There are two mindsets when it comes to that isolated mountain cabin: People who love being alone in the woods, miles away from civilization, and find the steep narrow paths exhilarating to climb. And people who are rational. Often, folks with the first viewpoint end up married to folks who believe the second. Sometimes, this causes problems.
If the second person is you, one solution is to read Please Don’t Lie from writing team Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt while your adventurous partner hikes the mountain. Your worst fears will be confirmed, and your partner can climb up that slippery rock alone.
Please Don’t Lie takes place in New York’s Adirondack mountains, in the fictional small town of Crystal River. Florida native Hayley Stone has moved here with her husband Brandon, taking possession of his family’s remote abandoned property. It’s been a harrowing two years for Hayley—her parents died in a fire after rejecting her sister’s fiancé; her sister died of a drug overdose a month later—and she’s eager for the fresh start. After meeting Brandon at her sister’s funeral, Hayley quickly began to lean on him, especially when a true-crime blogger began stalking her, implying that Hayley knew more about the deaths than she admitted.
Hayley is excited about the new start, but Brandon turns into a different person in Crystal River. He’s obsessed with hunting and mysterious about his past. Lonely and bored, Hayley invites a new friend and her partner to move into the property’s guest cottage in preparation for winter. And then things go from bad to worse.
Please Don’t Lie is a slow burn—possibly too slow. Kline and Burt take their time describing Crystal River, building Hayley’s relationship with her new friend Megan, and sowing the seeds of dissatisfaction in the marriage. The sluggish pacing has one benefit: It develops a complete picture of Hayley as someone who trusts too easily and too soon. Considering everything she went through with her family and the true-crime blogger, this naivety is surprising, and other characters remark on it as well.
The ending is terrific, though. The climax is a set piece comparable to The Shining (movie version), with a twist straight out of a slasher film. It’s worth plowing through the slow pacing that makes up the majority of the novel to get to the finish. Since the book actually begins near the end and then flashes back, it’s a shame the authors didn’t continue with that structure throughout the entire work. It would have solved the pacing issue.
Please Don’t Lie is the perfect suspense novel for a mountain vacation. Whether you’re the one who likes to hike or the one on the couch, the book is a great reminder that bad things happen when spouses keep things from each other.
Thanks to MB Communications for the book in exchange for an honest review. Enter to win a digital copy on Goodreads through September 28th! (US only.)
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