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 … 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
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In true Gilly Macmillan fashion, this book will make you question everything. TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH will have you examining every twist and turn, disbelieving whatever the characters say, and wondering about all the seemingly innocent little details sprinkled throughout. Meanwhile, Gilly weaves a masterfully told story around you, and which ensnares you entirely. Spine-tingling and utterly engrossing, this book kept me up late into the night as I was desperate to separate the lies from the truth, and to find out what really happened on the nights two people went missing. A fantastic read!
A successful writer runs away from her past, her diabolical imaginary friend, and her manipulative husband in this engrossing house of mirrors that is never quite what you think. Thrilling!
I had two starts to this book. The first one, the timing was bad for me. A few days later I started again. I only got a quarter of the way through when things happened again. I picked it up last night intending to read for an hour. I read until I finished it. It was that good!
The book is told along two time frames in the narrators life. When Lucy was a child she went out in the woods with her three year old brother. It was solstice night and there was a celebration in the woods. Two children went into the woods. One came back. Now, years later, Lucy is married and a very successful author of a mystery series. Dan, her husband, surprises her with a new home, near where she grew up. Now Dan is missing.
My thoughts. Lucy is a complicated character. She has an imaginary friend who became the main character in a mystery series Lucy authors. The fantasy/reality line is blurry for Lucy. I found her to be a fascinating character who, despite knowing she embellishes the truth, was someone I liked. Eliza, the imaginary friend, seemed to be the stronger of the two who was protective of Lucy. Possibly too protective. Dan I wasn’t fond of though he did support Lucy’s work. But, of course, he also benefited from her success. My heart wept for Teddy. A missing child always tugs at my heart. The stories are told along side of each other. You can clearly identify which is the story of Teddy and which is present day. I had no problem with going in and out of them. The author kept me riveted with both mysteries. There were enough twists to keep me turning pages. I even forgot my coffee which was ice cold by the time I remembered it. I absolutely recommend this book to fans of mystery and psychological thrillers.
I received an advanced readers copy, uncorrected electronic copy, for review consideration from William Morrow through Scene of the Crime and NetGalley. My review is voluntary.
A dazzling thriller with a compelling and unreliable narrator, To Tell You The Truth is fresh, bold and ferociously smart. I highly recommend this pacey and intriguing thriller.
Wow, that is what I say Wow! I just despised Dan right from the beginning and just leave it at that. I did not see that end coming, I just wish we had closure for everything. BUT it is so worth the read, I just love Gilly Macmillan’s books, they keep you guessing all through out the book.
I recommend this book 100%
I have often wondered how writers of suspense, thriller, and/or mystery novels get their inspiration. Do they have vivid, violent dreams that keep them awake at night? Are they held hostage by the characters and stories that beg to come to life in their novels? In Gilly MacMillan’s new novel, To Tell You the Truth, the reader spends most of the book wondering if the main character, Lucy Harper, is capable of distinguishing between the fiction she writes and reality. She is such an unreliable narrator that the reader will constantly be second guessing whether or not she is truly a victim or is someone who is capable of cold blooded murder? How much is Lucy truly influenced by her imaginary friend, Eliza Gray, who is the main character in her bestselling novels? The writing is so clever with a story within a story stemming from the disappearance of Lucy’s brother, Teddy, when they were children. We learn about this story through flashbacks. It is obvious Lucy is still traumatized from her childhood, but is this because of the loss or because she knows more than she has shared? Eliza certainly wants her to stay quiet about some of the details from that night. One thing is certain, Lucy’s husband, Dan, is absolutely horrible, although the reader will have to wait to understand the true depth of his cruelty. By Chapter 14, I was ready to kill him because of the way he mocked her saying that her writing was trivial. “Thank God you’re not a literary writer..It’s not like you’ve got to tax your brain over big thematic stuff or language or anything. Right?” I hated the way she allowed him to manipulate her and try and reinvent himself while living off her royalties. I hated that he uprooted her from the place she loved to this big, empty mansion that taunted her because it was located near the scene of tragedy from her past. I hated many of her self-righteous new neighbors. But I really loved this book because the characters were so obviously flawed and the plot so perfectly twisted to keep you guessing on what really happened to both Dan and Teddy. There were so many beautifully written passages about the depth of deceptions and madness. “I understood that it wasn’t easy to see madness, to know whether someone was afflicted by it or not…sometimes madness was something that swam to the surface and showed itself…then sank back down and away until next time. Its potential lived in all of us.” I can’t wait to share this book with our book club. Our members may or may not be happy with both endings, but it will certainly contribute to rich discussion. Thank you to #netgalley for the chance to review.
