#Review - Simply Lies by David Baldacci #Thriller #Suspense

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 438 pages
Release Date: April 18, 2023
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense

Mickey Gibson, single mother and former detective, leads a hectic life similar to that of many moms: juggling the demands of her two small children with the tasks of her job working remotely for ProEye, a global investigation company that hunts down wealthy tax and credit cheats.  

When Mickey gets a call from a colleague named Arlene Robinson, she thinks nothing of Arlene’s unusual request for her to go inventory the vacant home of an arms dealer who cheated ProEye’s clients and fled. That is, until she arrives at the mansion to discover a dead body in a secret room—and that nothing is as it seems.   

Not only does the arms dealer not exist but the murder victim turns out to be Harry Langhorne, a man with mob ties who used to be in Witness Protection. What’s more, no one named Arlene Robinson works at ProEye.  

In the blink of an eye, Gibson has become a prime suspect in a murder investigation—and now her job is also on the line until she proves that she was set up. Before long, Gibson is locked in a battle of wits with a brilliant woman with no name, a hidden past, and unknown motives—whose end game is as mysterious as it is deadly.

David Baldacci's Simply Lies is a twisted psychological thriller that follows two entirely different, one a former detective (Mickey Gibson) who is now divorced with two small kids, and a con artist (Francine Langhorne) who pits said detective in a game of cat and mouse that push Mickey to the limits. Mickey Gibson is a former crime scene investigator turned street cop turned Detective who walked away from her job after her ex dumped her and her two young kids.

Mickey works for a company called ProEye, specializing in hunting down assets of a company that searches for wealthy credit and tax cheats. As a private investigator, Mickey the freedom of working from home while taking care of her children. When Mickey gets a call from a colleague named Arlene Robinson, she thinks nothing of Arlene’s unusual request for her to go inventory the vacant home of an arms dealer who cheated ProEye’s clients and fled. 

That is, until she arrives at the mansion to discover a dead body (Daniel Pottinger) in a secret room—and that nothing is as it seems. Turns out the person who called Gibson did not work for ProEye and thus begins an odyssey involving many people who also wanted to find Pottinger (which of course is not his real name).  Prime among those is Clarisse who only communicates with Gibson by telephone pushing her to use her police skills to uncover the “treasure” supposedly hidden by the dead man.

Mickey finds out that she's been set-up by a woman who's has her own scores to settle with both herself and the victim and that's where the author tries to fill the reader in to the mind set of Clarisse, and her own strange journey of revenge. Mickey has no clue as to what she may have done to the mysterious Clarisse. Before Mickey knows it, she is involved in who did it, where is the treasure, who is the good guy/gal? You will be kept guessing as to who is who - many of the characters histories are troubling so their motives (and real names) in the overall plot take some time to emerge. 

I think the only disappointment for me was the ending which, honestly, doesn't make any sense. The only character in the book that made any sense was Mickey's father who was a former New Jersey cop who warned Mickey that she was playing into a dangerous cat and mouse game with an unknown character with an axe to grind, and plenty of money to push many buttons.  

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