Simply Lies: A Psychological Thriller

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He cleaned the bank accounts, ran off with his secretary, and left her with the bills. She lost the house, had to leave her job with the force, and moved to Williamsburg, VA, where her retired parents lived. She now used her computer skills working for ProEye. The company specialized in hunting down the assets of rich delinquents who continued to live notoriously in the lap of luxury while blowing raspberries at both courts and creditors as they hid behind a wall of snarky lawyers, scheming accountants, and PR Needless to say, I didn't enjoy this novel as much as everyone else. And by 33%, I gave up reading any further. Maybe one day I'll attempt a re-read. But for now, it's a one star DNF.

If this is the beginning of a new series, I look forward to reading more about these two dynamic women. All I needed to know going into Simply Lies was that it was written by David Baldacci. He is a prolific author who needs no introduction. I cannot get enough of his twisty tales and realistic characters. This is a stand-alone book, although I can see it being the beginning of a new series.younger than he was, lived there until 1998. She was a hundred when she passed away. And the place had fallen into disrepair. Must have cost a fortune to keep up.” One day she gets a call from another ProEye representative, working with Gibson’s boss, requesting Gibson to complete a new assignment that just came up. Gibson is asked to go inventory the home and assets of an arms dealer that just took off after cheating other ProEye clients. Once Gibson arrives at the old mansion out in the country, and starts inspecting, she discovers a secret room., and then a dead body to go with it. After that, she unmuted the phone. During this whole time Zeb had been chattering away, oblivious to all her domestic drama.

I’ve got the info up on my screen. The mansion was built in the 1920s by a man named Mason Rutherford. He was a robber baronWhile Baldacci is usually an excellent storyteller, this story is convoluted, long-winded, and frankly a bit boring. The characters are quite well developed, but they are not exciting, and there were several times that it got mundane to the point of putting the book down for good. There are several sub-plots that aren’t really necessary. Baldacci fans are used to his ability to tie the sub-plots together; that doesn’t happen in this novel. In fact, after the dénouement, the book seems to be like an Energizer bunny and keeps on going, and going, and going ad nauseum with a sappy conclusion. The baby monitor was on the shelf. All she could hear right now was gentle breathing, and a series of small snores that she knew came from Tommy. She let out her own long breath and wondered if their usual one-hour nap timeline would hold today. The one predictable component of motherhood, she had found, was that no two days were ever alike.

Gibson looked at her son, whose expression told her all she needed to know. She ran for it and reached the toilet just in time to hold him over the bowl while simultaneously hitting a button on her headset to place the call on mute. Tommy managed somehow to miss the toilet completely and instead puked on the toilet paper holder and her pair of slippers. Gibson had left them there earlier after attempting to use the bathroom. Then she’d heard a crash somewhere and found Tommy sitting on the kitchen floor, covered with most of the wet dirt from a potted plant. She’d stripped the boy and thrown his clothes directly into the washing machine. Gibson had wanted to toss him in, too, only she didn’t relish a visit from Child Services. But she’d forgotten the slippers. And her urge to pee. Not only does the arms dealer not exist but the murder victim turns out to be Harry Lancaster, a man with mob ties who used to be in Witness Protection. What’s more, no one named Arlene Robinson works at ProEye. He hadn’t done it at her wedding, for reasons he had made clear to his daughter prior to Gibson’s walking down the aisle.He also informed me that he told you to paint the town red tonight or something to that effect, on the company dime, of course.”