Gilly MacMillan, best-selling author of What She Knew, Odd Child Out, I Know You Know, and The Nanny, delivers an atmospheric mystery about long-held secrets, the fear they engender, and, coupled with ambition and jealousy, the power they hold.
Macmillan employs alternating narratives to tell the story of Lucy Harper. One is written in second person, and describes Lucy’s actions on the night Teddy disappeared and the days immediately following. It was the summer solstice and Lucy was determined to sneak out of the house to watch the celebration taking place in the woods adjacent to her family home. But her adoring little brother, Teddy, hears her sneaking out and insists upon accompanying her on an adventure. Lucy had researched the solstice and was determined to experience the night when spirits would appear and move “among real people, making mischief, playing tricks.” Indeed, she experienced the bonfire, fireworks, dancing, and singing that enraged at least one of her parents’ neighbors.
Lucy returned from the woods that night. Teddy did not. He was never seen again. Only Lucy knows where Teddy was when she last saw him. But she never told anyone, and even her own parents did not believe the version of events she related.
Now, Lucy is the beloved and best-selling author of a series of books featuring Detective Sergeant Eliza Grey. Eliza, her imaginary friend, has been with Lucy all of her life, including on the night when Teddy disappeared. As a child, Lucy was short for her age, overweight, and bullied as she struggled to make friends. She preferred Eliza’s company to that of her classmates, and Eliza guided her through those horrible days after Teddy vanished, warning her not to tell the policy the whole truth. As an adult, Lucy changed her name, met and married Dan, and became a successful writer four years ago. Now she is wealthy, successful, and her publisher is insisting that she deliver a new book featuring Eliza every year. But in a first-person narrative, Lucy explains that she has just completed her latest novel in which Eliza is sidelined early on and is not featured. She sends it off to Max, her agent, with much trepidation because she knows it is not the book he is expecting. After Max, Dan is always the second person to read her latest manuscript. But she and Dan have grown apart recently.
Lucy’s attempts to placate Dan, who has become accustomed to the lifestyle her earnings allow, lead her to agree to move into the dilapidated mansion Dan purchases without consulting her. And from there, Macmillan’s story takes shape. The house is in close proximity to Lucy’s childhood home and the woods where Teddy disappeared — to which she never wanted to return. Dan has convinced Lucy that she has a terrible memory, and often confuses dates, times, and details. Of course she needs him to serve as her assistant, organizing the details of their life together and managing Lucy’s finances. Lucy acknowledges that she is “susceptible to emotional blackmail, and to the potential for romance.” Lucy admits that their “arrangement” is characterized by “a large and rather revolting fly stuck in the ointment, its legs twitching occasionally. The fly was this: Being my assistant wasn’t the life Dan had dreamed of. He’s wanted to be a bestselling author, too.”
Lucy becomes suspicious about his motives when Dan is determined that they should move into and renovate the house, especially after she observes him getting a bit too cozy with their new neighbor, Sasha. Lucy is confused by events swirling around her and constantly turns to Eliza for support and assistance. She hears Eliza’s voice and even sees her from time to time, as they converse and Eliza provides advice. One night Lucy finds herself cleaning blood off the floor, but she has no recollection of how it got there. And Dan goes missing. Did Lucy harm him? Or did Eliza?
Macmillan takes Lucy on a fast-paced, often reckless quest for the truth about Dan’s actions and motives, including why he was so insistent that they purchase and move into the house, and the nature of his relationship with Sasha. The other neighbors are compelling supporting characters, including Sasha’s husband, James; Ben Delaney, an inept criminal defense attorney, his wife, Kate, and their children; and older couple Vi and Barry, an eccentric pair who are known as the emperor and empress of the street.
