Never Tell a Lie

High school sweethearts Ivy and David Rose are married, living in their dream home and expecting their first child. Ivy’s hormones are raging and she’s in the mood to clean house so the couple clear out their attic and hold a yard sale. Melinda White, a former classmate from high school, unexpectedly shows up, looking as pregnant as Ivy. David and Ivy don’t recognize her at first, but when they do, remember her as the oddball who never seemed to fit in. Melinda’s strange behavior unnerves Ivy, so David offers to show Melinda their house, and from that point, Melinda disappears. When her blouse and pants are found in a trunk sitting on the Rose’s curb waiting for garbage disposal, David becomes the prime suspect since he was show more the last one seen with Melinda. At every turn, more evidence turns up against David and he’s placed under arrest. In Ivy’s search to find out what really happened to Melinda, she discovers some unexpected secrets leading back to high school.

Although the plot is predictable, this well-written suspense holds the reader’s attention. However, at times, Ivy and her best friend Jody seem stuck in high school, and are not that likeable. Ivy’s past behavior, along with Jody’s, tended to be bullying, and Ivy seems oblivious to anyone outside her world. The lesson she learns is an important one. 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

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

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.

Sometimes the simplest things can trigger a chain of events that changes the rest of your life. For Ivy, the event was a yard sale - where an old high school acquaintance shows up - and then subsequently goes missing. Ivy's husband is the main suspect in the disappearance, and she's driven to dig into the mystery to clear him while also dealing with a late term pregnancy.

Ephron's Never Tell A Lie is a little mystery, a little action, a little love story that kept me reading well into the night to finish. There are some first book flaws - the dialogue's a bit choppy, the prose is a bit too functional for my tastes, and there are no plot surprises - but it's not a bad effort at all. I'll definitely be looking for more from Ephron.

This was a quick read. I enjoy mysteries and this was well-written. I figured it out about half way through the book.

POSSIBLE SPOILER: I wasn't sure about the ending - why Ivy didn't address the issue with her husband. She took him back without a word? Imagine the fun of trying to live with that elephant in the room! Melinda definitely showed signs of some sort of mental illness in her behavior, both her rapid speech and her outburst in the attic. Again, overall a good read.