High school sweethearts Ivy and David are expecting their first child after years of trying, they're renovating a Victorian house, and David's business has finally become successful. This debut by the mystery reviewer for the Boston Globe and author of Writing and Selling Your Mystery opens with Ivy and David having a yard sale to get rid of things the previous owner left behind. During the sale, a woman who went to school with them years ago arrives unexpectedly and begins acting rather strangely toward the couple. When this woman goes missing and her car is found nearby with the newspaper ad for their sale circled, the police begin to suspect that Ivy and David are somehow involved. As the evidence mounts and clues are uncovered, David is charged with murder, and Ivy must find the truth. Although fans of the suspense genre won't be surprised by the plot twists here, this is an entertaining read with a strong ending and a great lead character in Ivy. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 9/1/08.]
Ephron (1001 Books for Every Mood, 2008, etc.) returns with the story of a Massachusetts couple who become suspects when an acquaintance disappears after attending their yard sale.
In love since high school, Ivy and David Rose are now in their early 30s and expecting their first child. When they hold a yard sale, Melinda White, a former classmate Ivy does not recognize and barely remembers as an unpopular geek, shows up glamorously transformed and exactly as pregnant as Ivy. Melinda buys a green glass knickknack and talks incessantly to Ivy until David offers to give her a tour of the Roses' Victorian house in which Melinda says she played as a child. After the yard sale, Ivy cuts her foot on a shard of green glass in the upstairs hall. That night she notices a woman who looks like her, only in sunglasses, going through an old trunk left out on the street. Three days later Melinda is declared missing. Soon detectives question Ivy and David. The shirt Melinda was wearing at the yard sale turns up in the trunk, bloody. A knife with the same blood shows up in David's truck. And then there's David's message on Melinda's answering machine. With so much blatant evidence appearing but no body, it is obvious to Ivy and David, if not to the doltish detective, that someone is trying to frame them. Readers don't need to ask ‘But who?' since Ivy's friend Jody remembers Melinda's obsession with Ivy and David. The not terribly original twist is that Melinda really was treated badly in high school. Although Ivy was not an active participant in the meaner episodes, she never came to Melinda's defense. And as Melinda's deranged revenge plot plays out, Ivy faces uncomfortable questions aboutDavid's role in Melinda's unhappy adolescence.
Mild creepiness is overly scripted with workmanlike prose into a blend of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and a humorless Monk.
Lovers of classic mysteries will adore Hallie Ephron’s NEVER TELL A LIE . . . [A] richly atmospheric tale. You can imagine Hitchcock curling up with this one.” — USA Today
“A slick little study in malevolence . . . wrenching . . . What makes the book memorable is its sharp characterization of a woman tormented by possibilities that she doesn’t want to consider.” — Washington Times
“[A] page-turner with a Hitchcockian opener.” — Sacramento Bee
“[A] fast-paced, exceptional tale that’s likely to keep you quickly flipping pages until the wee hours of the morning.” — Lansing State Journal
“Stunning . . . Ephron doesn’t miss a searing beat . . . A surprise toward the end provides the perfect twist to this deliciously creepy tale of obsession.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A]n entertaining read with a strong ending and a great lead character in Ivy.” — Library Journal
“Hallie Ephron’s NEVER TELL A LIE is a great discovery, compelling and chilling and all too credible. Someone once coined the word unputdownable to describe a James M. Cain novel, and this is one of those rare books that actually meets that standard.” — Laura Lippman, author of the New York Times bestseller Another Thing to Fall
“NEVER TELL A LIE takes us into a totally familiar, sharply drawn, ordinary suburban world — and then, like the best of Hitchcock, begins to turn the screws until the suspense becomes unbearable and you can’t stop reading until the last, ingenious twist.” — Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Power Play, Killer Instinct, and Paranoia
