Five Liars by DL Fisher — An Addictive Thriller With a Controversial Twist

Read time: 3 minutes

📱📖 Read on Kindle (ARC)
📃 262 pages (estimated based on 4-hour read time)
⏱ Read time: 4 hours
🏷️ Publisher: Joffe Books
📅 Expected Publication: January 8, 2026
📌 ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Book Blurb:

Five friends arrive in Punta Cana for a joint bachelor–bachelorette getaway with sun, drinks, a hurricane lockdown, and a White Lie Party designed to expose their secrets. But what begins as playful confession devolves into something much darker. Someone in the group is hiding a truth sharp enough to kill. Told through past and present timelines, Five Liars unravels years-old betrayals, buried guilt, and the fragile threads tying these friends together. As tensions rise and the storm closes in, lies turn lethal, forcing the group to question everything they know about each other, and themselves.

Let’s talk about the book:

Five Liars got its hook into me from page one. D. L. Fisher sets the tone quickly, with high humidity, higher stakes, and emotional undercurrent that makes every chapter feel like a countdown. The atmosphere, with storm rolling in, five “friends” trapped together, secrets slipping through cracks feels tailor-made for thriller fans who crave that claustrophobic tension. Fisher’s dual-timeline storytelling works beautifully, with the present-day chaos harmonized with the echoes of a twenty-year-old event that still casts long shadows.

This could have been an easy five-star thriller for me. The pacing was sharp, the dialogue flowed naturally, and the unease was almost cinematic. But the fair-play mystery fan in me balked at the final reveal. The last 10% pulled the rug out in a way that didn’t quite play fair; one critical element was missing from the clues we were supposed to piece together. It’s a twist that shocks, yes, but also one that leaves you muttering, “Well, how was I supposed to guess that?”

And that final page? It teases an alternate possibility, like “hey, what if this twisted another way?” Not my jam in a thriller needing closure. Still, the suspense and emotional depth in the bulk make it a standout in hurricane-trapped thrillers and secret-spilling whodunits.

Would I recommend it?

I’d still recommend Five Liars to thriller fans who love stormy settings, unreliable narrators, and complex character webs. It’s tense, fast, and emotionally charged, even if the ending stumbles a bit on fairness. Mark your calendars! This one’s worth the read for the ride alone.

For Fair Play Mystery

I’d recommend you read:

• Never Coming Home – Kate Williams
  Ten influencers invited to an exclusive private island start disappearing one by one, in a modern, YA-leaning nod to And Then There Were None. The dual timeline structure and planted clues invite readers to piece together what’s really happening, while still respecting fair-play principles.
• The Guest List – Lucy Foley
  A glamorous wedding on a remote Irish island turns deadly when a storm cuts everyone off and someone ends up dead. Multiple POVs give the reader access to motives, secrets, and red herrings, and the solution emerges from information that has been on the page all along.
• An Unwanted Guest – Shari Lapena
  Set in a remote inn cut off by a snowstorm, this modern closed-circle mystery offers a small cast, rising body count, and a clear invitation to guess the culprit. Clues and character beats are planted throughout, making the final reveal feel earned rather than arbitrary, in the spirit of classic fair-play whodunits.
• The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle — Stuart Turton
  Not a traditional locked-room, but a repeatedly looping closed-estate mystery with a meticulously fair structure beneath the theatrical setup. Every identity shift and clue chain supports the eventual reveal. Dense but immensely rewarding for puzzle-solvers.
• Magpie Murders — Anthony Horowitz
  Not exactly a single locked room, but a perfect fair-play meta-mystery. Horowitz gives you every clue—some hidden in plain sight, some wrapped in wordplay. If you felt cheated by Five Liars, this book restores trust in the genre.

Your Turn: Could You Forgive an “Unfair” Twist?

The ending sparked some strong feelings for me, so now I want to hear from you.
Do you think an otherwise brilliant thriller can survive a twist that bends the rules? Or does it tank the whole experience?
Drop your take in the comments. Let’s debate this mystery ethics situation.

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