Taylor Smith Liar's Market

Liar's Market

Taylor Smith

Mira, Dec 2003, $23.95, 346 pp.

ISBN: 0778320081

In the summer of 2001 in Hong Kong her darling tosses Victoria Kim Lee from the terrace of their twenty-eighth floor penthouse. Before leaving he kills her maid and the building's doorman too to insure there are no witnesses.

In the spring of 2002 in London, someone assassinates an innocent American student Karen Ann Harmann. The visitor harmed no one, but died in a hail of bullets.

In the summer of 2002, the CIA and the FBI interrogate Carrie McNeil over these two seemingly unrelated incidents and the disappearance of her spouse, Drummond CIA London bureau chief. Photos and other evidence prove Drum had an affair with Lee. Could Karen Ann who looks somewhat like the almost thirty year old Carrie been mistaken for Drum's wife? The CIA believes so and is near panic over what Drum will do next but not as much as they are concerned with how Carrie will react now that she knows he wants her dead.

Though Drum's motives are not revealed until very late, LIAR'S MARKET is a terse political espionage thriller that hooks readers from the moment Lee is tossed off the terrace. The story line never slows down until the final cover-up funeral. Carrie is a fine character who is like a lion protecting her cub at all costs for she now fears her unmasked husband may harm their son though he does not appear to be a murder target of Drum. This is a solid thriller that showcases Taylor Smith's ability to hook her audience from start to finish.

Harriet Klausner