One Liar Left

Once again Emily Shiner brings readers a suspenseful tale with great characterization in One Liar Left, the second book in the Detective Freya Sinclair series. This book takes place at least one month after book one and continues to be set in Freya’s hometown of Fawn Lake, North Carolina.

A hunter discovers the bodies of two young women at their campsite in the mountains of Clear Creek Forest. The method of death for one of them is like that of a cold case from several years ago. Is the same killer back? As the body count increases, the killer is sending messages to Freya and others around her. Why? The killer seems to be one step ahead of her. Can she and her team prevent more deaths?

Freya is loyal, dedicated, driven, and honest. However, she sometimes has trouble listening to others when she becomes too focused on what she believes. She’s a strong protagonist with a fierce sense of justice and determination that made it easy to support her. Her team consists of Candy Ellinger and Brad Williams. Candy is intuitive and calls people out on their lies. Rookie Brad is happy to be working with the detectives. Chief Callahan knows Freya’s background and rehired her, but he doesn’t fully trust her judgment yet. He also has anger issues.

This novel starts with another chilling prologue that grabs the reader and pulls them into the story. This is a crime thriller and a police procedural and it seems that the police procedural part of it improved over book one. However, there were still instances of focusing on social media even before checking criminal backgrounds. One quibble that I had in this one was Freya’s inconsistency in listening to others. At times, the communication was great. At other times, it felt lacking. The pacing was more consistent in this novel and once again the twisty plot had me fully engaged.

The storyline is nail-biting at times, especially during the prologue and at the end of the book. A few short chapters let readers get insight into the killer’s mind. The sub-plot of the cold case was a little too obvious for me, but the overall mystery was still full of enough twists and turns to keep me rapidly turning the pages.

Overall, this is an exciting, intense, and gripping novel with great characterization. This book demanded my attention and was a fast read. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Those who enjoy crime thrillers may enjoy this series.

Bookouture and Emily Shiner provided a digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date is currently expected to be April 22, 2024.