A Harmless Lie
A Novel
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
USA TODAY "5 Books Not To Miss" • NY POST "Required Reading"
"Sara Blaedel writes novels as twisty as spirals and electric with intelligence. A HARMLESS LIE is a labyrinth of a mystery, dense and dangerous. Come get lost in it." —A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
"Riveting...It’s tailor-made for Karin Slaughter’s readers.” —Library Journal (STARRED REVIEW)
A woman is haunted by a heartwrenching decision she made as a teenager in this darkly atmospheric, deeply emotional thriller from #1 internationally bestselling global superstar Sara Blaedel.
Detective Louise Rick is on a beach in Thailand when the panicked call from her father comes through. Louise′s beloved brother, Mikkel, has attempted suicide. His wife, Trine, left him days earlier, walking out the door one day with no warning and leaving Mikkel devastated.
Louise rushes home to Osted, the small, insular Danish town where she grew up and where Mikkel still lives. But the more Louise learns about Trine—a devoted wife and the mother of two young children—and her state of mind in the days before she left Mikkel, the more Louise begins to wonder whether Trine really meant to leave him. Or whether something much darker may have taken place.
As the local police begin to suspect that Mikkel may have had a hand in Trine’s disappearance, Louise struggles to clear his name but is forced to confront some hard truths: Small towns always hide secrets. The past always comes back to haunt you. And lies are never harmless.
''One of the best I've come across.'' —Michael Connelly
"An intense, atmospheric starting point for those who haven’t yet discovered Denmark’s favorite cop.” —Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Blaedel's solid 10th novel to be published in the U.S. featuring Copenhagen police detective Louise Rick (after 2018's The Midnight Witness), Louise is vacationing in Thailand when her father calls from Denmark to say her brother, Mikkel, is close to death after a suicide attempt, which may have been prompted by Mikkel's wife, Trine, abruptly leaving him days earlier. Back in her hometown of Osten, Louise comes to realize Trine's departure may not have been voluntary—and the police begin to suspect Mikkel was involved in Trine's disappearance. Meanwhile, Louise learns that the body of Susan Dahlgaard, a schoolmate of Trine's who vanished 25 years earlier at age 14, has been found in a remote cave. Journalist Camilla Lind, Louise's best friend, uncovers multiple tragedies when she looks into Susan's case. Louise and Camilla come across as a little too strident in a plot that holds few surprises, but Blaedel does a good job depicting abnormal psyches and, through harrowing flashbacks, the cliquish cruelty of adolescent girls. Scandinoir fans will be satisfied.
