Perversions of Truth

“Jessie Dancing is a woman who cannot outrun her past,” writes Jim Winter in his review of Louise Ure’s Liars Anonymous, posted today in January Magazine. After being tried in Tucson, Arizona, for the murder of abusive Walter Racine, only to be acquitted of that crime, she moved to Phoenix, changed her name and got a job with HandsOn, “an OnStar-type service for motorists in distress.” But a late-night accident in the desert, a phone call during which she hears fighting and the disappearance of a real-estate developer conspire to destroy Jessie’s carefully reconstructed life and thrust her into a new murder case, this one involving the developer, a legal intern and gang warfare along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Winter applauds the author’s “thoughtful” treatment of illegal immigration issues in this standalone, her meticulous elucidation of characters, and her story plotting. “Ure,” he concludes, “writes a taught thriller, twisting her story in practically every scene.” You can read read his full critique here.