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Heaven's a Lie
When a young widow witnesses a fatal car accident outside a Jersey Shore motel, she's suddenly thrust into a nightmare of gang violence, guns, and money that she can't outrun in this action-packed novel by "one of the best writers in crime fiction" (Alison Gaylin).
Joette Harper's life brings new meaning to the phrase "paycheck to paycheck." Struggling to afford her mother's sky-high medical bills
and also keep the lights on in her trailer home, Joette needs a break.
So, when she spies a bag full of money amongst the wreckage of a fiery car accident, she knows she can't just let it be. Inside is a bounty better than she could have dreamed—just shy of $300,000 in neatly stacked hundreds and fifties. Enough to pay off her debts, give her mother the care she deserves, and maybe even help out a few of her friends.
But, of course, the missing briefcase didn't go unnoticed by its original owner, Travis Clay—a ruthless dealer who'll stop at nothing to get back what's his.
Joette is way out of her depth, but can't seem to stop herself from participating in this cat-and-mouse chase. But can she beat Travis at his own game?
Joette Harper's life brings new meaning to the phrase "paycheck to paycheck." Struggling to afford her mother's sky-high medical bills
and also keep the lights on in her trailer home, Joette needs a break.
So, when she spies a bag full of money amongst the wreckage of a fiery car accident, she knows she can't just let it be. Inside is a bounty better than she could have dreamed—just shy of $300,000 in neatly stacked hundreds and fifties. Enough to pay off her debts, give her mother the care she deserves, and maybe even help out a few of her friends.
But, of course, the missing briefcase didn't go unnoticed by its original owner, Travis Clay—a ruthless dealer who'll stop at nothing to get back what's his.
Joette is way out of her depth, but can't seem to stop herself from participating in this cat-and-mouse chase. But can she beat Travis at his own game?
272 pages, Hardcover
First published April 6, 2021
36 people are currently reading
1000 people want to read
About the author
Wallace Stroby
19 books108 followersWallace Stroby is an award-winning journalist and the author of the novels
Cold Shot to the Heart, Gone 'Til November, The Heartbreak Lounge and The Barbed-Wire Kiss..
A Long Branch, N.J., native, he's a lifelong resident of the Jersey Shore. "The Barbed-Wire Kiss," which The Washington Post called "a scorching first novel ...full of attention to character and memory and, even more, to the neighborhoods of New Jersey," was a finalist for the 2004 Barry Award for Best First Novel.
A graduate of Rutgers University, Stroby was an editor at the Star-Ledger of Newark, Tony Soprano's hometown newspaper, for 13 years.
Cold Shot to the Heart, Gone 'Til November, The Heartbreak Lounge and The Barbed-Wire Kiss..
A Long Branch, N.J., native, he's a lifelong resident of the Jersey Shore. "The Barbed-Wire Kiss," which The Washington Post called "a scorching first novel ...full of attention to character and memory and, even more, to the neighborhoods of New Jersey," was a finalist for the 2004 Barry Award for Best First Novel.
A graduate of Rutgers University, Stroby was an editor at the Star-Ledger of Newark, Tony Soprano's hometown newspaper, for 13 years.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
July 1, 2021
For me this book has it all, it clicks all the boxes. Full discloser though, Stroby is one of my go-to authors. The story is told in two points of view, a strong female protagonist and the vile criminal in pursuit of her. The voice and tone remind me a great deal of a cross between Elmore Leonard and Richard Stark, which you cannot be in better company for this genre. The points of view are in present tense which give a sense of immediacy and credibility. It’s a quick read and I wished it had been longer. The story is told in action and dialogue (instead of a “telling” narrative) that also makes for a faster story. Even so, both main characters are real and three dimensional. I read extensively in this genre and am familiar with the tricks of the trade and still the author pulled some stuns out of his bag of tricks that caught me looking. There are two story lines as not to let the main story line suffer plot fatigue. One is the pursuit and the other is the antagonist’s criminal enterprise slowly swirling down the drain. Great book, easily a five star for me.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.
April 16, 2021
Wallace Stroby has demonstrated repeatedly that he knows his way around a thriller and I'm a huge fan of his series featuring Crissa Stone, a tough-as-nails female outlaw. His new stand-alone, Heaven's a Lie also features a very well-written female protagonist, but in this case, she starts out on the right side of the law, even though she's not going to remain there for very long.
The character is Joetta Harper a young woman whose life has been spiraling down hill ever since her husband died. Sick with grief, she also has to contend with the fact that her mother is in critical condition in a nursing home and her care is very expensive. Joetta is minimally employed in a run-down motel near the Jersey shore; she's strapped financially and living in dilapidated mobile home. Her prospects are not looking good.
Then one afternoon while Joetta is working at the desk in the motel, she looks up to see a speeding BMW smash into a bridge abutment across the highway from the motel. In a gripping opening scene, she instinctively runs across the road in an effort to assist the driver who is obviously badly injured. A fuel line bursts and the car catches fire, but Joette manages to drag the man out of the car to safety, even though he's not going to last very long.
Looking up from the man, Joette sees a hundred-dollar bill floating through the air. Running back to the burning car, she sees a bag in the open trunk with stacks of hundreds spilling out of it. She scoops the money back into the bag, hauls it out of the trunk, and barely makes it back across the street before the Beemer explodes in flames.
Now what?
Of course she should just turn the money over to the cops once they arrive on the scene. But if she did, there'd be no story. The innocent, law-abiding person who stumbles across a bunch of apparently untraceable cash and then foolishly decides to keep it, is a staple of crime fiction. But in Stroby's hands, the conceit seems remarkably fresh. From the opening page, Joette is a very sympathetic character and the reader can readily understand why, with only a split second to choose, she makes the decision to keep the money.
Inevitably, of course, the money is dirty and it belongs to a very bad man named Travis Clay. Not surprisingly, he wants it back, and it doesn't take him long to realize who has it. His discovery initiates a brutal and complicated pas de deux with Joette who may well regret ever looking up from her work to see that BMW collide with the bridge.
Heaven's a Lie explodes out of the gate and doesn't let up until the last paragraph. Even though in some ways this is an old familiar story, it contains more than its share of surprising twists and turns and it kept me turning the pages as quickly as I could. I live in hope that Stroby will yet provide us with another Crissa Stone novel, but in the interim, this is a damned good substitute.
The character is Joetta Harper a young woman whose life has been spiraling down hill ever since her husband died. Sick with grief, she also has to contend with the fact that her mother is in critical condition in a nursing home and her care is very expensive. Joetta is minimally employed in a run-down motel near the Jersey shore; she's strapped financially and living in dilapidated mobile home. Her prospects are not looking good.
Then one afternoon while Joetta is working at the desk in the motel, she looks up to see a speeding BMW smash into a bridge abutment across the highway from the motel. In a gripping opening scene, she instinctively runs across the road in an effort to assist the driver who is obviously badly injured. A fuel line bursts and the car catches fire, but Joette manages to drag the man out of the car to safety, even though he's not going to last very long.
Looking up from the man, Joette sees a hundred-dollar bill floating through the air. Running back to the burning car, she sees a bag in the open trunk with stacks of hundreds spilling out of it. She scoops the money back into the bag, hauls it out of the trunk, and barely makes it back across the street before the Beemer explodes in flames.
Now what?
Of course she should just turn the money over to the cops once they arrive on the scene. But if she did, there'd be no story. The innocent, law-abiding person who stumbles across a bunch of apparently untraceable cash and then foolishly decides to keep it, is a staple of crime fiction. But in Stroby's hands, the conceit seems remarkably fresh. From the opening page, Joette is a very sympathetic character and the reader can readily understand why, with only a split second to choose, she makes the decision to keep the money.
Inevitably, of course, the money is dirty and it belongs to a very bad man named Travis Clay. Not surprisingly, he wants it back, and it doesn't take him long to realize who has it. His discovery initiates a brutal and complicated pas de deux with Joette who may well regret ever looking up from her work to see that BMW collide with the bridge.
Heaven's a Lie explodes out of the gate and doesn't let up until the last paragraph. Even though in some ways this is an old familiar story, it contains more than its share of surprising twists and turns and it kept me turning the pages as quickly as I could. I live in hope that Stroby will yet provide us with another Crissa Stone novel, but in the interim, this is a damned good substitute.
April 28, 2021
Crime fiction fans know this rule well: If you come across a bag of money, don’t take it.
Fortunately for us, Joette Harper is apparently unfamiliar with stories like No Country For Old Men and A Simple Plan. Otherwise she would have known better, and we wouldn’t have this great book to read.
Joette has been riding an epic streak of bad luck. Her husband died, she lost her job at a bank when it got bought out, and her mother is fading fast in a nursing home. With a mountain of medical bills to pay, she’s lost her house, and the only job she can find near her mother is as a desk clerk at a crappy motel. While working one night she witnesses a car accident and while futilely trying to save the driver’s life she finds a bag with almost $300,000 in the flaming wreckage. Acting on impulse, Joette takes the bag and hides it from the police, but she doesn’t realize that it’s drug money stolen from a very dangerous man named Travis Clay.
Once he’s established the set-up, author Wallace Stroby then takes us through a story that is familiar, but he manages to subvert expectations at several points. It’s mainly the character work that sets this one apart, and with Joette in the lead we’ve got a smart woman who is the kind of person who would risk her own life to attempt to save a stranger from a burning car, but her circumstances have made her desperate enough to take the cash. This isn’t a greedy person, she’s just someone who really needs this money, and that makes you sympathize with her from the jump. She’s also smarter than a lot of the characters we get in these situations as she immediately stashes the cash in secure locations and does a good job of covering her tracks.
The antagonist Travis Clay could have been a cliché or an Anton Chigurh rip-off as a violent man seeking his money, but while he fits that profile in some ways, there’s again a sly nudging of things off the typical beats. Usually there’s a kind of pragmatic ruthlessness to characters like these, but Clay gets obsessed with the idea of recovering the money which leads him down increasingly bloody avenues that start to cut off his options even as he is pressuring Joette.
It all works so that even as the book builds tension and seems headed towards a predictable outcome, you start to realize that things aren’t going to work for anybody like they planned.
Wallace Stroby is a writer I like a lot, and oneI think should be getting a lot more attention. His Chrissa Stone novels starting with Cold Shot to the Heart was one of the better series about a professional thief you’ll find this side of a Richard Stark novel, and his last book Some Die Nameless was a great thriller as well. This is just the latest example of why crime fiction fans should be reading him.
Fortunately for us, Joette Harper is apparently unfamiliar with stories like No Country For Old Men and A Simple Plan. Otherwise she would have known better, and we wouldn’t have this great book to read.
Joette has been riding an epic streak of bad luck. Her husband died, she lost her job at a bank when it got bought out, and her mother is fading fast in a nursing home. With a mountain of medical bills to pay, she’s lost her house, and the only job she can find near her mother is as a desk clerk at a crappy motel. While working one night she witnesses a car accident and while futilely trying to save the driver’s life she finds a bag with almost $300,000 in the flaming wreckage. Acting on impulse, Joette takes the bag and hides it from the police, but she doesn’t realize that it’s drug money stolen from a very dangerous man named Travis Clay.
Once he’s established the set-up, author Wallace Stroby then takes us through a story that is familiar, but he manages to subvert expectations at several points. It’s mainly the character work that sets this one apart, and with Joette in the lead we’ve got a smart woman who is the kind of person who would risk her own life to attempt to save a stranger from a burning car, but her circumstances have made her desperate enough to take the cash. This isn’t a greedy person, she’s just someone who really needs this money, and that makes you sympathize with her from the jump. She’s also smarter than a lot of the characters we get in these situations as she immediately stashes the cash in secure locations and does a good job of covering her tracks.
The antagonist Travis Clay could have been a cliché or an Anton Chigurh rip-off as a violent man seeking his money, but while he fits that profile in some ways, there’s again a sly nudging of things off the typical beats. Usually there’s a kind of pragmatic ruthlessness to characters like these, but Clay gets obsessed with the idea of recovering the money which leads him down increasingly bloody avenues that start to cut off his options even as he is pressuring Joette.
It all works so that even as the book builds tension and seems headed towards a predictable outcome, you start to realize that things aren’t going to work for anybody like they planned.
Wallace Stroby is a writer I like a lot, and oneI think should be getting a lot more attention. His Chrissa Stone novels starting with Cold Shot to the Heart was one of the better series about a professional thief you’ll find this side of a Richard Stark novel, and his last book Some Die Nameless was a great thriller as well. This is just the latest example of why crime fiction fans should be reading him.
July 12, 2024
4.5 stars
short review for busy readers: excellent, fast paced action thriller about a down-on-her-luck motel receptionist who just happens to get her hands on a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Too bad it belongs to a sociopath drug dealer who wants it back!
in detail:
Wallace Stroby is one of those male writers who can really write female characters, and it would seem he prefers to write women facing…and conquering!...male-created danger and destruction, as he proved in the Crissa Stone series.
What makes his female characters so interesting, so realistic, is that they don’t take crap from anyone, but are not bitches nor bad asses, either. They have a moral sense, even if it’s a unique one, and they follow it to the letter.
Joette Harper is a widow up to her eyeballs in paperwork and the crushing costs surrounding the care of her dying elderly mother.
When she witnesses a dramatic car wreck right out outside the motel where she works the night shift…dead driver, car about to blow up and a bag with cash inside…well, it might not be the smartest decision, but who is going to know?
She thought she’d be able to dupe the cops, but she didn’t count on Travis, a ruthless killer, coming after her claiming the money’s his and she’s got all of five seconds to give it back.
With its lean writing, ticking clock and a non-stop sense that Travis just might succeed in killing Joette if she can't outwit him, “Heaven’s A Lie” makes for a wonderful adrenaline rush of a thriller.
Joette isn’t perfect, she’s not a genius, but her native wit and determination make her more than a match for the man hunting her.
Another great Stroby, whose work I’d highly recommend to thriller readers looking for well-crafted novels featuring female protags you just have to admire.
short review for busy readers: excellent, fast paced action thriller about a down-on-her-luck motel receptionist who just happens to get her hands on a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Too bad it belongs to a sociopath drug dealer who wants it back!
in detail:
Wallace Stroby is one of those male writers who can really write female characters, and it would seem he prefers to write women facing…and conquering!...male-created danger and destruction, as he proved in the Crissa Stone series.
What makes his female characters so interesting, so realistic, is that they don’t take crap from anyone, but are not bitches nor bad asses, either. They have a moral sense, even if it’s a unique one, and they follow it to the letter.
Joette Harper is a widow up to her eyeballs in paperwork and the crushing costs surrounding the care of her dying elderly mother.
When she witnesses a dramatic car wreck right out outside the motel where she works the night shift…dead driver, car about to blow up and a bag with cash inside…well, it might not be the smartest decision, but who is going to know?
She thought she’d be able to dupe the cops, but she didn’t count on Travis, a ruthless killer, coming after her claiming the money’s his and she’s got all of five seconds to give it back.
With its lean writing, ticking clock and a non-stop sense that Travis just might succeed in killing Joette if she can't outwit him, “Heaven’s A Lie” makes for a wonderful adrenaline rush of a thriller.
Joette isn’t perfect, she’s not a genius, but her native wit and determination make her more than a match for the man hunting her.
Another great Stroby, whose work I’d highly recommend to thriller readers looking for well-crafted novels featuring female protags you just have to admire.
September 19, 2021
It cannot be stressed enough that if one should say, happen to witness a car accident and find a bag full of cash after the driver dies, it is a very poor choice to keep this cash no matter what your personal financial woes entail! Alas, Joette Harper hasn't read this story as many times as I have, so some bloody shenanigans ensue once drug dealer Travis Clay finds out who's gotten hold of the sack of money that's supposed to be his. If you've read any Found Money is Dangerous books, you know pretty much what's going to happen here; Stroby lets Joette make some confusing, contradictory decisions and gives Travis an almost absurdly high body count, and I'm left shaking my head and channeling Marge Gunderson: "And for what? For a little bit of money."
January 27, 2022
[7/10]
Everybody’s got their hand out, he thinks. Cops, too. Risk everything – their careers, their freedom – for some extra cash, and the feeling they’re getting over on the world.
Joette Harper is not a member of this underworld of crooks and robbers with an eye for a quick buck, by whatever means available: drugs or prostitution or extortion. She is a good girl, who has done everything in life she was supposed to – study, work hard, take care of her parents and of her family – and still ended up living paycheck to paycheck in a trailer park, doing a thankless job as receptionist at a decrepit motel in Jersey Shore.
So when a big bag of money literally drops into her lap as she tries to help a stranger out of a burning car, Joelle is tempted. She feels she is about due some lucky break, after so much struggle for nothing. Problem is, the money belongs to one of the crime gangs in town, payment for a drug delivery gone wrong. And the owner, a psychopath named Travis Clay, will do anything to recover the money and to teach a lesson to those who dared to double-cross him.
You’ve done everything you needed to, everything you should have. Made every decision, paid every bill. You’ve been a good daughter. The best.
Joette finds herself forced to take part in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a ruthless predator, but she too is fed up with being a victim of the system. The body count rises up faster than a Rambo movie in this well-written, if predictable action thriller.
>>><<<
This was my first novel by Wallace Stroby, whose name kept popping up in my Goodreads feed, with generally good reviews. He’s definitely in control of the plot, and can write very good action scenes, but there’s a sense of deja-vu in the story itself. Closest comparison is with ‘No Country For Old Men’ : same basic plot, same type of characters, same exaggerated use of graphic violence. I haven’t read any Cormac McCarthy yet, only watched the movie version, so I can’t really compare the literary styles of said authors.
I can only describe my own less than stellar impression of B-movie material, with a well drawn main character in Joette and a slightly over-the-top bad guy in Travis. The lack of originality is compensated somewhat by the cinematic, dynamic plot, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a classic in the making for the noir genre.
Everybody’s got their hand out, he thinks. Cops, too. Risk everything – their careers, their freedom – for some extra cash, and the feeling they’re getting over on the world.
Joette Harper is not a member of this underworld of crooks and robbers with an eye for a quick buck, by whatever means available: drugs or prostitution or extortion. She is a good girl, who has done everything in life she was supposed to – study, work hard, take care of her parents and of her family – and still ended up living paycheck to paycheck in a trailer park, doing a thankless job as receptionist at a decrepit motel in Jersey Shore.
So when a big bag of money literally drops into her lap as she tries to help a stranger out of a burning car, Joelle is tempted. She feels she is about due some lucky break, after so much struggle for nothing. Problem is, the money belongs to one of the crime gangs in town, payment for a drug delivery gone wrong. And the owner, a psychopath named Travis Clay, will do anything to recover the money and to teach a lesson to those who dared to double-cross him.
You’ve done everything you needed to, everything you should have. Made every decision, paid every bill. You’ve been a good daughter. The best.
Joette finds herself forced to take part in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a ruthless predator, but she too is fed up with being a victim of the system. The body count rises up faster than a Rambo movie in this well-written, if predictable action thriller.
>>><<<
This was my first novel by Wallace Stroby, whose name kept popping up in my Goodreads feed, with generally good reviews. He’s definitely in control of the plot, and can write very good action scenes, but there’s a sense of deja-vu in the story itself. Closest comparison is with ‘No Country For Old Men’ : same basic plot, same type of characters, same exaggerated use of graphic violence. I haven’t read any Cormac McCarthy yet, only watched the movie version, so I can’t really compare the literary styles of said authors.
I can only describe my own less than stellar impression of B-movie material, with a well drawn main character in Joette and a slightly over-the-top bad guy in Travis. The lack of originality is compensated somewhat by the cinematic, dynamic plot, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a classic in the making for the noir genre.
April 7, 2021
The "ordinary struggling person who stumbles across a big bag of money" is one of crime fiction's moldiest tropes, and that's the central conceit of Wallace Stroby's newest thriller, HEAVEN'S A LIE. That's the bad news; the good news is that you read Stroby, or at least you should, for reasons other than the originality of his premises and plots. You read Stroby because his books have that magical property I call glide: an ability to build and sustain a darkly delicious tone that makes the pages turn as much as his watertight prose. Those powers are fully intact in HEAVEN'S A LIE.
That said, the plot does strain one's suspension of disbelief at times. I can believe that Joette Harper, down-on-her luck widow and clerk at a rundown New Jersey motel, could spot a bag full of money and instant before the car that contains it bursts into flames after its driver drove it into a bridge abutment in front of her motel. I can believe it because I want to believe it. I also want her to get away from Travis Clay, the vicious thug who's looking for it and quickly eliminates every other link in the bag's chain of custody before zeroing in on Joette. He's a brute, she's a willow, and I can believe that he'd underestimate her. Once.
But he does so again and again, despite the fact that he comes to know better, and I found that harder to swallow. But swallow I did because Stroby is so good with sustaining a noir tone and not wasting a syllable along the way that the pleasure of reading about Joette's improbable journey surpassed the journey itself. I rolled my eyes a lot and was throroughly enraptured as I did so, and was pleasantly surprised to find that these things can coexist.
(I'm docking this book one star not so much for any of the above as for deploying the OTHER moldiest cliché in crime fiction, the convenient shoulder wound that hardly slows up the victim of the wound. How is it that guys in these books get shot on that spot on the body so often, and it's never the nipple or the kneecap or the perineum? And why do the guys in these books never suffer lasting damage or lingering, incapacitating pain ... as they would in real life? I can't suspend my disbelief for this, and I imagine other readers of crime fiction are losing this ability as well the more they come across it. At this point, it's a hack move, and shows an unforgivable paucity of imagination.)
But the bottom line is the glide and the tone. Wallace Stroby has got both in apocalyptic abundance, and that's not something too many authors in his genre can say, and as a result I'm forever on board with any Wallace Stroby thriller regardless of the story.
That said, the plot does strain one's suspension of disbelief at times. I can believe that Joette Harper, down-on-her luck widow and clerk at a rundown New Jersey motel, could spot a bag full of money and instant before the car that contains it bursts into flames after its driver drove it into a bridge abutment in front of her motel. I can believe it because I want to believe it. I also want her to get away from Travis Clay, the vicious thug who's looking for it and quickly eliminates every other link in the bag's chain of custody before zeroing in on Joette. He's a brute, she's a willow, and I can believe that he'd underestimate her. Once.
But he does so again and again, despite the fact that he comes to know better, and I found that harder to swallow. But swallow I did because Stroby is so good with sustaining a noir tone and not wasting a syllable along the way that the pleasure of reading about Joette's improbable journey surpassed the journey itself. I rolled my eyes a lot and was throroughly enraptured as I did so, and was pleasantly surprised to find that these things can coexist.
(I'm docking this book one star not so much for any of the above as for deploying the OTHER moldiest cliché in crime fiction, the convenient shoulder wound that hardly slows up the victim of the wound. How is it that guys in these books get shot on that spot on the body so often, and it's never the nipple or the kneecap or the perineum? And why do the guys in these books never suffer lasting damage or lingering, incapacitating pain ... as they would in real life? I can't suspend my disbelief for this, and I imagine other readers of crime fiction are losing this ability as well the more they come across it. At this point, it's a hack move, and shows an unforgivable paucity of imagination.)
But the bottom line is the glide and the tone. Wallace Stroby has got both in apocalyptic abundance, and that's not something too many authors in his genre can say, and as a result I'm forever on board with any Wallace Stroby thriller regardless of the story.
February 18, 2022
5 Stars
April 16, 2021
Lean n’ mean contemporary crime thriller that knows exactly what it’s doing. Breathless pace, great relationship between our “heroine” and the villain, believable dialogue, and the prose, in the present tense, is so fresh and vital everything seems to be happening now now now right in front of you. Hold on tight!
Also, as a fellow New Jerseyan, I appreciated Stroby’s strong sense of place. His background as a NJ newspaperman really grounds the action and characters.
Also, as a fellow New Jerseyan, I appreciated Stroby’s strong sense of place. His background as a NJ newspaperman really grounds the action and characters.
June 17, 2022
A heart-pounding, propulsive noir, featuring a cat-and-mouse hunt between a very bad Bad Guy and an ordinary young woman who turns out to be surprisingly resourceful.
Life hasn’t been particularly kind to Joette Harper. She lost her husband to cancer at the heartbreakingly young age of 35, and now, after a stroke, her beloved mother lies in a near-vegetative state in the nursing home Joette knows she’s not going to be able to afford much longer. But she stoically soldiers on, one day after the next, working the front desk of a cruddy motel on the outskirts of town. Then one day, she watches as a speeding car misses the curve in front of the motel and slams into a bridge abutment. She races to the car and drags the barely conscious driver from the now-burning vehicle (unthinkingly brave) and spots a half-burned hundred dollar bill floating on the air. Again unthinking, instinctively, at great personal risk, she races back to the about-to-explode car and finds a duffle bag full of money, which she grabs and hides. This all happens in Chapter One.
Let’s pause for a moment here and ask a crucial question: Has Joette missed every movie ever made and every book ever written about some person stumbling across a big cache of suspicious money they decide to keep for themselves? Clearly, absolutely no good can come of this, as the villains will be right along and wreak holy hell with your life. Guess not…
Anyway, once the emergency vehicles arrive, it turns out the driver had been gutshot and dies, so Joette is now the only one who knows about the money. She retrieves the duffle and counts, and is gobsmacked to discover she’s in possession of $300,000. A big chunk of change for someone living in a trailer, working at the motel after being downsized from a decent bank job, with nothing but a GED and two years of community college. She’s smart and careful with the money, opening accounts at several banks in surrounding towns and stashing most of the money in safe deposit boxes, but alas, it does her no good. Travis, the frightening and completely amoral man who’d been double-crossed out of the money, tracks her down, and he wants that money back.
The narrative unreels in bursts of short, dynamic chapters, driving the action forward virtually without pause, except for a few tender moments with the people Joette cares about. She is the most compelling heroine I’ve encountered in a long time, so smart and brave and determined and big-hearted. Whew. This one was hard to put down.
Life hasn’t been particularly kind to Joette Harper. She lost her husband to cancer at the heartbreakingly young age of 35, and now, after a stroke, her beloved mother lies in a near-vegetative state in the nursing home Joette knows she’s not going to be able to afford much longer. But she stoically soldiers on, one day after the next, working the front desk of a cruddy motel on the outskirts of town. Then one day, she watches as a speeding car misses the curve in front of the motel and slams into a bridge abutment. She races to the car and drags the barely conscious driver from the now-burning vehicle (unthinkingly brave) and spots a half-burned hundred dollar bill floating on the air. Again unthinking, instinctively, at great personal risk, she races back to the about-to-explode car and finds a duffle bag full of money, which she grabs and hides. This all happens in Chapter One.
Let’s pause for a moment here and ask a crucial question: Has Joette missed every movie ever made and every book ever written about some person stumbling across a big cache of suspicious money they decide to keep for themselves? Clearly, absolutely no good can come of this, as the villains will be right along and wreak holy hell with your life. Guess not…
Anyway, once the emergency vehicles arrive, it turns out the driver had been gutshot and dies, so Joette is now the only one who knows about the money. She retrieves the duffle and counts, and is gobsmacked to discover she’s in possession of $300,000. A big chunk of change for someone living in a trailer, working at the motel after being downsized from a decent bank job, with nothing but a GED and two years of community college. She’s smart and careful with the money, opening accounts at several banks in surrounding towns and stashing most of the money in safe deposit boxes, but alas, it does her no good. Travis, the frightening and completely amoral man who’d been double-crossed out of the money, tracks her down, and he wants that money back.
The narrative unreels in bursts of short, dynamic chapters, driving the action forward virtually without pause, except for a few tender moments with the people Joette cares about. She is the most compelling heroine I’ve encountered in a long time, so smart and brave and determined and big-hearted. Whew. This one was hard to put down.
April 7, 2021
I was surprised that Wallace Stroby chose the shopworn I-found-a-bagful-of-money plot as the basis for this book, but he breathes some new life into the concept with his fast paced storytelling and sharp characters. The author clearly enjoys writing about tough, resourceful women (as in his Crissa Stone series) and Joette, the middle aged, down on her luck protagonist is appealing as she confronts repeated challenges from the bad guys. Enjoyed the read.
July 18, 2021
Professional smooth consistently in the "now" prose flow. Best I have come across in some time by a new author to me. And he has written numerous books. Looking forward to reading half a dozen in time.
This one has two characterizations done as well as any in such a fast paced and tension filled novel. It's body count is high. But Joette and Travis are key at all points. And do you know it.
This premise has been used in some works and especially films of the past. It was done splendidly here. "Found" money. Lots of it.
This is only for the noir or grit reader, it's the opposite of cozy anything. Putting Joette at 40 too, that was perfect. That's just about the time that if you have lost big, you don't want to lose again. And she also made the mistakes that are base real.
Until the very end, I was dubious about the outcome. Had an inkling about Cosmo and other aspects, but with such high tension? Anything could go. And most did.
This is the closest I've read that comes to the actual drug business gang banger world of urban reality. Bystanders to sellers to providers- it's all a crap shoot. And guns in every form and type are NOT imported from "out of state" or as idiots imagine that gun control laws can control. They are traded, robbed, made etc. And everywhere. If they dragged parts of Lake Michigan they would find 20 pieces per bottom acre.
Fabulous story teller. Truly innocent by-standers get it all the time. Especially store clerks, hotel clerks, service people. True too.
This one has two characterizations done as well as any in such a fast paced and tension filled novel. It's body count is high. But Joette and Travis are key at all points. And do you know it.
This premise has been used in some works and especially films of the past. It was done splendidly here. "Found" money. Lots of it.
This is only for the noir or grit reader, it's the opposite of cozy anything. Putting Joette at 40 too, that was perfect. That's just about the time that if you have lost big, you don't want to lose again. And she also made the mistakes that are base real.
Until the very end, I was dubious about the outcome. Had an inkling about Cosmo and other aspects, but with such high tension? Anything could go. And most did.
This is the closest I've read that comes to the actual drug business gang banger world of urban reality. Bystanders to sellers to providers- it's all a crap shoot. And guns in every form and type are NOT imported from "out of state" or as idiots imagine that gun control laws can control. They are traded, robbed, made etc. And everywhere. If they dragged parts of Lake Michigan they would find 20 pieces per bottom acre.
Fabulous story teller. Truly innocent by-standers get it all the time. Especially store clerks, hotel clerks, service people. True too.
June 30, 2021
A 2021 stand alone by author Wallace Stroby is another fine example of NJ noir. Young widow Joette finds a bag of cash in the burning wreckage of a one vehicle car crash. Unfortunately it was drug money and ruthless Travis feels it belongs to him. He rubs Joette the wrong way and she decides not to give it back at first. When she reconsiders, he is not in a forgiving mood and the situation escalates.
June 20, 2021
A blistering ride through Jersey’s underworld. Spare and lean, killer dialogue, characters that pop. One of my favorites reads of ‘21.
August 28, 2021
This book can be read with lightning speed, there is almost no moment when you can stop, put the book down, and get back to everyday things. You can hardly breathe, the events follow each other so fast, it’s full of action scenes, and that makes the story exciting. Stroby’s writing is such that things almost suck in, I also run away from Travis, I also put the bag full of money in the trunk of the car, and I’m worried not to hurt my loved ones.
This was my first book from Wallace Stroby that I read, and now I’m excited to read his other stories.
This was my first book from Wallace Stroby that I read, and now I’m excited to read his other stories.
April 26, 2021
A variation of a familiar story - a woman finds a bag of money, and the person it belongs to wants it back. But this woman, written well as Wallace Stroby usually does, has other ideas, and has had her share of grief and bad luck, and doesn’t want to give it up so easily. A quick read.
July 20, 2021
I'm not the ideal person for these types of books because I'm not a fan of crime noir or whatever this genre is called.
For some reason, I thought this was going to be a mystery.
** Minor spoilers ahead **
Heaven's a Lie is about a young widow struggling to make ends meet at a dead end job.
When she saves the injured driver of a car wreck that occurs right outside the motel she works in, she also sees something intriguing. A bag full of cash.
Her decision to take the money causes her no amount of grief for herself and those she cares about, but she's no ordinary woman.
Apparently, she's the savviest woman ever, and that's why she works at a roach motel.
This was a fast read; there's plenty of action and drama, and plenty of scenes where you are forced to suspend disbelief for.
I found it a tad bit difficult to believe how wily the young widow is, and how downright stupid the drug dealer is.
He makes so many idiot decisions when it comes to her, it's laughable.
I didn't dislike the widow, but I didn't like her much either, mostly because I found her too unrealistic.
Character development is okay, enough to understand the woman's perspective and her motivations to take the money.
I don't like novels about drug dealers, drug trafficking, crime syndicates, and I almost decided not to read this at all but it was so short so I gave it a chance.
The writing is okay, it's not The Odyssey but it's not terrible.
For some reason, I thought this was going to be a mystery.
** Minor spoilers ahead **
Heaven's a Lie is about a young widow struggling to make ends meet at a dead end job.
When she saves the injured driver of a car wreck that occurs right outside the motel she works in, she also sees something intriguing. A bag full of cash.
Her decision to take the money causes her no amount of grief for herself and those she cares about, but she's no ordinary woman.
Apparently, she's the savviest woman ever, and that's why she works at a roach motel.
This was a fast read; there's plenty of action and drama, and plenty of scenes where you are forced to suspend disbelief for.
I found it a tad bit difficult to believe how wily the young widow is, and how downright stupid the drug dealer is.
He makes so many idiot decisions when it comes to her, it's laughable.
I didn't dislike the widow, but I didn't like her much either, mostly because I found her too unrealistic.
Character development is okay, enough to understand the woman's perspective and her motivations to take the money.
I don't like novels about drug dealers, drug trafficking, crime syndicates, and I almost decided not to read this at all but it was so short so I gave it a chance.
The writing is okay, it's not The Odyssey but it's not terrible.
April 11, 2021
Wallace Stroby is a marvel. In just a handful of novels, he has been able to take bleak and world-weary characters who function in the shadows and on the periphery, and make readers care about them and their dark journeys through the criminal underground. HEAVEN’S A LIE is set almost entirely in the environs of central New Jersey and puts a new twist on a familiar theme while exposing us to some of his best writing to date.
The plot is straightforward, and blessedly so. Joette Harper has multiple, fairly commonplace problems, but they are no less grinding upon the soul. She is working in a dead-end job as the day clerk of a roadside motel on its last legs after she was laid off from her bank teller job. Though a young woman, she is widowed after her husband’s battle with cancer. On top of that, her mother suffers from dementia and is in assisted living. Joette herself is living in a trailer park.
Everything changes when Joette witnesses a one-car accident that occurs in front of the motel. She rushes to the automobile to assist the driver and finds that he is suffering from a gunshot wound. He gestures toward his vehicle, where Joette finds a significant amount of cash in a duffel bag --- enough to solve all of her problems and change her life. The driver eventually dies, and she believes it’s a no-brainer to keep her newly found treasure.
There is a problem, though. The money almost certainly did not belong to the driver, and the real owner wants it back. At first he has no idea that Joette even exists, but with a little information here and there, a dab of suspicion, some animal instinct, and a bit of criminal logic, he comes to the correct conclusion. The problem is that Joette regards the cash as hers now, due to both circumstance and need. The guy who is after her is extremely dangerous and will kill without hesitation. Joette isn’t a killer, but she isn’t stupid, either. She is not giving the money back without a fight and should not be underestimated. There is nothing more dangerous than someone on either side of an equation who has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The plot is an interesting one, but Stroby’s primary strength has always been found in his characters, who march through his books and mark themselves in the reader’s memory with their passing. We all know these people --- or at least know of them --- as we encounter them in convenience stores, parking lots, and other random instances where an inner voice tells us that it is best to move on, even if they appear to be otherwise innocuous. Those folks, combined with Stroby’s masterful prose peppered with streetwise turns of phrase, make HEAVEN’S A LIE a must-read novel.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
The plot is straightforward, and blessedly so. Joette Harper has multiple, fairly commonplace problems, but they are no less grinding upon the soul. She is working in a dead-end job as the day clerk of a roadside motel on its last legs after she was laid off from her bank teller job. Though a young woman, she is widowed after her husband’s battle with cancer. On top of that, her mother suffers from dementia and is in assisted living. Joette herself is living in a trailer park.
Everything changes when Joette witnesses a one-car accident that occurs in front of the motel. She rushes to the automobile to assist the driver and finds that he is suffering from a gunshot wound. He gestures toward his vehicle, where Joette finds a significant amount of cash in a duffel bag --- enough to solve all of her problems and change her life. The driver eventually dies, and she believes it’s a no-brainer to keep her newly found treasure.
There is a problem, though. The money almost certainly did not belong to the driver, and the real owner wants it back. At first he has no idea that Joette even exists, but with a little information here and there, a dab of suspicion, some animal instinct, and a bit of criminal logic, he comes to the correct conclusion. The problem is that Joette regards the cash as hers now, due to both circumstance and need. The guy who is after her is extremely dangerous and will kill without hesitation. Joette isn’t a killer, but she isn’t stupid, either. She is not giving the money back without a fight and should not be underestimated. There is nothing more dangerous than someone on either side of an equation who has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The plot is an interesting one, but Stroby’s primary strength has always been found in his characters, who march through his books and mark themselves in the reader’s memory with their passing. We all know these people --- or at least know of them --- as we encounter them in convenience stores, parking lots, and other random instances where an inner voice tells us that it is best to move on, even if they appear to be otherwise innocuous. Those folks, combined with Stroby’s masterful prose peppered with streetwise turns of phrase, make HEAVEN’S A LIE a must-read novel.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
February 13, 2022
Joette Harper's life is a struggle. Her mom is in the hospital on the way to hospice, the love of her life died too young, and she's stuck working at some seedy motel on the Jersey Shore.
Then, one day, a car comes flying around the bend, flipping over and catching fire right in front of the hotel she works at. Joette races to the scene to help and happens upon a duffle bag full of cash.
Living paycheck to paycheck, Joette sees an opportunity to turn her life around. Instead, she might be cutting it short, for that cold hard cash belongs to a man who has no issue with pulling a trigger and making you disappear.
The plot screams Cormac McCarthy.
-Protagonist whose life seems as empty as their bank account? Check!
-Hasty decision to take advantage of an opportunity that's only likelihood is future carnage? Check!
-Antagonist with no moral compass and a high body count? Check!
What I could not get past is how simplistic the writing was. I couldn't empathize with Joette, because her character had as much depth as a dried up creek. Despite the setting of the story and all of the threads Wallace Stroby pulled, it's hard not to read this and think it'd make a great straight DVD starring Nicolas Cage.
Stroby's modern noir setup is enough for me to give him another shot and perhaps pick up his debut novel, "The Barbed-Wire Kiss," which was a finalist for the Barry Award.
If you're tempted to read Heaven's a Lie, do yourself a favor and reread No Country for Old Men, or give any book by the rising S.M. Hulse a shot.
2 out of 5.
Then, one day, a car comes flying around the bend, flipping over and catching fire right in front of the hotel she works at. Joette races to the scene to help and happens upon a duffle bag full of cash.
Living paycheck to paycheck, Joette sees an opportunity to turn her life around. Instead, she might be cutting it short, for that cold hard cash belongs to a man who has no issue with pulling a trigger and making you disappear.
The plot screams Cormac McCarthy.
-Protagonist whose life seems as empty as their bank account? Check!
-Hasty decision to take advantage of an opportunity that's only likelihood is future carnage? Check!
-Antagonist with no moral compass and a high body count? Check!
