By: Mary Kubica
ISBN: 978-0778319986
Publisher: Park Row Books
Publication Date: 6/27/2017
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 5 Stars Top Books of 2017 Featured Friday Read Clara Solberg’s world shatters when her husband and their four-year-old daughter are in a car crash, killing Nick while Maisie is remarkably unharmed. The crash is ruled an accident…until the coming days, when Maisie starts having night terrors that make Clara question what really happened on that fateful afternoon.
Tormented by grief and her obsession that Nick’s death was far more than just an accident, Clara is plunged into a desperate hunt for the truth. Who would have wanted Nick dead? And, more important, why? Clara will stop at nothing to find out—and the truth is only the beginning of this twisted tale of secrets and deceit.
Told in the alternating perspectives of Clara’s investigation and Nick’s last months leading up to the crash, master of suspense Mary Kubica weaves her most chilling thriller to date—one that explores the dark recesses of a mind plagued by grief and shows that some secrets might be better left buried.
My Review
One of my very favorite authors, talented bestselling author, Mary Kubica returns following, the sensational Don’t You Cry, landing on my Top 10 Books of 2016 with yet another 5 star winner: EVERY LAST LIE — a compelling and clever domestic suspense of a young widow trying to make sense of her husband’s untimely death.
A marriage of secrets.
A slow-burning twisty psychological suspense. Heart-pounding, a tale of one woman's desperate search for answers. From an array of emotions —grief, disbelief, anger, fear, and confusion.
What was her husband hiding? Her children are one parent away from being orphaned. A young daughter with nightmares. Was he killed purposefully, intentionally and with malice? Was he the bad man or someone else?
Clara Solberg lives in Chicago suburbs with her husband Nick, a dentist; with children: four-year-old daughter, Maisie, and newborn son, Felix.
A few days after Felix is born, Clara receives the horrific news. Her husband is dead in an automobile accident, yet their daughter is alive, unharmed. He was on his way home from taking his daughter to ballet practice.
Chinese or Mexican? These are the last words Clara would ever exchange with her husband. If she had asked for Mexican, Nick would be home.
A crash on Harvey Road leaves one dead.
An accident implies that something has happened unintentionally and without deliberate cause. Soon Clara begins to suspect foul play was to blame.
She is angry at Nick for leaving her.
Nick is dead. When she is not sad, she is angry. For him being careless. For driving too fast with Maisie in the car. For driving too fast period. For losing control and launching headfirst into a tree.
She hates the tree. The force of the impact wrapped the car around the oak tree on Harvey Road, while Maisie sat in the backseat, on the opposite side, miraculously unharmed.
Reckless driving is to blame. There is no investigation. He was driving too fast. What was going through is mind, minutes before the accident?
Her daughter says there was a bad man in a car, following Maisie and Nick. Who is the bad man that was following Nick and her daughter? Who is the bad man that took her husband? A black car.
Her daughter is afraid. She continues to scream, “the bad man is after us. He’s going to get us.” She fears for her terrorized four-year-old-daughter. She fears for herself and her family.
She replays Maisie’s words over and over in her mind. In no uncertain terms, Maisie has made it clear that Nick’s car accident was no accident at all. The questions continue to run through her mind.
Does Maisie know this bad man? Did the car push Nick from the road? Did her daughter get a glimpse of him before the car went airborne, flying into the tree? Did Nick see the man?
An illusion or a figment of a little girl’s imagination? What if there was another car on the road that fateful afternoon? What didn’t she know about her husband? What secrets was he hiding?
Everyone loved Nick. He had no enemies. Whatever transpired on the street had to be the worst kind of luck, a simple act of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Was someone watching Nick as he crashed?
Why was he going sixty on four-five miles per hour road, that drops to twenty at the bend?
How could Maisie be fine and unharmed? Did he take the turn too quickly? A black car? Would he take his own life with his own daughter in the car?
Carla is in denial. She cannot bring herself to tell her daughter her father is gone and not coming back. He is dead.
She must find answers.
Financial problems. Who was Melinda Grey? Drugs, restraining orders, stealing, affairs, suicide? This cannot be Nick. There were no secrets in their marriage, or was she wrong? She begins to suspect everyone.
Nick’s secrets.
How secrets can destroy marriages. Lives. Families. From an unreliable narrator, feelings of paranoia, grief, confusion. The money. She soon learns there is nothing. She needs closure. She hates this feeling of the unknown and uncertainty.
What really happened on Harvey Road?
Clara is overwhelmed by grief, caring for her children, the needs of her aging parents; she’s also unable to sleep. She is coming unhinged. Is she going through the stages of grief? Can she ever reach acceptance?
Skillfully executed, Kubica takes readers on a chilling psychological journey— a woman grief-stricken obsessed with solving the events surrounding her husband’s mysterious death.
A fan of Mary’s very first book and everyone in between, to her latest: EVERY LAST LIE – a domestic suspense which will leave you guessing to the final conclusion, as we hear from POVs of Clara and Nick.
Motherhood is a strong ongoing theme in the novel, both Clara as a mother to Maisie and Felix, as well as Clara’s relationship with her own mother, Louisa. Many of these relationships are strained. An ideal choice for book clubs and further discussions.
As always each of her books is strongly character-driven and psychologically rich. You feel Clara and Nick’s desperation. If only there were no lies. How would the outcome be different?
The feeling of entrapment and coming unhinged is front and center. A twisty suspense of lies and secrets you cannot miss. For fans of B.A. Paris, Ruth Ware, Kimberly Belle, Clare Mackintosh and Fiona Barton -My favorites.
Highly recommend all Mary Kubica’s books! Top-rated —she never disappoints her fans and you can always expect to be surprised.
A special thank you to Park Row Books and NetGalley for an early reading copy.
Review Links:
New York Times bestselling author of THE GOOD GIRL, Mary Kubica is back with another exhilarating thriller as a widow’s pursuit of the truth leads her to the darkest corners of the psyche.
Praise for EVERY LAST LIE
A page-turning whodunit, and a moving account of grief. ~ Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Cabin 10
“With Every Last Lie, Mary Kubica spins an utterly mesmerizing tale of marriage and secrets. Haunting, psychologically deft and full of hairpin turns (every one earned), it’ll have you rapt until its final pages, and also richly rewarded by them.” ~ Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me
“Brilliant, intense, and utterly addictive. Be prepared to run a gauntlet of emotions!” ~ B.A. Paris, New York Times bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors
"[A] chilling psychological thriller... [Kubica] shows herself once again to be a master of suspenseful manipulation."
-Publishers Weekly
"This chilling thriller is perfect for the upcoming long, hot summer."
-Redbook
"Kubica's fourth stand-alone is a compelling... portrait of grief and coping chronicled through a wife's determined investigation of the lies she's discovered framing her life."
-Booklist
About the Author
Mary Kubica is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of four novels, including THE GOOD GIRL, PRETTY BABY, DON’T YOU CRY and EVERY LAST LIE.
A former high school history teacher, Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children, where she enjoys photography, gardening and caring for the animals at a local shelter.
Her first novel THE GOOD GIRL was an Indie Next pick in August of 2014, received a Strand Critics Nomination for Best First Novel and was a nominee in the Goodreads Choice Awards in Debut Goodreads Author and in Mystery & Thriller for 2014. Mary has been described as “a writer of vice-like control,” (Chicago Tribune) and her novels have been praised as “hypnotic” (People) and “thrilling and illuminating” (Los Angeles Times).
She is currently working on her next novel. Read More
Photo by Sarah Jastre
Every Last Lie UK
‘Brilliant, intense, and utterly addictive. Be prepared to run a gauntlet of emotions!’ - B A Paris, bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors
‘With Every Last Lie, Mary Kubica spins an utterly mesmerising tale of marriage and secrets. Haunting, psychologically deft and full of hairpin turns… it’ll have you rapt until its final pages’
- Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me
‘Single White Female on steroids’
– Lisa Scottoline
‘Grabs you from the moment it starts’
– Daily Mail
‘Gets right under your skin and leaves its mark. A tremendous read’
– The Sun
'Sensational'
– Metro
'Fans of GONE GIRL will embrace this'
– Lisa Gardner
‘Memorable and riveting’
– Lovereading.co.uk
‘Stunning – Kubica is an author to watch.’
– We Love This Book
