Lies He Told Me by James Patterson

 

This is a collaboration work by James Patterson and David Ellis. It was a fast paced, intense and twisty novel and I loved every second of it! 

Lies He Told Me starts out with the story of David Bowers, celebrating his birthday with his wife, Marcie Bowers on the bridge where they first met. As they were chatting and having a good time, a car crashed through the bridge railings and plunged into the water. David, without hesitation, dove into the water after it. 

Passersby recorded videos of his heroism and Marcie called 911. A rescue helicopter arrived and everyone's saved. David became a small town hero, even though he avoided the attention as much as possible. Did you notice the cover of the book?? It says "She's in love with a liar". "He" must refer to David right? Because you know, it's always the husband. But so far he sounds like an amazing guy!

Next, the book tells us about Marcie. She grew up in the small town of Hemingway Grove, but left her home and childhood sweetheart, Kyle Janowski behind to pursue a career in criminal law in Chicago. She later returned to Hemingway Grove for unknown reasons, met David, got married and now they have two children, 10 year old Lincoln and 12 year old Grace. She still works as a lawyer. 15 years earlier, when Marcie was in Chicago working for a law firm, she represented an assassin named Silas Renfrow. Silas worked for a famous mobster, Michael Cagnina. Silas and some others were able to make a plea deal and testify against Cagnina, but before they were able to testify, all of the witnesses were murdered, some FBI agents were killed as well. The incident is known as the Halloween Massacre. It's believed that Cagnina was behind the killings, but they weren't able to prove it, so Cagnina ended up only getting jailed for tax evasion. We find out that this experience made Marcie move back to Hemingway Grove, where it's more quiet and quaint.

David is the owner of a local bar called "Hemingway's Pub". A month after the daring rescue, weird things started happening at the Bowers residence. Things get magically misplaced, their dog gets missing but later returns, their home security system is tripped but nothing is taken, etc. David blames it on the proximity of Halloween, that kids are just playing pranks, so he's unwilling to involve the police. Marcie starts getting suspicious, especially as she catches David secretly on the phone with someone. She starts investigating and realizes David is lying about his whereabouts and has a burner phone that he uses to call a woman named Camille. Readers also learn that Camille is pregnant and she urges David to tell Marcie about their relationship. OMG!!! Instead of playing any games, Marcie decides to confront David. David completely denies having anyone else and assures Marcie that he's completely devoted to her and their children.

The story next tells us about a man named Tommy Malone who's secretly following David. He's the one that broke into David's house. He is suspicious of David for money laundering. FBI Agent, Francis Blair is investigating David also. All of a sudden our perfect husband doesn't seem so perfect any more! 

Marcie reaches out to the police about the weird things that's been happening at her house. Her ex-boyfriend Kyle is now a police sergeant and is helping her. Kyle thinks David might be Silas - Silas had many cosmetic surgeries to change his face and never met his lawyers or police, and always talked through a voice altering device. Kyle thinks Silas staged his own death and his identity got exposed when his heroic video went viral. Marcie can't believe David is that bad of a guy but she continues her own investigation. She finds keys to some safety deposit boxes at a bank. Tommy confronts David at his home and shoots David. David is recovering in the hospital. Marcie goes to the bank to see what the safety deposit boxes contained. 

With David in the hospital, the police ran DNA tests to find out who he really is. He has some blood on him from Tommy as well. The results indicate that David is actually Wesley Price, Cagnina's old accountant. Tommy is actually Silas! Wesley was one of the people that was willing to testify against Cagnina. Wesley was placed under witness protection program and his witsec agent was Camille. So he wasn't cheating on Marcie! Camille's pregnancy is unrelated to him. Wesley was given a new identity through witsec. Marcie finds out that David stole $20 million from Cagnina before going into hiding, unbeknownst to Camille. Silas is after David because he wants to know where the money is at.

David ends up dying in the hospital. Silas is threatening Marcie with her life if she doesn't get him the money. Marcie finds several items in the safety deposit boxes, like a cellphone, a remote control, a thumb drive, and some papers. All of these items end up helping Marcie get out. One of the paper tells Marcie a message, but the book decides to not tell us until later. The message is to not trust the FBI, which would be Agent Blair.

The thumb drive has an audio file where Agent Blair agrees to disclose David's location in exchange of $20 million from Cagnina. Marcie sends a copy of this to the police. Marcie purchases several duffle bags, many life vests, toy handcuffs, lots of paper, among other things. She sets things up on the same bridge as the beginning of the novel - now missing some railing due to the accident, and calls Agent Blair to come. Agent Blair, who's working with Silas, decide to corner her, with one of them on each end of the bridge. 

Once they show up, Marcie tells them they can't arrest her for money she doesn't have, as she kicks each duffle bag (filled with paper) into the water. The final 4 bags are tied together to Marcie with the toy handcuff. Marcie says if they shoot, she'll fall in the water together with all of the money. Blair shoots Silas dead, and tries to work Marcie over, telling her they can share the money and get away with it all. Marcie falls into the water with all of the bags chained to her, but those bags are filled with floats inside. She eventually floats back up, and rescued by Kyle (who she had already called before) and the rescue helicopter. Kyle tells Marcie that Blair tried to draw the gun when the cops showed up, so he was shot dead. Marcie thanks him for saving her and feels lucky to be alive. Kyle tells her perhaps she didn't. Marcie was declared "dead from complications". She and her children are on the witness protection program. Cagnina, who's now old and retired, does not have any desire to pursue the case. Camille had her baby. The baby's daddy was never revealed in the book, but Camille said he was a married man (which adds to the fact we thought it was David initially, but it was just a red herring). The end of the book tells us that the man never left his wife. The remote control from the safety deposit box would open the base of a Hemingway statue that's at David's pub, where David hid all the money. Marcie plans on donating most of the money, saving the rest for the children's colleges and hazard pay. Kyle plans on moving to Marcie's area after everything is settled.

This book completely tricked me. I thought David was a bad guy before the book started, based on the cover, then I thought he was a good guy, then back to a bad guy, then back to a good guy, then finding out he stole money and kept all this from his wife, I was like, I don't know... The end where Marcie used her wits to outsmart everyone was just icing on the cake. What an awesome experience!