NEVER TELL A LIE
By Hallie Ephron
William Morrow/Harper Collins
10 East 53rd St.
New York, NY 10022
www.harpercollins.com
ISBN: 9780061567155
Hardback, 288 pages, $24.95 US
Genre: Suspense

High school sweethearts Ivy and David Rose are married, living in their dream home and expecting their first child. Ivy’s hormones are raging and she’s in the mood to clean house so the couple clear out their attic and hold a yard sale. Melinda White, a former classmate from high school, unexpectedly shows up, looking as pregnant as Ivy. David and Ivy don’t recognize her at first, but when they do, remember her as the oddball who never seemed to fit in. Melinda’s strange behavior unnerves Ivy, so David offers to show Melinda their house, and from that point, Melinda disappears. When her blouse and pants are found in a trunk sitting on the Rose’s curb waiting for garbage disposal, David becomes the prime suspect since he was the last one seen with Melinda. At every turn, more evidence turns up against David and he’s placed under arrest. In Ivy’s search to find out what really happened to Melinda, she discovers some unexpected secrets leading back to their high school years.

Although the plot is predictable, this well-written suspense holds the reader’s attention. However, at times, the mannerisms of Ivy and her best friend Jody seem immature and the two are not that likeable. Ivy’s past behavior, along with Jody’s, tended to be bullying, and Ivy seems oblivious to anyone outside her world. Although the beginning tends to lag, the book picks up speed and by the end delivers the suspense it promises.