The Good Lie

by A. R. Torre

Overview

Six teens murdered. A suspect behind bars. A desperate father. In a case this shadowy, the truth is easy to hide.

Psychiatrist Dr. Gwen Moore is an expert on killers. She’s spent a decade treating California’s most depraved predators and unlocking their motives—predators much like the notorious Bloody Heart serial killer, whose latest teenage victim escaped and then identified local high school teacher Randall Thompson as his captor. The case against Thompson as the Bloody Heart Killer is damning—and closed, as far as Gwen and the media are concerned. If not for one new development…

Defense attorney Robert Kavin is a still-traumatized father whose own son fell prey to the BH Killer. Convinced of Thompson’s innocence, he steps in to represent him. Now Robert wants Gwen to interview the accused, create a psych profile of the killer and his victims, and help clear his client’s name.

As Gwen and Robert grow closer and she dives deeper into the investigation, grave questions arise. So does Gwen’s suspicion that Robert is hiding something—and that he might not be the only one with a secret.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781542020169
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	07/20/2021
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	13,416
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

A. R. Torre is a pseudonym for New York Times bestselling author Alessandra Torre. Torre is an award-winning bestselling author of more than twenty novels. She has been featured in such publications as ELLE and ELLE UK and has guest blogged for the Huffington Post. In addition to her writing, Torre is the creator of Alessandra Torre Ink, a website, community, and online school for aspiring and published authors. Learn more at www.alessandratorre.com.

Editorial Reviews

05/10/2021

This effective thriller from bestseller Torre (If You Dare) opens with teenager Scott Harden staggering home after apparently escaping from the Bloody Heart Killer, who has kidnaped, sexually tortured, and killed six other high school students, “all popular, wealthy, and well liked,” over the last three years. When Scott identifies science teacher Randall Thompson as the BHK, the case seems closed. However, high-profile attorney Robert Kavin, father of one of the earlier victims, declares that he doesn’t believe Thompson is guilty and volunteers to lead his defense. Robert hires Gwen Moore, a psychiatrist who specializes in potentially dangerous clients, to prepare a profile of the killer and match it to Thompson, but Gwen is distracted by the recent suicide of one of her most disturbed patients, John Abbott. Should she have seen it coming—and why is Robert so curious about Abbott? Meanwhile, Scott’s mother realizes that the young man is lying. The erotic tension between Gwen and Robert adds heat to the tricky plot. This kinky tale is compulsively readable. Agent: Maura Kye-Casella, Don Congdon Assoc. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Good Lie

“Ambitious and twisty…Great bedtime reading for insomniacs and people willing to act like insomniacs just this once.” —Kirkus Reviews

“This kinky tale is compulsively readable.” —Publishers Weekly

“A blend of serial killer story, court cases and even romance, this is a tricky story that will keep readers going.” —The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

Praise for Every Last Secret

“Deliciously, sublimely nasty: Mean Girls for grown-ups.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Torre keeps the suspense high…Readers will be riveted from page one.” —Publishers Weekly

“A glamorous and seductive novel that will suck you in and knock you sideways. I love this story, these characters, and the raw emotion they generated in me. I devoured every word. Exceptional.” —Tarryn Fisher, New York Times bestselling author

“Raw and riveting. A clever ride that will make you question everyone and everything.” —Meredith Wild, #1 New York Times bestselling author

From the Publisher

2021-05-05
A vertiginous tale of serial kidnapping and murder that begins with a miracle and then heads sharply downhill.

There’s a reason Gwen Moore is known as the Doc of Death. The patients in her psychiatric practice have angry, volatile, or violent histories; they’re people who are afraid they’re going to hurt somebody. On the morning she fails to respond to messages from pharmacist John Abbott, who’s expressed mounting hostility toward his wife, Brooke, the couple are both found dead in their home, she stricken by a heart attack, he stabbed in the stomach. So Gwen, overwhelmed with guilt, is in no mood to celebrate the miraculous escape of Beverly High School senior Scott Harden, the seventh victim the Bloody Heart Killer has kidnapped and imprisoned and the only one to survive with his genitalia and his life. Even better, Scott quickly identifies his captor as BHS science teacher Randall Thompson. But as attorney Robert Kavin, whose son, Gabe, was the Bloody Heart Killer’s sixth victim, tells Gwen shortly after he picks her up at a bar and follows her home to bed, he’s so far from convinced that Thompson is the man who killed his son that he offers to defend him pro bono and asks Gwen to join his team as a consultant who can assemble a psychological profile that will prove that Thompson isn’t the murderer—unless of course it proves that he is. If the tale isn’t as tightly wound as Every Last Secret (2020), it’s a good deal more ambitious and twisty, and even readers who see some of its surprises coming will be alarmed and shocked by others.

Great bedtime reading for insomniacs and people willing to act like insomniacs just this once.

Kirkus Reviews