it's about secrets and lies and years of abuse and denial and how all of these things if not uncovered and dealt with in some healthy way, can lead to disaster, which in this case, they most certainly do.

It is also about Jeanne Cross's awakening and her realization that she has been stuffing down her emotions for close to 20 years. As is typically the case with such repression, when the pressure cooker reaches its limit--it explodes.

Most heartbreaking of all, this book about errant mothers, abusive fathers, and lost children. And while there are certainly villans (Gavin Cross being the most obvious choice for villan, but Ali being cast as one as well from time to time), these villans are also human beings, who are damaged and hurting and acting out in the only way they know how.

I will not (because I don't want to ruin it for you) go into details of the plot (there are many surprises in store, though!), but I will say without hesitation that if you don't pick up this book and read it, you're going to be missing out.

Liar's abound in this chilling suspense novel, and their web of deception results in devastation and death.

Jeanne Cross, a school secretary married to a hotshot doctor, has spent her life portraying the part of the perfect wife and mother, ignoring the way her husband's secret activities are destryoing the life of their 16 year old son, Jamie. Enter 46 year old Ali Mather, a free sprited, seductive musician, whose own secret past allows her valuable insight into the evil that lurks in Jeanne's family. Her struggle to help Jeanne and Jamie face the hard truth about their lives results in chilling psychological suspense and violent death.

Francis' characters had me hooked from page one, and I eagerly followed this thrilling roller coaster ride to it's surprising and satisfying conclusion.

Author Patry Francis kept me guessing the whole way through this book. THE LIAR'S DIARY offers much more than an intriguing read with its compelling plot and so many memorable characters' conflicting loyalties, desires, and motives. Ali especially is one character who will linger for a long while. I only wish I could hear her music!

THE LIAR'S DIARY -- a compelling read akin to a walk through a house of mirrors. Just when you think you know, you don't.

Jeanne Cross, a supportive wife, devoted/loving mother, and school secretary has the perfect life, or so she thinks until the flamboyant music teacher, Ali Mather, walks through the doors and into Jeanne's dreary existence.

She is curiously fascinated by Ali's uninhibited lifestyle - a woman who embodies everything she is not. When gossip spreads about Ali's affairs and a stalker breaks into her home, Jeanne's motherly instincts kick in. An unlikely, addictive friendship slowly forms that strains Jeanne's relationship with her husband and son. The inseparable bond between the two women is threatened when Ali unexpectedly reveals an unthinkable truth about Jeanne's family.

Tension mounts after her son is accused of the scandalous crime. Jeanne's life and her perception of a model family crumble as she delves deeper into Ali's death and the knowledge she took to her grave. Long-held secrets are unveiled and strip the layers of Jeanne's perfect life down to its evil core.

Patry Francis's exquisitely crafted work takes the reader for a convoluted, twisting ride into the realm of compulsive love and lies that pave the way to an unpredictable ending. The pages of THE LIAR'S DIARY are skillfully fashioned into interlocking subplots that are packed with suspense and clever revelations at every turn.

Look out though, 'cause in THE LIAR'S DIARY, nothing is as it seems.

Patry Francis' debut novel is one that will haunt you long after you've put it down. With rich characters and unbelievable plot twists, you won't believe the stunning conclusion. This author is one to read and watch.

The Liar's Diary begins innocuously at first - a new teacher arrives at the school where Jeanne Cross, a suburban wife and mother works as a secretary. Ali Mather is beautiful, charismatic, and willful. She is a brilliant composer and violinist. Students, fellow teachers, and even crusty old janitors fall under her spell. Jeanne, whose initial distrust and jealousy melts as Ali and she form an unlikely friendship is similarly captivated despite herself. Ali is outspoken, forthright, and sexual. Jeanne is quite the opposite - a woman who does not know what she thinks or feels and who prefers not knowing rather than attempting to probe the shadowy questions and challenges that confront her on a daily basis.

A strong undertone of psychological and emotional abuse runs through The Liar's Diary, though Francis is such a fine writer that she never labels it as such. Instead, she reveals through narrative the master manipulator that Jeanne's handsome doctor husband has become -- soft spoken, icily rational, subtly demoralizing. She shows Jeanne wither emotionally from his hostility but it is Jaime who suffers the most. His father's contempt and criticism, cloaked under a guise of false camaraderie, send him to the refrigerator for comfort. He gorges on junk food and hides the evidence while his mother, though worrying about his weight, plies him with the food he loves to assuage the pain that she cannot quite get herself to acknowledge.

Ali, though, sees through the façade of niceness that pervades the Cross household and challenges Jeanne to confront it. I will stop here, because to tell you more would be to share too much of a story that grows more complex and intriguing as it builds in intensity.

I was wandering round Target, waiting for the pharmacy to fill my prescription, and had just reached the books' section when I found it - bottom shelf, red and cream cover with an image of a woman in lacy apparel. I'd looked at several paperbacks already, and it wasn't the picture that enticed me. But the blurb on the back was intriguing. Suburban life falling apart, mutual vulnerabilities, long-held secrets, something darker... those are things I might expect to enjoy. Stunning, magnetic personalities less so, but I decided to buy it anyway.

The book began gently, with a character I quickly related to - married, insecure, low self-esteem, struggling with the conflicting responsibilities of wife and mother. Her son has problems of his own, and she tries to help and support, never sure where the line between enabling and ennobling lies.

The husband; is he as bad as the narrator paints, or are we seeing only through her eyes? The friend; is she really out of control or controlling; maybe just another flawed personality with hidden depths? The colleagues... the school... Patry paints relationships and gossip with a clear steady hand. I could hear the conversations and picture the scenes; felt I'd been there; felt like I knew exactly where she'd placed me.

By the time I reached the top of the roller coaster ride, midway through the book, I realized I'd spent all my time listening to a conversation without noticing it was too late to get away. Actually, I might have put the book down then. I'd reached that point where I need to trust the writer; an advantage established writers have over newcomers, I suppose. I could see the written world falling apart ahead of me, and knew I didn't want to watch dismay devolve into unmitigated disaster. Luckily I'd seen Patry's writing elsewhere, so I did trust her. In the darkest of places, she creates amazingly uplifting articles. So I knew her book wouldn't leave me without hope, and it didn't.

The reader begins to guess at secrets as the story speeds up. I found myself hooked, unable to stop reading, and wishing I could protect the character from making those so natural mistakes. I thought I knew exactly where I was going till the sudden shock that I didn't guess, and the puzzle I hadn't even realized would need to be solved.

The characters all stayed true to themselves, true to how I'd come to know them through reading. The dilemmas were resolved; sadness and pain leaving a path open to hope. And the clues all made sense. By the end I knew I'd read a really good book, one which I'd recommend to anyone interested in well-developed suburban characters with dark secrets waiting to derail them.