Fic­tion

The Book of Lies

Brad Meltzer
  • Review
By – January 6, 2012
Brad Meltzer is a mas­ter of thrillers, and The Book of Lies does not dis­ap­point. 

His lat­est cre­ation con­jures the age old mur­der of Abel by his broth­er Cain as told in the Bible. While this is con­sid­ered by many to be the world’s most famous mur­der, the Bible is silent as to the weapon Cain used to kill his broth­er. Meltzer clev­er­ly recalls that crime in The Book of Lies, inter­twin­ing it with the 1932 mur­der of Mitchell Siegel (the father of Super­man cre­ator Jer­ry Siegel), and the fic­tion­al shoot­ing of Lloyd Harp­er, the father of the book’s main char­ac­ter, Cal. The same gun was used in both the Siegel mur­der and the Harp­er shooting. 

That said, the real quest in The Book of Lies is to unrav­el the mys­tery of the weapon used to kill Abel, and Cal and Lloyd work at break­neck speed to solve the secret. Not sur­pris­ing­ly, Lloyd is none too coop­er­a­tive with his son, whom he aban­doned years before.

Also seek­ing to solve the mys­tery is Ellis Belas­co, a cru­el vil­lain whose past is linked with Cal’s. 

One note about this book: Keep a pen and paper handy while read­ing. Meltzer intro­duces so many char­ac­ters it can be chal­leng­ing to keep them straight. Oth­er than that, the sur­pris­ing plot twists inter­twined with bits of true his­to­ry (a Meltzer trade­mark) make for a com­pelling read.
Tami Kamin-Mey­er is a licensed attor­ney who would rather write than fight. Her byline has appeared in a vari­ety of pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing Bet­ter Homes and Gar­dens, The Rotar­i­an, Ohio Super Lawyers, Ohio Lawyers Week­ly, Ohio Mag­a­zine, Cleve­land Jew­ish News, the Jew­ish Tele­graph­ic Agency, and www​.chabad​.edu. She is also an award-win­ning Hebrew school educator.

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