REVIEW: 'Liar's Candle' by August Thomas

When I first discovered Liar's Candle in a tiny, independent secondhand book shop on Tottenham Court Road, it was chosen for its sleek, mint-condition cover and was one of several books I was mulling over. It stayed in my hand because I had mistakenly read the blurb to be a faction novel on the events surrounding 9/11, and my best friend who was with me at the time was writing about 9/11 literature. What finally captivated me about it was that I had never before heard of the title of the author and I had the least idea about where this story would take me. I will have to use this method of choosing a read again, because it certainly worked. Shiny covers, topically vaguely related to what a friend is doing, and a modern writer. Okay.

Liar's Candle is set in Turkey (not America) at the American Embassy. A bomb goes off. We follow the events leading up to and after this event.

There is not too much that I can say without implicating your enjoyment of the read, because all of it was so unexpected to me. Particularly because I mistakenly only read half of the blurb. Some of the blurb in my copy of the cover is printed scribbled out however, so maybe the half-knowing was intentional.

So, what to tell you then? The story is definitely a modern one, appealing to the age of social media through reference to hashtags. #TheGirlwiththeFlag - a cooperate clunky tag if I ever saw one - is realistically shortened to #FlagGirl. Time in which the events take place is not a major concern of Thomas' however, and the novel decidedly focuses it's examination on the delicate balance between official and human relationships. Thomas does this well, carefully depicting abuse of authority, emotional manipulation and vulnerability without hiccup. The author handles emotionally charged dialogue with discretion, maintaining accessibility in her writing for younger readers, without compromising the strength of violent imagery and political argument.

There are many parties at play in a political novel like this, each with their own motivations to be revealed. In involving so many passionate characters in such a high tension environment, some character development can be forgiven for having been swept under the mat. The involvement of any character in Penny's (the protagonist) family is resolutely wiped out within the first few pages, with her father abroad without a phone, her mother AWOL, and those who cared for her day to day as a child having passed away. Penny's own complexity of character is limited to a need-to-know basis in defence of her innocence and lack of knowledge, despite her actions indicating otherwise. Her foil, an ex navy officer working for the CIA, is likewise detailed.

The novel is a fantastically speedy read, and I personally could not put it down. Having not stayed up after hours (until 01:30 with a 6am start the next day) to a book for months, I suddenly found myself irritated to be living in any world that wasn't as exciting as thrilling as Penny's, suspicious of my colleagues and thinking back to how various of Thomas' characters would handle situations in which I found myself. An absolutely ludicrous mindset to be in, but one I appreciated all the same, as it was one I had not experienced since I very first began reading*.

*or there about.

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