Monday's Lie

December 1, 2014
Mother, Mata Hari, mystery: even in death, superwoman Annette Vess casts a long shadow over grown daughter Dee Aldrich, as well as her former covert ops colleagues, in this quirkily endearing if intermittently overwritten thriller from Mason (Three Graves Full). More than three years after Annette died, Dee is still trying to suss out that lifelong enigma when a more pressing puzzle interrupts, in the form of a blue sedan tailing her and texts from a stripper named Angela: precisely what skullduggery is Patrick, the college beau she married for his conventionality, engaging in? Dee starts to investigate, employing some of the stealth arts in which Annette drilled her and younger brother Simon, a cop in the unnamed hometown where they both still live. Dee soon suspects that Patrick’s desired endgame involves something more sinister than divorce. Unfortunately, so does the reader. The author’s premature tipping of her hand lessens the suspense, though plenty of twists remain. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management.

Starred review from January 1, 2015

Annette Aldrich raised Dee and her brother, Simon, with an incandescence and fierceness offset by her job as a covert ops agent, but as an adult, Dee lives a calculatedly ordinary life with her husband, Patrick. When Annette dies, leaving Dee a tidy sum of money, it seems to be the catalyst for Patrick's increasingly odd behavior. Dee suspects that Patrick wants out of the marriage and that he might go to extraordinary lengths to make a clean break. Dee is nothing if not her mother's daughter, and she's not afraid to put Annette's lessons to good use. But is the truth, and its shattering implications, more than she can handle? VERDICT Mason's superb and characteristically offbeat second novel (after Three Graves Full) delivers an irresistible and complex protagonist who, in spite of a carefully crafted life, finds herself longing for something more. A marriage in peril, a mother's unconventional legacy, and, of course, spycraft are all elements of a suspenseful and tense narrative that will entrance readers from page one. Sly, poignant, and beautifully written, this should especially satisfy fans of thrillers like Chris Pavone's The Expats.--Kristin Centorcelli, Denton, TX

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