Tell Me Lies by Jennifer Crusie

Okay, I won’t tell you lies, even though I love Jennifer Crusie’s books this book was not one of my favorites. In fact, when I was about 75% of the way through I really thought I was going to give this book 1 star. Which was odd considering this book had Crusie’s usual tricks. A female lead who finds out her life is crap (Maddie), a male character that the female has history with (C.L.), a mystery that you think you have figured out but don’t (Maddie’s husband Brent’s murder), and then a group of characters who are making the female’s life miserable (the whole town). So why didn’t I like this book?

Well, first off, the character of Maddie wasn’t Crusie’s usual witty and strong willed lead. No, instead she’s in a marriage that she hates. She hates her husband and I really couldn’t blame her. Brent is a total douche. I mean, he’s cheated on her before – with this elusive Beth who you never meet throughout the whole book – and she finds a pair of crotchless underwear and realizes that he’s cheating on her again. But instead of filing for divorce or confronting him right away, she thinks right away about what the town would think. Not about her daughter – which she does later – but about the town. Ugh.

Then there’s the issue of after her husband’s murder, when she finds all this money and the murder weapon in her totaled car and she doesn’t do anything about it! Instead of telling C.L.’s uncle, who’s investigating the murder, she hides the money in C.L.’s car and the gun in a casserole that she has her best friend put in her freezer. What the hell?! The only reason I didn’t throw the book across the room, was because of Emily, Maddie’s daughter, who accuses her mom of lying which causes Maddie to start telling the truth. The new Maddie was so much better than the old one that I wished there were more pages with her in it. But alas…

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. If you can stick it out, this book isn’t all that bad – definitely better than Fast Women – and the person who ended up murdering Brent is someone you never really see coming.

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