Jayatissa, Amanda

Recommend to those who liked Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies or Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

In her debut novel, Sri Lanka–based Jayatissa is a master of first-person narration as she delves into questions of identity--how individuals perceive themselves, and the tendency not to see others for who they really are. Her fast-paced mystery, with an unreliable but sympathetic narrator, will hook readers from the very beginning, but the twist ending might leave them disappointed and unsatisfied; the frequent profanity may also be problematic for some readers.