Once again, Lucy finds herself at the center of controversy. Because of her celebrity status, reporters encamp at the end of the lane, and the police become increasingly suspicious as Lucy again relies upon Eliza to counsel her about what to tell them. Lucy questions herself, her memories, and her own character as she struggles to learn what happened to Dan and who is responsible for his disappearance. As she discovers what Dan was involved in and what he knew, she inevitably finds herself back in the woods where she last saw Teddy on that life-changing night.
Macmillan deftly raises numerous questions about Lucy’s mental state, as well as Dan’s activities. When she reveals the truth about the second-person narrative, it is nothing less than shocking. From that point on, the pace of the story accelerates to a surprising conclusion that readers will never predict and reveals how skillfully Macmillan has lured her readers into complacency and incorrect assumptions. Along the way, Lucy becomes a sympathetic character that readers might be surprised to find themselves caring deeply about.
Macmillan is a master storyteller who again demonstrates her talent for invention, the insertion of red herrings at expertly-timed intervals, and narrative sleights of hand that propel the story forward. Readers who enjoy unreliable narrators will savor the way Macmillan structures the story of Lucy and keeps readers wondering whether any of the information she shares in her first-person narrative can be trusted.
To Tell You the Truth is thoroughly enjoyable, compulsively interesting, and delivers a satisfying, if not completely tidy, conclusion.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.
3.5 stars.
Page Turner for sure, as are all Gillian Macmillan books. Unique plot, diverse personalities in the cast of character…some you’ll like, some you’ll hate. An imaginary friend that grows up with the protagonist, creepy in itself. I enjoy books about writer’s and a look into their process, even though it’s fictional.
Lucy is a famous writer of crime drama, who just finished her latest book, with a different twist from what her editor and husband want, married to Dan. Dan suddenly disappears, and Lucy’s past and present collide. She’s learned to make up stories ever since her little brother goes missing and she’s the only one who was there. Unreliable, she’ll leave you scratching your head. I like my endings more neat and tidy, so this was disappointing for me, but, the story kept my interest and had me thinking about it long after I read the last page.
Thanks to Ms. MacMillan, Harper Collins Publishers and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.
A very complicated and compelling heroine drove this story, making me want to rush through and figure out what was happening and what was really true.
“A spellbinding book about a missing child, and about the life of a writer. 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
To tell you the truth . . . everybody lies.
This is a story that will stick with you for a while. You are going to wonder, “what happened to Teddy?” Is he out there somewhere? Is he happy? Safe? Alive? Who did what and why?
Lucy was only a child when her baby brother went missing. She was a nine year old, curious, inquisitive, little girl. Did she know what happened all those years ago or did she honestly not remember? You’ll get to know her as a grown woman and a young girl. You can decide if you believe her or if you think she has something to hide.
Then there’s Dan. I sure disliked Dan. He was a bully. A jerk. A game playing husband who was not nice to Lucy at all. He seemed to only care about what he wanted and getting what he wanted no matter what. He seemed to have a dark side going on too. What was he hiding from Lucy?
Both Lucy and Dan wanted to be writers, but it was Lucy that became the best selling author of a series of mystery books. Her main character was Eliza. Eliza was her childhood invisible friend who know all of Lucy’s secrets. All of them. She knew exactly what happened the night Teddy went missing. She knew everything Lucy did and every thought Lucy had. She was a well loved character in Lucy’s books. A top notch detective. Everyone who read Lucy’s books loved her.
When Dan bought the house that was close to Lucy’s childhood things seemed to change for them. They drifted. He became secretive. Confrontational. He was a very hateful man. He had some deep secrets he was keeping from Lucy. Was there someone else? Did he know about things that would harm Lucy? Who exactly was Dan? He left one night after they had a fight and just seemed to disappear. What happened to him?
You will find out almost everything in this story. It’s an edge of your seat thriller that will keep you turning the pages until the very end. I loved it but was a bit disappointed in one thing. What happened to Teddy? Will we ever know for sure? This book is really one of those that keeps you guessing. Keeps you wanting more. It’s told in a way that you won’t figure out who did what until the author wants you to know. It was well written for sure. A top notch story.
Told from two time frames. When Lucy was nine years old and as a young woman. You’ll get to know the child Lucy and the grown Lucy. She’s a very well liked person at both stages of life. You will feel bad for her in both time frames too. I’m afraid I did find her to be a bit too trusting. But it’s also one of the things you will like about her. There are three sets of neighbors that you will get to know also. Can you trust them and if not which are ones you can trust? What do they contribute to this story. A lot actually. A whole lot.
