Lies You Wanted to Hear

This debut novel by Boston author Thomson concerns a divorced father who perceives the mother of his two children to be unfit to raise them. During the late 1970s, Boston cop Matt Drobyshev, 28, is set up by his colleague’s wife on a blind date with her oldest friend, Lucy Thornhill, a young woman with “an edge” from a well-to-do family. Lucy had an abortion, after which the father, Griffin Chandler, decided to leave town “to get his head together.” Even though she is still in love with the irresponsible Griffin, she finds Matt “forthright” and “congenial,” and they marry. The marriage derails and the divorce turns acrimonious when Matt fails to gain full custody of the kids. As time passes, the reader’s sympathies align more with Lucy. A well-told narrative of complex characters and their troubled families. (Nov.)