The King of Lies

By: John Hart

Narrated by: David Chandler

Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

John Hart creates a literary thriller that is as suspenseful as it is poignant, a riveting murder mystery layered beneath the southern drawl of a humble North Carolina lawyer. When Work Pickens finds his father murdered, the investigation pushes a repressed family history to the surface and he sees his own carefully constructed facade begin to crack.

Work's troubled sister, her combative girlfriend, his gold digging socialite wife, and an unrequited lifelong love join a cast of small town characters that create no shortage of drama in this extraordinary, fast-paced suspense novel.

Hart's mastery of prose and plot belie his newcomer status as he explores the true heart of a man. An illuminating anatomy of a murder and the ripple effect it produces within a family and a community, The King of Lies is a stunning debut.

©2006 John Hart (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

• Mystery Writers of America 2007 Edgar Nominee, Best First Novel by an American Author

"[A] stunning debut, an exceptionally deep and complex mystery thriller....Few readers will be able to resist." (Publishers Weekly)
"This is a first novel that lunges off the page, just grabs the reader by the throat and won't let go....Hart is a fine stylist, turning phrases with a panache that recalls Raymond Chandler." (Booklist)

Keeps you guessing til the end!

I liked this book better than most Grisham novels and I love Grisham books. All of the key characters have great depth enough to make you hate some and love others. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Hard to Put Down

I don't know exactly what I was expecting. At first I wondered why the main character was refusing to let the reader know the reasons why he felt he had to tell so many lies. Then as I caught on , or thought I did, I wondered how the main character was ever be able to keep from prison. Then just when I thought I knew the guilty party, another character proves to be the guilty one. Very surprising and hard to put down especially near the end.

Style of writing too wordy for me.

Narrator was great as usual.I bought this book because I'm hooked on CJ Box.This will be my last John Hart book.predictable,slow and wordy.

take a drink of water!

Good story. I enjoyed the narator but wanted to hand him a bottle of water, you can hear him swallowing throughout the book. But, that won't keep me from listening to another Jonh Hart thriller :)

Hard to stop listening

I don't know what some people were listening to when they said this book was boring. It was a great listen. There was a lot of action, well developed characters and a number of twists. I found myself listening to this in two days and wanting more. If you want to lose yourself in a good story, this is the book for you.

Good read but...

I enjoyed the storyline. But it would have been better with a different narrator. A southern accent was missing as well as emotion.

Worth buying!

This book ranks in the top three in books I've bought at Audible. I work a 10 hour shift desk job, So I listen to at least three books a month.It held my attention until the very end! I would have giving it five stars except the ending is a bit over the top. Still worth buying and listening to though!

just fair

Good story, but very slow moving. at times I felt like fast forwarding.
worth the daily deal price though.

An absolute must listen

This is one of the best books I've listened to in a long time! The narration is unique but I found actually enhanced the character and made me see him more as real. The story was gripping and I ended up sitting up into the early hours of the morning to finish the book. Outstanding! Loved it!!!!

Impressive, But Too Disturbing for Me

At the risk of sounding like a Philistine or a cultural lightweight, I must tell you that I could not get into this book. It is probably a great book, but it did not suit my mood. It was so dark and disturbing that I just did not want to live in that world for 12+ hours of audio. I had to abandon the book about 1.5 hours into the program. I thought this book would be a Grisham-type southern lawyer mystery with just a bit more depth. But this book was very different. The author probes the depths of disturbed souls, more like Dostoyevsky. It was not what I wanted for light summer reading.

Now I must say that it was very well written. The language of each sentence was exceptional. The author has a way of turning phrases with piercing originality-- the kind of phrases that say so much in so few words-- something like Joseph Conrad does. It is almost worth listening to this book just to hear some of the stunningly poigniant sentences that the author has written.

However, it is a dark world that he writes about and the characters are deeply troubled people. The heaviness of this was exacerbated by the reader's voice and inflection which to me seemed to over-dramatize every sentence. He reads every sentence as if it is the profound last sentence of an epic novel, and this I found to be exhausting.

With all that being said, I will definitely try this author again on his next book which I hope is just a bit lighter and less troubling.