LYING WITH STRANGERS
James Grippando
Harper
Thriller
Hardcover: 006113838X
Paperback: 9780061138393

• Read an Excerpt

James Grippando is perhaps best known as the author of the Jack Swyteck novels, including the most recent bestseller WHEN DARKNESS FALLS. In addition, Grippando has published a number of stand-alone works --- and he returns to that format in fine form with his latest thriller.

LYING WITH STRANGERS is a riveting work --- steamy in spots, violent in others --- with a puzzling mystery interwoven throughout. Peyton Shields is a first-year resident at a major children's hospital in Boston and is on a very fast track to becoming head resident, until an automobile accident (which isn't exactly what Shields would call it) injures her and changes everything. Her husband, Kevin Stokes, is a somewhat less successful attorney in a white-shoe law firm who feels neglected at home and unappreciated at the office. Ironically he is in another woman's bed on the night his wife is hurt, an act that will have significant repercussions far beyond the obvious for him.

Meanwhile, Shields is being stalked by a mysterious person who is obsessed with her; this individual knows the intimate details of her life, as well as that of Stokes, and will stop at nothing to possess her. When the machinations of this mystery man result in murder, Shields and Stokes suddenly and inexplicably are under suspicion and then jointly charged with the crime. Unable to trust anyone, including each other, they find their lives, marriage and freedom in jeopardy, never dreaming that everyone, including the obsessed killer, is being manipulated.

LYING WITH STRANGERS is somewhat different from the Swyteck books, but those who know the author solely from that series will agree that this work retains his trademark flair for storytelling, one that translates into a gripping, surprise-filled experience for the reader. A former trial attorney, Grippando has written suspense-laden courtroom sequences in which lives and reputations hang in the balance and justice can be sacrificed at the expense of winning. For fans of mysteries and thrillers there is much to ponder here --- and even more to like.

   --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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