All The Beautiful Lies

In All The Beautiful Lies, by Peter Swanson, bookseller and general mystery lover Bill Ackerman recommends The Secret History as one of his top five campus crime novels, before tragically dying by accidentally slipping from a nature path. Definitely suspicious, right?

When the story opens, new grad Harry returns to the coastal Maine town for his father’s funeral, and to help his his stepmother, Alice.  At first, Harry’s just grieving for the terrible accident that cause his father’s death on one of his regular evening walks.  But soon things start to get darker, with an unknown young woman who shows up at the funeral and then at the bookstore. Then there are signs that his father’s death wasn’t an accident. And Harry’s stepmother, halfway between himself and his father in age, has always seemed unsettlingly attractive to Harry.

There is a creepy Lolita style relationship at the heart of this book, which is actually revealed as just one link in a chain of adults having relationships with teenagers, who grow up to be adults interested in teenagers.  Because the story reveals these semi-consensual, predatory relationships, it almost makes the murders less shocking in comparison.  And there are quite a few suspicious deaths, creating a surprisingly high body count for such a small town.

There’s very little gross in this book, really just some blood. Instead, the tension comes from the twisted motivations and the cold-blooded actions.

This was a dark and suspenseful story, with nods to Agatha Christie and other famous mysteries.