First Lie Wins Reese’s Book Club Pick (A Novel)

First Lie Wins is worth the summer reading spot on your nightstand. The plot was well thought out and kept me engaged. Get the book and sit by the pool, you won’t be disappointed.

First Lie Wins was one of my favorite psychological thrillers. The story pace was perfect and moved along just fast enough without compromising the development of the main character. It was hard to put the book down. I would love to see this story made into a movie, but it may be too challenging to follow on the screen with so many subplots and characters.Ashley Elston, keep writing adult mystery thrillers (popular novels now) and Reese, thank you for your book recommendations. I have loved 9/10 novels from your book club and look forward to reading many more.

“First lie wins,” says the narrator of Ashley Elston’s episodic thriller that looks into the grifting life of Evie, as she is first called, who tells us she’s on assignment to go to a small town in Louisiana near the Texas border. Apparently she is supposed to ruin the life of Ryan who, apparently smitten, invites her to move in with him at the house he’s inherited from his grandfather. Can she trust him?Maybe not.Soon enough we find out who she really is, and the rest of the book alternates between the book’s present, and Evie’s narration of the various cases she’s handled (all under different names) for a certain Mr. Smith, who she knows only from written messages and phone calls from a voice-distorting phone. The unifier is that she messed up in her last assignment, and the mysterious “Mr. Smith” is giving her one more chance.But Evie, as you shall see, is not without resources of her own. And when she sees that she is being set up to again fail on this last-chance mission she . . . ah, but that would be telling.The story is narrated in the first person by Evie in sort of a stream of consciousness style, which is not only perfect conceptually for the tale but also allows you to spot clues that Evie, at the time she relates the incidents, does not yet know are clues. (Or does she?) So pay attention. For example, in one instance she completes the assignment, and after she does she unexpectedly learns something else about the case. “Interesting,” she says.Notes and asides. Minor sex. Minimal violence. The book really cries out for a screenplay treatment, and Kristen Stewart should be offered the part of Evie. There’s a scene in the book that’s virtually an homage to Hitchcock. You’ll spot it if you’ve seen “Marnie.”

So good you cannot put this one down! The plot line had so many twists that you couldn’t figure out where it was going! Extremely well written, fast paced. Clean read. No sexual content and not riddled with foul language.

The novel, “First Lie Wins,” by Ashley Elston, published in 2024 comes on like gangbusters as a fast-paced, live-feed action thriller from the very beginning to the grand finale. The main characters go on the non-stop thrill ride of their lives, one lasting a matter of years, instead of a mere 10-15 minutes at the state fair. There must be an easier way for Cinderella to make a decent living. She should have had her head examined for climbing aboard that absurdly treacherous carnival ride in the first place. Her latest prospective employer basically wants her to “Do me a favor, walk a crooked mile and wear a wicked smile,” in the metaphorical and metaphysical sense, if you know what I mean, even if he doesn’t exactly come right out and explicitly say so, or spell it out in terms we can all understand. She has certainly put herself in a perilous bind and has few other options available to her, if any at all, at that particular moment. “Have you ever worked in a soup kitchen before?” someone inquires, interrupting her train of thought. Hence, she is further incentivized to think quickly on her feet, as the sword of Damocles sways menacingly above her, dangling by a single thread, just about ready to drop. When her single golden opportunity has suddenly been squashed and squandered away, if not severely limited and curtailed altogether, a benevolent-appearing benefactor emerges. He comes to her immediate rescue, just in the nick of time, and supports her magnificently throughout the potentially grim proceedings, considering her present predicament. She could have gone directly to jail had she been duly and properly arrested by the first police officers arriving on the scene. Had they not been flummoxed by the damsel in distress routine, and found out what really transpired, the prosecution might have wanted to lock her up and throw away the key then and there. Truthfully, Cinderella’s moral compass may have wavered and temporarily veered way off course, but at least for the time being she isn’t completely bankrupt, destitute and cast out in the streets, without any hope whatsoever for a bright, promising future. To her credit, she does possess the uncanny ability to distinguish right from wrong. She is acutely aware of the vaguely ethical gray areas, it seems, and can react accordingly, but this admirable attribute doesn’t necessarily constitute slowing her down much, or impeding the progress and rapid advancement she makes in her current line of employment. Undoubtedly, her life has taken a dramatic turn for the better, and it appears that she is indeed moving up on the totem pole. Her intention is to propel herself to the top of the organizational charts like a skyrocket, at least until she accelerates into a brick wall or bounces off the Plexi-glass ceiling. Following the unlikelihood that the initial scenario actually plays out, pans out, or fizzles out, the members of an elite surveillance team working discretely in the background have a brief conversation among themselves before continuing to monitor the situation more closely and carefully. They have a big decision to make, work with her or against her. Up to this point, she has generally been unaware of their physical presence and proximity in the vicinity. But this is all about to change. I’m guessing I can dispense with the elaborate diatribe at this point. The above generic synopsis as it stands should suffice sufficiently in whetting readers’ appetites. As you may have already suspected, the novel involves a close-knit group of talented actors with a unique set of specialized skills and character traits. The plot evolves in a boldly dynamic, terrifically suspenseful manner, guaranteed to keep you perched on the edge of your seat throughout the story, wondering what happens next, as they cover a great deal of territory on their quest. Thus, the book represents the category of “most intriguing new fiction” quite well, revealing great imagination on the part of the author.