Never Tell a Lie

Ivy and David are living in an old Victorian house, expecting a baby, and generally living a loving and happy life. But when they have a yard sale to get rid of some old junk left behind by the previous house owners, an old high school classmate stops by, acting just as socially inept and strange as she always did, and leaving Ivy feeling off-balance. Things only get worse when said classmate is reported missing the next day and her appearance at the yard sale was the last time anyone saw her.

A run-of-the-mill pop thriller. The writing is fine, but the ‘twist’ is obvious almost from the beginning.

There is, to me, a clear difference between a mystery and a thriller. The former almost always asks "Whodunit?" In the latter, "whodunit" is known, and the adventure is in foiling the plot.

Never Tell a Lie falls squarely in the "thriller" category. It's obvious from page one who the perpetrator is and how the events are being orchestrated. Even the general motive is pretty clear, though a more detailed motive is nailed down later. The suspense and surprise in the book come from discovering how the characters figure it out, what casualties they may suffer along the way, and how it will all eventually play out.

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 show more 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. show less

I wanted to read this book as soon as I heard how it begins: a young couple are having a garage sale. A woman customer asks to use the bathroom and apparently never leaves the house. When I found it at a neighboring town's library book sale, it went straight to the top of my TBR pile and I read it in just about one sitting (that dog does get importunate when he wants his walk). Characters, plot, and setting were all top-notch and I especially appreciated that Ephron wit (wouldn't you have liked to be a guest at their childhood dinner table?) This book reminded me of one of the Edgar Best Novels that I read a while back -- can you guess which one? I don't mean that Ephron's book was derivative, but there were plot points and
atmosphere in show more common, though Ephron's book was more of a thriller. It also brought up some very interesting philosophical questions and I think would be a good book group selection. show less

: I liked it. It was a little predictable. Like something I had read, something similar, or seen something in a movie once, it felt familiar. I was able to figure it out from the clues read, but I still enjoyed the ride. The suspense had me well hooked in, and was nearly impossible to put down for the last 100 pages. There were enough characters that I think if you weren’t reading closely enough, there would have been more doubt about how it was going to end. I think it would have been a good ‘stormy night’ read. Ivy and David were a fairly relatable couple, as they are about the same age and stage in life as my husband and I. I have always liked Victorian houses, and was a little jealous of this one, with the descriptions on the show more inside and outside. The authors descriptions made me want to go in and snoop. I think I will be seeking out more to read by this author. show less

If I’d read this book first, I’d have never read her later novel which was better, more original if not totally unpredictable. Shame, but given that side of things and this pretty terrible effort, I think Ephron is off my list. Spoilers ahead.

Never Tell a Lie goes where you think it will and in the most direct, cliched and been-there-done-that sort of way. Oh sure, the whole yard sale encounter thing was fun, but the tense meeting between David and Melinda could only mean they had a past. And because he was a big time jock in HS and Melinda a fat outcast, it has to hinge on some humiliating episode from back then. When Ivy found the David shrine in Melinda’s open secret of a hide-out, she should have run like hell. But no. She’s show more a typical dumb girl in a thriller. It’s a wonder she didn’t fall down more. Also when Melinda mentions she worked in a hospital lab, it isn’t hard to fill in the blanks where Ivy’s failed pregnancies play a part. And of course Melinda isn’t really pregnant and there just has to be a secret passage or room or something in that crazy Victorian house. Sigh. I’d hoped for more of the originality I saw in There Was an Old Woman. show less

http://tinyurl.com/cs3gho

This is the first mystery by a woman famous for having written the bible on how to write mysteries (Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel)? Huh, I guess practicing what you preach is a lot harder than it sounds.

I've never seen so many telegraphed clues in one book; I think I spotted at least 6. Anyone who's read at least a dozen mysteries will be able to spot them all as well, I guarantee it. This means that by page 25 I knew the outcome of the book. I even bet my husband a thousand dollars that I'd be right (which he cleverly didn't take since I was bemoaning clues and plot as I read).

It's not that the writing is terrible. In fact, it's good-- I would be surprised if it weren't, seeing as Ephron is a professor show more of creative writing. Her post-crisis ending is particularly inspired. But it seems to me that clever writing is a different talent from clever plot direction. While you are enjoying the story of Ivy and her too-good-to-be-true husband about to have their first baby and what unfolds around their seemingly perfect life, you just wish it were over because you already know what will transpire. Or maybe for some, that lets everything off the hook and you can just sit back and relax? show less