Novel-in-Progress

The Lie Catcher

by Bill Sizemore

In Gulf City, where the ordinary world presses against a shifting grey dimension called the Lie Side, a reluctant Lie Catcher is pulled back into the family trade when his father vanishes and his brother is gravely hurt.

What This Book Is

Patrick "Trick" O'Sullivan never wanted to be a Lie Catcher. His family's trade means crossing into the Lie Side — a grey, unstable realm where human lies take physical, shadowy form — to capture the dangerous ones in an enchanted satchel and trade them to a compromised priest, Father Mahoney. Trick left that life behind, blaming his father Sully for the death of his mother, Elara, years earlier.

He doesn't get to stay away. When Sully disappears and his brother Bendy is gravely injured on a job gone wrong, Trick is pulled back into the family business — and into a city, a government body called the Protectorate, and a network of watchers and undercover agents that all want something from what his family carries.

A shadow of his own follows Trick everywhere: a lie he refuses to speak, given form.

Draft Status

The Lie Catcher is an active work-in-progress. A number of key scenes are fully drafted — the hospital, Alibi's Lounge, the church, the Plaza, the Justice Complex — while other stretches of the book currently exist only as outline notes. This site is kept in sync with the manuscript as it develops, and it says so plainly where a scene, character, or plot thread is still being worked out rather than presenting early drafts as finished.
Setting

Gulf City

A Gulf Coast city standing in for Houston — its name a deliberate bridge between lies and truth.

See the World →
Cast

Trick, Sully & Bendy

A father, and the two sons trying to hold what's left of their family together.

Meet Them →
Terms

A Working Glossary

Liesight, the Lie Side, the Protectorate, and the rest of the book's vocabulary, defined.

Browse Terms →

Full Synopsis & Content Warnings

If you'd rather go in blind, stop here — everything above is spoiler-free. If you want the full plot synopsis, chapter-by-chapter status, and a complete list of content warnings before you read, there's a gated page for that.

⚠ Enter the Spoiler Zone →