Lie Still
“A whip-smart thriller.”
— The Dallas Morning News
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SECRETS EXPLODE IN A TWISTED TEXAS TOWN?
When Emily Page and her husband move from Manhattan to the wealthy enclave of Clairmont, Texas, she hopes she can finally escape her haunted past—and outrun the nameless stalker who has been taunting her for years. Pregnant with her first child, Emily just wants to start over. But as she is drawn into a nest of secretive Texas women—and into the unnerving company of their queen, Caroline Warwick—Emily finds that acceptance is a very dangerous game.
It isn’t long before Caroline mysteriously disappears and Emily is facing a rash of anonymous threats. Are they linked to the missing Caroline? Or to Emily’s terrifying encounter in college, years earlier? As the dark truth about Caroline emerges, Emily realizes that some secrets are impossible to hide—and that whoever came for Caroline is now coming for her.
Praise
“Heaberlin combines a culturally pertinent suspense story (the plot revolves around the main character’s struggles with the repercussions of an unreported date rape) with satirical observations about Texas’ moneyed suburban elite.”
—The New York Times
“Heaberlin, a former journalist, expertly spins out a tale of lies and deceit that will keep the reader guessing.”
—Publishers Weekly (see full review)
“Heaberlin’s depiction of one tight-knit Texas community is both culturally savvy and politically astute. Her group of rich white women desperate to climb the social ladder is funny as well as sad … a carefully wrapped package of Texas soap opera, social and political expose, and well-paced thriller.”
—Booklist (see full review)
“Lie Still is a potent blast of 21st-century Southern Gothic. Julia Heaberlin brings a poet’s craft and conviction to her storytelling … She has captured the raw and dangerous Texan sunshine and sprinkled it liberally across the pages of her highly accomplished second thriller.”
—Crime Readers’ Association (see full review)
“Lie Still is a whip-smart thriller … particularly timely in this time of NSA eavesdropping and Google searches that may end up in the hands of your friendly neighborhood police force.”
—The Dallas Morning News (see full review)
“Lie Still mixes serious discussion about ‘the last frontier in crime’ with a twisty-turny mystery plot and a cast of eccentric characters.”
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“Julia Heaberlin deceives the reader in the most deliciously chilling way in Lie Still: with gorgeous prose and sterling character work, she takes us on a deeply felt and wonderfully composed thrill ride as the pretty world she has created begins to disintegrate. Layer upon layer of secrets, longing, and deception are peeled away and we begin to dread the twisted kernel at the heart, never guessing what Heaberlin has in store for us. Well played, Heaberlin—I tip my hat to a new master of our genre.”
—Sophie Littlefield, Edgar®-nominated author of A Bad Day for Sorry and Garden of Stones