Once Upon a Lie

Starred review from October 14, 2013
Barbieri takes a break from her Murder 101 series (Extra Credit, etc.) with what starts out as a standard suburban mystery but evolves into an unexpectedly riveting tale of ordinary cruelty and complicated heroism. When Sean Donovan, a pillar of the Farringville, N.Y., community, is brutally murdered, his cousin Maeve Conlon, an overworked baker and divorced mother of two, finds herself dragged into the investigation after the police begin to suspect her father, Jack Conlon, of committing the crime. Det. Rodney Poole refuses to disclose why he believes Jack, a genial ex-cop with severe Alzheimer’s, killed his nephew. Desperate to protect her family, Maeve responds by fabricating an alibi for Jack. Maeve’s troubles worsen with her discovery that a patron of her bakery, Michael Lorenzo, is beating his wife and child: she must choose between clearing her father’s name and protecting Tina and Tiffany Lorenzo. All the characters are sharply drawn, particularly Maeve, whose dark humor and stoic attitude mask an unshakeable moral core. The details of Maeve’s connection to Sean and Michael unravel with excruciating slowness, and Barbieri skillfully avoids tipping her hand until the last possible moment, leaving readers both breathless and unnerved by the novel’s conclusion. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Schneider Gelfman Agency.

Starred review from December 15, 2013
The creator of the college-themed cozies in the Murder 101 series (Extra Credit, 2012, etc.) goes big in her first stand-alone. Maeve Conlon's life is finally back on track after her husband, Cal, left her for her beautiful Brazilian best friend, Gabriela. A Culinary Institute grad, she's made a success of the Comfort Zone, the gourmet shop she owns in Westchester County. And she's making progress toward mastering single parenting: Her older daughter, Rebecca, is acing high school, although her younger daughter, Heather, may be hanging out with the wrong crowd. Maeve finds time to help her ex-cop father, Jack, adjust to life in Buena del Sol, the care community he moved into when Alzheimer's disease started stealing his memory. She also summons up the courage to accompany Jo, her longtime friend and business partner, on her foray into speed dating. But her most promising prospect of the evening, the charmingly evasive Rodney, turns out to be a police detective. And Rodney's got his sights set on Jack for the murder of Maeve's cousin, Sean Donovan, who was found a short time ago in Van Cortlandt Park with his pants down and most of his head gone. Although there was no love lost between Maeve and Sean, who bullied her mercilessly as a child, Maeve needs to pay attention to her cousin's murder, if only to protect Jack. Soon, Maeve finds her life again spiraling out of control as multiple allegiances compete for her limited supply of patience. Grace and humor mark this tale of a woman trying to protect her family without losing herself.

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November 15, 2013
Barbieri takes a sabbatical from her Murder 101 series to bring readers this first volume in a new series featuring Maeve Conlon, a single mother raising two teenage daughters and running a successful bakery. Maggie is not as upset as one would expect when she hears that her cousin, Sean, has been murdered. The two never got along very well. But when she learns that her father, a retired cop who has Alzheimer's, is the prime suspect, she feels that she must do something. Although her father sometimes wanders from his assisted-living facility and can't remember where he has been, Maggie is sure that he could not be the murderer. Determined to clear his name, she embarks on an investigation while juggling the demands of daily life, her daughters' soccer games, her business, and her interactions with her ex-husband and his trophy wife. Digging into her cousin's life and death means that she must face some very unpleasant memories and secrets from her past. Darker than Barbieri's series books but not without humor, this well-plotted story will appeal to both chick-lit and mystery readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)