Review – Truth Stained Lies

Terri Blackstock in her new book, “Truth-Stained Lies” Book One in the Moonlighters Series published by Zondervan introduces us to Cathy Cramer and her family.

From the back cover:   When truth doesn’t make sense, will lies prevail?

Cathy Cramer is a former lawyer and investigative blogger who writes commentary on high-profile homicides. When she finds a threatening note warning her that she’s about to experience the same kind of judgment and speculation that she dishes out in her blog, Cathy writes it off as mischief . . . until her brother’s wife is murdered and all the ‘facts’ point to him. The killer has staged the crime to make the truth too far-fetched to believe. Working to solve the murder and clear her brother’s name, Cathy and her two sisters, Holly and Juliet, moonlight as part-time private investigators. Juliet, a stay-at-home mom of two boys, and Holly, a scattered ne’er-do-well who drives a taxi, put aside their fear to hunt down the real killer.

Stakes rise when their brother’s grieving five-year-old son is kidnapped. As police focus on the wrong set of clues, the three sisters and their battered detective friend are the only hope for solving this bizarre crime, saving the child, and freeing their brother.

Who knew being a blogger could be dangerous?  Now Cathy Cramer knows.  Someone dressed in a clown suit murdered her brother’s estranged wife.  The police think the brother did it and arrested him as all the evidence seems to point to him.  So Cathy and her sisters take up the investigation to prove who really did it and get the brother out of jail.  Ms. Blackstock has provided us a first-rate mystery.  ”Truth-Stained Lies” is a wonderful way to begin a series and don’t you just love the title?   “Truth-Stained Lies” is a thriller in that the lives of Cathy and her sisters are put in deadly danger through the course of their investigations.  I think this is Ms. Blackstocks best work yet and her characters are well-defined.  Once the action gets going Ms. Blackstock revs up the thriller quotient considerably which will have you reading and flipping pages as fast as you can.  Don’t start this book late at night because it will be very difficult to put it down or stop thinking about it.  I recommend this book highly and am greatly looking forward to the next book in the series.