"Dares to go where many others won't" - review of THE TRUTH ABOUT RUBY COOPER

THE TRUTH ABOUT RUBY COOPER by Liz Nugent (Penguin, March 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

'If my sister hadn’t been beautiful, none of it would have happened.'

Ruby Cooper and her sister, Erin, live an idyllic life in their close-knit church community in Boston. But when Ruby is sixteen, she is involved in an incident that causes her family’s world to implode. Across decades, the fallout leaves a wake of destruction behind Ruby in Dublin and Erin in Boston.

Not that Ruby wants to think about the past. But it can’t stay a secret forever.? 

Let’s start with understatement: Liz Nugent certainly knows how to spin a compelling yarn. Not just compelling with a capital C, but in all caps. 

The bestselling Irish author has a masterful touch for hooking readers with intense, high-stakes situations then leading us through an emotional minefield alongside pretty hard-to-like protagonists. 

There’s a bravery throughout her oeuvre; she dares to go where many others don’t, via characters studies of some rather horrendous people. A wife-beater (Unravelling Oliver), a wealthy judge and his wife covering up a horrible crime (Lying in Wait), a trio of brothers taking sibling rivalry to toxic, deadly levels (Our Little Cruelties) – Nugent’s thrillers are atypical, and her characters often the worst in the room, or many rooms, yet bizarrely engaging.

In her sixth novel in twelve years, The Truth About Ruby Cooper, Nugent immerses readers in the family-shattering aftermath of a life-altering incident between Ruby, the sixteen year-old daughter of a popular Boston pastor, and Milo, her older sister Erin’s boyfriend, one afternoon when the pair are alone together in the Cooper family home. 

Accusations, he-said/she-said, DNA evidence, lawyers and courtrooms, traumatising cross-examination. A community in shock. Lives never the same. Ruby and her mother flee to Ireland. Erin and her father stay in Boston. Can time, or distance, really heal?

Guilt and shame, anger and blame. 

How do you come back from the worst thing you’ve ever experienced? Nugent doesn’t spare readers, delivering haymaker reveals early that other authors may save til a finale; before diving deeper. How far will a poisonous act flow – over years and decades, through relationships and generations? 

Nugent has a rare ability to pack a novel’s worth of drama into the first half or third of a book, without it feeling overstuffed, then delivering even more unforgettable moments the rest of the way. She delves into deeply personal matters, while touching on wider themes of justice, addiction, and family. Smooth writing, layered and nuanced storytelling that hums with authenticity. 

The Truth About Ruby Cooper isn’t an easy read, but it is a brilliant one..

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.