Never Tell a Lie

by Hallie Ephron
William Morrow, Hardback 2009; ISBN 978-0-061-56715-5

HARPER, Paperback 2010; ISBN 978-0-06-156716-2

Psychological suspense meets suburban noir

Relentlessly fast-paced and disturbingly creepy, Hallie's new standalone is a page-turning thrill ride about how well we know the people we love, and how far we are willing to go to protect the secrets of our past.  

Nominated for the 2010 Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award

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NOW IN PAPERBACK   A young couple are about to have their first child. A woman from their past shows up at their yard sale. She goes inside their house, and she never comes out.     Reviews Awards Read an excerpt Behind the book: The house that got away Hear Hallie talk about the book on WRITER'S VOICE Hallie interviewed on PressPassTV Hallie discusses the book at Concord Bookshop

AWARDS

Nominated for the Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award

Winner of the David Award for Best Novel of 2009

Nominated for the Salt Lake County Libraries Readers Choice

REVIEWS

• "First Things" recommends NTAL
  "In Hallie Ephron’s Never Tell a Lie, expectant mother Ivy Rose’s life is turned around when an old acquaintance (also pregnant) turns up at a garage sale, enters the Roses’ house on the arm of Ivy’s husband, and disappears. The plot is as cleverly structured as one of Mary Higgins Clark’s, but Ephron’s writing is vastly better."
  
  
• STARRED review in Publisher's Weekly
  "An innocent yard sale jump starts this stunning stand-alone thriller... Ephron doesn't miss a beat... deliciously creepy tale of obsession."
  - Read the whole review

• Indie NEXT pick for January '09
  " Vengeance -- and its havoc -- is the subject of this taut and exciting thriller."
• Barnes & Noble Recommended

• USA Today raves:

  "Lovers of classic mysteries will adore Hallie Ephron's Never Tell a Lie. Ivy and David. ... You can imagine Hitchcock curling up with this one."

• FEATURED in the New York Times
  The New York Times round up of January books spotlights Never Tell a Lie.

   

• Sarah Weinman's "Pick of the Week" (1/27/09)

  "[Never Tell a Lie is] awfully hard to stop reading because Ephron is a page-turning expert who has plenty to say about the joys and pain of impending motherhood."

• The Boston Globe calls it "A suburban thriller pregnant with dread":
  "Readers get just enough revelation to keep them on the narrative hook, eagerly turning the pages. When the climax comes it seems perfectly timed and intensely right. Suburban noir has rarely been done with more psychological insight or plot-twisting suspense." -- Chuck Leddy

• Oline Cogdill: "Another Ephron (Hallie) Strikes with 'LIE' "
  (Hartford Courant, Sun Sentinel, Arizona Daily Star, Biloxi Sun Herald, Charlotte Observer, Chicago Tribune...)
  "Reminiscent of 'Single White Female' and the best of gothic thrillers, 'Never Tell a Lie' delivers a tale about obsession, relationships and forgiveness. Ephron quickly builds a foundation of psychological terror that doesn't let up until the last surprise twist. ... Ephron proves her mettle with her first stand-alone thriller."

• Adam Woog, the Seattle Times selects "Never Tell a Lie":
  "It takes a lot of chutzpah for a book reviewer to write books of her own, especially under her own name. But Hallie Ephron, the crime-fiction columnist for The Boston Globe, can hold her head high: She does it, and very well, too. Ephron's latest, 'Never Tell a Lie' is a snaky, unsettling tale of psychological suspense."

• Looking for a good read? The Sacramento Bee recommends Never Tell a Lie!

  "The veteran mystery writer sets up this page-turner with a Hitchcockian opener."

• The San Francisco Chronicle reviewer gobbled it up:
  " A book to be gobbled up whole, its pace never slackens. ... With 'Never Tell a Lie,' Ephron milks the creepy side of suburban ordinariness and baby lust. Once sucked into her elaborate, camp plot, you'll be as happily oblivious as a nursing infant. "

• Library Journal: "[T]his is an entertaining read with a strong ending and a great lead character in Ivy ."

• Sara Berger, Mysterious Women:
  "Not a cozy, this book is riveting in its suspense and good writing. " --

• "You’ll hate to see this one end . . . and I wouldn’t tell a lie.”
  – Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Cage of Stars

• "Chilling, complex, and insidiously creepy. A compelling thriller."
  – Hank Phillippi Ryan, bestselling author of Agatha Award-winning Prime Time

• "Hallie Ephron's Never Tell a Lie is a great discovery, compelling and chilling and all too credible. Someone once coined the word unputdownable to describe a James M. Cain novel, and this is one of those rare books that actually meets that standard."
  – Laura Lippman, author of New York Times bestseller Another Thing to Fall

• "Never Tell a Lie should come with a warning label: You will not play with your children, cook your dinner, or go to sleep once you start reading Hallie Ephron's debut novel! You will just keep reading, turning the pages with increasing speed as this suburban nightmare throws lies, plot twists, and suspense at you. When you read the final sentence, you will be exhausted, exhilarated, and awed by Ephron's tale."
  – Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle and Comfort

• "Hallie Ephron keeps this exciting story whipping along while keeping the reader in delicious supense. Recommended to all lovers of suspense fiction."
  – Anne Bernays, author of The Address Book, Growing Up Rich, and Trophy House

• "Never Tell a Lie takes us into a totally familiar, sharply drawn, ordinary suburban world — and then, like the best of Hitchcock, begins to turn the screws until the suspense becomes unbearable and you can’t stop reading until the last, ingenious twist."
  – Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Power Play, Killer Instinct, and Paranoia