Never Tell a Lie: A Novel of Suspense

From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. An innocent yard sale jump-starts this stunning stand-alone thriller from Ephron, author of Amnesia and four other mysteries written with Donald Davidoff under the name G.H. Ephron (and one of the Ephron writing sisters), as well as two nonfiction books. Ivy and David Rose, happily married high school sweethearts, are trying to clear out the junk the previous owner left in their glorious Victorian in Brush Hills, Mass., before the birth of their first child. Among the bargain hunters is Melinda White, a high school classmate who's also pregnant. Considered an oddball in school, Melinda worries about more bad luck after nearly knocking over a large mirror. When Melinda disappears and no one can remember seeing her leave the sale, the evidence suggests the couple murdered her. Ephron doesn't miss a searing beat as she plunges the Roses into an abyss of suspicion. A surprise toward the end provides the perfect twist to this deliciously creepy tale of obsession. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From The award-winning mystery reviewer for the Boston Globe makes her debut with a light suspense novel featuring a hugely pregnant 33-year-old suburbanite. Ivy Rose and her husband, David, have just put the finishing touches on their newly rehabbed Victorian, and Ivy, intent on clearing out the junk left by the previous owner, decides to throw a yard sale. She is somewhat taken aback when a woman she has not seen since high school turns up. Melinda White is also pregnant and eager to bond with Ivy, who senses in Melinda’s increasingly intrusive questions vestiges of the lonely outcast she had been in high school. Ivy is immensely relieved when her husband rescues her, taking Melinda into the house for a tour. Days later, the police show up looking for Melinda. As evidence mounts that Melinda has been murdered, seemingly by David, Ivy is forced to do some detective work of her own. Despite the sinister undertones, Ephron never delves too deeply, instead offering a briskly moving plot and an entertaining portrait of a suburban community. --Joanne Wilkinson It all started with the yard sale. Ivy was eight months and one week pregnant when she insisted that she and her husband, David, clean out the junk they'd inherited with the old Victorian house they'd bought three years before. Call it nesting, call it nerves — she just wanted it all gone: the old electrical fixtures, the boxes of National Geographics from the 1960s, the four black wool greatcoats.Neither she nor David recognized the woman at first. But it turned out that the customer asking about the lime-green glass swan dish — the woman who looks just about as pregnant as Ivy — was none other than Melinda White, a former high school classmate of David and Ivy's. When Melinda was a child she used to play in their new house, she explained. It looked like they'd been doing some work. Would it be all right if she took a look around? David took Melinda inside. And she never came out.Now David's under police suspicion, and Ivy finds herself digging deep into the past to clear his name. But David's history, she begins to discover, is not necessarily the history she remembers, and before long Ivy has uncovered a twisted web of deceit, betrayal, and lies, both the ones we tell those we love and the ones we tell ourselves....Relentlessly fast-paced and disturbingly creepy, Never Tell a Lie is a page-turning thrill ride about how well we know the people we love, and how far we are willing to go to protect the secrets of our past. It all started with the yard sale. Ivy was eight months and one week pregnant when she insisted that she and her husband, David, clean out the junk theyd inherited with with the old Victorian house theyd bought three years before. Call it nesting, call it nervesshe just wanted it all gone: the old electrical fixtures, the boxes of National Geographic from the 1960s, the four black wool greatcoats. Neither she nor David recognized the woman at first. But it turned out that the customer asking about the lime-green glass swan dishthe woman who looked just about as pregnant as Ivywas none other than Melinda White, a former high school classmate of David and Ivys. When Melinda was a child she used to play in their new house, she explained. Would it be all right if she took a look around? David took Melinda inside. And she never came out. Now Davids under police suspicion, and Ivy finds herself digging deep into the past to clear his name. But Davids history, she begins to discover, is not necessarily the history she remembers, and before long Ivy has uncovered a twisted web of deceit, betrayal, and lies, both the ones we tell those we love and the ones we tell ourselves.... Relentlessly fast-paced and disturbingly creepy, Never Tell a Lie is a page-turning thrill ride about how well we know the people we love, and how far we are willing to go to protect the secrets of our past. “[A] richly atmospheric tale. You can imagine Hitchcock curling up with this one.”—USA TodayAuthor Hallie Ephron’s fast paced and disturbingly creepy Never Tell a Lie is a page-turning thrill ride that maestro Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud to call his own. A descent into gripping suburban terror, this stunner by the Ellen Nehr Award-winning mystery reviewer for the Boston Globe has been called “a snaky, unsettling tale of psychological suspense” by the Seattle Times. Fans of Mary Higgins Clark, Harlan Coben, and classic gothic mystery will adore this supremely suspenseful and consistently surprising story of a yard sale gone terribly wrong. Anticipating a promising future with the takeoff of her husband's business and the imminent birth of her first child, Ivy finds her happiness shattered when a former high-school classmate reappears in David's life, intimating a close friendship Ivy neverhad suspected Ivy And David Rose, Happily Married High School Sweethearts And Expecting Their First Child, Are Plunged Into A Growing Web Of Suspicion When A Young, Pregnant High School Classmate Disappears And David's Past Is Exposed In This Tale Of Obsession. Hallie Ephron.