A LOVELY LIE

Years and years after she told a lie that kept her best friend’s life from unraveling, a Florida hotel clerk finds her own life suddenly threatened by unexpected blowback.

They were high school kids. It was the senior picnic. Like everyone else, they’d been drinking. So when head cheerleader Pepper Wilson asked Scarlett Kane to back up her story about the fatal car crash that killed fellow graduates Chloe Michaels and Julian Ackers, of course Scarlett agreed. Fast-forward 22 years. Scarlett’s married to Pepper’s old boyfriend Vince Russo, who once captained the football team. Vince and Chris Parker, another classmate, run a pool-cleaning business whose star employee is Luke Russo, Vince and Scarlett’s 17-year-old son. They’re not exactly happy—Vince still has a roving eye—but they’re getting along until Pepper’s daughter, Zoey, turns up out of nowhere (it’s actually Brooklyn) with a letter she says she found among her mother’s effects after she was killed by a drunk driver, a letter hinting broadly at a coverup all those years ago. Zoey, who’s studying to become an investigative reporter, latches onto the Russos and won’t let go. And her instincts are right on the money, because everyone involved is hiding enough secrets from the law and each other for a three-act tragedy. Though neither the premise nor its development rises to the level of Hendricks’ smart debut, I Didn’t Do It (2023), the family drama that unfolds along two interwoven timelines is every bit as juicy as the whodunit she set in a mystery convention.

Takeaways: Stay out of Florida. Don’t keep in touch with your old friends. Maybe skip high school.