Alexandra has built a perfect life based more than a little on a lie. When she was young, she worked for the Candy Girls – party favors for high class men – though she herself never slept with anyone. As the host of these debauched parties, she saw and heard much more than the other girls did. That included the events of the very last the Candy Girls hosted, where she saw something that has haunted, and followed her, her entire life. The aptly named Everyone is Lying by D.E. White starts when Alexandra’s house of cards starts to topple.
Alexandra used to go by the nickname Lexy, but she also went by the nickname Birdie, too. She used to love making paper cranes, and very few people in her life knew about it. Only four people, to be precise – one of whom is dead. So when she finds a single paper crane on her table, she knows that the past has found her. That includes the four men who ran the parties, one of which is just about to be elected prime minister.
Three girls died at that final party all those years ago. Just the sort of thing that would derail a political campaign to be connected to. However, it could also be one of the other three men who ran those parties, who covered up the murders and has just as much to lose. There is also the possibility it is her long lost brother, who disappeared that night all these years ago. It could even be her best friend, and fellow Candy Girl, Lana, who she never heard from again and has long assumed to have been killed, too.
Alexandra has to unravel just who is blackmailing her, and why, before the consequences of that night catch up to her. She has a family, and a thriving business now, one that she likely couldn’t have achieved with the money made from those parties. Her two kids could be in danger, as well as her husband Harlan, a police officer. However, Harlan has strict morals that he would never bend – and she knows that he would be unlikely to forgive her if he found out about her past. As the clock is ticking toward whatever her blackmailer’s dark goal is, Alexandra finds herself without any true allies at all.
Though the start of this thriller is a bit slow, that helps build up the claustrophobic atmosphere of Alexandra’s situation. Wanting to know what would happen, and learn the details of that horrible night, kept me reading the whole book. It did seem like a few threads were left untied, particularly where her husband was concerned – but this work appears to be intended as a stand alone, so that will probably be left up to the reader’s imagination. — Margaret Agnew