Reviewed by: Sue Eaton
TITLE: Liar City
SERIES: Sugar & Vice #1
AUTHOR: Allie Therin
PUBLISHER: Carina Adores
LENGTH: 397 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 28, 2023
BLURB:
A murder has alt-present-day Seattle on edge, and a pacifist empath must team up with a shadowy government agent – and notorious empath hunter – to find the killer before it’s too late.
It’s the middle of the night when part-time police consultant and full-time empath Reece gets an anonymous call warning him that his detective sister needs his help. At an out-of-the-way Seattle marina, he discovers that three people have been butchered–including the author of the country’s strictest anti-empathy bill, which is just days from being passed into law.
Soon, Reece’s caller arrives: a shadowy government agent known as The Dead Man, who is rumored to deal exclusively in cases involving empathy. He immediately takes over the investigation, locking out both local PD and the FBI, but, strangely, keeps Reece by his side.
As the two track an ever-growing trail of violence and destruction across Seattle, Reece must navigate a scared and angry city, an irritating attraction to his mysterious agent companion, and a rising fear that perhaps empaths like him aren’t all flight and no fight after all…
REVIEW:
What a fantastic book, not what I was expecting when I read the blurb, but it was so great. The world building is phenomenal, and the characters are wonderfully realised. This book keeps you guessing from start to finish, it’s a cross between a thriller and a murder mystery, its gritty and dark but I could not put it down.
Reece is an empath, in a world that hates and fears empaths, he is forced to wear gloves that prevent him touching anyone and faces bigotry and hatred every day. His sister works for the police and he occasionally helps them. The city is at fever pitch and new more draconian laws about the control of empaths are just about to be enacted. He’s getting strange phone calls, from who knows who, strange reactions from his readings and his empathic powers seem to be changing. Who is the Dead Man? Why is he calling the shots and Reece? Everyone knows empaths can’t do violence, can’t even be near violence…… Right……Everyone knows that?
Reece is working with his worst nightmare, the Dead Man, who hunts Empaths, who has enormous power and influence, who picks up the phone and gets whatever he wants. Who is he? What is he? Who is he protecting?
The interactions between the Dead Man and Reece are very interesting from downright hostile to Reece and from Reece being afraid of the Dead Man to working together. You are never sure why the Dead Man wanted to work with Reece, to keep an eye on him, utilise his skills or something more. It was interesting to see the dynamic change, not exactly to friends but definitely thawing and caring about what happens to each other, though that is always with the warning that the Dead Man will do what ever is necessary if Reece crosses the empath line.
There are so many questions in this book, that you do get answers to, but it takes some unravelling. I felt like a detective reading this book, as the beautiful descriptions makes you feel like you are in the heart of the book. I had so many theories and speculations about what was going on. There are so many layers of deception, the different characters who pop up, are they just incidental or are they central to the plot.
I’d hesitate to describe this as an enemy to lovers’ book, as by the end Reece and the Dead Man are barely friends, but I’ve high hopes for book 2 and I can’t wait to see them work together again.
RATING: 
BUY LINK: