In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.
Bonnie Stevens hosted Nancy Boyarsky in 2017 for a First Two Pages essay on her novel The Swap, part of her Nicole Graves mystery series. (You can find that essay here.) Today, Nancy returns for an essay on her latest book in the series, Liar Liar—just released today!
Liar Liar has a topical theme—far too topical, it seems: a young woman accusing her university’s star quarterback of rape and suddenly finding herself assaulted by the media and in need of protection. Enter Nicole Graves, who works for a private investigation company and is tasked with babysitting the woman throughout the trial. Needless to say, things take a couple of unexpected turns.
In addition to The Swap and Liar Liar, the series includes The Bequest. Nancy has also written several textbooks on the justice system, and she is the co-author, with her husband Bill Boyarsky, of Backroom Politics, a New York Times notable book. You can find more about her work at her website: nancyboyarsky.com.
Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.
Boyarsky Liar Liar