TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE

A compulsive tale-spinner gets caught in a web of lies—her own and others'—in a chilling, sensitive thriller from the author of last year's buzzed-about Traveling Light. Life is good for Dair Canard, a Cincinnati zookeeper and amateur actress happily married to dancer Peyton, but for two shadows: a drinking problem she can't seem to conquer and her inability to wriggle out of a lie she idly told Peyton the day they met. Dair, amusing herself in a casual conversation, claimed to have a twin sister who died in childhood, a lie she would have taken back had Peyton, a believer in reincarnation, not claimed that Dair's childhood tragedy was the reason the two met. Her inability to shed this falsehood traps her in eight years of elaborations, telling stories about the fictional twin and policing Peyton's conversations with her parents. Dair's tenuously balanced life spirals out of control when her friend and occasional onstage leading man Craig leaps to his death wearing a purple dress and with veins full of heroin—two things entirely out of character for him. When another member of Cincinnati's tight-knit theater community disappears and Craig's fiancée finds evidence of an intruder in her house, Dair realizes that deceptions can be dangerous—and that the truth must be told, no matter the consequences. Her struggle to fix her relationships while investigating the mystery of Craig's death makes for compelling reading. Skeptics and hardcore mystery buffs might balk at Dair's mother's use of animal telepathy as a sleuthing tool; non–pet lovers may be annoyed by lengthy descriptions of Dair and Peyton's beloved dogs. Still, Kittle's characters appeal, and readers will hold their breath as her tale comes to a suspenseful conclusion. Agent, Liz Trupin-Pulli. (June)