Author: Brianna Labuskes
Series: Raisa Susanto Series Book 1
Category: Thriller
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'The Lies You Wrote' was action-packed and beautifully paced to keep the action coming while causing the reader to continuously second-guess assumptions. The suspense is drawn out but completely engaging and I felt the ever-rising tension like I was in the small town personally trying to wrap my head around each revelation.
Raisa has always felt the need to prove her worth despite being an accomplished, if still new-ish, FBI agent focusing on forensic linguistics. She was methodical, headstrong, and thorough, working through the case bit by bit to put pieces of the puzzle together. As a bit of an outsider compared to other agents who are based in one region, Raisa clings to another outsider Callum Kilkenny as someone she can partner up with when she desperately wants to find comradery.
"She'd never been one for vulnerability. But that was how to get people to connect with you, and she liked the idea of Kilkenny as an ally. Another cold calculation."
Callum has three-foot walls built around himself after a case that went wrong irrevocably changed his life forever. He is exacting and reserved but has an obvious soft stop for Raisa even if he doesn't share her need for connecting with people. He is intelligent but rigid in his intellect, unable or unwilling to make common jumps in logic that ultimately hold him back from truths.
Even though they work independently, they have a great working relationship and an easy banter only well-crafted authors can pull off. Brianna Labuskes effortlessly drips out clues while our main characters spin back and forth trying to understand what is important or not.
"But every time we engage with words, we make choices. It was a choice to try and give nothing away."
This isn't a spoilers book review so I won't go much into the storyline aside from what I've said already. I did make a couple of random notes in anticipation of this review that I'll share, solely for my own entertainment, and maybe yours.
I've read a couple of thriller or suspense books with podcasters as a plot point. This book's portrayal was probably the most accurate between investigators being annoyed at the distraction but also using them to their advantage.
I took a linguistics class back in college and I do NOT remember it being as interesting as it was in this book. Maybe I should try to find that old textbook....
Why does it feel like the two randomly paired FBI non-partners are the ones doing all the investigating while the rest of the FBI crew is sitting at past crime scenes?
Considering Washington State was home to more than a few prolific serial killers, small-town 'Everly', Washington was a great setting for this thriller.
"Even as dusty and broken-down as it looked, her car was a reminder: she was Raisa Susanto, and she got shit done."
Ultimately, this thriller toes the line between believable police work and an unbelievable puppet master villain. While some extravagant circumstances remain a bit far-fetched, overall, there was more possible reality than not to keep the storyline realistic. 'The Lies You Wrote' was a great thrilling and twister thriller novel, one I highly recommend.
Tropes and Themes: Crime, FBI, Thriller.
Blurb
The double murder of a married couple in a small Washington town draws FBI forensic linguist Raisa Susanto into an investigation that mirrors a decades-old crime. Twenty-five years ago—to the day—Alex Parker murdered his parents, then took his own life, leaving behind a note admitting everything.
Raisa, paired with forensic psychologist Callum Kilkenny, uses her skills to read between the lines. Especially now that paranoid postings on a conspiracy thread suggest that Alex was a victim himself—theories that have piqued the interest of a perceptive content moderator and a true-crime podcaster eager for a big break.
As old and new crimes converge, messages from the living and the confessions of the dead take on new meaning for Raisa. Something more sinister than a copycat crime is at play, and plundering the darkest corners of a killer’s mind leaves her vulnerable to a deadly twist even she never saw coming.
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