The Whole Truth

I quite enjoyed this book. Marie Lightfoot is a true crime writer who is covering the trial of Raymond Raintree. Raymond is accused of killing a little girl and the case against him is pretty clear cut. The mystery is why he did it and who Raymond is as he seems to have sprung from nowhere just a few years before the murder. After Raymond is pronounced guilty by the jury he attacks the judge who shoots him with the gun she always keeps on her person. When Raymond is whisked away by the ambulance attendants he manages to escape. The book is partly Marie's own musings on the case and partly the chapters of her book. It's an interesting way to develop the plot and the suspense builds when a retired sheriff in Kansas contacts Marie to say show more he thinks Raymond Raintree is actually John Kepler who was kidnapped at the age of 6 years. The ending isn't actually a surprise because you can see it coming but nevertheless this is a powerful book. I'll be looking for more by Nancy Pickard. show less

Raymond Raintree has been convicted of the murder of six year-old Natalie McCullen in South Florida. Marie Lightfoot is the true-crime writer covering the case. But Raintree escapes after his conviction and Marie's straight-forward murder story becomes much more complex.

First of all, no one even knows who Raintree really is, where he came from, or why he murdered and removed the pineal gland from the little girl. Then a connection to a disappearance in Kansas is made and everything is not what it seems.
Pickard manages to make Raymond both repelling and sympathetic in this fast-paced thriller. Marie is another interesting character, with her own personal mystery- her parent disappeared when she was a child, though that is a story for the show more third in this series.

This is one of Pickard's earlier works, before The Virgin of Small Plains and The Scent of Rain and Lightning and the plot is not as smooth as those works. But it was fast, exciting, and I read this in a day.
This is a great option for a quiet Saturday in need of some excitement.

my rating 3.5/5 show less

Though this was a fast read, the style took some getting used to. This story is told in two ways, one from the perspective of the true-crime writer Marie Lightfoot, and the other from the pages of the novel that she's writing as events of the mystery unfold. Once I was used to the pace and style of the book I really enjoyed it. I found it exciting and found the twists and turns unexpected and fitting.

When true crime author Marie is working on her current book about the murder of Natalie McCullen and her killer she uncovers the dark past of Natalie's killer. A great novel with some definite unexpected twists.

Marie Lightfoot, a true crime writer, is covering Raymond Raintree's murder trial for the gruesome murder of a south Florida little girl. She's there when Raymond escapes. But she's bothered by Raintree since no one knows who he is or where he came from.