Never Tell a Lie (edition 2010)

Meh. Too fast of a read and there was no mystery or suspense, as the book advertised. Premise was good, but it was poorly executed. ( )

Ya know how, on a lazy Saturday, you find yourself locked in the Lifetime Channel movies that are all the same? There's always a woman in peril, and they always end with police cars out in the middle of the street, lights flashing? You sit on the sofa and can't figure out why you are watching horrible actors reading dreadful scripts, but you can't tear yourself away.

Reading this book was sort of like that. At some point I was only reading every third paragraph because it was so awful, but I still wanted to find out how the book ended.

Plot summary: Happy Couple who Has It All has a yard sale at which a creepy woman appears who was their high-school classmate -- the one nobody liked and everybody thought was weird. Yea, well, obviously they had her pegged back then.

She disappears, is presumed murdered, and the Husband Who Had It All is accused of her murder by Stupid Police Officers.

Wife Who Had It All is very pregnant, by the way, and of course while her husband languishes in a holding cell things come to an expected and stupid head.

Gosh, I think that's the first time I've ever used "stupid" in a book review.

This one had so many holes in it, so many inane plot twists (did we KNOW the Weird Woman worked in a lab that several years ago handled, well, never mind -- I don't want to ruin this for anybody who is still vaguely interested).

Honestly, this is the sort of dreck that helps you understand why publishers are having a hard time these days. Word to the Big Houses -- FIND PEOPLE WHO WRITE GOOD BOOKS. ( )

Enjoyable read for a plane ride, and a unique enough mystery. The characterization was a bit bland but the story held up for the most part. There were certain plot points whose presence was never really justified (the history of the house) but all in all, good mystery! ( )

A young couple, Ivy and David, host a yard sale with the intention of clearing out their new home in preparation for the birth of their first child. An acquaintance from the couple's past, Melinda, stops by the sale and is last seen entering the home with David. No one witnesses her leaving and David quickly becomes a "person of interest". What follows is a web of lies that is slowly unraveled as a wife searches for proof of her husbands innocence. Did he do it? Do the lies from David's past erode his facade of perfection? The plot twists and turns until the truth is finally unveiled.

Never Tell a Lie falls into the category of a decent vacation read. The writing is a bit adjective heavy in the beginning, but does calm down to a tolerable level once the actual story is underway. As I was reading the story I was reminded of a farfetched crime solving show such as CSI. The crime was a little too perfect and the ending just a bit too tidy. Recommended if you are looking for a quick mystery/thriller read. ( )

COULD NOT put this book down! Hooked from page one! If you are into suspense and twists and think you know whats going to happen but love to be surprised, this book is for you! Great author, especially for her first novel! ( )