Thank you to #NetGalley, #GillyMacmillan, #HarperCollinsPublishers for this ARC. This is my own thoughts about this book.
5/5 stars and a high recommendation to you all. Enjoy!
TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH is the first novel by Gilly MacMillan that I have picked up and once I got started, I didn’t want to stop as I felt like I was caught up in a wave, tossed to and fro until I had no clue which way was up. MacMillan has created a story with a cast of characters, including the main character, that make you wonder who you can trust. Does anyone tell the truth?
Lucy Harper has found success as a crime writer. The main character of the popular novels was based on Eliza, her imaginary friend from childhood. Concerned with the toll both her fame and her imaginary friend are taking on her life, she takes a risk in her new novel. Unfortunately for her, that isn’t the only change going on around her. Her husband, Dan, an aspiring/failed writer, became her assistant when her novels made it big. Happy to spend her money, he isn’t as supportive as she believes. When he buys a house close to her childhood home, he stirs up the trauma of her brother’s disappearance she’s tried to put behind her. When Dan disappears, the past comes roaring back. Did Lucy have something to do with it? Is she telling the truth now?
Every time I thought I knew the answers, MacMillan threw in a twist that had me wondering why I didn’t think of it. This was such a great read. Once I started there was no way it could be pried from my hands. I am going to have to block out time to catch up on MacMillan’s backlist.
Thanks to the Publisher for an advanced copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.
#totellyouthetruth #gillymacmillan #williammorrow #sceneofthecrime
Lucy is a famous author with a secret past, she wants to keep hidden. When Lucy was a child she took her younger brother Teddy into the woods with her at night and ultimately returned home without him. Teddy was never found, and Lucy has spent most of her life trying to escape her past.. When Lucy’s husband Dan buys a home in the exact same neighborhood she lived in when Teddy went missing Lucy’s world starts changing. Lucy starts seeing things in the woods, and wonders if Dan is playing a cruel joke by purchasing this home with her money in this area that is so traumatic for her. Dan is one of the only people Lucy has told about Teddy, and his actions strike her as odd. Lucy hates the house, and is even more shocked to find out Dan’s work associate Sasha lives next door. As Lucy starts to wonder if Dan is having an affair with Sasha, they get into an argument and Dan leaves the house. The next thing Lucy knows the police are knocking on her door about Dan, and their questions make Lucy feel as if she is a suspect. Worse Lucy is wondering if the officers know who she really is and all the awful memories of her police interactions when Teddy went missing start coming back. As Lucy is under the veil of suspicion she starts to realize her past secrets may come back to haunt her and give the officers probable cause to think she did something to Dan, just like the officers in the past think she harmed Teddy.
Thank you William Morrow Books, and Scene of the Crime for this ARC
4.5 stars .
Lucy Harper. How can one tell if you are ever being truthful or are you spinning us a story just like the books you write.
That are bestsellers and crime fiction!
Lucy’s brother disappeared years ago and now its her husband.
Lucy can we trust you, believe you.
Your neighbours aren’t that likeable either.
Neither sad to say is your husband.
I love to love unlikeable characters.
Gilly McMillian does not disappoint, the pages fly by as the twists and turns keep coming
A must read
3.5 rounded up to 4
To Tell You the Truth is my first Gilly MacMillan Book. Definitely a psychological thriller! I really enjoyed getting to know Lucy Harper who is a successful writer and her childhood imaginary friend Eliza Grey who is the heroine Detective Grey in her successful series. I enjoyed MacMillan’s writing as the story moves from Lucy’s past in which her younger brother disappeared during the summer solstice and the present as a successful writer.
As a writer, MacMillan was successful in having this reader hate Lucy’s husband Dan, also a writer, who did not have the same success and became Lucy’s manager. The stories of Lucy’s brother’s disappearance in the past and now the sudden disappearance of Dan keeps the reader guessing. I breezed through this book trying to figure out what happened. I liked it until the ending. I thought it was far-fetched and not satisfying. Thank you Harper Collins and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Lucy is a popular author and one with a history. Her little brother disappeared when he was three when he was with her. He has never been found, and they suspected her.
