The highly anticipated third novel in the award-winning Ellery Hathaway mystery series. FBI agent Reed Markham is haunted by one painful unsolved mystery: who murdered his mother? Camilla was brutally stabbed to death more than forty years ago while baby Reed lay in his crib mere steps away. The trail went so cold that the Las Vegas Police Department has given up hope of solving the case. But … the case. But then a shattering family secret changes everything Reed knows about his origins, his murdered mother, and his powerful adoptive father, state senator Angus Markham. Now Reed has to wonder if his mother’s killer is uncomfortably close to home.
Unable to trust his family with the details of his personal investigation, Reed enlists his friend, suspended cop Ellery Hathaway, to join his quest in Vegas. Ellery has experience with both troubled families and diabolical murderers, having narrowly escaped from each of them. She’s eager to skip town, too, because her own father, who abandoned her years ago, is suddenly desperate to get back in contact. He also has a secret that could change her life forever, if Ellery will let him close enough to hear it.
Far from home and relying only on each other, Reed and Ellery discover young Camilla had snared the attention of dangerous men, any of whom might have wanted to shut her up for good. They start tracing his twisted family history, knowing the path leads back to a vicious killer–one who has been hiding in plain sight for forty years and isn’t about to give up now.
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FBI Agent Reed Markham has always known he was adopted. How could he not, living within a family with 3 light skinned blond sisters and him with his Spanish coloring. He also knew that his mother had been killed and her killer had never been apprehended. It’s 40 years later and Reed has learned that the book on her murder will be closed as no new clues have surfaced. Reed isn’t about to let that happen…he wants to know who the killer was. Along with Ellery Hathaway who is on suspension from the Boston police department, they have come to Las Vegas to dig into the old files.
Reed and Ellery have a history of their own, albeit a strange one, but one that keeps them coming together.
“All the Best Lies” provides more questions than Reed or Ellery could have ever imagined. A book I could not put down with enough suspects to keep my interest and a hope that even after 40 years, a mystery could be solved. Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press..Minotaur Press for an ARC of this book. The comments and review are my honest opinion.
ALL THE BEST LIES by Joanna Schaffhausen is a crime thriller, a police procedural and the third book in the Ellery Hathaway mystery series. It is set mostly in Nevada and worked for me as a standalone novel.
The main characters are FBI agent Reed Markham and a suspended police officer Ellery Hathaway. Reed decides to pursue a cold case; the unsolved murder of his birth mother. He enlists the help of Ellery and they head to Las Vegas, the site of the murder. I don’t want to say any more about the story details because that would detract from a reader’s enjoyment of the book.
The characters are compelling, fascinating, and felt three-dimensional. There was enough at stake to keep me engaged throughout the story. The world-building was absolutely fantastic and gave a clear sense of place. The different thought processes and methods of the two main characters lent a fresh perspective to the story. Their strong connection adds to the story line without detracting from the main case. While I was able to determine the villain, there were a lot of twists and one reveal that completely surprised me. A variety of themes are woven into this novel including murder, friendship, the relationships between local police departments and the FBI, family relationships, how past events impact our current lives, emotional healing, DNA testing, and much more.
Overall, the plot was creative, absorbing and well-paced. I would recommend it to those that enjoy police procedurals and crime thrillers. I look forward to reading the next book in this series as well as checking out the earlier books in this series.
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Press and Joanna Schaffhausen for a digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley and the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
Wow! The third book in the Ellery Hathaway series was almost impossible to put down! I have read the first two books and cannot recommend them highly enough, but reading them is not necessary to understand the story in this third book in the series. The plot was gripping, involving FBI agent Reed Markham taking time off from his job to find out who killed his Puerto Rican mother forty years before. In his quest for the truth, Reed finds some other truths that are hard for him to accept. He asks suspended Boston police woman Ellery Hathaway to accompany him on his journey to Las Vegas to try to ferret out the facts about Camille’s death. Ellery deals with her own family problems in the book, although her problems are kind of an aside to Reed’s discoveries that are almost staggering. Joanna Schaffhausen does a masterful job of weaving an intricate plot that keeps getting deeper until at last, at the bottom of a long well, the truth is revealed. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Reed and Ellery better, especially the background about Reed’s family. This is a tale of love of family and sacrifice as well as the pursuit of truth and justice that has been delayed for four decades. I appreciated the intriguing plot, the well-woven characters and the mystery within a mystery that kept me guessing. The past if part of the present in this spell-binding tale of self-discovery. Fans of suspense and thrillers will really enjoy this book!
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising