A book to be savoured page by page

Plot analysts and impatient readers beware. If you delve too deeply, or worse, cheat by turning to the final pages of We Were Liars, you will spoil for yourselves one of the best reads you are likely to find this year.

This is a book to enjoy page by page while Emily Lockhart peels back the layers of her story, as you might an onion.

''The Sinclairs are athletic, tall and handsome. We are old-money Democrats. Our smiles are wide, our chins square, and our tennis serves aggressive.''

Cadence Sinclair Eastman is the narrator of the story and the elder granddaughter of the family patriarch, businessman Harris Sinclair. Each year he and his wife Tipper, their three daughters and families spend the summer on the family's private island near Martha's Vineyard, where the story is set.

The author has a doctorate in English literature and it shows. A joy for lovers of story. Ages 15+.

- Rene Nol is a Dunedin reader