|
Reviews
Click
here to read the Chicago Sun-Times interview with David Ellis
A thrilling read from end to the beginning
Review by RON BERNAS
April 3, 2005
Nothing is what it seems in IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS, David Ellis' compelling new novel of intrigue, murder and terrorism. Rarely does an author give readers such a good time trying--futilely--to guess what's about to happen. Or, more to the point, what has already happened.
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
**** out of four stars
By David Ellis
Putnam, 375 pages, $24.95
That's because IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS is told in reverse chronological order. It begins with federal agents storming a research doctor's house to arrest him, the near-simultaneous arrest of a major figure in a Middle East terror organization not unlike Al Qaeda and the apparent suicide of a popular novelist on trial for murder. Each chapter tells what happened just previously until the book ends about five months earlier on the night of the murder of a lobbyist.
The device works so well that after a couple chapters, you don't notice it. Readers will sometimes find themselves flipping back through the book to see if events track, though. They do. And the backward progression seems the only way to tell this particular story.
And what a story it is.
The novelist who commits suicide is Allison Pagone, likely to be convicted of the murder of her lover, Sam Dillon, a partner in a lobbying firm with Allison's ex-husband. But her death isn't all it seems. It was murder, made to look like a suicide. The killer? A Pakistani terrorist who has a plot--or two or three--of his own.
Allison returns to the living a few chapters into the novel and as readers get to know her, they will undoubtedly feel sadness or indignation at the undignified death of such a vibrant character. Allison's brilliance has been dimmed, though, by the stress of the trial. It's become a cause celebre--she's portrayed as a woman scorned, after all, she did just have a fight with the man she's accused of murdering--and the cable news stations follow her everywhere, reporting every tidbit about her.
That gives Ellis a chance to show off some humor. Allison wonders what reporters would say if they followed her into the grocery store: "Yes, Bob, we can now confirm that Allison Pagone has decided to go with the sugarless gum Trident as her breath freshener, baffling experts who had predicted cinnamon Altoids." And the newspaper headline, "Murder suspect: 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!' "
The complex series of events includes bribery at the state senate, the cost of prescription medicine and international terror in addition to the murder. It becomes clear Allison is lying, taking the fall for someone, but who? It could be her daughter, with whom she has a tense relationship, or perhaps it's her ex-husband, for reasons that are revealed subtly. The relationships among Allison and her family are real and honest, raising the plot's stakes.
On her trail--or perhaps not, but on someone's trail--is FBI agent Jane McCoy, a cunning woman who, as is the way with everyone in the novel, plays everything close to the vest.
Ellis, an Edgar award-winning novelist, is bound to find more fans with this thrilling novel that holds your attention from end to beginning. You'll be happy you spent time IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS.
RON BERNAS, a Free Press copy editor, reviews mysteries and thrillers.
Copyright © 2005 Detroit Free Press Inc.
CRIME WATCH
Thriller, mystery writers search for higher mountains to climb
By Dick Adler who reviews mysteries and thrillers for the Tribune
April 3, 2005
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
By David Ellis
Putnam, $24.95
Two crime writers with excellent books set in Chicago on their resumes take big chances in their latest efforts, and both pay off handsomely.
Lawyer David Ellis burst onto the scene with a series of thrillers set in the legal world he obviously knows and savors. His debut, LINE OF VISION, won an Edgar Award for best first novel, and the two books that followed were well-reviewed and widely purchased.
Now, for his fourth effort, Ellis moves away from the familiar world of courtrooms and cop shops and into the dark jungle of terrorism. He also challenges himself and his readers by writing "In the Company of Liars" not only in the present tense but also working backward from the death of his lead character.
Allison Pagone is a writer who apparently takes her own life when her lawyer lover gets her involved in a terrorist plot and she becomes a suspect in his murder. The time device takes a few pages to get comfortable with, but then it becomes an exciting part of the whole illusion: How many chainsaws can Ellis juggle without doing himself and his book some serious damage?
Ellis keeps us in suspense and curious about Pagone, mostly by having us see her involvement in plots and crimes through the eyes of determined FBI agent Jane McCoy. There's also enough high-level corruption to keep a roomful of paranoid investigators busy.
