Bad Liar by Tami Hoag
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s been quite a few years since I’ve read a Tami Hoag book but I remembered I liked her writing. So for Christmas, her new novel, “Bad Liar”, was among some books on my wish list. I only read books that are set in places I’d like to be. I like books that are set the south, the Pacific Northwest, the mountains, Minnesota ( John Sandford, William Kent Kruger), State Parks (Nevada Barr) and just about anywhere there is a large body of water (ocean is always good—go way back here to John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series). I’ve lived my entire life in the Midwest and nothing much ever exciting happens here (unless you count floods and tornados) and the land is mostly flat save a few of Ozark Mountain regions.

Hoag’s new book is set in southern Louisiana, a place I‘ve always thought to be exotic. Swamps and gators and Cypress trees with their knees rising out theof murky water and who knows what other critters are lurking below. I’ve always wanted to visit the Everglades, (I know that’s not in southern Lousiann but…) and take an air boat ride on the water. It hasn’t happened yet, but hopefully, sometime soon.

I’m no good at describing what a book is about. What I can tell you about this book is that it is about three separate missing persons investigations. I had a difficult time following all the characters; the cops, the missing persons, the parents, the suspects and various other characters. The one big problem I had with this book is the main character, Nick Fourcade and his wife Annoiette “Annie” Broussard. The problem is Nick is the Lieutenant in the Detective Bureau and Annie is his subordinate. After being in law enforcement for almost thirty years, I can’t imagine a scenario where a spouse could be a direct supervisor of his or her spouse, as in this book. Most of the time, if spouses are employed by the same department, the closest they come to working together is being on different squads simultaneously. But hey, who knows what small-town America does.

All in all, it’s a good book. Not one of her greatest I’m sure but worth the read.

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