The Lies That Bind

June 22, 2020
Giffin’s suspenseful but sometimes unconvincing latest (after All We Ever Wanted) opens in May 2001, a week after 28-year-old reporter Cecily Gardner breaks up with her commitment-averse boyfriend. Lonely and sleepless, she makes a late-night visit to a bar, where she feels a sudden connection with an attractive stranger. They spend the night in Cecily’s apartment, agreeing not even to kiss. The stranger, Grant Smith, tells Cecily that he’s a Wall Street trader whose twin brother is dying of ALS, and she trusts him enough not to ask further questions about his life. Soon deeply in love, they spend nights and a weekend together, still holding off on sex, before Grant leaves for London, where his brother is enrolled in a clinical trial. Cecily sees Grant on September 10, the night he returns, but can’t reach him after the towers fall. When she sees his face on a “missing” poster and calls the number listed there, her certainty about him and their bond is thrown into doubt. Though the bizarre decisions made by Cecily and Grant stretch plausibility, and the use of 9/11 reads as a plot contrivance, Giffin holds the reader’s interest with solid pacing and fine style. Compared to Giffin’s past work, this disappoints.

A meeting at a New York City bar in 2001 has Cecily, steadily voiced by the talented Brittany Pressley, falling for Grant, whose mysterious nature is rendered in a somber and tender tone by narrator Will Damron. Then Grant goes missing after 9/11, and Cecily discovers she's not the only one looking for him. This development has her questioning how well she knew him--and how well anyone can ever know another. Vikas Adam as Scottie, Cecily's gay bestie, is loud, fast paced, and confident, providing levity. Simon Katz is initially smug and angry as Cecily's ex-boyfriend, but his terse and short sentences give way to a soft and patient voice. Pressley's skill is highlighted by a chilling eyewitness account of the 9/11 attacks in which her voice is shaking and she sounds near hyperventilation. A.L.C. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine