“She wasn’t used to lying to anyone but herself.”
I have a holiday ritual where I read the Booker Short List between Christmas and New Year’s. Indeed, it is a family tradition. So come January, I often focus on well-reviewed new books that might be a bit lighter but which still have strong, captivating narratives. I don’t want to have to work too hard. I want to think, but not have to puzzle through. Denise Mina’s The Good Liar is a great January book. Mina is a Scottish crime writer who has written dozens of novels. The Good Liar was the first I’ve read of her work. I read it largely while stuck in an airport with a group of students waiting hours for a pilot to show up so we could take off. It kept my mind off the wait and made the time fly.
The novel tells the story of forensic scientist, Professor Claudia Atkins O’Sheil, who is about to give a speech sharing evidence of a wrongful conviction she and her colleagues precipitated. It is not what the audience is expecting. The narrative, which alternates in time to the original events and the current moment, carries the reader along. The characters are richly drawn and each quirky in their own way.
The core of the novel is about moral courage. It is about how easy it is for integrity to erode. It is about how good people get caught up in bad things. It highlights how simple it is, when feeling vulnerable or insecure, to go along with things, convince yourself you are doing the right thing, even though you know they are not true. It is about the cost of doing the right thing. Of late, I often wonder if our individual and collective moral courage is declining across society and, if true, how we might address the fact.
For years at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, Professor Tony Brown, taught a wildly popular class on Moral Courage and Leadership. The idea that acting consistently with your values/principles could come at a personal cost was a novel one for many students. I was always surprised by the extent to which overcoming the fear of repercussions was something students consistently struggled with in his class. Being courageous is far easier without the cost for everyone, including the novel’s protagonist.
No. This book is neither profound nor life-changing. It is a very well-observed, quick, engaging read that reminds us all that living a good life takes courage and practice.