Everyone here is lying

Married neighbors William and Nora are having a torrid affair. They desperately want to be together, but Nora realizes the impact it would have on their families and elects to end things. This sets off a chain of events that snowballs into tragedy. Distraught at Nora's decision, William goes home, only to find that his daughter, Avery, is in trouble again--she's been kicked out of choir and has walked home by herself, something the nine-year-old isn't allowed to do. She's also insolent, and when she sasses William, he hits her. He flees in a panic, and Avery decides to get even. She disappears, but an anonymous tip reveals that Avery was seen getting into the car of a teenage neighbor with a record for drug abuse--that neighbor is Nora's son. The reader knows what's really happened--a distressing story of a woman obsessed, a kid who's the archetypal evil child, and two families ripped apart by the disastrous chain of events. As usual, Lapena offers a clever, disturbing page-turner with deeply flawed characters and a stunning conclusion.

When a child goes missing, everyone--from the family to the neighbors--worries that their carefully kept secrets will be exposed during the investigation. After being dumped by his lover, William Wooler comes home to find Avery, his precocious, difficult 9-year-old daughter, alone in the kitchen when she's supposed to be at choir practice. A confrontation ensues, and William leaves. Several hours later, it appears that Avery is missing. The police are immediately on the case, interviewing the family and the neighbors for information, but instead of providing clarity, each conversation seems to complicate the investigation. Why does it take William so many hours to admit that he came home and saw his daughter before she went missing? Why does someone leave an anonymous tip saying they saw Avery get into a local teen's car? Why had Avery's best friend's brother supposedly spent time alone with her in a treehouse recently? Each revelation leads to new suspicions, and some people will do anything to conceal their darkest secrets. The suspense here is real; Lapena does a great job of exposing layers of domestic dishonesty and betrayal one conversation at a time. But this also means that none of these characters is particularly sympathetic. The twist is real, and at least somewhat surprising, but at that point, everyone seems to deserve a comeuppance. The truth, in this neighborhood, is bruising--and no one comes through unscathed. Succeeds as a domestic thriller and procedural--but there's little heart to the story. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.