Review
“Lovers of classic mysteries will adore Hallie Ephron’s NEVER TELL A LIE . . . [A] richly atmospheric tale. You can imagine Hitchcock curling up with this one.” (USA Today)
“A slick little study in malevolence . . . wrenching . . . What makes the book memorable is its sharp characterization of a woman tormented by possibilities that she doesn’t want to consider.” (Washington Times)
“[A] page-turner with a Hitchcockian opener.” (Sacramento Bee)
“[A] fast-paced, exceptional tale that’s likely to keep you quickly flipping pages until the wee hours of the morning.” (Lansing State Journal)
“Stunning . . . Ephron doesn’t miss a searing beat . . . A surprise toward the end provides the perfect twist to this deliciously creepy tale of obsession.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))
“[A]n entertaining read with a strong ending and a great lead character in Ivy.” (Library Journal)
“Hallie Ephron’s NEVER TELL A LIE is a great discovery, compelling and chilling and all too credible. Someone once coined the word unputdownable to describe a James M. Cain novel, and this is one of those rare books that actually meets that standard.” (Laura Lippman, author of the New York Times bestseller Another Thing to Fall)
“NEVER TELL A LIE takes us into a totally familiar, sharply drawn, ordinary suburban world ― and then, like the best of Hitchcock, begins to turn the screws until the suspense becomes unbearable and you can’t stop reading until the last, ingenious twist.” (Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Power Play, Killer Instinct, and Paranoia)
“Chilling, complex, and insidiously creepy. Hallie Ephron’s skilled storytelling produces the perfect suburban couple, then relentlessly twists their lives into distrust, deception, and danger. This compelling thriller proves: when secrets and lies fester into obsession, there’s no statute of limitations on revenge.” (Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha Award-winner and bestselling author of Prime Time)
“Hallie Ephron keeps this exciting story whipping along while keeping the reader in delicious supense. Recommended to all lovers of suspense fiction.” (Anne Bernays)
“Hallie Ephron’s NEVER TELL A LIE is a gripping, chilling, fast-paced psychological thriller, engrossing enough to stay with you long after you turn the final page. Truth be told, I’m still sleeping with the lights on!” (Claire Cook, bestselling author of Must Love Dogs and Wildwater Walking Club)
“It’s impossible to combine ruthlessness, duplicity, a heinous crime and a heroic escape―if the protagonist is a 33-year-old woman nine months into a high-risk pregnancy. It’s impossible, unless you’re Hallie Ephron . . . You’ll hate to see this one end.” (Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Cage of Stars)
“NEVER TELL A LIE should come with a warning label: You will not play with your children, cook your dinner, or go to sleep once you start reading Hallie Ephron’s debut novel!” (Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle)
“Reminiscent of Single White Female and the best of gothic thrillers, NEVER TELL A LIE delivers a tale about obsession, relationships and forgiveness. Ephron quickly builds a foundation of psychological terror that doesn’t let up until the last surprise twist.” (Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)
“[A] snaky, unsettling tale of psychological suspense.” (Seattle Times)
“Suburban noir has rarely been done with such psychological insight or plot-twisting suspense.” (Boston Globe)
“The plot is as cleverly structured as one of Mary Higgins Clark’s, but Ephron’s writing is vastly better.” (First Things)
From the Back Cover
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.
About the Author
Hallie Ephron is the New York Times bestselling author of Never Tell a Lie, Come and Find Me, There Was an Old Woman, and Night Night, Sleep Tight. For twelve years she was the crime fiction reviewer for the Boston Globe. The daughter of Hollywood screenwriters, she grew up in Beverly Hills, and lives near Boston, Massachusetts.
