Publication Date: August 17, 2023
In the summer of 1914, a boy’s disappearance is overshadowed by looming war.
Six years later, Detective Sergeant Verity arrives at Darkacre Hall armed with new evidence regarding the boy’s case – evidence which throws the spotlight firmly upon the once-esteemed Stilwell family.
Darkacre’s grandeur has faded, and the Stilwells no longer command the respect they once took for granted. While brothers Maurice and Leonard carry the physical and mental scars of their war service, Maurice’s wife, Ida, longs for the lost days of privilege and parties.
As Verity digs deeper into the events of that final halcyon summer, he uncovers dark secrets with far-reaching consequences. And as he does so, Darkacre Hall becomes an unlikely battlefield – one that not all will survive.
When a cold case is dredged up from the past, the lives of the Stilwell family are turned upside down, and not everything is as it seems in The Good Liars by Anita Frank.
World War I has hit the Stilwell family hard. The eldest, Hugo, was killed. Leonard, the youngest, lost both legs and an arm. And Maurice, the new heir, is struggling with shell shock. Maurice’s young wife, Ida, is frustrated by her life, hoping for a life of luxury and privilege, but instead, she is stuck with a dwindling fortune and a home in disarray. The only one who seems untouched by the war is their family friend, Victor, who seems to run the house more than anyone in the Stilwell family. When a detective arrives at their doorstep asking about a missing boy from before the war, their lives are thrown into chaos. The new housekeeper & nurse, Sarah believes she is seeing the spirits of those past, and everyone can smell Hugo’s pipe smoke throughout the home. As tensions fray, the truth starts to bubble to the surface and no one is what they seem.
I love a good gothic mystery that focuses on a small setting—everything begins to feel claustrophobic in the best way possible. Frank is an excellent storyteller that pulls you in very quickly. I love that she sets the seeds for the mystery to unravel and be completely believable. While there were quite a few characters involved in the story, due to Frank’s expertise in writing, each character is unique and distinguishable. If Frank writes another mystery, it will go to the top of my to be read!
The Good Liars is an atmospheric gothic mystery that will leave you guessing until the very last page.
Anita Frank was born in Shropshire and studied English and American History at the University of East Anglia. She lives in Berkshire with her husband and three children and is now a full-time carer for her disabled son. Her debut novel The Lost Ones was shortlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award and the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown Award. The Good Liars is her third novel.