Lucy also has an imaginary childhood friend, Eliza, who has made herself famous in Lucy’s books and who Lucy hears talking to her and giving her advice even today.
But…Eliza has run her course, and Lucy takes her out of her newest novel.
Was that a wise decision? Lucy finds out it is not a good idea because her agent won’t accept the new book with Eliza missing.
Lucy has a bossy, domineering husband who bought her a house in the same area where her brother disappeared with “her” money. He has none of his own…he is a has been author and controls her finances, but then he disappears.
When her past is uncovered, the police question if Lucy could be responsible for his disappearance too?
The book follows Lucy in her childhood and tells about the disappearance of her brother and her life now in a huge house she didn’t want to be in and especially when she isn’t sure what Dan was up to with buying the house and with other things that occur.
When these things happened, Eliza was always there with advice. Was Eliza really talking to Lucy or was it her imagination?
The book has a slow build up, but once Dan, her husband, disappeared, the tension kept the pages turning.
I didn’t like Dan at all – he was a bit shady and definitely jealous of his wife’s success.
TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH is a page turning, emotional read with twists and surprises you won’t see coming. 4/5
This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
To Tell You the Truth by Gilly MacMillan is a pretty well-written thriller/mystery which is the story of author Lucy Harper in the current day and Lucy Bewley as she had been a child. Her three-year-old brother Teddy had disappeared one night and it was partly her fault. At points in the investigation they thought she had hurt or killed him. She was totally traumatized by this, so much so that her childhood imaginary friend, Edith, had become a part of her subconscious and sometimes her conscious self. Was Edith an alternate personality? Sometimes Lucy allowed her to take over, she knew that. Lucy had used Edith by making her the heroine of her extremely successful detective series, but had written her most recent book wherein Edith became incapacitated and was not in most of the book. No one knew that . . . yet. Her husband, Dan, had celebrated by buying a house. He was in charge of the money. He had taken her back to the woods where Teddy and disappeared and she knew she could never live there. He didn’t understand. Then one night, the police appeared to tell her that they had found his care, burned out, and him missing. Was it happening all over again?
This was an interesting book. For much of it the reader felt as if he was experiencing Lucy’s mental breakdown from the inside. The mystery was a good one, with many parts, and made worse by the slim hold Lucy had on herself. The people in the neighborhood were less well-rounded, but good enough to fill their roles. We learned about them as the story unfolded, along with more that one red herring. It was a classic tale of someone being used under the guise of being loved. In that, it was very sad. Not a warm and cozy book by any means, but one well worth the read. I recommend it.
I was invited to read a free ARC of To Tell You The Truth by Netgalley. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #totellyouthetruth
Wow what is going on here?! This is so good and twisty, it definitely keeps you guessing. MC Lucy Harper is a bestselling mystery author. Her life is viewed and questioned soon after her husband, Dan, goes missing. Personally I said good riddance because Dan is controlling and jealous of Lucy’s accolades as a writer. Lucy’s brother also went missing and never to be found when they were young, is this a coincidence? Are Lucy’s books based on these events in her life, is it her imaginary friend? Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an ebook ARC. This is my honest review.
”There are the facts, and then there is the truth.”
This psychological thriller includes a fiesty little firecracker of an imaginary friend. I love reading about imaginary friends and Eliza is fascinating!!
Lucy is a successful author that has based her bestselling book series on her childhood imaginary friend—Detective Eliza Grey is the main character and heroine in her novels. But the more popular Eliza becomes, the more she injects herself in Lucy’s real life. Lucy decides to write her out of her latest thriller and stick her back where she belongs.
”I obsessed over the impossibility of knowing what to do about Eliza. I didn’t know if I could ever work out a way to keep her in the books, but out of my life. I thought about how ironic it was that the first time Eliza appeared to me “in person,” it had felt as if something amazing was happening. I was writing my third novel at the time and I actually believed that Eliza’s physical manifestation meant that I’d reached a kind of peak writerly success. I could visualize my character in three dimensions! Hold conversations with her in person, not just in my mind! It was more than just a little intoxicating.”
