Faculty of Liars

This novel is a claustrophobic thriller set against the dark halls of a prestigious [and unnamed] American University via the inner thoughts of a troubled woman. Hidden agendas are revealed when the former Medical School Provost, Jeff Harker is elected as incoming President.

Narrated from the first-person view [and inner thoughts] of Elizabeth Harker, wife of the incoming president we get a tense and disorientated account of events as they unfold around her and the University.

Elizabeth is a conflicted character. British by birth, and married to the high flying [and emotionally cold] American academic Jeff Harker. Following two miscarriages, she commenced an affair with one of the facilities managers [who is unnamed] at the University. Elizabeth and her lover, conduct their trysts with fevered passion as her husband Jeff becomes preoccupied with his blossoming career. Elizabeth’s affair continues offline confidentially via the Telegram App with the same level of passion with her mysteriously unnamed lover.

Matters come to crisis when Elizabeth [finally] worries that their affair could spell trouble for her and her husband as his promotion to University President fast approaches.

The inner monologues do grate [and distract], as Elizabeth Harker is a irritating character who is conflicted in ending the affair with her unnamed lover, or continuing it. She truly loves this man in the shadows, but is also supportive of her husband’s career, thus terrified that her actions jeopardises their future. She appears to [using a British expression] ‘to want her cake and also eat it’.

Elizabeth is schooled into what it takes to be the President’s wife in terms of academic support [and her fund raising activities] by the outgoing President Harley and his wife Suzy. Ivy League schools of Harvard and Yale are mentioned in passing conversation to help position this unnamed University in the reader’s mind. All the while, Elizabeth’s inner thoughts continue to dwell upon her affair, and they grow increasingly irritating [as well as distracting] for the reader.

Further characters enter the narrative, such as Abrahams the University Communications Director, Virginia from HR, Jeff’s Personal Assistant Janet, Lavinia the Chair of Governors, as well as the Dean Kevin Tang. Elizabeth is horrified to learn that the University’s Franklin Wing is to be demolished and replaced by a newly built ‘Wickham’ building to eponymously honour the Medical School’s founder Henry Wickham. Elizabeth is unnerved because the Franklin Wing is where her lover – the Facilities Manager operates from.

When Elizabeth tries to contact her lover by their clandestine Telegram channel, she is confronted by what appears to be a change in his previous loving nature. She receives a message referencing a mysterious ‘B’. Her paranoia becomes manic.

On the morning of her husband’s inauguration, just prior to her own speech in the crowded University Hall, her lover is murdered. Though I found this scene confusing, which may have been the author’s intention – in order to disorientate the reader.

The University enters ‘lockdown’ as the local Police in-conjunction with the campus Police try to secure the area. Elizabeth is in panic mode as she bizarrely sent a ‘selfie’ of herself to her lover moments before she took the stage, and moments after his apparent murder. As she flees into a toilet stall, she becomes aware of a voicemail on her phone – it’s her lover moments before his death. The message explains matters, but it also confuses Elizabeth [and the reader].

The game is well and truly afoot.

Abrahams, the Communication Director takes control as a media feeding frenzy is unleashed. The events reach the online world via a Twitter [now renamed ‘X’] user @studentinvigilatorX.

Elizabeth tries to conceal her illicit affair, as well as privately grieve for her lover, while the University officials attempt reputational damage limitation.

Lieutenant Newton becomes curious at the serpentine turn of events, but at this point, interest in the story starts to dissolve [for the reader] as Elizabeth’s inner monologues [that pepper the narrative] obstruct the progression of the narrative. Elizabeth’s former lover’s ex-wife Nicola appears on the scene inexplicably making matters even more confusing.

Faculty of Liars commenced as an intriguing take on ‘the affair between two lovers who have much to lose’ [should the relationship come to light] cliché but soon becomes a complex series of confusing twists and turns punctuated by the inner thoughts and viewpoint from the unstable and unreliable Narrator Elizabeth Harker.

Despite everything, R.L. Heber’s novel’s ambition is to be applauded, though I can’t see it being welcomed on University Library shelves.