Book ~ "The Lie Maker" (2023) Linwood Barclay

From Goodreads ~ Your dad's not a good person. Your dad killed people, son.

These are some of the last words Jack Givins' father spoke to him before he was whisked away by witness protection, leaving Jack and his mother to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives as best they could.

Years later, Jack is a grown man with problems of his own. He's a talented but struggling author, barely scraping by on the royalties from his moderately successful first book. So when the U.S. Marshals approach him with a lucrative opportunity, he's in no position to turn them down. They're recruiting writers like Jack to create false histories for people in witness protection - people like Jack's father.

The coincidence is astonishing to Jack at first but he soon realizes this may be a chance to find his dad. Only there's one problem - Jack's father hasn't made contact with his handlers recently and they have no idea where he is. He could be in serious danger and Jack may be the only one who can find him.

But how will he find a man he's never truly known? A man who has done terrible things in his lifetime and made some deadly enemies in the process - enemies who wouldn't think twice about using his own son against him.

Jack is an author. His first two books were minor successes and he's trying to get his third book published but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. He's approached by U.S. Marshals with an interesting proposition to create the back stories of people who are heading into the witness protection program. He will be paid well so he accepts as he has no other prospects and no money.

Jack's father had been put in the witness protection program many years ago and Jack realizes this new job may be a way to track him down and make sure he's okay. So he asks Gwen, his U.S. Marshals contact, to do some digging and she discovers his father has been missing for a while. Jack decides to try and find him, with the help of Gwen and Lana, his reporter girlfriend.

I've read many books by this author and I thought this one was okay. It is written in first person perspective when it's Jack's voice and third person perspective from other points of view, depending on where the action was. As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.