An international thriller, The Good Liar tells the story of Liza Kingsley, a Chicago woman who finds that her new husband isn't who he seems, and is terrified when she starts to figure out that the best friend who set them up isn't who she seems either.  The Good Liar is a cross between chick lit and spy novel, and Caldwell has no problem blending the two.  "I just think of it as a thriller, but I think it's sexy too, so if you want to call it a Romantic Thriller that's just fine with me."  

And as a confessed travel junky, Caldwell gives us a truly international plot.  "I'm a huge traveler, so usually I set books in places I've been."  But with The Good Liar she called on some outside help with a few cities.  The story takes us to Moscow and Rio and Caldwell hadn't been to either of these cities.  So like all good writers, she looked to her friends for a little help.  "I tracked down a couple Russian friends and one Brazilian friend-of-a-friend and had them work with me.  I asked a million questions-'What does it look like?  What does it feel like?  What does it smell like?' When I was done I had them review the manuscript to make sure I had nailed the details."  But Caldwell didn't need any help with her hometown, Chicago.  "Chicago is an amazing city.  Those of us who live here feel like we've been let in on a huge secret, and we live in a hidden gem.  I could write about Chicago forever."

But it was the research that gave Caldwell the greatest pleasure.  "The research was one of the most gratifying things about writing The Good Liar.  I wanted one of the characters to have been part of a covert government organization in the past.  I learned about the Phoenix Program, a C.I.A. initiated, covert operation, designed during the Vietnam War.  I worked with man who had been in the Phoenix Program, so that I could properly describe what it was like to be involved in such an organization, what it felt like to keep those secrets."

"Laura Caldwell's The Good Liar strikes like an assassin's bullet: sudden, swift, precise, deadly. Here is a taut international thriller certain to keep readers breathless and awake until the wee hours of the morning. Not to be missed." -- James Rollins, New York Times best selling author of Black Order and Judas Strain

"Caldwell's taut, enjoyable thriller hits the ground running, crafting a married-to-the-mob scenario that's believable and chilling, then taking the show around the world... Caldwell's plot moves smoothly, juggling a number of perspectives without losing steam." -- Publisher's Weekly

Laura Caldwell's first novel, Burning the Map, was selected by Barnes & Noble.com as one of "The Best of 2002". Her second novel, A Clean Slate, was called "a page-turner" by the Chicago Tribune and received a starred review from Booklist. After writing two more chick-lit novels, The Year of Living Famously and The Night I Got Lucky, Laura began writing suspense and thriller novels, including Look Closely and The Rome Affair, which pulled her out of legal retirement and into a real life murder trial. Laura, who lives in Chicago, is an award-winning Adjunct Professor of Law and also a freelance magazine writer. Visit her at www.lauracaldwell.com.

Contributing editor Mark Combes is an avid sailor and Scuba diver and travels extensively in the Caribbean pursuing his passions. He works in book publishing and RUNNING WRECKED is his first novel.