No one is happy about the beloved Eliza’s disappearance from the series. Especially Lucy’s husband—Dan—who is quite pleased to be spending Lucy’s money. After an argument between Dan and Lucy, he goes missing. The arrogant douchebag wasn’t missed by me, but Lucy and the police thought it necessary to investigate, haha!
Eliza was, by far, my favorite character and the most interesting to read about. I had mixed feelings about Lucy. She was an introvert, slightly bizarre, timid and insecure. Her husband was the opposite. A repulsive narcissist!
This was a 5-star read until the ending. It was exciting, suspenseful and page-turning, so I was expecting an elaborate twist, expanding on the details of Eliza. I might be expecting too much, but I think the ending could have been better. Ms. Macmillan is such a fabulous writer, the ending felt too blah.
Thank you to Edelweiss, Gilly Macmillan and William Morrow for this free digital ARC, in exchange for my honest opinion!
Another incredible group read with No Rules – Just Thrills!
My Rating: 4 ’s
Published: September 22nd 2020 by William Morrow
Pages: 320
Recommend: Yes!
Gilly Macmillan @WmMorrowBooks @weiss_squad
#psychologicalthriller #NoRulesJustThrills #ImaginaryFriend #MustReadThriller2020 #InExchangeForReview #JustFinished #BookReview #Edelweiss
After publication, my reviews can be found:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AFWS5Q63ZHOHGTHHCWSA7TFIZLRA?preview=true
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/takemeaway21
BN.com, BookBub
To Tell You the Truth is a fitting title for Gilly Macmillan’s latest endeavor, because the truth can be very hard to discern as you will find out when you read this well done suspense novel.
Lucy Harper is a best-selling mystery author with plenty of fame, money and fans who are always eager to read more about the crimes solved by her main character Detective Eliza Grey (named Eliza after her imaginary childhood friend). But life for Lucy isn’t as rosy as it seems; it never has been.
When she was nine, Lucy snuck out of the house to watch people celebrate the summer solstice in the woods near her home, taking her three-year-old brother Teddy, who refused to be left behind, with her. She returned alone. Despite repeated questioning by the police, Lucy continued to say that she doesn’t know what happened to Teddy. Though everyone believes Lucy knows more than she is telling, the case has never been solved. She moved and changed her name in hopes of putting all that behind her. After she marries Dan, giving her another name change, she feels sure that no one will connect her to her painful past.
Dan, a writer himself, whose work has been continually rejected for years, is more than a little jealous when Lucy signs with a publishing house within a year after starting to write. Now he serves as her personal and administrative assistant, clearing the way so that she can focus on writing. Readers won’t be surprised to know that Dan has an agenda of his own, and frequently gas-lights his wife. When he disappears, Lucy becomes the prime suspect. She is once again caught like a deer in the spotlight as her past and present lives are tossed together like laundry. Lucy, skilled at telling stories, finds herself at a loss for words, and losing control. She reaches the point where she isn’t sure what is real. Dan has played mind-games with her before, is this another one? What has he been working on and why? Is Lucy really responsible for the disappearances of the significant people in her life? What IS the truth??
Readers will love the unstable narrative of Lucy, and the plethora of twists and turns that Macmillan has in store. I thoroughly enjoyed the story within a story, and it is handled very well. This is a quite satisfying read. Like Lucy’s fans, I’m already eagerly awaiting Gilly Macmillan’s next book!!
My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.
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: 09/22/2020
: (4 stars)
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This is the first book I have read from this author. Thank you @williammorrowbooks and @harpercollins for my #gifted copy. This cover is very creepy with phenomenal shelf appeal.
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: Best-selling mystery author Lucy Harper’s talent for invention has given her fame, fortune, and an army of adoring readers. It has also saddled her with dependents, namely her fawning husband Dan. When Dan suddenly goes missing, his disappearance evokes dark memories that take Lucy back more then 30 years to the day her brother vanished without a trace.
I definitely enjoyed reading this book, being the first I’ve read from Gilly. This book was told from a couple different timelines which I really liked. The pacing wasn’t that fast, but it kept me entertained throughout. I was able to figure out the twists at the end, but was emotionally invested throughout the entire story. Gilly’s writing definitely made me want to read more of her books. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting a new thriller that you shouldn’t read before bed unless you want to have nightmares. This book comes out on 09/22/2020 so pre-order a copy today!!!!!!