We’re back in Canggu this month, and the book that we spoke about is First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston. Ashley has written many YA novels before, and this book is her adult fiction debut. I feel like her writing style is quite influenced by YA, as it is quite straightforward, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. The book is listed as a thriller, but I think it is closer to a crime drama or mystery. Personally it lacked a certain level of suspense that I usually associate with thrillers. If you’re looking for something that’ll get your blood pumping, this may not be the book for you, but if you just feel like a solid mystery, this will definitely do the trick.
The book is about Evie Porter and her life together with her boyfriend, Ryan Sumner, only Evie Porter isn’t her real name, and Ryan is actually a target that she’s been hired to keep track of by the mysterious Mr. Smith. As time progresses, it becomes clearer and clearer that this is not a normal job, and we join Evie as she tries to unveil what is actually going on behind the scenes.
The novel switches between flashbacks and the present day in a very structured way, where we basically “catch up” to the current Evie, chronicling her past aliases and her relationship with her employer. This structure makes the story easy to follow while still slowly revealing key information, and it adds a nice sense of momentum as the two timelines come closer together. It reads as a pretty classic spy drama, and I really liked that her aliases were pretty diverse. I’m not a huge fan of the “black widow” trope, where the character exclusively uses seduction to complete their missions. Unless it is done very deliberately, I feel like it can often come across as a bit cheap and juvenile, and just an excuse for unnecessarily raunchy writing. Which is fine if that is your taste in books, it’s just not mine.
The actual mystery had a pretty well-written resolution and was not too far-fetched, so you feel blindsided. I appreciated that the book gives the reader enough information along the way to start piecing things together on their own, rather than relying on a last-minute reveal. It’s always nice when books give you a chance to figure out the mystery without being too obvious or spelling everything out. It’s a difficult balance to strike, and although some twists were more predictable than others, I never felt like the story was talking down to the reader. Overall, it was a solidly written mystery that felt earned rather than forced.
I had some issues with certain aspects of the book. The tech that she sometimes uses can, at times, border on cartoonish, which took me out of it from time to time. Some of the stuff was just too good to be true, and she was sometimes a little too lucky when it came to placing bugs or “following her instincts” on missions. I also felt that Ryan’s character was a bit inconsistent. It’s of course always difficult to get a full grasp of characters in a mystery novel, but I feel like he was used as a tool to make the mystery feel more complex one time too many.
It’s difficult to follow a book like The Book Thief which was the best book that I’ve read in a very long time. The First Lie Wins is no literary masterpiece, but it was an entertaining read that didn’t take too much effort to get through. It was also nice to finish a book without crying for once.
I’ll give this book 3.5/5 stars. If you don’t feel like picking up a heavy book but still want some engagement, I recommend this book. Next up is our Lembongan meetup on January 10th where we’ll talk about Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, so stay tuned!
By: Elvira Svensson