To Tell You the Truth: A Novel

by Gilly Macmillan

Overview

Named a New York Times Best Thriller of the Year and Best Book to Gift! 

"An unsettling and atmospheric thriller that’s almost impossible to put down . . . Will keep you guessing right up until its satisfying but unexpected conclusion." — Buzzfeed

"Riveting." — The New York Times Book Review

The acclaimed author of The Nanny and What She Knew—hailed by stalwarts including Ruth Ware, Liane Moriarty, Tess Gerritsen, and Shari Lapena—returns with another serpentine thriller that cleverly blends atmosphere, tarnished memories, mystery, and twisty secrets from the past into a potent, intense read that will leave you questioning everything you believe.

To tell you the truth . . . everybody lies.

Lucy Harper’s talent for writing bestselling novels has given her fame, fortune and millions of fans.  It’s also given her Dan, her needy, jealous husband whose own writing career has gone precisely nowhere.

Now Dan has vanished. But this isn’t the first time that someone has disappeared from Lucy’s life. Three decades ago, her little brother Teddy also went missing and was never found. Lucy, the only witness, helplessly spun fantasy after fantasy about Teddy’s disappearance, to the detectives’ fury and her parents’ despair. That was the start of her ability to tell a story—a talent she has profited from greatly. 

But now Lucy’s a grown woman who can’t hide behind fiction any longer. The world is watching, and her whole life is under intense scrutiny. A life full of stories, some more believable than others. Could she have hurt Teddy?  Did she kill Dan?  Finally, now, Lucy Harper’s going to tell the truth.

Cross her heart.

And hope to die.

"Spellbinding . . . Bold, suspenseful, and impossible to put down. This one will stay with me for a long time." — Samantha Downing, #1 internationally bestselling author of My Lovely Wife

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062875594
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	08/10/2021
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	126,063
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Gilly Macmillan is the internationally bestselling author of What She Knew, The Perfect Girl, Odd Child Out, I Know You Know, The Nanny, and To Tell You the Truth. She resides in Bristol, England.

Editorial Reviews

Spellbinding . . . Bold, suspenseful, and impossible to put down. This one will stay with me for a long time.

Samantha Downing

One of the most unsettling—and unforgettable—heroines I’ve ever met.” 

Shari Lapena on To Tell You The Truth

Riveting . . . Macmillan merrily leads us down many wrong paths, all the while examining the gap between fact and fiction and the relationship between author and subject. We cheerfully follow.

New York Times Book Review on To Tell You the Truth

"An atmospheric, fast-paced read with an unreliable narrator right at its center."

Popsugar on To Tell You the Truth

"Macmillan's latest is an unsettling and atmospheric thriller that’s almost impossible to put down. Told from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, it will keep you guessing right up until its satisfying but unexpected conclusion."

Buzzfeed on To Tell You the Truth

"Macmillan's latest is an unsettling and atmospheric thriller that’s almost impossible to put down. Told from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, it will keep you guessing right up until its satisfying but unexpected conclusion."
%COMM_CONTRIB%Buzzfeed on To Tell You the Truth

Macmillan expertly crafts her novel about a novelist to craft a dazzling puzzle as readers try to piece together what happened to Dan and whether or not they can trust Lucy’s unreliable narrations. Readers won’t be able to put down the book as Lucy grows increasingly unraveled by the events surrounding her and teeters toward disaster.

null The Ridgefield Press on To Tell You the Truth

"Macmillan's latest is an unsettling and atmospheric thriller that’s almost impossible to put down. Told from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, it will keep you guessing right up until its satisfying but unexpected conclusion."

null Buzzfeed on To Tell You the Truth

★ 08/24/2020

Bestselling mystery writer Lucy Harper, the insecure heroine of this outstanding suspense novel from Edgar finalist Macmillan (The Nanny), is the creator of capable and astute Det. Sgt. Eliza Grey, based on an imaginary childhood friend. Chapters that recount a tragedy in Lucy’s past alternate with the main narrative. In 1991, when Lucy was nine years old, she snuck out of her home with her three-year-old brother, Teddy, to see a Summer Solstice celebration taking place in the woods outside Bristol, England. Lucy returned in the early hours of the morning; Teddy did not. Lucy’s only emotional support during the difficult period that followed was her imaginary friend, Eliza, who gradually evolved into her fictional police detective. In the present, trouble begins when Lucy’s publishers all reject her new novel—because Eliza isn’t in it. Lucy’s rapacious husband, Dan, is also angry at her decision, as it signals a loss in income. When Dan disappears, the police consider Lucy a suspect. Who can she trust? Herself? Her creation? This deliciously multilayered tale provides genuine, shocking surprises that culminate in a satisfying and unexpected conclusion. Macmillan is a master of misdirection. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency (Canada). (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Macmillan expertly crafts her novel about a novelist to craft a dazzling puzzle as readers try to piece together what happened to Dan and whether or not they can trust Lucy’s unreliable narrations. Readers won’t be able to put down the book as Lucy grows increasingly unraveled by the events surrounding her and teeters toward disaster.

The Ridgefield Press on To Tell You the Truth

The Nanny kept me in white-knuckled suspense until the very last page. Gilly Macmillan’s breakout thriller is a dark and twisted version of “Downton Abbey” gone very, very wrong.

Tess Gerritsen

"A dazzling thriller with a compelling and unreliable narrator, To Tell You the Truth is fresh, bold and ferociously smart ." 

Christina McDonald

Riveting . . . Macmillan merrily leads us down many wrong paths, all the while examining the gap between fact and fiction and the relationship between author and subject. We cheerfully follow.

The New York Times Book Review on To Tell You the Truth

"An atmospheric, fast-paced read with an unreliable narrator right at its center."

null Popsugar on To Tell You the Truth

04/01/2020

In Flynn/Mills's Total Power, CIA counterterrorist agent Mitch Rapp and his team capture ISIS's top technology expert but fail to stop ISIS from blowing out America's entire power grid, and now they must find the ISIS agents who did it or the country will be in the dark for a long time coming (500,000-copy first printing; eight-city tour). Hiaasen goes for dark political humor in Squeeze Me, with Florida-based presidential supporter Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons found dead after a high society event, the president blaming crazed immigrants, the first lady claiming a Secret Service agent as her paramour, and pythons inexplicably overrunning the environs (talk about squeeze!). In Chaos, Johansen introduces paint-outside-the-lines CIA agent Alisa Flynn, helped by Croesus-rich inventor Gabe Korgan and animal whisperer Margaret Douglas as she seeks to rescue schoolgirls kidnapped from their African boarding school. In Nanny author Macmillan's To Tell You the Truth, mystery writer Lucy Harper's obsequious husband has vanished, as did her brother three decades ago, and she must struggle to get control of these echoing narratives before it's too late (100,000-copy first printing). In Nesbø's The Kingdom, village mechanic Roy is increasingly alarmed by the return home of greedy entrepreneur brother Carl, whom he used to protect from bullies, especially when dark secrets about the town and especially their parents' deaths start surfacing. Patterson/Barker's The California Murders scurries from Los Angeles to upstate New York as Det. Garrett Hobbs and FBI Agent Jessica Gimble try to solve a cascading series of lookalike murders that seem to be instigated by members of the Fitzgerald family—but which ones? In Robb's Shadows in Death, Lt. Eve Dallas investigates when an heiress is found dead in Washington Square Park, even as Eve's husband, Roarke, spots notorious killer-for-hire and personal nemesis Lorcan Cobbe standing idly by in the gathering crowd (750,000-copy first printing). In the acclaimed Walker's Don't Look for Me (following The Night Before), Nicole heads to the town where her mother was last seen and begins uncovering details that could lead her to the truth (75,000-copy first printing). Finally, in Ware's One by One, an avalanche traps colleagues gathered at a beautifully situated chalet to promote mindfulness and collaboration, and not all of them make it out smiling (400,000-copy first printing).

Library Journal