The Liar’s Treasure
The Liar’s Treasure (A Speranza Team Novel)
By: Connie Mann
[Fulfilled ‘A book that takes place in 3+ countries’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2026 Reading Challenge]
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]
“‘You have been deemed a liar. You proclaim your desire to do good in this world, yet you sin under cover of darkness. The price for your transgressions is death.’”
Just like its predecessor, The Crown Conspiracy, The Liar’s Treasure reads like a movie! It’s a thrill ride from start to finish as Mann takes us from New Orleans to Italy to Germany and the Bahamas on a dangerous treasure hunt.
There is some overlap in characters from the first book as it is a Speranza Team Novel, but where The Crown Conspiracy focused on Sophie and Lise, this one centers on team member Camille and her daughter Cass.
The Speranza team is made up of all women— a centuries old ‘organization’ of women specializing in secretly helping women and children.
Of course, with a global adventure of danger and treasure, the team comes to her aid and we get Sophie, with her forging, thieving, and lock-picking skills, Mercy, the nun with the medical expertise, and Hank, the vehicular expert/driver/pilot/MacGyver person back in action.
Picasso is their research/tech gal but apparently she had recently undergone some surgery related to her mysterious scars and was unavailable to help. Considering there is not much time spent on this in the book, I would assume it might related to whatever story comes next. I like the continuity in the series and threads that continue in other books, so if it is actually not part of anything, I’ll probably be annoyed because why else include it here. If it’s not going to be anything in the future, then they should have just had Picasso helping them. So let’s hope it’s foreshadowing!
Sidenote: I’m not sure what Camille’s niche/role in the group is… She is a photographer but I don’t think that was her special set of skills. Is it fighting? Fill me in.
The Crown Conspiracy happened in the art world. The Liar’s Treasure happens in the ‘pirate’ world! Like The Crown Conspiracy, the book begins with a prologue that takes place in the 1700s. On a ship. Where pirates encounter a book carried by a girl. It supposedly judges motives of whoever touches the book (harking back to the biblical account of Ananias and Sapphira who lied about their money). Those unworthy to handle the book and the treasure it points to, fall over dead. Which is exactly what happens to one particular pirate, right before the girl jumps overboard and escapes with the book.
Fast forward to present day when Camille’s daughter, Cass, is given an old pirate diary from her treasure-hunting, indebted to mobsters uncle, Marcel. Because she’s a teen, she obviously posts pictures of it on Instagram unwittingly leading all kinds of dangerous treasure hunters to their doorstep to intercept the diary which allegedly contains clues to where the Book of Days (the judging book) and the Liar’s Treasure can be found.
They spur into action and Camille is torn between wanting to be with Cass to keep her safe and needing to lead people away from Cass and make sure the treasure doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Unfortunately, Camille’s mother, Octavia (who also works for Speranza and is tasked with watching over Cass) makes a really dumb decision to meet someone 'with information’, takes Cass, and of course walks right into a trap and Cass is kidnapped. The stakes are even higher for Camille as her motivation is now finding the treasure to get her daughter back.
Because there were so many different groups of people going after them and the book, it was a little challenging knowing who was with who and what their motives were.
The secondary plot that gets woven in is a school friend of Camille’s, Jolie, who needs help. She works at a non-profit organization that has water projects building wells in other countries. One of her colleagues was suspected of poisoning one of their newest wells in Romania and then is found murdered.
Mann connects this plot with the treasure part, and there ends up being a Liar’s Trial at the NPO’s summit which is the climax of the book. But the connection between the well situation and the treasure situation felt a little tenuous and distracting. The epilogue wrapped up some of the loose ends but not really in the most satisfying way.
As with The Crown Conspiracy, The Liar’s Treasure has to have it’s own romantic plot line. We already got Sophie and Mac’s story (Mac does have a short cameo in this book so we know they are still a thing).
