Liquid Lies by Lois Lavrisa

Teenage best friends CiCi and Francesca made a decision that haunted them for the rest of their lives. What started as a celebration of Francesca's eighteenth birthday became a tragedy with repercussions neither could ever have imagined. Four years later, after keeping the incident buried, a blackmailer enters their lives, threatening to expose their secret. In the idyllic resort town of Round Lake, Jet Skiers, swimmers and boaters center their lives on their upscale waterfront homes in their picturesque, peaceful Wisconsin town.

Who would expect it to be torn apart by the selfish decisions of the wealthy few? Who would guess that underneath this picture of serenity lay murder, deceit—and more murder? As CiCi finds herself in the midst of a hideous chain of events, she must wrestle with lies and their unintended consequences. In the process she confronts her own worst demons, finding herself enveloped in a turbulent vortex of events. Armed only with her own integrity and willingness to take responsibility for her past mistakes, CiCi must make amends for the past to secure her future.

Liquid Lies could have been a fun read that didn’t take me too far from home since I live about five miles from the Wisconsin border in Round Lake Beach, Illinois.  When I was a child this was similar to the idyllic resort town described in Ms. Lavrisa’s book, but has succumbed to urban sprawl and is now considered a suburb of Chicago.  (Ms. Lavrisa states in her bio that she based the town on a resort not far from here.)  I grew up in the city, but my uncle had a boat out here on the Chain o’ Lakes and we came up to go boating with them.

Ms. Lavrisa managed to keep me guessing far longer than most mystery writers as to who did what to whom.  I had some of it figured out, but not all of it and that takes talent.  I enjoyed her description of resort life through the eyes of a “townie.”

I was not going to comment on the lack of editing because I read an Advanced Review Copy (ARC) and I assumed the errors I noticed would be fixed before the book was released, but I scanned a few other reviews while I was looking for the price and page length and other people commented on the same errors I noticed—words that didn’t belong where they were, continuity problems, etc.  I’m borrowing the example another person used.  “Okay then, are you going to let tell me?”  It’s such a shame when a talented writer’s work is spoiled by lack of editing.

I realize I’m a grammar Nazi and I have pet peeves that even most editors today don’t notice because schools no longer teach proper grammar, among them “waiting on” instead of “waiting for,” “different than” instead of “different from,” and comma splices.  I see comma splices everywhere, and they drive me crazy but sometimes I think I’m the only one left on Earth who even knows what a comma splice is.  FYI—It’s the use of a comma to splice two independent clauses together.  Here’s an example of one from Liquid Lies:  “I’m just saying that, while I’m traveling to all the museums in Europe with my aunt, one day someone might offer me a million Euros to answer an art question, you never know.”  “You never know” is an independent clause.  It could be a sentence all by itself.  That comma splice can be fixed by separating it into two sentences, using a semi-colon, or something parenthetical like an em-dash.  I would make it a separate sentence as the one it’s in is pretty long already.  But I digress.  As I said, I’ve given up on comma splices in most books.

I’d like to recommend Liquid Lies.  Maybe your copy will be better than mine.  It would be a fun read if it was properly edited.

Length:  272 Pages

Prices:

Paperback:  $14.95

E-Book:  $0.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Mystery-Thriller-Suspense-ebook/dp/B007GQ10WS/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Thanks for visiting.  RIW