To Tell You the Truth
A Novel
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3.9 • 362 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Named a New York Times Best Thriller of the Year and Best Book to Gift!
"An unsettling and atmospheric thriller
that’s almost impossible to put down . . . Will keep you guessing right up
until its satisfying but unexpected conclusion." — Buzzfeed
"Riveting." — The New York Times Book Review
The acclaimed author of The Nanny and What
She Knew—hailed by stalwarts including Ruth Ware, Liane Moriarty, Tess Gerritsen, and Shari Lapena—returns with another serpentine
thriller that cleverly blends atmosphere, tarnished memories, mystery, and
twisty secrets from the past into a potent, intense read that will leave you
questioning everything you believe.
To tell you the truth . . . everybody lies.
Lucy
Harper’s talent for writing bestselling novels has given her fame,
fortune and millions of fans. It’s also given her Dan, her needy, jealous
husband whose own writing career has gone precisely nowhere.
Now
Dan has vanished. But this isn’t the first time that someone has
disappeared from Lucy’s life. Three decades ago, her little brother Teddy
also went missing and was never found. Lucy, the only witness, helplessly
spun fantasy after fantasy about Teddy’s disappearance, to the detectives’
fury and her parents’ despair. That was the start of her ability to tell a
story—a talent she has profited from greatly.
But
now Lucy’s a grown woman who can’t hide behind fiction any longer. The world is
watching, and her whole life is under intense scrutiny. A life full of
stories, some more believable than others. Could she have hurt Teddy? Did
she kill Dan? Finally, now, Lucy Harper’s going to tell the truth.
Cross
her heart.
And
hope to die.
"Spellbinding . . . Bold, suspenseful,
and impossible to put down. This one will stay with me for a long
time." — Samantha Downing, #1 internationally bestselling author
of My Lovely Wife
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Get ready for a tricky domestic thriller that might make you start questioning whether you can trust your own memories. Lucy was just nine when her little brother Teddy vanished. And although she was the last one to see him, all she could share with the police were a few of her made-up stories. As an adult, Lucy has channeled her boundless creativity into a successful career as a mystery novelist. The dark shadow of her past has disappeared—that is, until menacing events and clues about Teddy start disrupting her comfortable life. Is Lucy in danger? Is she being gaslighted? Or has her talent for storytelling pushed her into a total break from reality? British author Gilly Macmillan’s fascinating heroine stares down two equally frightening possibilities: that someone’s out to get her or that she’s delusional enough to think that’s possible.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestselling mystery writer Lucy Harper, the insecure heroine of this outstanding suspense novel from Edgar finalist Macmillan (The Nanny), is the creator of capable and astute Det. Sgt. Eliza Grey, based on an imaginary childhood friend. Chapters that recount a tragedy in Lucy's past alternate with the main narrative. In 1991, when Lucy was nine years old, she snuck out of her home with her three-year-old brother, Teddy, to see a Summer Solstice celebration taking place in the woods outside Bristol, England. Lucy returned in the early hours of the morning; Teddy did not. Lucy's only emotional support during the difficult period that followed was her imaginary friend, Eliza, who gradually evolved into her fictional police detective. In the present, trouble begins when Lucy's publishers all reject her new novel because Eliza isn't in it. Lucy's rapacious husband, Dan, is also angry at her decision, as it signals a loss in income. When Dan disappears, the police consider Lucy a suspect. Who can she trust? Herself? Her creation? This deliciously multilayered tale provides genuine, shocking surprises that culminate in a satisfying and unexpected conclusion. Macmillan is a master of misdirection.
Customer Reviews
Very enjoyable
Great pace, good plot, excellent characters. Overall a well done novel
Fabulous
Great story, great plot. Wonderful character depth and many twisty turns.
Perfect beach or poolside read!
Loved this thriller
As with all the novels she writes this one didn’t disappoint me with its riveting mysterious story, the character’s complexity and realistic resonation to her ever changing emotions and whirlwind of a chaotic inner struggle with which she has no one to confide in as she’s unsure of what thoughts are real and what’s an overactive imagination and planted information about her childhood trauma in which she’s never been able to find any closure or even confirmatory answers to her infinite list of questions and confusion about her memories and the turmoil she is burdened with not knowing what’s real and what has been imagined or made up in a child mind that needed to make herself think certain truths in order to cope and pretend to functionally exist in the adult world she is currently experiencing yet not wholly as she is still very much the child whose trauma has become her only constant and reliable source throughout her life.