L is for Lies He Told Me

When Chloe Bowman woke to find her husband gone, never did she imagine it would take so long to find him, or that in the midst of the search she'd discover she didn't really know this man at all. She soon realizes she has been left alone with her young son and a time bomb on her hands. Then the earthquake throws everything into question. Lurking in the shadows is the mysterious Rainman who travels under an unknown name. 

Police Detective Ross Cullen was already investigating Chloe's husband when he disappeared. Although he's powerfully drawn to Chloe, Ross also knows that when one member of a family disappears, the first place to look for the suspect is among those closest to him. No one is closer than Chloe. 

But the deeper Ross digs the less he knows, and the more he's attracted to the young wife as she struggles to put her life back together. Can Ross break through the Rainman's disguises to solve the case so he can be with Chloe?


I was sent a copy of this book by the author so I could review it.  I don't usually post reviews on this blog, but because it was a request, I will.  Just don't expect a whole lot of reviews here.  I usually just comment on things I absolutely love!

And I'll start off by saying, I didn't absolutely love this book.  Neither did I hate it.

There were parts where I was wholly engaged and reading quickly, eager to see what would happen next.  But those parts seemed to take a while to get to.

This is a book that is screaming for a good editor.  The story is all there.  The characters are there.  But because there are sections where nothing in the plot is really moving, there needs to be more character development.  For instance, I never understood why Ross was so taken with Chloe in the first place.  It seems to be because she's beautiful and that's not a good enough reason for me. Especially since Chloe was not a strong character in her own right.  She grew into being stronger, but only with a lot of help from friends, family and neighbors.

And there were too many characters.  Chloe takes in borders, so there are those characters.  She has a large family who all live nearby.  She has a neighbor with her own extended family.  Ross has a partner and a superintendent and a family of his own.  The bad guy has his own entanglements and relationships and to complicate things further, he and his cronies all use a variety of aliases.  So it is easy to get tangled up and forget who is who between chapters and pages.  Especially when a number of the characters didn't really serve any purpose in the book.  I kept waiting for there to be some big reveal about Janine being involved with Rainman or something, but no…. never happened.

The crimes committed here are interesting though.  I waded through the domestic detail and the rather plodding romance just because I was interested in what might be going on, what had actually happened to Chloe's husband.  My favorite sections in the book were the ones following the bad guy, Rainman.  His crimes, for the most part, weren't big, but that was what was interesting about them.  They were the small crimes that your next door neighbor might be committing.

So while this isn't a book I'd rave about to anyone, it's not such a bad way to while away a long commute or plane ride.