Starred Review from Publisher's Weekly - February 28, 2005
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
David Ellis. Putnam, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-399-15247-4
Edgar-winner Ellis takes some big chances in his fourth book (after 2004's JURY OF ONE), and he pulls them off in grand style. The Chicago trial lawyer branches out from his previous legal thrillers into a minefield of world terrorism and misplaced family loyalties, writing not only in the present tense but working backward from the death of his lead character, author Allison Pagone, who ostensibly kills herself after getting tangled up in a terrorist plot through her lover, a lawyer whom she's suspected of murdering. Despite the inherent difficulties of his time device (each chapter runs forward in normal time), Ellis manages to create a large amount of suspense and curiosity about Pagone, mostly by having us see her involvement in plots and crimes through the eyes of a dedicated, level-headed FBI agent named Jane McCoy. There's enough high-level corruption to keep several investigative agencies busy, and some wonderfully mordant scenes of the underbellies of law and government in action. This is another impressive performance from a writer who expands his ambition and artistry from book to book. Agent, Jeff Gerecke at JCA Literary Agency. 50,000 first printing; BOMC and Mystery Guild alternate selections. (Apr. 7)
Starred Review From Library Journal - March 15, 2004
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
Edgar Award winner Ellis (LINE OF VISION; JURY OF ONE) has put a new twist on thrillers--he's written his latest in reverse chronological order. The story unpeels like an onion, layer by layer, as it moves backward day by day until it reaches the beginning, which is the end of the book. The approach feels somewhat gimmicky, but skilled writing and a tricky storyline make it work, even if it is slowgoing. Allison Pagone, a best-selling crime novelist, has killed herself-or was it murder? As the story backtracks, Sam Dillon, Allison's paramour and a Washington lobbyist, has been murdered, and Allison is charged with the crime. It seems she may be protecting her ex-husband and/or her daughter, and several government agencies want to know who is involved in possible bribes of key senators, in a cover-up in the pharmaceutical industry, and with mysterious Middle Eastern terrorists. All these threads are neatly woven into this intricate plot, but nothing is as it seems as the roller-coaster ride keeps coiling backwards, finally hurtling to the starting point. Strongly recommended for most suspense fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/04.]
--Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL.
From http://www.mbtb.com/newsletter/mbtb/ (Murder by the Book, Portland newsletter)
JURY OF ONE ($7.99) and IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS (HC, $24.95 coming in April), by David Ellis
Already in the fast lane of legal thrillers, Ellis' work is approaching the coveted "diamond" lane where every novel is a bestseller and every plot a winner. In Jury, an attorney agrees to defend a young man accused of murder, not realizing at the time that he (or his friend) might be a child long lost to her. IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS breaks ground for plotting, in that the first chapter presents the story's conclusion and each succeeding chapter unveils preceding action. It's also beautifully crafted to conceal unexpected clues, thus revising the reader's understanding of "what happened" many times over. Carolyn liked it quite a lot but would still like to confer with Ellis over his final, breathtaking revelation.
From Robert Gray: Publisher's Marketplace
(www.publishersmarketplace.com)
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
by David Ellis
Putnam (April)
Jane McCoy is the first FBI agent through the door of a house, where she encounters Doctor Lomas, a broken man holding a gun to his own temple. This happens on a Saturday in early June and is precisely the sort of confrontation you might expect at the end of a novel. In a sense, that's just what you're getting. More than three hundred pages later, Agent McCoy sits in her car, watching a house where a man has been murdered, a man who is connected to that hapless, desperate doctor with the gun at his head. This happens four months earlier, on a Sunday in early February.
How we get from the future to the past is the key to this deftly constructed and sharply written suspense novel by the author of the Edgar-winning Line of Vision. The plot weaves a pair of topical threads, one having to do with international terrorism and the other with pharmaceutical skullduggery. The characters are never clearly good nor evil; you must read to the end to discover not so much who done it as who didn't do it.
Ellis's strategy has been compared to the film Memento, with its back to the future narrative structure. In fact, when I saw the film I kept noticing the dangling narrative threads and was seldom shocked. The brilliance of Ellis's work here is in the way he peels away the layers of story line again and again to reveal unexpected twists and turns without tipping his hand.
Can you begin a novel with your climax and still have a surprising twist at the end/beginning? Ellis can, and does, in this well-crafted thriller.
