It all started with the yard sale . . .

Eight months pregnant and nervous about the future, Ivy Rose doesn't recognize the woman approaching her and husband David as they attempt to rid themselves of the decades-worth of junk cluttering up their suburban home. The woman says she's Melinda White—their former high school classmate, now pregnant also—and asks if she might revisit the old Victorian house she recalls playing in as a child. David takes her inside. But Melinda never comes out.

With her husband a suspect in the bizarre disappearance and probable murder of the near-stranger he claims not to remember, Ivy must now dive into a deadly whirlpool of deceit, betrayal, and terrifying alternate histories in pursuit of a shocking truth—a truth that could destroy everything . . .

...

How to write a page-turner is no mystery with this thorough and authoritative guide. Successful mystery writer Hallie Ephron's Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel:

-Features comprehensive instruction, exercises, and worksheets for mystery writers of all levels

-Addresses all subgenres of mystery from hardboiled crimes and cozies to romantic thrillers and medical mysteries

-Covers how to grab readers from the first chapter, how to construct effective plots, and how to revise and submit mysteries to publishers

Ephron takes the mystery out of the writing process, making it less daunting for beginners and more efficient for experienced writers....

It all started with the yard sale. Ivy was eight months and one week pregnant when she insisted that she and her husband, David, clean out the junk they'd inherited with the old Victorian house they'd bought three years before. Call it nesting, call it nerves—she just wanted it all gone: the old electrical fixtures, the boxes of National Geographics from the 1960s, the four black wool greatcoats.

Neither she nor David recognized the woman at first. But it turned out that the customer asking about the lime-green glass swan dish—the woman who looks just about as pregnant as Ivy—was none other than Melinda White, a former high school classmate of David and Ivy's. When Melinda was a child she used to play in their new house, she explained. It looked like they'd been doing some work. Would it be all right if she took a look around? David took Melinda inside. And she never came out.

Now David's under police suspicion, and Ivy finds herself digging deep into the past to clear his name. But David's history, she begins to discover, is not necessarily the history she remembers, and before long Ivy has uncovered a twisted web of deceit, betrayal, and lies, both the ones we tell those we love and the ones we tell ourselves. . . .

Relentlessly fast-paced and disturbingly creepy, Never Tell a Lie is a page-turning thrill ride about how well we know the people we love, and how far we are willing to go to protect the secrets of our past.

...

It all started with the yard sale. Ivy was eight months and one week pregnant when she insisted that she and her husband, David, clean out the junk they'd inherited with the old Victorian house they'd bought three years before. Call it nesting, call it nerves—she just wanted it all gone: the old electrical fixtures, the boxes of National Geographics from the 1960s, the four black wool greatcoats.

Neither she nor David recognized the woman at first. But it turned out that the customer asking about the lime-green glass swan dish—the woman who looks just about as pregnant as Ivy—was none other than Melinda White, a former high school classmate of David and Ivy's. When Melinda was a child she used to play in their new house, she explained. It looked like they'd been doing some work. Would it be all right if she took a look around? David took Melinda inside. And she never came out.

Now David's under police suspicion, and Ivy finds herself digging deep into the past to clear his name. But David's history, she begins to discover, is not necessarily the history she remembers, and before long Ivy has uncovered a twisted web of deceit, betrayal, and lies, both the ones we tell those we love and the ones we tell ourselves. . . .

Relentlessly fast-paced and disturbingly creepy, Never Tell a Lie is a page-turning thrill ride about how well we know the people we love, and how far we are willing to go to protect the secrets of our past.

...

What better way to start a day than with inspiration from a literary classic? Now you can do just that. In this book, praised author and critic Hallie Ephron delivers a daily dose of literary knowledge.

A brilliant companion to the canon of great literature, it’s perfect for anyone who wants a novel way to energize each day. Ephron’s work is a secular twist on the traditional devotional and provides concise plot summaries, sketches of standout characters, quotations you should know, and more about hundreds of books by tried-and-true authors as well as new literary voices.

Whether it’s coffee with Austen, a quick lunch with Faulkner, or an end-of-the-day jolt with Chabon, this book proves a good book is a great source of daily inspiration....