Spoiler Discussion for The Lies I Tell

If you’ve read The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark and are looking for a plot summary, the ending of The Lies I Tell explained, or a place to discuss all the twists and turns of the book without worrying about spoilers, you are in the right place! Welcome to the Spoiler Discussion for The Lies I Tell!

Spoiler Discussion for The Lies I Tell

The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark. Published by Sourcebooks on June 21, 2022

Disclosures. I received an advance copy of The Lies I Tell from the publisher. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.

Warning – spoilers ahead – go here for a Spoiler-Free Review of The Lies I Tell!

Plot Summary for The Lies I Tell

Character List for the Lies I Tell

The Ending of The Lies I Tell Explained

Spoiler Discussion for The Lies I Tell

---

Plot Summary for The Lies I Tell

I have been trying to make my plot summaries shorter, but I also get a lot of questions in comments. Do you prefer a short summary or a full one? Tell me in comments!

The Lies I Tell is a dual narrative POV (Kat and Meg) with a Past/Present format.

Present Day (2019)

Kat Roberts, a journalist, attends a fundraiser for California politician Ron Ashton. She’s been trying to track down one of the party guests, Meg Williams, for ten years.

Meg has been working on a project of her own: getting close to Ron Ashton through a friendship with Veronica, the wife of Ron’s campaign manager.

10 Years Ago, Venice CA (2009)

Meg’s mother’s life was ruined by Ron Ashton, leaving Meg alone in Southern California. She’s working a minimum wage job at the YMCA, using dating sites as a way to line up free meals.

She’s surprised to find the profile of Cory Dempsey, one of her former high school math teachers, and wonders about her old friend Kristen, who was groomed and abused by Mr. Dempsey and then dropped out of school.

Meg makes a fake profile and starts messaging Cory. She sets up a date with him but pretends her date didn’t show. When he doesn’t recognize her, she strikes up a conversation with him as herself, Meg.

Kat gets assigned as a junior reporter to the Cory Dempsey story. She’s intrigued that Cory, now exposed for his sexual abuse of underage students, had a live-in girlfriend.

Dempsey’s family feels this girlfriend, Meg, was a con artist. The senior reporter on the story tells Kat to forget about Meg and focus on the sex scandal, but Kat still keeps tabs on Meg.

Meg, who has entered into a relationship with Cory, starts making moves. She pretends to get kicked out of her dorm so that he will have to let her move in with him and starts snooping into his finances.

She finds legal papers that detail how, after being accused of an inappropriate relationship with Kristen at Northside, Cory’s involvement was hushed up. He was reassigned to a different school and then promoted.

Kat finds a friend of Kristen’s, Laura Lazar, who tells cat that Meg is the one who exposed Cory. Laura describes Meg as a mousy loner and says that Kristen got pregnant by Cory.

Meg finds incriminating photos of Cory and Kristen. She convinces Cory to put her on his credit card so she can do the grocery shopping.

The Lies I Tell: Kat’s Life Takes a Tragic Turn

Kat gets a call from a source who says she needs to talk to Nate, Cory’s best friend. Kat believes the source is Meg and asks her for an interview. Meg hangs up.

As instructed by the source, Kat goes to Nate’s favorite bar and strikes up a conversation with him. He thinks Meg targeted Cory and even checked out a few details Meg shared about her life that were fake. Then Kat wakes up in a dark room. Nate tells her she was drunk and they slept together. She knows he drugged and assaulted her.

The Lies I Tell: Meg Continues Her Con on Cory

Meg sells her car and tells Cory it broke down. He buys her a used car but when she puts the title in her name, he seems suspicious. After finding flirty emails to a student on Cory’s computer, she decides it’s time to cut ties with Cory.

But Nate shows up at the door and accuses Meg of being a liar. Meg screams and, when a neighbor shows up, accuses Nate of attacking her. Nate denies it, but Cory believes Meg. 

She begins withdrawing money from Cory’s bank account and collects all the incriminating information on Cory she found. She makes copies of all the material and delivers it to the president of the school board and the LA Times. 

Then she drives by her old house one more time. Ron is there and she’s furious that he’s living in her house while her mother is dead.

---

Present Day  (2019) Kat

Ten years after her assault by Nate, Kat feels that Meg set her up and didn’t warn her that Nate was a predator. After the rape, a traumatized Kat quit her job at the paper and began working as a researcher. Exposing Meg is both revenge and Kat’s way back to the career she worked so hard for.

The Lies I Tell: Kat finds Meg’s Villain Origin Story

Kat traces Meg to a house in Brentwood inherited by Meg’s mom, Rosie. In 2004, Rosie gave Ron Ashton title to the house, then died. Kat finds a neighbor who remembers a huge fight between Rosie and Ron, then Rosie and Meg moving out 

Kat follows Meg’s early 2000s trail to Seattle, Oregon, and Phoenix. In each city she assumed a fake identity, stole something, then vanished.

Now, in 2019, Meg is back to using her real name, which fascinates Kat, though she is certain that Meg’s entire real estate bio is fake. Kat calls Meg and says she’s a friend of Ron Ashton looking for a house.

Kat Learns Another Important Part of Meg’s Mission

Meg tells Kat the sad story of losing her mom and their family house. They go to lunch and Meg asks Kat if she doesn’t think about holding men accountable. (This will be important!) Kat tells her boyfriend Scott she’s not sure what scam Meg is running. Scott says to find out what she’s been doing, as most con artists pull the same scam over and over. 

We get some insight into Meg’s scam, which does involve real estate! She is showing Ron houses to buy.

The Lies I Tell: Why Meg Hates Ron

Meg tells Kat that her mother was sick and needed to refinance their house. Ron agreed to cosign the loan if she put him on the title. He promised to pay for repairs and then they’d sell the house and split the profits. But he took her off the title, took the house, and kicked them out. 

Meg offers Kat a job as her assistant. Scott warns Kat that undercover work can make it hard to keep a line between you and your target.   Meg also knows that Kat isn’t who she says she is. She talked to one of Kat’s neighbors and found out her real last name and occupation.

Meg Finds Some Incriminating Dirt on Ron

Meg learns that Ron is committing tax fraud and misusing campaign funds. 

Kat Feels Like Someone is Scamming Her!

Kat is upset because it seems like Scott, a former gambling addict, is forgetting to pay their bills. Scott warns her that Meg is a con artist and could be responsible for messing with their accounts. Kat gets a text that someone is trying to access her account.

Kat tells Meg she’s writing a novel about a female con artist. Kat’s friend Jenna, who offered to help her with research on Meg, finds a strange real estate transaction to a company connected to Meg.

Two years ago, Meg Runs Another Scam

Pretending to be Melody Wilde, Meg scams Philip, who was divorcing his wife. Meg suggests Philip let her “hold” some of his assets so he can screw his wife over in their divorce. Then she’ll return them. Sure, Meg.

Present

Is Meg Scamming Kat?

Kat fears that Meg opened up a credit card in her name and ran up $30,000 of debt. Scott is furious and Kat files a police report accusing Meg of credit card fraud. But then finds a burner phone in Scott’s car, leading her to believe that he’s the one responsible.

Nope, It’s Scott

Scott confesses to opening up the credit card. Uh-oh..

Maybe Meg isn’t a Con Artist, but a Robin Hood?

Kat speaks to Philip’s sister, who tells her that Meg stole $350,000 from him. But Celia, Philip’s wife, says that after Philip sold their beach house to Meg for $20,000 to lower his net worth in the divorce, Meg gave the house back to Celia.

Kat kicks Scott out, but discovers he stole ten years of Kat’s investigative notes on Meg.

The Ending of The Lies I Tell, Explained

Meg finds Ron a house to buy knowing he’ll have to (illegally) use campaign money to fund it. She’s also made a fake real estate escrow website so he will pay her the money directly. (This is also illegal, Meg, and two wrongs don’t make a right!)

Kat Gets a Goodbye Gift from Meg

Meg tells Kat she wants to meet her at Meg’s former house. When Kat gets there, she finds an empty house, a check to pay off her credit card debt, and a note.

Meg tells Kat how much she valued their friendship. She insists that all the men she targeted deserved it. She leaves Kat a stash of notebooks with notes on all her cons. And she gives Kat her blessing to write her story.

The Lies I Tell: Meg Finally Gets Revenge on Ron

Meg tells Ron she’s conned him and that she donated the $7 million of his money she stole to the homeless. She tells him that if he reports the theft, the police will look into his finances and find all his shadiness. Then she heads for the airport and … what? Let’s save that for the discussion!

Kat realizes from Meg’s notebooks that Meg didn’t target her and send her to Nate. Meg just wanted to call the newspaper and tip them onto Nate. Putting Kat in Nate’s path was an accident.

Meg decides to reinvent her life. She won’t write her story about Meg, which she’s sure will just get turned into a sexy con artist story. She’ll write a novel instead.

Scott goes back to rehab. Kat decides to use Meg’s con artist road map to go after Nate.

Meg flies off to Costa Rica. Given The Last Flight, fingers crossed that she gets there! Check out my Spoiler Discussion for The Last Flight here!

---

Character List for The Lies I Tell

Kat Roberts – a reporter

Meg Williams – con artist

Scott – Kat’s fiancé, a detective

Jenna – Meg’s friend and a reporter

Veronica– new friend of Meg. 

David – Meg’s husband and Ron Ashton’s campaign manager. 

Ron Ashton– politician running for California State Senate

Cory Dempsey – math teacher from Northside, Meg’s high school; now the principal at a different school.

Roșie Williams – Meg’s mother

Emily – Meg’s grandmother

Dean – Meg’s father

Kristen – Meg’s friend who disappeared

Laura Lazar – friend of Kristen 

Nate Burgess– Cory Dempsey’s best friend

Cal – Meg’s friend from the Y, whom she ditches when she meets Cory.

Renata – woman scammed by Meg

Philip – Renata’s brother. Owns a grocery chain. Getting a divorce from Celia

Spoiler Discussion for The Lies I Tell

What did you think of Meg and Cat overall?

I loved how the book made my sympathize with Kat and feel like Meg deserved to be exposed as a fraud, and then made me sympathize with Meg and hope that she got away with it.

I didn’t have a favorite. As I read, I grew fond of them both.

Cameo Appearance by Claire and Eva at the end of The Lies I Tell

It was a nice nod to the first book. When Meg heads to the airport, was that a cameo appearance of Claire and Eva? Meg mentions two women seated next to each other, cooking up a plan. Hmmmm… is one of them wearing a PINK SWEATER?

Do you really think Meg can stop the con artist life?

Is she really going to sit on the porch and read?

The one thing about the story that felt unresolved to me:

Kat spends most of the book hating Meg and blaming her for the assault by Nate. I don’t mind Kat forgiving Meg instead of confronting her, but I wish it had happened as a scene between them.

---

What did you think of The Lies I Tell? Please leave a comment and let’s discuss! If you love stories about con artists, check out my review of The Lies I Tell, which has a list of my favorite con artist books and shows.

If you loved The Lies I Tell, check out Julie Clark’s other books, The Ghostwriter (2025) and The Last Flight (2020)