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In the Company of Liars is that rare animal - a truly original thriller, strikingly fresh and unpredictable. Told chronologically in reverse, from its enigmatic end to its brilliant beginning, it's centered around a woman on trial for murder - Allison Pagone, who is caught between competing forces, each represented by someone who may not care if the pressure kills her in the end. A prosecutor wants Allison convicted and put on death row. An FBI agent believes she can squeeze her into ratting on her family. A daughter and an ex-husband need to save their own skins. And circling them all, a group who would prefer to kill her quietly and anonymously, but who also are not what they seem.

Our first picture of Allison is in the moments after her death. Then the story moves backward in time like the acclaimed film Memento: an hour before, then a day, back and back until we're at the beginning and can see what's really happened - and most shocking, what has not. At every turn, Allison knows what she sees may not be what's real. The only sure thing is her place in a vortex of half-truths, threat, and suspicion. When her nightmare is over, where will she be? In the company of friends - or the company of liars?

Beginning with an epilogue, we are told of Allison Pagone's death. Her story is then told chronologically in reverse, until we're at the beginning 11 years earlier. Then we can see what's really happened--and, most shockingly, what has not happened to this woman accused of murder, who is trapped between a zealous FBI agent and loyalty to her family. Dick Hill and Susie Breck provide the pleasure of what seems a full-cast production, step by step, plot twist by plot turn through the trial and backwards into an underbelly of Medicaid drug scandals and terrorists from the Liberation Front. Hill and Breck lead listeners through a minefield of potential distractions with artistry in a riveting performance. K.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

 

David Ellis's previous novels include In the Company of Liars, Jury of One, Life Sentence, and Line of Vision, for which he won an Edgar Award. An attorney from Chicago, he serves as Counsel to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.