To Tell You The Truth by Gilly Macmillan

 

From the outside, Lucy Harper has the perfect life.  Her mysteries, starring a female detective, sell like hotcakes and her husband, Dan, has had to quit work just to manage their money and property.  Dan is the first man she ever loved and she loves him still.  Rich, famous, in love, what a life.

But under the surface, things aren't so good.  What no one except Dan knows is that when Lucy was a little girl her brother, Teddy, disappeared one night when she took him into the woods and then left him sleeping to go watch a bonfire.  Teddy was never found and the family ended up moving away to escape the notoriety.  Her books are selling but she is trapped into writing nothing but mysteries and she is tired of her main character.  Dan is getting more and more remote; when they met he thought he would be the one to break into publishing and that never happened to him.

Now Dan has gone out and bought a house without asking Lucy.  She is appalled to see that it abuts on the woods where Teddy had gone missing.  Dan is doing lots of things without telling Lucy.  She suspects that includes having an affair with their gorgeous neighbor.  Then Dan disappears and Lucy knows her perfect life is about to come down in tatters.  Can she survive another disappearance?

Gilly Macmillan is a British writer who specializes in female characters who have encountered a disaster in their lives.  Lucy is a good example.  While the reader may want to just shake Lucy and tell her to stand up for herself, Macmillan does a good job of making her life and decisions seem inevitable.  The writing is fast paced and there are surprises along the way.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.