Friday, March 23, 2012

White Lies-Jeremy Bates

White Lies


Jeremy Bates

Oceanview, May 7 2012, $25.95

ISBN 9781608090488



In a torrential downpour, Katrina Burton drives the curving road through the cascades to Leavenworth, Washington where she has been hired to teach high school English. Feeling sorry for a soaked hitchhiker, she picks him up though her brain screams not to. However, she becomes frightened by his drunken nastiness so she lies about her destination before throwing him out of her vehicle.



At Leavenworth High School, Kat meets her hitchhiker Zach Marshall, who also teaches there. Fearing Zach, Kat begins spinning a web of lies while he manipulates her and others. At the hardware store, Kat and Jack Reeves meet. He comes to her faculty party that Zach maneuvered for her to host at her rented cabin. Attracted to Jack, Kat feels he may be able to liberate her from her nightmare. Jack roughs Zach in a confrontation at the party that the intoxicated latter caused. Soon afterward, Jack loses control and in a rage kills the elderly owner of the cabin Charlie. He demands Kat help him cover-up the death.



Filled with suspense, the heroine learns Sir Walter Scott’s mantra (in Marmion): “Oh what a tangled web we weave; when first we practice to deceive”. – Fast-paced, the tense thriller grips readers as the beleaguered Kat learns to obtain background checks on males if she lives long enough to meet another man. Although readers will need to ignore their plausibility meter, White Lies is an exhilarating taut tale.



Harriet Klausner

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