The Lies They Tell

· Sold by HarperCollins
4 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

With shades of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars and Courtney Summers’s Sadie, this dark and twisted mystery set in a divided Maine seaside town simmers with unresolved tensions and unpredictable truths.

Everyone in Tenney’s Harbor knows about the Garrison tragedy. How an unexplained fire ravaged their house, killing four of the five family members. But what people don’t know is who did it.

All fingers point at Pearl Haskins’ father, who was the caretaker of the property, but Pearl just doesn’t believe it. Leave it to a town of rich people to blame “the help.”

With her disgraced father now trying to find work in between booze benders, Pearl’s future doesn’t hold much more than waiting tables at the local country club, where the wealthy come to flaunt their money and spread their gossip. This year, Tristan, the last surviving Garrison, and his group of affluent and arrogant friends have made a point of sitting in Pearl’s section. Though she’s repulsed by most of them, Tristan’s quiet sadness and somber demeanor have her rethinking her judgments.

Befriending the boys could mean getting closer to the truth, clearing her father’s name, and giving Tristan the closure he seems to be searching for. But it could also trap Pearl in a sinister web of secrets, lies, and betrayals that would leave no life unchanged...if it doesn’t take hers first.


  • Psychological Suspense: Pearl must navigate a web of lies where trusting the wrong person—especially the enigmatic Tristan Garrison—could be a fatal mistake.
  • Wrongfully Accused: Determined to clear her disgraced father's name, this amateur sleuth will risk everything to expose the truth behind the Garrison family tragedy.
  • Atmospheric Mystery: Set in a Maine seaside town where the locals and wealthy summer families are locked in a silent war, and everyone has something to hide.
  • Complex Characters: A resilient, sharp-witted heroine forced to confront a grieving boy who might be her only ally—or the keeper of the most dangerous secrets of all.
With shades of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars and Courtney Summers’s Sadie, this dark and twisted mystery set in a divided Maine seaside town simmers with unresolved tensions and unpredictable truths. Everyone in Tenney’s Harbor knows about the Garrison tragedy. How an unexplained fire ravaged their...

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Ratings and reviews

4 reviews
Ritu Nair
December 26, 2018
While this is first and foremost a mystery novel, I feel the strength of the story was in the characterization and not the mystery of it. When Pearl infiltrates the group of the summer kids, she does so with the intention of finding out what really happened that unfortunate night when her father was blamed for not preventing the arson and murder of Garrisons. Most of the book goes into the class divide and how the rich kids look down on the townies, how she derides their indulgences and their facades. But Tristan has a quiet intensity to him that draws her, even as she is repelled by his uncaring and manipulative nature, and as she peels one layer after another of these kids and their lives, she learns a little more about what could have led to that tragedy. The author takes care to construct each character, building them into three-dimensional people with secrets of their own, their personal issues that subtly affect the plot of the novel. I loved that aspect of this book a lot. As a mystery, though, it is pretty frustrating - much of the clues and reveals happen in the second half of the book, and the payout is not as much as it is building up to. There is perhaps only a couple of scenes that evoke a 'thriller' like vibe, the danger that you associate with the genre. Overall, it is a decent book but if you are looking for a good mystery, you might be disappointed.
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About the author

Gillian French is the author of The Lies They Tell, The Missing Season, and Edgar Award finalist Grit, which was an Indie Next List pick and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and ALA Booklist. She holds a BA in English from the University of Maine and lives in Maine with her husband and sons. www.gillianfrench.com.

Gillian French is the author of The Lies They Tell, The Missing Season, and Edgar Award finalist Grit, which was an Indie Next List pick and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and ALA Booklist. She holds a BA in English from the University of Maine and lives in Maine with her husband an...

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