Books4Tomorrow: REVIEW: "LICENSE TO LIE"

Title: “License to Lie”

Author: Terry Ambrose

Publisher: Dark Oak Mysteries

Publication Date: November 24, 2012

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Reviewed by: Ellen Fritz

Source: Received from author for review

Ellen’s star rating: 5/5

SUMMARY

Never trust a soul—even your own. With Five Million Dollars and their lives on the line, can a determined criminologist and a beautiful con artist learn to trust each other—or themselves? Both are experts in the art of communications. Both are driven by their goals—but they’re on opposite sides of the law. When her father is kidnapped, they join forces—and learn that it’s hard to trust each other—or themselves.

REVIEW

When I end up reading through mealtimes, the book must be very captivating and such was the case with Licence To Lie. When Roxy Tanner and her mother see on tv news how criminologist, Skip Cosgrove, located a missing kid and reunited him with his family, they know that he is the man to help them find their missing father and husband, Richard Tanner. Joining forces, Roxy and Skip enter a nightmarish few days full of danger, suspense, confusion, and above all, riddled with lies. One has to ask whether it is a good idea for a con artist to work with a criminologist who could almost be described as a walking talking lie detector.

This book was a pure pleasure to read and review. The ever present action and suspense kept me turning the pages while the depth of human feeling touched my heart. It is amazing to what lengths people will go to save a loved one, but it is also astounding to what depths people will sink because of greed.

The characters, especially those of the two main characters, are extremely realistic and masterfully crafted. Roxy is the kind of heroine I like; not above making mistakes but still loyal and able to kick butt with the best of them. She has a great deal of inner conflict throughout the story and I thought that Terry Ambrose handled this aspect of her character in a wonderfully sensitive way.

As the chapters are split into Roxy and Skip alternating the point of view, the reader gets a close look at both characters' movements and thoughts. This serves to crank up the suspense even more as a previous chapter often ended in a bit of a cliffhanger. The author has an amusing writing style which, despite the seriousness of the story, kept a smile on my face.

I highly recommend Licence To Lie as a book full of exhilarating action, a lot of depth and an always present tongue in cheek thread of humor. To conclude I'd like to say that it is such a pleasure reading a neatly written, well-edited book by an author who clearly takes the time to research his topic thoroughly. Five Stars and a huge cheer for Licence To Lie and Terry Ambrose.