What I could not get past is how simplistic the writing was. I couldn't empathize with Joette, because her character had as much depth as a dried up creek. Despite the setting of the story and all of the threads Wallace Stroby pulled, it's hard not to read this and think it'd make a great straight DVD starring Nicolas Cage.
Stroby's modern noir setup is enough for me to give him another shot and perhaps pick up his debut novel, "The Barbed-Wire Kiss," which was a finalist for the Barry Award.
If you're tempted to read Heaven's a Lie, do yourself a favor and reread No Country for Old Men, or give any book by the rising S.M. Hulse a shot.
2 out of 5.
July 20, 2021
Writing a story about a citizen who stumbles on a bag of money, decides to keep it, and subsequently has to fight with the 'owners' has become increasingly difficult: so many approaches are already in print. But Wallace Stroby finagles things enough to make his tale original, interesting and compelling. That he writes quite well helps.
I read Mr. Stroby's first novel. It was impressive. Why I waited until now to read another I do not know. I do know he will go on the shortlist of authors to buy in the future.
Recommended.
I read Mr. Stroby's first novel. It was impressive. Why I waited until now to read another I do not know. I do know he will go on the shortlist of authors to buy in the future.
Recommended.
April 21, 2022
Heaven's a Lie is told with a dual POV narrative, one half follows a strong down on her luck protagonist, and the other half follows a criminal overlord that's chasing her. This novel is a quick, action packed read that delves deep into the relationship shared between these two characters. Between its unrelenting pace, brilliant dialogue and action packed scenes, this book turned out to be quite the entertaining read.
Although the plot of this novel is almost entirely a trope that's commonplace in the crime genre, it never once felt boring or overdone. Here, it feels just right, proving that Stroby knows exactly how to write this kind of novel. Despite all the great things about this book, I still settled on a 3-star rating. Now, of course, 3 stars is still a great rating. For me, there just wasn't anything mind-blowing here.
Although the plot of this novel is almost entirely a trope that's commonplace in the crime genre, it never once felt boring or overdone. Here, it feels just right, proving that Stroby knows exactly how to write this kind of novel. Despite all the great things about this book, I still settled on a 3-star rating. Now, of course, 3 stars is still a great rating. For me, there just wasn't anything mind-blowing here.
April 14, 2021
I really love this author and think he’s on the same level as George Pelecanos who is my favorite crime writer. I hope he wouldn’t mind me comparing this book to other stuff but it reminded me of No Country for Old Men mixed with The Wire which is high praise from me. A solid standalone novel and definitely recommended.
September 10, 2024
I liked it
March 5, 2024
Great read. Reminded me of three of my favorite writers: Richard Lange, Raymond Carver and Willy Vlautin.
Stories of marginalized people who are always waiting for their luck to change and the right opportunity to come along, not knowing how things will wind up.
Stories of marginalized people who are always waiting for their luck to change and the right opportunity to come along, not knowing how things will wind up.
September 29, 2021
This sounded like a fun thriller. A young woman working the night shift at a fleabag motel in Jersey is the only witness to a fatal car accident, and makes an impulse decision to steal the $300k she finds in the trunk of the car, then predictably gets caught up in a game of cat and mouse w/ the drug dealer whose money it turns out to be.
The problem is that both of the main characters mentioned above are really dumb. This book is like No Country For Old Men if both Llewelyn Moss and Anton Chgurh had been morons instead of really clever and resourceful. It gets silly fast and never recovers.
The problem is that both of the main characters mentioned above are really dumb. This book is like No Country For Old Men if both Llewelyn Moss and Anton Chgurh had been morons instead of really clever and resourceful. It gets silly fast and never recovers.
March 7, 2021
This review is courtesy of NetGalley.
New Jersey novelist and journalist, Wallace Stroby, is perhaps most well-known for his Crissa Stone series which is presently four books and a short story; plus there are an additional four books to his name. In HEAVEN'S A LIE, Stroby introduces readers to a new female protagonist.
Joette Harper is a down to earth woman making ends meet at the Jersey Shore area working in a crappy motel. She keeps her social circle small: a dying mother in hospice; a cop who is sweet on her; a friendly tennant of the motel and her daughter; and a best friend from an old job where she was downsized.
Stroby keeps his prose lean with the nostalgic meter of gumshoe noir. The first sentence immediately throws Joette and the readers: she's bored at work, watching a car out on the highway take a curve way too fast. She predicts the crash, but not the cause.
The conundrum for Joette is one, I think, most of us that are not financially well off think about. What if…
Money fell from the sky.
I win the lottery -- or --
A car crashes and there's a big bag of dirty drug money which no one can claim just sitting there for the taking.
There were no witnesses, but small time drug dealer Travis Clay figures out what happened to the bag of money which should be in his possession. Stroby alternates his present tense storytelling between Joette and Travis.
The COVID crisis is hinted at in only one line about people worrying if their colds are "the virus" again. It's a small detail that creates a link to the real world even if we'll never have to decide whether or not we would take a bag of money from an accident scene. Similarly, Stroby also wove in real Jersey situations about Superstorm Sandy and how property owners like the motel's owner getting relief funds but didn't use them to repair anything. Readers will get a thorough sense of the economy and how the people are suffering in Stroby's Jersey Shore.
Who among us doesn't know what it's like to have all your options sitting on hold because of the economy? Joette wants to take action in her familial life -- getting her mother's bills at the nursing home paid on top of the bills from her deceased husband's care already piled up and weighing on her.
Halfway through, Joette has to think twice about her plans and the money she swiped from the accident scene. Her character evolves from a broke motel clerk worried about bills and her grief to this new Joette she couldn't have expected: a thief and nearly a murderer.
As for the story arc of Travis Clay, he also goes through changes. He has one plan with his partner Cosmo, but he doesn't stick to it. Travis only cares about himself and his own survival. There's a perfect moment of a crime trope where the bad guys are talking about this deal being the last one and then they'll retire -- go straight or take some other path. You know what Travis is thinking. You know he's the kind of character with no loyalty. Two-thirds of the way through the book, Travis is firm in who he really is and that there won't be a "retirement" for him and Cosmo.
The stakes are raised in a series of moves that take readers to the final act. The characters go through hoops, driving around to get all the money from Joette's hiding places, all the while with a gun set on them. The reversal of fortune for Joette comes at a thrilling, intense, stressful climax.
Minor Flaws:
There were a couple of times when I questioned why characters did things that were clearly not going to pan out. Joette finally ends up with a weapon and she tosses it at a questionable time. It's obvious she should have held on to it and there's even a spot where she could have lost it more logically.
Out of the characters, Joette's old friend Helen from her past job at a bank, is the only one without a lot of depth. She's there to ground Joette in talking heads scenes, but I didn't feel a connection to her. There was more emotion felt with the nursing home staff.
