LITTLE WHITE LIES

Sometimes lying is the only way to get to the truth for one teen in this British thriller.

As the niece of the most famous inmate in the country, the narrator, a first-year “uni” student, has changed her name to Louise Shepherd. But navigating her new identity is tricky when her latest friend is a budding investigative journalist and a computer-hacker classmate from her past turns up (on purpose?) in the same town. And then there’s young bartender Christian Webb, who has secrets of his own. Lou’s evenly paced narration is Hollywood-script–ready as readers learn bit by bit about her cousin who lies in a coma, her culpability in her uncle’s prison sentence and Christian’s connections to her family’s tragedies. As the story twists and turns even more with vigilante thugs and possible police coverups, Lou finds herself on the run and trying to prove Christian’s innocence. But she’s not sure whether proving his innocence is for him or her. And are her loyalties to her family or the one she now loves? Along with uncovering clues, Lou discovers that right and wrong become confused when feelings are involved.

Slight Briticisms make the fact-finding all the more interesting as readers keep guessing in this gripping whodunit.