THE WHOLE LIE

Conway Sax never had it so good, which means, of course, that it’s only temporary.

There’s his new garage, providing work he’s expert at while promising a solid future—a remarkable outlook for a man who’s spent a lifetime being self-destructive. There’s his girlfriend, Charlene, and her daughter, Sophie, both of whom he adores, ready to move in and become a family with him. But then, predictably, there’s Savanna Kane. Nicknamed Savvy by one of the many kissed-off males she’s out-hustled through the years, she comes hip-swinging out of Conway’s past, and suddenly that solid future begins to seem illusory. Seven years earlier, Savvy and Conway had shared the kind of torrid affair that doesn’t end when it ends, and she’s confident that Conway’s irretrievably in her corner. She has a problem that involves one of the most powerful men in Massachusetts, and it scares the daylights out of her. Conway has to help her, she insists. To this, there’s Charlene’s contrary view, immediate and emphatic: Let Savvy find someone else’s man to extricate her from her jams. So Conway faces a clear-cut choice: Savvy or Charlene. But when certain agendas become less secret and, as a result, bodies start piling up, the choices are anything but clear-cut.

In his second appearance, Conway, as engaging as he was in his debut (Purgatory Chasm, 2011), is undercut by a story that never quite jells.