This Is How I Lied
A Novel
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Gudenkauf proves herself the master of the smart, suspenseful small-town thriller that gets right under your skin.” —Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author of The Nanny
Everyone has a secret they’ll do anything to hide…
Twenty-five years ago, the body of sixteen-year-old Eve Knox was found in the caves near her home in small-town Grotto, Iowa—discovered by her best friend, Maggie, and her sister, Nola. There were a handful of suspects, including her boyfriend, Nick, but without sufficient evidence the case ultimately went cold.
For decades Maggie was haunted by Eve’s death and that horrible night. Now a detective in Grotto, and seven months pregnant, she is thrust back into the past when a new piece of evidence surfaces and the case is reopened. As Maggie investigates and reexamines the clues, secrets about what really happened begin to emerge. But someone in town knows more than they’re letting on, and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried deep.
Don’t miss Heather’s upcoming twisty locked-room thriller, EVERYONE IS WATCHING!
Check out these other riveting novels of suspense by bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf:
The Weight of Silence
These Things Hidden
Little Mercies
MIssing Pieces
Not a Sound
Before She Was Found
The Overnight Guest
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Early in this suspenseful psychological thriller from bestseller Gudenkauf (Before She Was Found), Det. Maggie Kennedy-O'Keefe of the Grotto, Iowa, PD is assigned to a cold case, the murder of her 16-year-old best friend, Eve Knox, after two kids find a new piece of evidence, Eve's boot, in the cave where Maggie found Eve's body 25 years earlier. Maggie's job is to inform the Knox family, review the case files, gather all the evidence, and send it to the state lab for testing. She speaks to Eve's mentally unstable sister, the sister's abusive boyfriend, a pedophile neighbor, and her own father, the former Grotto PD police chief, who suffers from dementia. To complicate matters, Maggie is eight months pregnant and fatigued. When she receives threatening phone calls, and the barn on her property is torched, it becomes clear this small town is filled with secrets people want to keep buried. Maggie has to make one impossible choice after another as the action builds to a satisfying conclusion. Through alternating viewpoints Gudenkauf keeps the tension high throughout. Fans of dogged, resourceful female detectives will cheer Maggie every step of the way.