Cover Image: The Girl Who Lied (Chief Maggie Riley Book 1)

The Girl Who Lied (Chief Maggie Riley Book 1)

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Narrated by Amelia Sciandra ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This narrator has a great voice, but it took me a while to get used to her, because sometimes she sounded so much like Romy (of Romy and Michelle) I couldn't help but giggle.

Story by Shannon Hollinger ⭐⭐⭐

"The Girl Who Lied" by Shannon Hollinger offers a thrilling and fast-paced narrative through multiple perspectives. Maggie's character stood out, captivating me and leaving me eager to delve deeper into her story in the forthcoming series on Audible. Although I found Murphy's actions and storyline somewhat perplexing, they didn't detract from the overall narrative flow. His eventual circumstances felt a tad implausible. Despite this, the book remains a robust recommendation, presenting a compelling read.

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So having read books 1 and 2 of the Chief Maggie Riley series, the more I read of it, the more I like it. It took a little while for the characters to grow on me. I wasn’t sure I liked Maggie and Steve at the start of the series, but I am really a fan now. Both books had a storm threatening to tamper with things. In book 1, as Maggie is introduced, things are very personal and both Maggie and Steve have secrets that threaten to derail their life in Maine.

There are many POVs in the books, which is a switch for me in the usual detective novels I read. As I read, I wasn’t sure why the POVs outside of Maggie and Steve were important and only as the story progressed did it become clear why they were. Both stories are layered and kept me wanting more. They are fast paced, full of suspense and there were some twists along the way.

Book 3 comes out September 1 and I can’t wait to see where the series is heading.

I listened to book 1 and read book 2 and enjoyed both formats. Both kept me interested and were easy to follow.

If you want to jump in at the beginning of a new detective series, this one won’t disappoint.

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Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. The Girl Who Lied is the book one in the Chief Maggie Riley series and my first time reading the author's work. Wow the twist and turns of this book just kept coming. I enjoyed listening to all the different perspectives from each character. I am looking forward to reading more from Shannon Hollinger.

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I enjoyed the storyline of Maggie and Steve and Heather. They each had secrets of their own and they all intertwined.

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This was a nice, casual. read-in-one-sitting kind of mystery. While I had originally predicted the twist, I didn't think that I would be right once I'd made it halfway through the book. The characters were well-written with already interesting backstories. I think the best part was that it wasn't drawn out. No part of the book seemed unimportant to the final conclusion. Everything was tied together nicely.

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I enjoyed the audio of The Girl Who Lied. Written by Shannon Hollinger. Narrated by Amelia Sciandra, who did a great job telling the story. This is the first of a series about Chief Maggie Riley. I was able to follow the character changes easily as Amelia did the voice changes. The story was very good and kept my interest. I liked Maggie and Steve and their developing story. Maggie is working to solve a murder and the mystery of Heather. I thought I knew the answer and it was interesting to follow the clues of the story. Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio I will definitely be watching for book two!

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Very entertaining. I couldn't put it down. Story was fast paced. This author was a first for me and I will be back for more!

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This was a great story and a brilliant start to a new series. The narrator did a fantastic job with all the characters. I would have loved to found out all the secrets but I should imagine they will be revealed in future stories,. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to an early copy of this audiobook would recommend.

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This is a Police Romantic Suspense, and this is the first book in the Chief Maggie Riley series. There was so much in this book, but I think it was done very well. I only wish I felt I got all of the mystery over the characters backstory before this book ended. I loved all the twists and turns in this book, and this book really had you on the edge of your seat. I loved getting to know the characters in this book. I cannot wait to read the second book in this series. I read this book by listening to the audiobook, and I liked the narrator. I was kindly provided an e-audiobook of this book by the publisher or author (Shannon Hollinger) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

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This is the first in a new series and it was a great start! I can definitely see this series going on for a long time, lots of storylines to work with and expand upon. The narrator was so good too!

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BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'The Girl Who Lied' by Shannon Hollinger.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Shannon Hollinger, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous

Publication date 2nd August 2023.

This is the third book I have read by this author. I have also read 'Best Friends Forever' and 'The Slumber Party' which I would highly recommend! It is also the first book in the 'Chief Maggie Riley's series.


This novel consists of 75 chapters. The chapters are short to medium in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!


'The Girl Who Lied' discusses some topics that may upset some readers or may not be suitable for others. I like to point this out ahead of time in my reviews so you can judge if this book is for you or not. In this book Shannon discusses infanticide and child abuse/neglect.

OMG!!!! WHAT DID I JUST READ!!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVED THIS BOOK!! A FANTASTIC START TO A PROMISING NEW SERIES!!! WELL DONE SHANNON ON ANOTHER HUGE SUCCESS 🥂

Wow!!! This book is fantastically written and had me hook, line and sinker from beginning to end. Shannon's evocative writing skills and descriptions were so in depth and vivid that the hair on my arms was standing on the ends and my heart was pounding throughout. The synopsis, title and cover were perfect for the storyline.

An absolutely explosive start to a promising new series by the fantastic Shannon!!! I was absolutely absorbed throughout this page turner. It is filled with tension, suspense, murder, lies, loss, family, secrets, friendship, secrets and omg the twists!!! I DID NOT see any of them coming!!! A MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS Shannon!! It is getting harder and harder to shock me but by God you did that over and over and over!!! I absolutely loved both the multiple perspectives which are all weaved together perfectly to drip feed the reader just the right amount of information to keep them guessing and hooked without giving too much away. One of the most gripping unputdownable nerve wracking psychological thrillers I have read!!! You lady have one hell of a talent and I cannot wait to get hold of your previous and future books. Shannon includes the death of a baby and goes into other details which I have included a trigger warning for at the start of my review. The storyline is filled with crime, twists, shocks, suspense, tension, deceit and everything you could want in a psychological thriller. There was not one, not two but several explosive bombshells I did not see coming!!! There was so much going on and it was very fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. I loved that the story was so multi layered and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the storylines from this book in 'Their Angel's Cry' which is next on my reading list. Clear your schedule before you start as I read this in one sitting as I could not put it down!! Practically every chapter ended on a cliff hanger so no way could I put it down!! Absolutely hooked!! I would absolutely love to see this turned into a movie!!!! I am looking forward to reading'Their Angels Cry' as ,if this is anything to go by, they are guaranteed to be page turner's!!

This is one of the few books that I have listened 100% on Audiobook. If I listen to a book on audiobook I usually also read the physical book between but I listened to the whole book and I was impressed! I must say a HUGE congratulations to the narrator Amelia Sciandra who did a great job bringing this story to life. I would listen to it in the car and while walking at any opportunity and Amelia did a fantastic job on both male and female characters voices!!! I'm not only looking forward to reading more books by Shannon but also to listening to more books narrated by Amelia! I have previously listened to 'The Girl In The Pink Shoes' by Stacy Green which is also narrated by Amelia and which I would also recommend reading/listening to.




I wasn't just 100% invested in the storyline but also in the characters. Every single one of the characters were well defined and developed, realistic and strong. I really liked Heather as a protagonist especially the fact that she isn't perfect and has her own secrets and history which I'm intrigued to discover more of her in the next books in this promising series. Maggie has gone from being a well known hot shot homicide detective in the big city and moved to the chief of police in the tiny Maine town of Coyote Cove. This book has a lot of character development as is usual in the first book in any series and as we meet alot of characters in can get confusing at times but this didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book as it is normal in the case of books at the start of a series. I'm all for a strong female protagonist and am looking forward to getting to know Heather more. The other main characters we meet and hear from are Heather's deputy Dale Murphy who is leading the investigation into the discovery of a strangers body found in the wood and whose mother went missing 30 years ago, Steve who is Maggie's neighbour and has his own secrets and Heather who is a 16 year old developmentally challenged girl who is discovered by the body in the woods. All of the main characters have their own secrets some of which we discover in this story and others that we are yet to discover. It was intriguing to watch their personalities change and grow along with the relationship development between each of the characters. I am not going to say anything about any of the other characters as it isn't worth the risk of dropping any hints but there was major shocks to be had!! If you want to know more you will just have to click the link below to get a copy!! All in all a great mix of characters that worked well with this storyline and I'm looking forward to getting to meet most of them again in the next book 'Their Angel's Cry' which I'm off to read next.

