46 pages • 1 hour read
Ashley ElstonFirst Lie Wins
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Malleability of Identity
The malleability of identity is an essential theme in First Lie Wins. The novel plays with the assumption of a fixed protagonist identity by giving Evie multiple identities and revealing these in non-chronological order. Evie’s various identities, therefore, become the means through which the narrative withholds and reveals the essential mysteries of the thriller plot.
From her childhood, Evie is primed to see identity as something malleable—an artifice that can be constructed and deconstructed to benefit the user. Evie’s mother’s work as a costume seamstress allows Evie to mold how others perceive her physically. This power is at play in all of the jobs Evie recounts, from her failed job infiltrating the fundraiser in Raleigh, in which she dresses to assume the identity of someone wealthier than she really is, to the Johnson job, in which she dons a wig to assume the identity of someone younger (102). Evie says that when her constructed identity is successful, “the adrenaline rush never gets old” (45). This suggests that, for Evie, the ability to mold other people’s perceptions of her is a source of pleasure as well as power.
Evie’s work with Mr. Smith spoils the pleasure she finds in constructing temporary identities, showing the importance of personal autonomy. The arrival of the Lucca-imposter is a symbol of Evie’s lack of control over her own self. It is a deeply unsettling moment for Evie and hearing the name “Lucca” affects her “like a shock of electricity” (42). Evie now knows she does not control the construction of her temporary identities and, moreover, her own private “real” identity has been stolen from her. By sending the Lucca-imposter, Mr. Smith shows Evie that he thinks he owns her and can erase her. As she tells Mr. Smith in her final confrontation with him, by killing off the Lucca-imposter and her only connection to her childhood/mother, he took “the one thing I cared about” (311).
Evie is able to overcome this loss, and eventually defeat Mr. Smith, by embracing the destruction of her past and the impermanence of identity. Evie takes control of her life and identity by actively asserting that she is still herself, regardless of external identity. Evie renders Mr. Smith’s footage of her in Amy’s hotel meaningless by fully embracing the bind that Mr. Smith has placed her in: she identifies the Lucca-imposter as the true Lucca Marino and, in so doing, divorces herself of her own past and the baggage that comes with it. This choice to let go of the past allows Evie to regain control over the one identity most visibly connected to her—the Evie Porter alias. This allows her also to begin a new life that won’t be haunted by the ghosts of her past. The construction of identity in First Lie Wins comes at a cost, but Evie’s ability to live in the gray spaces between “true” and “false” identities is expressive of a female character being ultimately in control of her own sense of self.
Community as a Source of Power
First Lie Wins uses the theme of community as a source of power as a means to develop the positive character and plot development of the novel, showing Evie progressing from isolation and fear into a supportive network of con artists. The ability to build community is key to the moral opposition between Evie and the antagonist Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith’s hubris lies in his treatment of other people as dispensable, contrasted with Evie’s appreciation of others’ value.
Evie spends much of the beginning of the novel in complete isolation. Her work with Mr. Smith ensures that no one except Mr. Smith can have a sense of her true identity. Mr. Smith ensures control over his employees by keeping them isolated not only from one another but also from any communities that they might try to integrate into. Evie knows that allowing any one person to learn too much about her history could ruin her alias and make her less valuable to Mr. Smith. This dynamic is apparent in every interaction Evie has with established communities through the beginning of the novel. Evie views her interactions with Ryan’s circle of friends as a power struggle in which she must maintain secrecy. When the women invite her to lunch, Evie conceptualizes this interaction as an “interrogation” (24); she shifts the venue of the luncheon to make the other women uncomfortable so that she can maintain some control over the situation (25). Evie not only resists integration into communities but also sees herself as someone who can exist only as an outsider, at odds with these communities.
Evie’s plan to unmask Mr. Smith depends on her rejection of this isolationist mindset. Evie realizes after the Tate job that Mr. Smith has made an error in allowing his employees to interact with one another. She realizes that if she can break through the defenses of people like Devon and Amy—other people who are used to isolation being the key to their survival—they could “combine resources. And brainstorm strategies. We could build a community” (246). Evie is able to defeat Mr. Smith because she builds trust amongst members of a fragmented community: she and Amy must trust that Devon can find Mr. Smith’s true identity; Amy must trust that Evie won’t double cross her; and Evie and Devon must trust that Amy will hand over the documents that prove Mr. Smith’s duplicity. The novel’s final two scenes, in which Evie tries to bring Ryan into their small, criminal community, underscores this movement toward learning to trust. Evie reveals all of the aspects of her identity that she’s kept hidden from Ryan. This act risks having her criminality exposed by Ryan, but also allows him into her community and allows them to progress into a real partnership. The domestic bliss that marks the novel’s closing scene suggests that Evie’s trust-built community brings the happiness, power, and security that she’s sought throughout the novel.
Duty and Decency
Evie’s relationships with duty and decency are continually at stake throughout First Lie Wins. Sometimes duty and decency are aligned and sometimes they are contradictory. Elston often creates tension in the narrative by putting Evie’s commitments to duty and decency at odds, forcing character development as Evie tries to navigate this difficult balance. In Evie’s life before meeting Mr. Smith, she views her criminality as an act of duty to her mother. Petty theft is how Evie supports her mother and pays for her cancer treatments; Evie’s selfless motivation creates a sense of decency that makes her relatable and sympathetic, despite her transgressive lifestyle. Evie’s early crimes have a Robin Hood-like quality as she typically steals from the wealthy out of genuine need. She quips during the Raleigh fundraiser con, “Yeah, I’m not going to feel bad about this one” (69) because her marks’ wealth is so excessive. Evie’s investment in her early robberies proves her sense of decency by characterizing her as both a good daughter and a class warrior.
Working for Mr. Smith begins to blur these boundaries for Evie. Evie’s mother dies shortly after she begins to work for Mr. Smith, which takes away her selfless motivation. Mr. Smith’s control also shifts the class framework in which Evie previously operated. While her targets are often powerful people, like Andrew Marshall or Mitchell Cameron, these men typically aren’t targeted because of their wealth. Instead, Evie manufactures situations that compromise the social/political power these men wield. While this endeavor might be noble if that power was being redistributed to the less powerful, Mr. Smith robs Evie’s jobs of any moral decency they might have by accumulating the power for himself. Mr. Smith’s employment shifts Evie from being a Robin Hood-like figure to a cog in a capitalistic criminal enterprise. Evie’s evident discomfort with this is shown by her need to disrupt Mr. Smith’s plans to meet her own moral benchmarks. In her interactions with her marks, she behaves in ways that subtly reduce the callousness of the crimes, even when this gets her into trouble.
Evie’s unmasking of Mr. Smith frees her from her duties to him. She is again able to choose for herself what “decency” will mean moving forward. By the end of the novel, Evie finds herself at the center of a small network of career criminals and with a powerful new identity that has no connections to her criminal past. She’s faced with a choice about how she’ll use this newfound social/economic position. The novel’s closing revelation that Evie has taken over Mr. Smith’s role is ambivalent about the moral choice that Evie makes. Evie no longer has a dutiful family motivation for crime and is acting of her own volition. The theme of Community as a Source of Power casts her decision in a positive light, however. Evie has created a new family for herself, and her ascension to Mr. Smith’s role gives her the opportunity to use her power to benefit this newfound community. The novel’s concluding revelation of Evie’s new “Miss Smith” identity allows for multiple moral interpretations.
