USA TODAY "5 Books Not To Miss" • NY POST "Required Reading" "Sara Blaedel writes novels as twisty as spirals and electric with intelligence. A HARMLESS LIE is a labyrinth of a mystery, dense and dangerous. Come get lost in it." —A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window "Riveting...It’s tailor-made for Karin Slaughter’s readers.” —Library Journal (STARRED REVIEW)
A woman is haunted by a heartwrenching decision she made as a teenager in this darkly atmospheric, deeply emotional thriller from #1 internationally bestselling global superstar Sara Blaedel.
Detective Louise Rick is on a beach in Thailand when the panicked call from her father comes through. Louise′s beloved brother, Mikkel, has attempted suicide. His wife, Trine, left him days earlier, walking out the door one day with no warning and leaving Mikkel devastated.
Louise rushes home to Osted, the small, insular Danish town where she grew up and where Mikkel still lives. But the more Louise learns about Trine—a devoted wife and the mother of two young children—and her state of mind in the days before she left Mikkel, the more Louise begins to wonder whether Trine really meant to leave him. Or whether something much darker may have taken place.
As the local police begin to suspect that Mikkel may have had a hand in Trine’s disappearance, Louise struggles to clear his name but is forced to confront some hard truths:
Small towns always hide secrets. The past always comes back to haunt you. And lies are never harmless. ''One of the best I've come across.'' —Michael Connelly
"An intense, atmospheric starting point for those who haven’t yet discovered Denmark’s favorite cop.” —Booklist
Sara Blaedel's runaway #1 Danish bestselling crime novel featuring police investigator Louise Rick, a perfect new entry point to the series that first launched in the US with the bestselling and award-winning novel The Forgotten Girls.
Detective Louise Rick is on vacation in Thailand when she gets a panicked call from her father. Mikkel, Louise's brother, has attempted suicide. His wife Trine has left him, and no one has heard from her in three days.
Meanwhile, the media in Louise's hometown of Osted is carrying non-stop coverage about Susan Dahlgaard, a local schoolgirl who went missing over a decade earlier and whose body has just been discovered in a remote forest on the nearby island of Borhnholm.
As Louise rushes home to be at Mikkel's side, she discovers that Trine and Susan went to school together. Could there be some connection between Trine's disappearance, and the reopening of Susan's case? With her beloved brother Mikkel's life hanging in the balance, the investigation becomes devastatingly personal for Louise.
Set in small-town Denmark, Sara Blaedel's twisty and emotionally intense crime novel proves yet again why she has earned her place as a #1 internationally bestselling author with millions of fans around the world.
Series Overview: Louise Rick is a police detective based in Denmark. This book is a perfect entry point as the first of a self-contained trilogy.
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