To Tell You the Truth

April 1, 2020

In Flynn/Mills's Total Power, CIA counterterrorist agent Mitch Rapp and his team capture ISIS's top technology expert but fail to stop ISIS from blowing out America's entire power grid, and now they must find the ISIS agents who did it or the country will be in the dark for a long time coming (500,000-copy first printing; eight-city tour). Hiaasen goes for dark political humor in Squeeze Me, with Florida-based presidential supporter Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons found dead after a high society event, the president blaming crazed immigrants, the first lady claiming a Secret Service agent as her paramour, and pythons inexplicably overrunning the environs (talk about squeeze!). In Chaos, Johansen introduces paint-outside-the-lines CIA agent Alisa Flynn, helped by Croesus-rich inventor Gabe Korgan and animal whisperer Margaret Douglas as she seeks to rescue schoolgirls kidnapped from their African boarding school. In Nanny author Macmillan's To Tell You the Truth, mystery writer Lucy Harper's obsequious husband has vanished, as did her brother three decades ago, and she must struggle to get control of these echoing narratives before it's too late (100,000-copy first printing). In Nesb�'s The Kingdom, village mechanic Roy is increasingly alarmed by the return home of greedy entrepreneur brother Carl, whom he used to protect from bullies, especially when dark secrets about the town and especially their parents' deaths start surfacing. Patterson/Barker's The California Murders scurries from Los Angeles to upstate New York as Det. Garrett Hobbs and FBI Agent Jessica Gimble try to solve a cascading series of lookalike murders that seem to be instigated by members of the Fitzgerald family--but which ones? In Robb's Shadows in Death, Lt. Eve Dallas investigates when an heiress is found dead in Washington Square Park, even as Eve's husband, Roarke, spots notorious killer-for-hire and personal nemesis Lorcan Cobbe standing idly by in the gathering crowd (750,000-copy first printing). In the acclaimed Walker's Don't Look for Me (following The Night Before), Nicole heads to the town where her mother was last seen and begins uncovering details that could lead her to the truth (75,000-copy first printing). Finally, in Ware's One by One, an avalanche traps colleagues gathered at a beautifully situated chalet to promote mindfulness and collaboration, and not all of them make it out smiling (400,000-copy first printing).

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 24, 2020
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. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency (Canada).