Why She Lied: A Riveting Psychological Thriller Based on A True Story by Julie Coons

My teammate read the first book of Julie Coons, which was a memoir/autobiography and he really liked it. He recommended me to read the same. At that time I was busy so didn't get time to read it. But last month when I saw her upcoming book, and I took time and decided to read the book. It was indeed a correct decision.

Book Blurb

Will she have to lose her child to save her child?

The day she tells her boyfriend she’s pregnant, is the same day he tells her he’s been accused of molestation. His trial is set to begin the following day.

She needs answers…

To get them, she tricks her boyfriend into signing a release form, giving her full access to all of his legal documents. She uncovers the truth, he’s guilty.

To save her unborn child from this monster, she gets an abortion.

FIVE YEARS LATER and still rebuilding her life, Julie finds out her ex-boyfriend has just become the most wanted man in America, involved in human trafficking. When detectives ask for her help locating him, she gets drawn into a baffling mystery. What began as a seemingly simple search soon turns into a much darker reality.

Someone from her past is watching…

Bit by bit, the tapestry of her own secret childhood begins to unravel. What she learns about her past will haunt her forever: family isn’t always what it seems.

Can she help bring this predator to justice, or will she die trying?

WHY SHE LIED is a gripping psychological thriller full of mystery, intrigue, and buried secrets. 

The protagonist of our story is Julie (I am not sure whether she is the author herself or not). Julie, the character, had an abusive past. When the story started, she was living with her daughter. She was working in a hospital's emergency ward. Due to her troubled past, she was more of an introvert and reserved. She worked on her gut feeling most of the times. Recently a guy name James was visiting the hospital frequently due to his mother's health. He liked Julie and wanted to date her. But Julie was ignoring her. James made many people convince Julie to date him. She went against her gut feelings. though she was getting negative vibes from James, she started dating him. Things were going okay (though vibes she was getting never dissipated), one day when James self-invited himself for a night out at Julie's place, things started horribly wrong. Read the book to know more.

My observation about the book. Starting with positive points

• A pure work of a psychological genius
• Dark and mysterious till the end
• Limited characters.
• Properly focused on the development of Julie's character and her mental state
• Good suspense building over James' character and surrounded incidents
• Shocking revelation
• If it is a true story then I would salute that lady

Now we will start with points of improvement

• In the first half every alternate page Julie would talk about her gut feeling which became redundant after the first few pages.
• Though revelation Julie found was at a very big level, people behind the scene didn't hide anything to get away before actions were taken. Seems unrealistic to me
• Julie's single-handed surveillance. How could she go unnoticed?
• Frequent narrations of Julie's past, some of them could be avoided.

Overall a nice psychological dark tale. Talking about ratings

1. Content - 3.5/4
2. Cover - 4.5/5
3. Concept - 3.75/5
4. Overall - 4.25/5

Book can be found at Amazon USA & Amazon India

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads