The Liar's Girl

Her first love confessed to five murders … but the truth was so much worse.

Will Hurley was an attractive, charming, and impressive student at Dublin’s elite St. John’s College—and Ireland’s most prolific serial killer. Having stalked his five young victims, he drowned them in the muddy waters of the Grand Canal. Sentenced to life imprisonment when he was just nineteen, Will is locked away in the city’s Central Psychiatric Hospital.

Freshman Alison Smith moved to the Big Smoke to enroll in St. John’s and soon fell hard for Will Hurley. Her world bloomed … and then imploded when Liz, her best friend, became the latest victim of the Canal Killer—and the Canal Killer turned out to be the boy who’d been sleeping in her bed. Alison fled to the Netherlands and, in ten years, has never once looked back.

When a young woman’s body is found in the Grand Canal, Garda detectives visit Will to see if he can assist them in solving what looks like a copycat killing. Instead, Will tells them he has something new to confess—but there’s only one person he’s prepared to confess it to.

The last thing Alison wants is to be pulled back into the past she’s worked so hard to leave behind. Reluctantly, she returns to the city she hasn’t set foot in for more than a decade to face the man who murdered the woman she was supposed to become.

Only to discover that, until now, Will has left out the worst part of all …

“An absolute belter of a book…[A] stand-out book in the thriller genre. Real and sympathetic characters, a flawlessly paced plot and a genuinely original premise.” —Gillian McAllister, Sunday Times bestselling author

“Read The Liar’s Girl with the lights on. A thrilling whodunit with a shocking final twist.” —A. J. Banner, USA Today bestselling author

“The Liar’s Girl is an addictive page-turner that…ladles out the suspense like spoonfuls of sugar, building to a heady rush of tension—and a heartbreaking final twist in the tale.” —Jo Furniss, author of the bestselling All the Little Children

“Slick, smart, and stylish suspense. Characters so real I felt I knew them personally, a plot so taut it squeaked, and deeply poignant nods to the loss of innocence that every teenager craves and despairs. Really clever.” —Holly Seddon, USA Today bestselling author

Genre: Mystery

"A haunting thriller... a fast-moving, crackling good novel." - David Bell

"Absolutely fantastic. I was gripped the entire way through, can't recommend it enough..." - Jenny Blackhurst

"The Liar's Girl is heartstoppingly brilliant - a completely convincing, expertly plotted tale. The pace is unrelenting. Catherine Ryan Howard... is an extraordinary talent." - Jane Casey

"Incredibly pacey - what lifts Catherine's work above many others in the genre is the quality of her writing and the strength of her characterization. Dublin comes alive in this slice of Irish noir." - Sinéad Crowley

"The Liar's Girl is BRILLIANT. [Catherine Ryan Howard has] outdone herself... It's even better than the Dagger-nominated Distress Signals and that's saying something!" - Michelle Davies

"Gripping." - Elizabeth Haynes

"A stand-out book... Real and sympathetic characters, a flawlessly-paced plot and a genuinely original premise. I finished it at 2:00am, my heart pounding!" - Gillian McAllister

"The Liar's Girl is an incredibly compelling tale of guilt, secrecy and murder. Gripping from the start, Catherine Ryan Howard lures readers in from page one and brings every girl's worst nightmare to life. Unputdownable!" - Phoebe Morgan

"Slick, smart and stylish... Really clever." - Holly Seddon

"Catherine Ryan Howard is such a skilled storyteller - every setting was evocative, every hook well-placed, every twist expertly-timed. I flew through it! Astonishingly good." - Jo Spain