The Good Liar

By: Denise Mina

Narrated by: Lois Chimimba

Brought to by Penguin.

What will it take to tell the truth when your life depends on a lie?

A year ago, a father and his fiancée were brutally stabbed in their opulent London townhouse, sparking the most high-profile murder investigation in recent history. Blood spatter expert Doctor Claudia O’Sheil’s evidence put the killer behind bars – or so everyone believes. Since the trial, Claudia’s learned a horrific truth: her evidence and her testimony were wrong. And someone she knows made sure of it.

Now, as she takes the stage to give a career-defining speech before London’s elite, Claudia faces a devastating choice. Protect her children and her livelihood with her continued complicity or blow the whole conspiracy apart and reveal the truth: not only is the real murderer still out there, they’re in the audience.

As Claudia steps toward the microphone, she revisits that fateful night. What really happened? And what speech will Claudia give?

From The New York Times bestselling and Costa-shortlisted author, Denise Mina, comes a taut, intelligent thriller about power, class, and the lengths we're willing to go for family.

'Denise Mina is crime-writing royalty' IAN RANKIN

© Denise Mina 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critic reviews

[A] compelling and suspenseful study of complicity… a stand-out read

Intelligent as ever, Mina judiciously orchestrates suspense and anatomises issues of class - and even the nature of truth (Financial Times)

The UK's finest living writer of crime ... No one gets under the skin of characters quite the way Mina does. She's sublime, and this book is too (Abir Mukherjee)

A characteristically thoughtful and complex thriller from Mina

Authentic, compelling and written with wit so sharp it’ll cut your fingers. Once again, Denise Mina shows the rest of us how it’s done (Erin Kelly)

A tightly wound thriller and a sharp portrait of the British upper class…Like most of Mina’s protagonists, Claudia is complex and convincing…Money, corporate corruption, personal revenge: Each murder motive is revealed with impeccable timing.

Part of what makes Mina such an interesting writer is that the science is a background to the moral and ethical questions she is posing ... taut ... the topics she chooses are serious and urgent' (Scotsman)

Filled with intelligence, intensity, and empathy, The Good Liar is a taut, propulsive mystery about family, truth, and morality. Denise Mina is such a talent (Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author of The Note)

Denise Mina sets the gold standard in crime fiction that is whip-smart, funny and insightful. This has it all: a cat and mouse game with the highest stakes, diabolically clever forensics, and characters that crackle from the page. Blisteringly good. (Sarah Hilary, author of the Marnie Rome series)

This is Denise Mina at her blazing, blood-splattered best. Protagonist Doctor Claudia is the bee's knees, and you can tell Mina's having a blast in her company. You will too (Lucy Worsley)

Intriguing

Although this book is well written and well paced, I just couldn't get into it. Perhaps it was the narrator's Scottish accent which I found intrusive. I returned it.