IF THE WITNESS LIED

Cooney’s new psychologically penetrating page-turner immediately grabs readers then hangs on tight up to its satisfying conclusion. Three separated orphan siblings reunite to save their little brother and themselves from a media circus; while doing so, they discover not only that their father did not die accidentally as they had thought but that there is a murderer in their midst. Since the untimely deaths of their parents received saturation coverage in the media, the Fountain children have splintered. Jack, 15, lives with his uncaring step-aunt Cheryl and his almost-three-year-old brother in the family home. Madison and Smithy, Jack’s sisters, unable to cope with the notoriety, have moved away. But now Cheryl has contacted a TV producer who plans to put the family on public display, which none of them wants. The author adds depth to this fast-paced thriller by charting the siblings’ difficult emotional journeys as they try to reconnect and reconfigure their familial roles, while realizing their battered but still surviving solidarity. (Thriller. 12 & up)