His success at law school gets him noticed by his legal idol, Marcus Rhodes, and the pair eventually open a defense firm together, but Caine is also fortuitous in his personal life, as he has recently begun dating the beautiful and poised Juliette Rhodes, although she initially hides her family connection to Marcus.
The story plays out through chapters marked Then and Now, chronicling Peter's early days reaching for success, and the present time, as he faces major life changes with the death of his ex-wife and the sudden intrusion of his teen-aged son, Jamie, who is moving in with him and Claire, Peter's long-term girlfriend. As the chapters roll out, we see Peter face his first major legal loss early on, a serial sex offending politician named Stu Bogovian, and he develops an ardent hatred for New York D.A. Harrison Doyle, the man who he perceives responsible for his first loss. When Bogovian is released from prison some years later, he has some earth-shattering news that he delivers in a press conference, statements that will not only shake up the D.A.'s office and family, but also cause turmoil for Caine as well. And then Harrison's daughter, Charlie Doyle, is viciously murdered.
With the recent speculations from Bogovian, accusing eyes turn towards Caine, especially since he and Charlie did have a long-term sometimes affair going, and as he finds himself under the gun for a murder he didn't commit, he believes he can turn the situation around. After all, he's the most successful defense attorney in New York and he's innocent. What Peter doesn't realize is how his drive for success has changed him over the years, from a kind and loving man, to an emotionless, almost inhuman sociopath, just like his idol, Marcus Rhodes. Who will be in his corner now?
I found Once a Liar to be interesting, but it really picked up at the halfway mark. For me, the character of Peter Caine was a bit tedious, so obsessed with his image and people not finding out where he came from, and that was a bit over the top. I get that he was slowly becoming a sociopath and turning off his more human side, but he aggravated me. However, the characters of Juliette, his son Jamie, his father-in-law Marcus, Charlie and Harrison Doyle, and the other partner at Peter's firm, Sinan Khan, were all well-rounded and intriguing characters, even if some of them were abhorrent people. I will say that I figured out whodunit pretty quickly on, but I didn't realize the details of what happened and I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. Once a Liar is not a nail-biting thrill ride, but it's a peek into the forming of a sociopath and how those around him react.