Now we have Camille and Lucien. Camille’s first husband, JT, was killed while deployed in the military. Lucien was best friends with JT in high school and feels responsible for his death, believing he convinced him to join the military.
Apparently Camille and Lucien shared a kiss back in high school while Camille was still with JT. It’s been years now— JT died right before Cass was born— but feelings are rekindled for Camille and Lucien. Oh yeah, Lucien is in the mix because his family most likely descended from pirates and they’re after the Liar’s Treasure. Actually both Camille’s and Lucien’s family believe have a aright to the book because they descended from the original family who owned the Book of Days.
Thus Lucien is partially forbidden love because he is also their opposition in locating the treasure. Lucien’s loyalty to his grandpa seems at odds with his feelings for Camille and wanting to keep Cass (JT’s daughter) safe, and he has to work through that tension.
Plus ANOTHER side plot— I guess this book had more layers than I thought— is this vigilante person who has taken it upon themself to exact justice on those who are corrupted and hiding their ‘sins’, lying about their virtue. That person said the quote I put at the beginning of this review right before he killed them.
The showdown between all the different parties occurs at the Liar’s Trial when all is revealed.
It’s a lot to pack into a book so some parts get a little lost or are hard to follow, but I bet if I read it through a second time, more things would come together— just like watching a layered movie again.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the teenager-ruining-things-by-posting-stuff-online-and-texting-her-friends trope or of Octavia’s decision to meet for information as if they really needed any, but for the most part I was fine with how the story played out.
I enjoyed the different settings of the book— New Orleans is a fun starting point. And then we go global— I like to read about real places and what they have to offer.
I’ve been to Florence and walked up to the very top of the Duomo so that was a nostalgic reference for me.
Some other things that caught my attention:
The Moon Church of Oradea in Romania that has a mechanism in its spire that tracks the phases of the moon. It reminded me of the astronomical clock I saw in Prague last fall that is featured in Dan Brown’s newest book, The Secret of Secrets.
There was reference to Florence in the 1500s and a ring of women who used poison to get rid of their husbands. I think this is a disputed historical claim, but it did remind me of the premise of Sarah Penner’s book, The Lost Apothecary, if that interests you.
The Heidelberg Castle in Germany that has the world’s largest wine barrel. They talked of a dance floor on top of it and it helped to google this because I was having a hard time picturing what was described in the book. My research says it was rarely used to actually store wine so I’m not sure how much of what was included in this book was legend or historical fact.
I think some readers have read this as a standalone and thought it worked that way, but I do think it would be helpful to read The Crown Conspiracy first to understand more about the team and how it works.
I wouldn’t say the faith theme is super overt but the phrase ‘putting feet to my faith’ was prevalent. I do like the idea that our faith is not a passive thing but an active thing— that we are called to live it out, not wait around for stuff to happen. That we often need to step out in faith even when things are unsure.
Now, did these characters HAVE to find the treasure and put their faith into action in that way? I’m not so sure. I guess once Cass was kidnapped and they needed to solve the murder of Jolie’s coworker before more people were hurt, then it became a necessity, but the beginning part of this journey seemed a little dicey in that regard.
Nonetheless, I appreciate a good clean, exciting story that emphasizes faith and family while we’re out gettin’ the bad guys. Plus the whole treasure hunt for the Speranza team was not financially driven which was good too.
Recommendation
All in all, I love the Speranza team and seeing their varied skills at work. I love the action-packed writing style. There were a few parts that were hard to follow and not all the layers fit together as nicely as I would have liked, but this was still a really enjoyable read and a series I’ll continue to read!
The more books we get in this series, the more full each character will be. There are a lot of possibilities for this series to expand so I’m excited to see where else Connie Mann decides to take it!
[Content Advisory: No swearing or sexual content, some violence— it’s not every day a nun bashes a guy with an altar piece]
**Received a copy via Tyndale Publishing in exchange for an honest review**
This book releases in March, 2026. You can pre-order/order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
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