Thursday, December 19, 2024

#Review - Lies He Told Me by James Patterson & David Ellis #Thrillers #Suspense

Series:
 Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: September 30, 2024
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense

An attorney and mother of two discovers her husband’s secret life—and it might cost them all their lives.

Everyone in Hemingway Grove, Illinois, knows David and Marcie Bowers.

David owns the local pub.

Marcie is a former big-city lawyer who practices family law.

When David jumps into Cotton River to save a drowning stranger, he’s celebrated as a hero. His muscled physique, shaved head, and piercing blue eyes are broadcast on every news outlet.

For most people, newfound fame is a lifeline.

For David Bowers, it’s a death sentence.

For Marcie Bowers, it’s a test.

A wife knows the difference between a loving husband and father and a cold-blooded assassin. Right?


Lies He Told Me, by co-authors James Patterson & David Ellis, is a Thriller that explores how much a wife actually knows about the man she married. Marcie and David Bower are married with two children and still crazy in love with each other. Marcie, a former member of a highly prestigious Chicago law firm who left after finding it hard to defend a man based on lies, is now content practicing family law. David is the owner of Hemingway’s Pub, a local bar and restaurant that does well. 

On the night of David's birthday, David and Marcie witness a car drive off a bridge into the river below. When David heroically jumps into a river to save a man, he is hailed a hero, his photo is everywhere, and his pub is filled with people congratulating him. While somewhat understandable, Marcie cannot comprehend why the notoriety makes David so uncomfortable. Then a journalist shows up asking questions and investigating David. 

Right after this strange things start to happen. Someone steals their dog for a day, their home is broken into, and items turn up in the wrong places. Enough to scare Marcie especially as Marcie would have said she knows David inside and out. Or does she? Engaging the local police, one who Marcie was once linked to, these are apparently random attacks, but the reason remains a mystery. Things continue to get worse, and David becomes more troubled. He begins keeping things from Marcie, which she finds additionally problematic. 

Then things get worse when Marcie discovers that David lied to her. His explanation feels very wrong to her. She starts to wonder if David’s celebrity status has brought unwanted attention of a dangerous kind. A kind from her past in Chicago. However, the scary truth that Marcie faces is that she may know less about her loving husband than she ever imagined. David’s lies begin to create a wedge between himself and Marcie, which only fuels a desire to get to the truth.

One of the best things about this book is that the authors didn't reveal too much all at once. They let the reader sit back and try to put what happened in Marcie's past, together with what is happening now that David's celebrity status seems to have brought the wrong attention down on them. Plot is key to the story of this nature. The authors keep things on point and surprise the reader at various times in the novel, especially as the truth emerges and David Bowers is revealed to be the man he wants no one to recognize. 




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