Rating: 5 stars
New Jersey novelist and journalist, Wallace Stroby, is perhaps most well-known for his Crissa Stone series which is presently four books and a short story; plus there are an additional four books to his name. In HEAVEN'S A LIE, Stroby introduces readers to a new female protagonist.
Joette Harper is a down to earth woman making ends meet at the Jersey Shore area working in a crappy motel. She keeps her social circle small: a dying mother in hospice; a cop who is sweet on her; a friendly tennant of the motel and her daughter; and a best friend from an old job where she was downsized.
Stroby keeps his prose lean with the nostalgic meter of gumshoe noir. The first sentence immediately throws Joette and the readers: she's bored at work, watching a car out on the highway take a curve way too fast. She predicts the crash, but not the cause.
The conundrum for Joette is one, I think, most of us that are not financially well off think about. What if…
Money fell from the sky.
I win the lottery -- or --
A car crashes and there's a big bag of dirty drug money which no one can claim just sitting there for the taking.
There were no witnesses, but small time drug dealer Travis Clay figures out what happened to the bag of money which should be in his possession. Stroby alternates his present tense storytelling between Joette and Travis.
The COVID crisis is hinted at in only one line about people worrying if their colds are "the virus" again. It's a small detail that creates a link to the real world even if we'll never have to decide whether or not we would take a bag of money from an accident scene. Similarly, Stroby also wove in real Jersey situations about Superstorm Sandy and how property owners like the motel's owner getting relief funds but didn't use them to repair anything. Readers will get a thorough sense of the economy and how the people are suffering in Stroby's Jersey Shore.
Who among us doesn't know what it's like to have all your options sitting on hold because of the economy? Joette wants to take action in her familial life -- getting her mother's bills at the nursing home paid on top of the bills from her deceased husband's care already piled up and weighing on her.
Halfway through, Joette has to think twice about her plans and the money she swiped from the accident scene. Her character evolves from a broke motel clerk worried about bills and her grief to this new Joette she couldn't have expected: a thief and nearly a murderer.
As for the story arc of Travis Clay, he also goes through changes. He has one plan with his partner Cosmo, but he doesn't stick to it. Travis only cares about himself and his own survival. There's a perfect moment of a crime trope where the bad guys are talking about this deal being the last one and then they'll retire -- go straight or take some other path. You know what Travis is thinking. You know he's the kind of character with no loyalty. Two-thirds of the way through the book, Travis is firm in who he really is and that there won't be a "retirement" for him and Cosmo.
The stakes are raised in a series of moves that take readers to the final act. The characters go through hoops, driving around to get all the money from Joette's hiding places, all the while with a gun set on them. The reversal of fortune for Joette comes at a thrilling, intense, stressful climax.
Minor Flaws:
There were a couple of times when I questioned why characters did things that were clearly not going to pan out. Joette finally ends up with a weapon and she tosses it at a questionable time. It's obvious she should have held on to it and there's even a spot where she could have lost it more logically.
Out of the characters, Joette's old friend Helen from her past job at a bank, is the only one without a lot of depth. She's there to ground Joette in talking heads scenes, but I didn't feel a connection to her. There was more emotion felt with the nursing home staff.
Rating: 5 stars
July 29, 2022
Well that was a page turner not to be put down. At first I wondered if I was going to like it, because it’s a little different from my style. But after each page I couldn’t stop until it was finished. Not a review really because I struggle writing them, so don’t. All I can say is read this book.
April 17, 2021
If you are looking for a book that is infectious and keeps your entertained totally, then HEAVEN’S A LIE is a great book And that's is no lie. It is the sort of book that will keep you up all night reading, to see how the plot is resolved. Wallace Stroby has certainly given us some memorable characters, including a heroine who is all heart and soul, and a villain who is as relentless and evil as they come.
The book revolves around Joette Harper, who hasn’t had too many breaks during her life. Life didn’t simply bring her to her knees, it seemed to kick her when she was down. She has lost so much lately, including her husband, her job, and her mother is slowly wasting away in a nursing home with medical bills that are going through the roof. She is working at a fleabag motel in New Jersey, unsure where life is heading.
And then from out of the blue comes a car that ends up in a fiery crash outside the motel. She runs out to the car and sees a man trapped inside the car. She knows the car will explode soon and she manages to drag him out. She also notices a bag in the back of the car, and she grabs it. The man dies, but Joette keeps the bag finding almost $300,000 inside it. Now she could give it to the police, but since the man has died, it is not likely to be missed.
What begins is a cat and mouse game between Joette and Travis Clay a maniacal drug dealer who is the owner of the bag and the money. He does his homework and concludes that Joette somehow is in possession of the money. It has become a godsend to her life, with regard to bills and such, but it could be the death of her yet, because Travis will do everything to get the money back and likely leave Joette dead in the process.
She runs but she cannot hide, because Travis seems to have a sixth sense of where she has run to. Her main concern besides her mother, is her friend’s safety, not really worried about herself. She escapes several times from Travis through often pure luck, but Travis is a relentless criminal who won’t back down until he gets what he wants.
You cheer for her every step of the way from one confrontation to another, until the final showdown, where it is obvious only one will walk away. HEAVEN’S A LIE is great fiction, a classic tale of good versus evil, and one you will not soon forget
The book revolves around Joette Harper, who hasn’t had too many breaks during her life. Life didn’t simply bring her to her knees, it seemed to kick her when she was down. She has lost so much lately, including her husband, her job, and her mother is slowly wasting away in a nursing home with medical bills that are going through the roof. She is working at a fleabag motel in New Jersey, unsure where life is heading.
And then from out of the blue comes a car that ends up in a fiery crash outside the motel. She runs out to the car and sees a man trapped inside the car. She knows the car will explode soon and she manages to drag him out. She also notices a bag in the back of the car, and she grabs it. The man dies, but Joette keeps the bag finding almost $300,000 inside it. Now she could give it to the police, but since the man has died, it is not likely to be missed.
What begins is a cat and mouse game between Joette and Travis Clay a maniacal drug dealer who is the owner of the bag and the money. He does his homework and concludes that Joette somehow is in possession of the money. It has become a godsend to her life, with regard to bills and such, but it could be the death of her yet, because Travis will do everything to get the money back and likely leave Joette dead in the process.
She runs but she cannot hide, because Travis seems to have a sixth sense of where she has run to. Her main concern besides her mother, is her friend’s safety, not really worried about herself. She escapes several times from Travis through often pure luck, but Travis is a relentless criminal who won’t back down until he gets what he wants.
You cheer for her every step of the way from one confrontation to another, until the final showdown, where it is obvious only one will walk away. HEAVEN’S A LIE is great fiction, a classic tale of good versus evil, and one you will not soon forget
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews