Thomas & Mercer
November 2025
The Lie She Wears by Elle Marr is a psychological thriller. The plot is full of lies, mystery, and murder starting with the letter Pearl receives from her recently deceased mother to the conclusion of the story. The emphasis throughout the book is the complex mother-daughter relationship.
“The idea for the story came about when I was inspired as a child roaming through my grandparent’s halls where they had Venetian wall masks. I always thought they were very pretty and were what my character Pearl grew up around. They are beautiful, bedazzled, paint splattered but also anonymous at night. They used to scare me during midnight trips to the bathroom as a child. I drew upon that foreboding presence when writing this story.”
In fact, the title has a double meaning. The author noted, “The main character, Pearl, works at an art museum. The title implies the lies we all tell in our relationships. Also, Pearl is the museum curator of Asian masks and is surrounded by masks. Pearl also tells herself lies about the relationship with her mother. There are a lot of different aspects that play into that title depending on the perspective readers look at.”
The relationship between Pearl and her mother Sally has always been strained. To make matters worse, she leaves Pearl a message from the grave confessing to murder. As Pearl investigates, she realizes there are more letters that are a warning that Sally was terrified of something.
“I hope readers saw that this relationship was very contemptuous. We as children never stop being children in our relationships with our parents no matter what our ages are. It takes us as children to come to grips with it. We still want our parents to be this demagogue we perceive them when we were young. Pearl is coming to understand that her mother has inadvertently passed on dark secrets to her. It is an ongoing conflict past her mom’s Sallys demise. They never understood each other because Sally was never honest with Pearl. She tried to grasp a stronger relationship with her mom and never quite got there because Sally was always withholding. After she passes and sends Pearl this letter she begins to understand why that was the case.”
Sally was someone who readers will have mixed emotions towards. The author commented, “I love her. She is extremely complicated. Sally became Pearl’s world. Sally wanted to be a mother and felt she had to protect Pearl from this very dark secret. She is a second generation Chinese American. She can be very charismatic, likeable, persuasive with her friends and professional peers.”
Pearl is a museum curator whose relationship with her mom has taken a toll on her emotional health. “I wrote Pearl as introverted, insecure, had a difficult relationship with her mother, very focused, and is determined to make a good life for herself. She poured into her professional past the intimacy she craved with her mother. She is dedicated to her work and making her career the best thing that crossed her path. She is also extremely close to her dad who offered Pearl stability that Sally could not. She is not emotionally intelligent about herself. I hope readers feel empathy for Pearl.”
The author explained the dual timeline, “I like reading dual timelines. It adds an interesting element when we have sub-plots that must converge to create a full picture of these characters’ journeys.”
Marr will continue to write psychological thrillers. Her next book out in the fall 2026 will be a series. The setting is in Portland, and she is still working on a title.
