Lie to Me

Starred review from July 17, 2017
Successful authors Ethan and Sutton Montclair, the married couple at the heart of this exceptional domestic thriller from bestseller Ellison (No One Knows), lead a relatively quiet life in Franklin, Tenn., where they each work on their respective books. Then Ethan wakes up one morning to discover a note from Sutton telling him that she needs some time away and doesn’t want him looking for her. Distraught, Ethan contacts Sutton’s mother and her friends, yet all of them claim not to know where she is. When Ethan finally decides to get the police involved in searching for Sutton, he falls under suspicion. Witnesses claim that Ethan physically abused Sutton and was even responsible for the death of their infant son. Might Ethan, emotionally devastated as he appears, be a psychopathic killer? Ellison keeps the suspense high with chapters from the point of view of someone very evil. The person responsible for Sutton’s disappearance remains a mystery right up to the surprising finale. This standalone may be Ellison’s best work to date. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group.

August 1, 2017

Sutton and Ethan Montclair, beautiful and successful, appear to be the perfect couple. But beneath the picture-perfect exterior and behind closed doors, there are deep and active levels of ambivalence and manipulation, with each spouse trying to best the other at every turn. After a particularly dramatic episode, Sutton disappears, leaving a note that Ethan should not look for her. Is she setting her husband up for a fall, or did Ethan decide to sever his relationship with her permanently? Reminiscent of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, Ellison's (All the Pretty Girls) stand-alone is a suspenseful, twisty psychological thriller, told from Sutton's and Ethan's alternating perspectives, about an upwardly mobile yet amazingly dysfunctional couple. It is not particularly innovative beyond those points, but the narrative flows well between the two viewpoints, and readers will alternately hate and sympathize with each character. VERDICT Fans of Paula Hawkins, A.S.A. Harrison, Mary Kubica, and Karin Slaughter will want to add this to their summer reading list. [See Prepub Alert, 3/13/17.].--Nicole A. Cooke, GSLIS, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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