Roanoke (Virginia) Times
This article is © 2005--the Times-World Corp.
AN END TO BEGIN WITH
Date: June 26, 2005 Section: BOOKS Page: 6
By Reviewed by Ben Martin
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
By David Ellis. Putnam. 378 pages. $24.95
You could, conceivably, read IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS by beginning with the last chapter; David Ellis' exciting novel, written in what the publisher calls "chronological reverse," begins with what seems to be the end of a suspenseful mystery involving terrorism, murder, government corruption, corporate intrigue and jilted love. But as you read the book's end, or beginning, you'll exhale and discover that the result of this tale told backward is a disturbing, breathtaking lesson about innocence, guilt and trust that is best read by working your way back to the beginning.
Allison Pagone is a public defender turned best-selling novelist who is accused of murdering Sam Dillon, her lover and the head of Dillon & Becker, a lobbying firm. Ram Haroon is a Pakistani university student studying in America, caught up in the capture of Mushin al-Bakhari, the No. 2 aid for the leader of an international terrorist organization, the Liberation Front. Dr. Neil Lomas is a cocaine-and-gambling-addicted doctor working for Flannagan-Maxx, a pharmaceutical firm, on a drug disguised as baby aspirin that slowly kills its victim. Did Allison kill her lover? If not, then why does she so ardently refuse to submit evidence obtained by her biographer and new friend, Larry Evans, that she knows might spare her the executioner's needle? What is the real relationship between the Liberation Front, Flannagan-Maxx and the Dillon & Becker lobbying firm? Is Allison protecting her ex-husband, Mateo, who, as an employee of Dillon, bribed three state legislators on behalf of Flannagan-Maxx? Is Jessica, Allison's daughter and intern at Dillon, involved in Sam's murder?
There are so many twists and turns in this thrilling novel that the reader will be left wondering just who these liars really are. The end, or beginning, will surprise you. You are guaranteed never to jump to conclusions again.
BEN MARTIN is director of the Radio Reading Service at WVTF Pubic Radio.
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Book Review | This mystery begins at the end and ends at the beginning
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
By David Ellis
Putnam. 378 pp. $24.95
Reviewed by Ron Bernas
Nothing is what it seems in IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS, David Ellis' compelling new novel of intrigue, murder and terrorism. Rarely does an author give readers such a good time trying - futilely - to guess what's about to happen. Or, more to the point, what has already happened.
That's because IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS is told in reverse chronological order. It begins with federal agents storming a research doctor's house to arrest him, the near-simultaneous arrest of a major figure in a Middle East terror organization not unlike al-Qaeda, and the apparent suicide of a popular novelist on trial for murder. Each chapter tells what happened just previously until the book ends about five months earlier on the night of the murder of a lobbyist.
The device works so well that after a couple chapters, you don't notice it. Readers will sometimes find themselves flipping back through the book to see if events track, though. They do. And the backward progression seems the only way to tell this particular story.
And what a story it is.
The novelist who commits suicide is Allison Pagone, likely to be convicted of the murder of her lover, Sam Dillon, a partner in a lobbying firm with Allison's ex-husband. But her death isn't all it seems. It was murder, made to look like a suicide. The killer? A Pakistani terrorist who has a plot - or two or three - of his own.
Allison returns to the living a few chapters into the novel and as readers get to know her, they will undoubtedly feel sadness or indignation at the undignified death of such a vibrant character. Allison's brilliance has been dimmed, though, by the stress of the trial. It's become a cause célèbre - she's portrayed as a woman scorned, after all, she did just have a fight with the man she's accused of murdering--and the cable news stations follow her everywhere, reporting every tidbit.
That gives Ellis a chance to show off some humor. Allison wonders what reporters would say if they followed her into the grocery store: "Yes, Bob, we can now confirm that Allison Pagone has decided to go with the sugarless gum Trident as her breath freshener, baffling experts who had predicted cinnamon Altoids." And the newspaper headline, "Murder suspect: 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!' "
The complex series of events includes bribery at the state senate, the cost of prescription medicine, and international terror in addition to the murder. It becomes clear Allison is lying, taking the fall for someone, but who? It could be her daughter, with whom she has a tense relationship, or perhaps it's her ex-husband, for reasons that are revealed subtly. The relationships among Allison and her family are real and honest, raising the plot's stakes.
On her trail--or perhaps not, but on someone's trail--is FBI agent Jane McCoy, a cunning woman who, as is the way with everyone in the novel, plays everything close to the vest.
Ellis, an Edgar Award-winning novelist, is bound to find more fans with this thrilling novel that holds your attention from end to beginning. You'll be happy you spent time IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS.
FORT WAYNE JOURNAL GAZETTE
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/editorial/11360324.htm
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
by David Ellis ( Putnam). 384 pages, $24.95.
Edgar-winner Ellis takes some big chances in his fourth book (after 2004’s JURY OF ONE), and he pulls them off in grand style. The Chicago trial lawyer branches out from his previous legal thrillers into a minefield of world terrorism and misplaced family loyalties, writing not only in the present tense but working backward from the death of his lead character. This is another impressive performance from a writer who expands his ambition and artistry from book to book.
The Oklahoman
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
by David Ellis (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $24.95).
In the new Ellis book, the first things you read are the last things that happened. These aren’t flashbacks. The entire story is chronologically reversed with the ending of the book occurring some months earlier than the beginning.
Allison Pagone is a novelist and former public defender. She recently divorced Mat, a lobbyist working with Sam Dillon at the state Capitol. There’s corruption, bribery, murder and even terrorists. So FBI special agents, Jane McCoy and her partner, Owen Harrick, are also involved. To mention any more takes away from the fun of trying to get through the plot complications and do it in reverse.
— John Harrington
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
book rating: 9 stars out of 10
Review by Harriet Klausner: BookCrossing.com
Famous novelist Allison Pagone is on trial for the murder of lobbyist Sam Dillon, but she is not mounting any credible defense. Instead she is more worried about her ex-husband who bribed three state senators to pass a law that would allow the drug Divalpro to be put on the state's prior approved Medicaid drug list. She made a deal with federal agent Kat McCoy that she would allow the state to try her for murder if her ex-husband and daughter gain immunity from prosecution.
Although Allison is protected as part of the deal, a terrorist from the Liberation Front kills her because they believe she knows that a doctor they are working with has developed a medicine that will kill millions. The reason they believe this is because her lover lobbyist Sam Dillon was going before the grand jury. They didn't know he had no idea about a terrorist plot but was going to testify about the bribery involving Allison's husband and daughter. Kat believes that if they capture the head of the Liberation Front Allison wouldn't have died in vain.
This novel is told in reverse chronological order similar to the movie Memento, a writing technique that is brilliantly successful in David Ellis's capable hands. Even though readers know from the very first pages that Allison is murdered that adds suspense and enjoyment to this exciting thriller because although it looks like everyone's motive are clear-cut, as the story progresses readers will see that things are not as they appear. IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS demonstrates that some government operations are ugly and morally wrong regardless of the ends.
Written for www.DorothyL.com and 4MA (For Mystery Addicts)
Recommended -- by Gloria Feit
IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS
By David Ellis
G. P. Putnam's Sons
April 7, 2005; 384 pp.
$24.95 US/$36.00 Can.
ISBN 0-399-15247-4
David Ellis, who won an Edgar for his first book, LINE OF VISION, has an edge-of-your-seat winner in his newest book, IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS.
The daunting concept in this book is that it is written in reverse chronological order, with the ending first, then going back in time, more or less one day earlier with each new chapter. The plot is a bit twisty-as one character says, "What do you get when you cross the murder of a lobbyist with a bribery scandal with a terrorist operation that could kill hundreds of thousands of people?" But all these things do come together, and the revelations as the book 'progresses' [or, rather, goes back in time] are startling, to say the least. Absolutely no one and nothing is as he/she/it appears to be. To quote the author's notes, the story follows a woman caught between a terrorist-hunting FBI agent and loyalty to her own family. Is her death on the novel's first pages murder or suicide-or neither? Among the company she keeps, who is helping her, and who is betraying her?
I read this nearly-400-page book in two sittings, and only time constraints prevented me from finishing it in one. From the first pages I wanted nothing more than to read this through as quickly as I could turn the pages, from beginning to end, or should I say from end to beginning.
•
Read
the article from Publishers Weekly
•
See
why Dave decided to write a book "backwards"
|
