Liars by James O’Loghlin

Publisher's Synopsis

Everyone is guilty of something.

Handywoman Barb Young has lived in the sleepy coastal town of Bullford Point for over fifty years – and frankly, in that time, not much has happened, unless you count that business where a bush turkey managed to board the ferry a couple of years ago.

When Joe Griffiths returns from Sydney after six years of drug addiction, jail and, eventually, rehab, Barb offers him a job, hoping to help him turn his life around. However, when another new resident of Bullford Point is murdered, Joe becomes the prime suspect.

Barb thinks the police have got it wrong, but the more she tries to find the truth and clear Joe's name, the more confusing things become. Is the murder connected to the developers circling the waterfront home Joe inherited from his parents? Or to the true crime podcast he has been making about the death of his ex-girlfriend, seven years previously? And what was the information the murdered woman had been trying to horse-trade with police?

As her off-the-books investigation continues, Barb discovers that drowsy Bullford Point is actually a town full of secrets – and that even though she's known everyone in the close-knit community for years … everybody lies.

My Review of Liars by James O'Loghlin

With his second crime novel, Liars, James O’Loghlin has produced a deceptively complex murder mystery. With elements that can only be described as a whodunnit that combines a classic cozy mystery with the structure of a police procedural, this is a small town crime novel that is filled with intrigue.

In the small NSW Central Coast town of Bullford Point, life seems pretty quiet with the usual small town issues marking as exciting as things get. There’s a certain bucolic quaintness about the beachside town, but that feeling is rudely shattered when Karen Kemp’s body is found in the nearby bushland.

And then recently rehabbed drug addict Joe Griffiths is discovered in his bed, dead from an overdose. The fact that Joe, who was secretly meeting with Karen behind her boyfriend’s back, was the prime suspect for Karen’s murder is a notable feature in what appears to be a remorse filled suicide.

The local police constable, Seb Baxter, is a little overwhelmed by the scope of the crimes that have been committed on his patch. The homicide detectives from Sydney quickly take over the scenes, draw their conclusions and head home again. Seb was once good friends with Joe, while saddened and disappointed with what’s happened, is prepared to accept his colleague’s findings.

It’s not until Barb Young, a middle-aged local woman who had employed Joe in her handyman business, takes it on herself to investigate the deaths. The classic “things just don’t add up” sets her on her path and she teams up with Seb to get to the bottom of the mysteries. She turns out to be the scene stealing star of the piece, kind of reminiscent of The Thursday Murder Club’s Joyce (if you’ve read the books) with her penchant for baking and pressing her delicious cakes on otherwise hard nosed criminals.

Now, Seb and Joe went to school together, along with Sal, Viv, Gary, Leanne and Dev. Together they formed a band, led by Sal, and ended up heading to Sydney during their university days with the hope that they might be able to make it big. Just before their big break, Sal disappeared without explanation and moved to the Blue Mountains and was then strangled to death in her home. The death had been counted as the work of a local serial killer, the third in the string of murders at the time. 

This little bit of background serves to essentially give us a group of five potential suspects to sift through as we try to work out who the killer is.

A good portion of the story early on is told via emails, letters, text transcripts and podcast transcripts between members of the Bullford Point and surrounding area community. This carried on for an overly long portion of the book, at least the first 12% and was, quite frankly, an onerous read.

This is a double murder mystery solved by a combination of an amateur sleuth and a junior small town police constable. Events that took place more than seven years ago are crucial to solving the case and we’re given a healthy list of potential suspects 

Once past the “correspondence” section of the book, things flow far more quickly and in a linear fashion with a solid mystery slowly unfolding to tantalize. The events from the past are cleverly brought to light in a believable way and while there are a few conveniently accurate conclusions drawn based on even more conveniently provided pieces of evidence, things move to quite a thrilling ending.

I found Liars to be an entertaining small town murder mystery that did a good job of balancing the lighter, more cozy moments with the darker, far more dangerous criminal elements.