Review - The Good Liar by Denise Mina

The Good Liar

Denise Mina
Penguin, 31 July 2025
Available as: HB, 272pp, audio, e   
Source: Advance e-copy
ISBN(HB): 9781787304284

I'm grateful to the publisher for giving me access to an advance e-copy of The Good Liar to consider for review.

Professor Claudia O’Sheil is about to walk into an auditorium and give a speech that will blow up her life.

or she may not...

The creator of a world-beating algorithm for analysing crime scenes - an algorithm that has convicted countless suspects - Claudia has made her reputation and her fortune based on her work. In line for an MBE, she's head of the company set up to exploit the technique, and is frequently called to give evidence, as an expert witness, about its results. In a world where the crime scene "streamlined report" is the key evidence, her method is fundamental to modern justice. The comfort and safety of her two sons, and her own reputation and living, depend on this - but now she knows that the test is flawed.

And despite her apparently comfortable life, over the past year, Claudia has been through hell. She is estranged from her drug addict sister, Gina.  Her husband is dead, and now others too. Her two sons are growing away from her. And a young man who she considers innocent has gone to prison. 

Claudia's spent that year discovering the truth - many truths - and she hasn't liked what she found.

This book is split between two timelines. At the swish reception where Claudia's supposed to cement her position in moneyed society, we get minute slices of action as she inches towards that final betrayal - and debates with herself whether this is really something she can do. Between these are more substantial portions of narrative, setting out what happened over that awful year and sketching the gilded life that beckons Claudia if only she will shut up and lie with the guilt.

Mina's technique is exquisite, playing on our sympathies from moment to moment. I began, knowing little about the story or the character, thinking, yes, go on, burn it all down - because won't that be fun to see?

Then, as I learned more about Claudia and what she's been through - and the stakes at play - I began to dread that moment and wish she'd just play nice. The harm it would cause. The fall from grace. Those slices of story, working towards the end, stave off the final crisis (and the revelation of what Claudia actually does) but they also give us more story and that story is just so absorbing, a window into a fascinating world - several fascinating worlds - and a network of well-realised, relatable charctars. No, I was now thinking as I read, let's not wreck all this, not yet, but give me more about Gina. About Charlie. About Bernie and Sam. Don't tear it all down yet (or at all?)

Claudia's decision is central here. She's not from money, but has scrabbled her way, by talent and luck (and yes, by charm) into a set of the rich and influential - Cayman Islands lawyers, knights of the realm, the academic elite. It's a two-faced set, where scandal can be overlooked if you are the right sort, went to the right school, have the right money, or the right friends. But Claudia O’Sheil, an orphan from Glasgow who has flattened her accent but still has it tucked away, ready to code-switch out, has none of these things. She's on her own.

At the centre of this book isn't so much a murder mystery - though rest assured there is one here and it's a good one - but an ethical mystery. In a year-long exploration of that wealthy London elite, we see up close - as only an outsider like Claudia can - the profound ugliness of money and social sway. It's a scene she partakes of enthusiastically, Claudia's never had much and so the fear of losing it all now is really sharp for her, even before the spiralling situation reveals threats to those she loves. 

A compelling, heart-in-the-mouth story which left me racing to see what finally happened while dreading what the answer might be.

Strongly recommended.

For more information about The Good Liar, see the publisher's website here.