September 2017

Our readers may remember E. Lockhart from her last book, WE WERE LIARS, which was a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. She’s now back with GENUINE FRAUD, a brisk, sharp thriller written backwards, so you are peeling back the layers of the story as you read. Again and again, it’s not what you thought at the start. Imogen is an heiress who reinvents herself as the story unfolds. Jule has her own ways of adapting to circumstances; she’s an orphan who “plays the game” to survive. What is real, and what is imagined?

With a thriller, I try not to share too much lest the story be spoiled. However, I will note this: you need to pay attention, or else clues will slip by. Trust that you will be so engaged that you will not want to look up, and you still may miss clues. Will this make you think of Patricia Highsmith’s THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY? Yes. That said, great storytelling works here, as it did there. To me, there’s nothing wrong with a homage when it is done well.