A Lovely Lie
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Is it better to believe a lovely lie or to know the horrible truth?
1999: The night of their senior picnic, Scarlett Russo and her best friend Pepper were involved in a car accident that left two of their classmates dead. Afterward, they lied to the police, protecting each other from the consequences. Then Pepper left town and Scarlett never heard from her again…
Now: Twenty-two years later, Scarlett has buried that deadly incident deep in her mind and built a comfortable life for herself, working in a hotel on the west coast of Florida and raising her teenage son with her husband Vince. Her peace is disrupted, however, when Pepper’s daughter shows up with news of Pepper’s death. Zoey is twenty-one and studying to be an investigative journalist. She has a cryptic letter from Pepper addressed to Scarlett that alludes to the events of that fateful night and Pepper’s initial intentions to get an abortion. Now Zoey wants answers about her mother’s past. Who is Zoey’s father? And what really happened after the senior picnic? As Zoey continues to dig into the past, all of Scarlett’s buried secrets threaten to rise to the surface.
Jaime Lynn Hendricks, “the queen of the page-turner” (Ashley Winstead), will have you questioning who you can trust in this intricately twisted thriller.
A Jaime Lynn Hendricks book is always the perfect escape. A Lovely Lie is yet another wildly entertaining, delectably twisty, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Told in multiple POVs from a cast of captivating characters, this sensational suspense takes the reader on a journey from a tragic party in senior year of high school to a nail-biting showdown years later. With her signature wit and addictive voice, Hendricks has written another magnificent novel that is impossible to put down.”
―Samantha M. Bailey, USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of A Friend in the Dark
Expertly plotted, full of head-snapping twists, suspenseful and funny, authentic and full of heart, A Lovely Lie is everything a thriller should be. I read my eyes out and loved every minute. A must read!”
―Michele Campbell, internationally bestselling author of The Intern
Hendricks knows how to keep the pages turning in her latest mystery about a decades old murder and the lie that’s kept the truth buried. Totally addictive!”
―Wendy Walker, bestselling author of What Remains
Juicy, beguiling, and utterly delightful! With ratcheting tension and a clever, compelling plot, you’ll love this fantastic twistfest about how the repercussions of the past reverberate into the present. An irresistibly gripping thriller.”
―Christina McDonald, USA Today and Amazon charts bestselling author
Deliciously wicked and briskly paced, A Lovely Lie simmers with deadly secrets, whiplash twists, and a whole lot of attitude. An irresistible page-turner.”
―Heather Chavez, author of Before She Finds Me
What happens when the mistakes of youth threaten to destroy the life you now live? The latest from Jaime Lynn Hendricks pulls back the curtain on a friend group with a deadly secret, and the new generation of teens desperate to know the truth. Full of tension and hairpin turns, A Lovely Lie is a no-holds-barred thriller guaranteed to make you gasp.”
―Tessa Wegert, author of Devils at the Door
My favorite kind of thriller: a crime at the edge of the millennium, buried teenage secrets coming back to haunt, and twist after twist. A Lovely Lie is a lovely and clever story, and might just be Jaime Lynn Hendricks’s best yet!”
―Alex Finlay, bestselling author of The Night Shift
Jaime Lynn Hendricks kicks the family thriller up ten notches in A Lovely Lie, making me gasp out loud multiple times as the twists kept coming. Immersive, compelling, and utterly binge-worthy, it’s a wild ride from start to finish. Highly recommended!”
―Hannah Mary McKinnon, internationally bestselling author of The Revenge List
When you read a Hendricks book, you can expect to be hooked by one twist after another, a relentless pace, and smart writing. In A Lovely Lie, Hendricks combines wit, plotting and pace into an irresistible, fresh, tangy cocktail of high-wire tension and engaging characterization. Unmissable.”
―Damyanti Biswas, bestselling author of the Blue Mumbai series
Juicy.”
―Kirkus
Hendricks . . . is definitely on the rise; hand this book to fans of Karin Slaughter’s The Good Daughter.”
―Library Journal
A Lovely Lie tackles the psychological thriller and mystery genres with a vengeance, as well as the very nature of lies and those who use them as weapons.”
―BookReporter
I was genuinely stunned by how terrific this mystery thriller is! . . . Smart, generous and often moving and hilarious in turn, this is one of my favorite mysteries and character studies of the year so far.”
―Criminal Element
Jaime Lynn Hendricks is an author with nearly 20 years experience in print media and marketing. Her novels include Finding Tessa, It Could Be Anyone, I Didn’t Do It, and A Lovely Lie. She lives with her husband in New Jersey.
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