I am a HUGE Heather Gudenkauf fan. She’s an Iowa writer and most, if not all, of the books I’ve read by her take place in Iowa. I love how she “masks” the names of towns but I can identify with the what the “real” name of the town is. I am a huge sucker for a books that take place in “my neck of the woods”. On top of that, Heather Gudenkauf is straight up, an awesome story teller. If you haven’t tried her yet..DO! Here is a LINK to other books of her’s that I’ve reviewed. When I saw that Hoopla had two books of her’s in audio form, I checked both of them out. This review is about This is How I Lied.
![This Is How I Lied: A Novel by [Heather Gudenkauf]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PK5WNmKQL.jpg?resize=225%2C312&ssl=1)
This book was really good. I listened to it over the course of 48 hours. Every moment I had to listen, I listened.
She often writes in first person and that is my favorite way a story is told. I like that there were several different suspects and listeners really didn’t know whodunit until the very end.
Here is what Amazon had to say:“Twenty-five years ago, the body of sixteen-year-old Eve Knox was found in the caves near her home in small-town Grotto, Iowa—discovered by her best friend, Maggie, and her sister, Nola. There were a handful of suspects, including her boyfriend, Nick, but without sufficient evidence the case ultimately went cold.
For decades Maggie was haunted by Eve’s death and that horrible night. Now a detective in Grotto, and seven months pregnant, she is thrust back into the past when a new piece of evidence surfaces and the case is reopened. As Maggie investigates and reexamines the clues, secrets about what really happened begin to emerge. But someone in town knows more than they’re letting on, and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried deep.”
Amazon readers gave the book 4.4 stars. I’m totally agreeing. The book really kept my interest….Happily there is another Heather Gudenkauf book I haven’t read and I was able to download that one too.
You can find the book on Amazon HERE.
After your review of Charles Martin, I checked out his book The Mountain Between Us. It reminds me of the adult version of the book Hatchet, and was very good. I saw it had been made into a movie. Curious, I looked into it. It is unrecognizable. Barely anything like the book. I would never watch it lol. I wondered if that ever happens to you. I have another of his books checked out now.
I know what you mean, I feel that way about Tim Green’s books. He writes about things locally in the Syracuse, NY area. He keeps the town names, etc the same, but it is always fun to think about where the crimes, etc took place. I read one of Heather’s books, but have not picked up any more recently, I’ll be sure to make it my mission to! Hugs,
Thanks for sharing. I like books that I can relate to my surroundings. John Sandford writes books about Lucas Davenport,a detective in Minneapolis/St. Paul and I enjoy those with all their twists and turns. Sometimes they end up in Iowa for part of the book.
I’ll look for that author.