A well-written mystery with real character development

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	• Two Truths and a Lie Katrina Kittle Warner Books, 2001 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A well-written mystery with real character development

I simply adored every detail of _Two Truths and a Lie_. How rare for a popular-fiction mystery novel to have true character development *and* a plot! I'm one of those who always figures out the who-done-it way too early and finds little reason to finish the book (except to skim the important bits to see that I'm right). This time, I didn't want to miss a word all the way to the end. Dair, Peyton, and their friends, family and animals were real down to the last detail. Anyone who has ever struggled with an addiction (or loved someone who has) must read this book. Also a must for understanding compulsive lying.

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A different type of page turner

Dair Canard has problems, big ones. A compulsive liar with a drinking problem, she has a husband that seems to have something to hide, parents who have separated, and a close friend whose recent and suspicious death was bizarre to say the least. Dair's life is definately spiraling out of control, and her lifetime of lying is starting to take it's toll.
This is a well written page turner with just enough twists to keep the reader guessing. My only criticism would be that I found the "animal telepathy" angle a little difficult to swallow. Even an animal lover such as myself grew tired of the endless references to the character's pets. That said, this is still a enjoyable, albeit unusual mystery novel worth reading.

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Amazing

It is scary how real these characters were. As a matter of fact there were times that I had to put the book down and walk away from it because I felt such a strong connection with them. I say bravo a job well done and a toast to a book that is the finest I've read in years. If you only read one book this year pick this one up you won't feel sorry. The narrative is beautiful, the characters are life like, and even the animals have a personality of their own. There is not a single place where the book falters or gets drab. It will grab you and won't let go until the very last word.

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Is it still a lie if you start to believe it?

"Dair was a habitual liar. Not pathological or anything, just...recreational." Thus begins this story about lies, deception, and what happens when the truth is sometimes less believable than the lies we tell. Let's face it we've all been guilty of telling "little white lies". Stories we enhance, niceties we introduce to spare someone's feelings, the occasional all out fib. Whether we like it or not, lying is part of human nature.

And it is with this introspective into someone who has spent her entire life telling little (and sometimes not so little) lies that begins our story. We meet Dair, on the way to pick up her husband Peyton from the airport, plotting the lie she'll tell him to explain why she is late. It is the accident, or apparent suicide she witnesses on the way, which truly does make her late, and turns out to be stranger than any fiction she could have concocted.

From here a web of lies, not only Dair's, but also everyone else's, begins to spin out of control. We meet Peyton, her husband, who has his own demons to contend with, we learn more about the reasons behind Dair's "habit" of stretching the truth. We meet Dair's mother, with her unusual talent of communicating with animals. We learn the identity of the alleged "suicide" victim, and his relation to all the players in this book. And we open up a whole lot of questions in the process.

I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't sure what to expect from it, not even having a clue what the story was about (it was sent to me by a friend), and so was glad to discover that it was full of twists and turns and surprises. The characters were very real, and easy to identify with. The author creates a world not unlike the world her reader's live in, and therefore, these characters could be our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers. Their secrets and their lies, possibly making them people we don't truly know. The relationships between the characters were realistic, deep, captivating, and I could identify with Dair, I felt for Peyton, I adored the cranky upstairs neighbor, Mr. Lively. But it was the "secondary characters" in this story, the animals, which really tied it all together for me. Katrina Kittle did a wonderful job of making the pets as much a "cast of characters" in this novel as the humans. Shoddan and Blizzard, Peyton and Dair's dogs, with their huge personalities, Captain Hook, Mr. Lively's parrot, with his extended vocabulary, Dair's Chickadee, they were vital to this story, and added a nice twist to the mystery and the drama.

For me, this book had it all, great character development, wonderful storytelling, mystery, humor, a bit of sadness, fantasy and realism. A+

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new twists on relationship/murder mystery

I've never read another book which combines two subjects so well. Another author might have written a murder mystery without the caracter depth of this novel, or a relationship oriented story without the suspense that grabs the reader. This novel is definately on my top 10 favorite list. Of course this may just be the absinthe talking, but I can't wait for Kittle's next masterpiece.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Dair Canard has made up tales since she was a child. Now, as an adult, she finds herself lying at the slightest provocation, with greater and greater finesse. She has established herself as an actress, and bonded with her husband, Peyton, on the premise of her greatest lie evera fictitious twin sister who died at the age of 10. But Dair now finds herself at a point in her life where her lies threaten to avalanche. The mysterious death of a dear friend, the divorce of her parents, her increasingly serious drinking problem, and the strain of deceiving Peyton all finally collide. While attempting to sort the truth from the lies, Dair encounters a blurry line between what is real and what she has made up. As she struggles to get her life back on track, Dair learns the truth about her friends death and all her lies come tumbling down to unveil a few basic truths, one of which is that each of us has something to hide. Katrina Kittles debut novel, Traveling Light, was published in Warner hardcover in 4/00. The trade paperback edition, with a special reading group guide inside, will be published in 6/01 to tie in with Two Truths and a Lie. Kittle was featured in Publishers Weekly as one of the Best of First Fiction writers. The hardcover has more than 30,000 copies in print and received great praise from readers and reviewers.

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