An explosive start to a promising new series!! This is EXACTLY why you are in my favourite author club Shannon!!!! Here's to the next success 🥂

Make sure you read to the very end of the book to read the prologue of Shannon's 'Their Angel's Cry' which is the next book in this series and looks just as addictive as this book was!!

Overall an absolutely heart racing, never wracking, unputdownable addictive and explosive start to a promising new series!!


284 pages/ 7 hours and 28 minutes.

This book is just 99p to purchase, free with kindle unlimited, £8.99 in paperback, £39.37 on Audiobook and £7.99 with Audible via Amazon at time of review which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I cannot wait to read the next book in the series. The book picked right up for me, leading me to want to solve the mystery right away. I particularly enjoyed that I was able to listen to the audiobook of this and the narrator was easy to listen to and told the story well. Highly recommended for anyone that likes a mystery!

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Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC of "The Girl Who LIed" (Maggie Riley Book 1). I love Chief Riley and was pulled into the story very early. I appreciated the narrator who moved the story along with an easy to listen to voice. The multiple story lines and secrets of all involved were not over the top and also not all resolved. I sped through this book and I was sad when it ended. The characters were believeable even though they were lying. LOL. Can't wait for the next one!

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While I really enjoyed most of this book and was really thrown off by a lot of the twists, I didn’t find myself liking any of the characters. I know it’s the start of a new series so I probably won’t read others, but recommend this one!

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3.5 Stars

he Girl Who Lied is starts out with a bang from the 1st chapter and has a lot of turns throughout the story. ITs told in multiple of POVs. It was a fast quick read and each chapter and person pov added to the story and gave clues for the final what is going on. For me when I thought I had it solved another piece was added to the story to make me start over or re think what is going on.


This has a lot of mystery and building towards the end.
This is book 1 in a Chief Maggie Riley Series. Which I love learning about her an her past and I think were going to learn more in each instalment. I'll be checking out the other books.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for my audio-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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I liked this book and loved the setting. It was well written and I enjoyed it while I was listening, there just wasn't anything that really set it apart from the mountain of other female detective stories out there. I'd probably still read more from this author but not this series.

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A great start to the Chief Maggie Riley series. Maggie and Steve have so many ghosts in their pasts it will be interesting learning about those secrets in future novels in this series. I did not guess who the killer was in advance of the reveal but it all made perfect sense once the story was told. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Once again, I enjoyed another novel narrated by Amelia Sciandra. Amelia does a great job of creating different enough voices for the different characters which makes it easier to identify who is speaking.

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What a fantastic book. I really enjoyed the storyline and was kept guessing throughout. I had my suspicions on who the killer was, but needless to say I was wrong. The twist at the end was not one you saw coming until the last couple of chapters.
Chief Maggie Riley is also hiding some dark secrets from her past too and it will be good to continue reading the series to see if we ever find out what they are.
Can’t wait to read book 2.

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The Chief Maggie Riley series starts out strong! This is a complex clever, thriller with many twists, turns, and surprises you won't see coming. Maggie, the main protagonist, is complicated and flawed, as are we all. The story is told from multiple points of view, but it never gets confusing. The setting in the small Maine town and Maggie's backstory of the continuing search for her brother promises lots of intrigue and suspense to come. The multi-layered characters will keep everyone guessing.

I am looking forward to Book 2! Like Thrillers? Try this one.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator did a good job of portraying the characters, especially Maggie and Heather.

I received a free copy of the audiobook via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

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This book opens with Chief Maggie finding a dead body in the middle of woods and as she is thinking of securing the crime scene before a huge storm can hit the area she finds a local girl Heather wandering around the crime scene.
What follows is a full on investigation which rakes up old crimes as well leading to a death of someone in the team.

Maggie also has her past demons to fight with and her partner Steve is also hiding something from his past.
As Maggie, and the state police investigate further they start to wonder if the killer was someone who was passing by their town and this was a by chance crime but something about the whole scene was not alright from the beginning and they discover more bodies!

Overall this was an ok book and sometimes I found myself not being able to relate to the characters - no idea why, they felt a little too self absorbed!

Thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture Audio and Shannon Hollinger for the audiobook ARC

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