The Lies We Told

This creepy stalker thriller about secrets coming home to roost from Way (Watching Edie) highlights a queasy theme for the baby boomer set: how little control parents have over their children. A split narrative format gives a powerful sense of unfolding mystery and encroaching danger as the action alternates between past and present. In 2017, Clara Haynes’s search for her boyfriend, Luke Lawson, suddenly gone from their London flat, brings her more deeply into the complex, dysfunctional dynamics of his family, especially their reticence to discuss the disappearance of his older sister, Emily, when he was a child. In flashbacks to the mid-1980s, Beth Jennings describes her increasing desperation in managing her sociopathic daughter, Hannah. Lackadaisical police involvement, both in Luke’s missing person case and in their lack of oversight of Hannah, diminishes the scenario’s plausibility. Despite the novel’s structural flaws, Way delivers palpable tension and engages the reader though the end. Agent: Emma Parry, Janklow & Nesbit. (Oct.)