“Chilling, complex, and insidiously creepy. Hallie Ephron’s skilled storytelling produces the perfect suburban couple, then relentlessly twists their lives into distrust, deception, and danger. This compelling thriller proves: when secrets and lies fester into obsession, there’s no statute of limitations on revenge.” — Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha Award-winner and bestselling author of Prime Time
“Hallie Ephron keeps this exciting story whipping along while keeping the reader in delicious supense. Recommended to all lovers of suspense fiction.” — Anne Bernays
“Hallie Ephron’s NEVER TELL A LIE is a gripping, chilling, fast-paced psychological thriller, engrossing enough to stay with you long after you turn the final page. Truth be told, I’m still sleeping with the lights on!” — Claire Cook, bestselling author of Must Love Dogs and Wildwater Walking Club
“It’s impossible to combine ruthlessness, duplicity, a heinous crime and a heroic escape—if the protagonist is a 33-year-old woman nine months into a high-risk pregnancy. It’s impossible, unless you’re Hallie Ephron . . . You’ll hate to see this one end.” — Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Cage of Stars
“NEVER TELL A LIE should come with a warning label: You will not play with your children, cook your dinner, or go to sleep once you start reading Hallie Ephron’s debut novel!” — Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle
“Reminiscent of Single White Female and the best of gothic thrillers, NEVER TELL A LIE delivers a tale about obsession, relationships and forgiveness. Ephron quickly builds a foundation of psychological terror that doesn’t let up until the last surprise twist.” — Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
“[A] snaky, unsettling tale of psychological suspense.” — Seattle Times
“Suburban noir has rarely been done with such psychological insight or plot-twisting suspense.” — Boston Globe
“The plot is as cleverly structured as one of Mary Higgins Clark’s, but Ephron’s writing is vastly better.” — First Things
The plot is as cleverly structured as one of Mary Higgins Clark’s, but Ephron’s writing is vastly better.
Suburban noir has rarely been done with such psychological insight or plot-twisting suspense.
[A] snaky, unsettling tale of psychological suspense.
Reminiscent of Single White Female and the best of gothic thrillers, NEVER TELL A LIE delivers a tale about obsession, relationships and forgiveness. Ephron quickly builds a foundation of psychological terror that doesn’t let up until the last surprise twist.
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
NEVER TELL A LIE should come with a warning label: You will not play with your children, cook your dinner, or go to sleep once you start reading Hallie Ephron’s debut novel!
It’s impossible to combine ruthlessness, duplicity, a heinous crime and a heroic escape—if the protagonist is a 33-year-old woman nine months into a high-risk pregnancy. It’s impossible, unless you’re Hallie Ephron . . . You’ll hate to see this one end.
Hallie Ephron’s NEVER TELL A LIE is a gripping, chilling, fast-paced psychological thriller, engrossing enough to stay with you long after you turn the final page. Truth be told, I’m still sleeping with the lights on!
Hallie Ephron keeps this exciting story whipping along while keeping the reader in delicious supense. Recommended to all lovers of suspense fiction.
Chilling, complex, and insidiously creepy. Hallie Ephron’s skilled storytelling produces the perfect suburban couple, then relentlessly twists their lives into distrust, deception, and danger. This compelling thriller proves: when secrets and lies fester into obsession, there’s no statute of limitations on revenge.
NEVER TELL A LIE takes us into a totally familiar, sharply drawn, ordinary suburban world — and then, like the best of Hitchcock, begins to turn the screws until the suspense becomes unbearable and you can’t stop reading until the last, ingenious twist.
Hallie Ephron’s NEVER TELL A LIE is a great discovery, compelling and chilling and all too credible. Someone once coined the word unputdownable to describe a James M. Cain novel, and this is one of those rare books that actually meets that standard.
[A] fast-paced, exceptional tale that’s likely to keep you quickly flipping pages until the wee hours of the morning.
[A] page-turner with a Hitchcockian opener.
A slick little study in malevolence . . . wrenching . . . What makes the book memorable is its sharp characterization of a woman tormented by possibilities that she doesn’t want to consider.
Lovers of classic mysteries will adore Hallie Ephron’s NEVER TELL A LIE . . . [A] richly atmospheric tale. You can imagine Hitchcock curling up with this one.
