(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Thanks to the best-selling horror novel her mother wrote forty years ago, 24-year-old Meg Ashley lives the glittery, aimless life of a wealthy debutante.  The abundant royalties pave Meg's way with gold, even if it is blood money, a poor substitute for a childhood filled with loneliness, manipulation, and abandonment.  So bitter is Meg that when she's offered a large sum to write a juicy tell-all book about her mother and Kitten, the cult classic that made Frances Ashley a household name, she agrees.  

To research Kitten, a murder mystery based on a real killing, Meg travels to remote Bonny Island, Georgia.  There, she meets Dorothy Kitchens, the owner of a crumbling hotel, and a woman whose life changed irrevocably when Frances' novel insinuated she was the real-life murderer.  Stalked and exploited by Kittie cultists her whole life, Doro has a unique perspective on Frances Ashley.  As Meg learns more and more about what really happened on Bonny Island all those years ago, she uncovers disturbing secrets about her mother, the real murder, and the islanders who know more than they're saying.  Unable to leave well enough alone, Meg finds herself in a terrifying nightmare that's scarier than anything her mother's ever written.

The Weight of Lies, a tantalizing psychological thriller by Emily Carpenter, is a complex, engrossing tale that kept me deliciously off-kilter.  With an atmospheric setting, intriguing characters, and a plot that twists and turns all over the place, it's a fast-and-furious kind of read.  Although I saw some of the ending coming, I didn't guess it all, which made the story even more satisfying.  I enjoyed this compelling novel; in fact, it's my favorite Emily Carpenter book to date.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other books by Emily Carpenter [Every Single Secret; Burying the Honeysuckle Girls] as well as novels by Ruth Ware, Sharon Bolton, and Carol Goodman)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for strong language, violence, mild sexual content, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I bought an e-copy of The Weight of Lies from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.