Beautiful Lies

ISBN-13: 9780307388995
Publisher: Vintage Books
Published: 2006
441pp


First sentence: There were times when she wished he were dead.

Ridley Jones' life supposed to be simple and peaceful, but after an attempt of saving a toddler from being hit by a vehicle on a busy street in New York, she is caught in an unwanted attention when her heroic acts made it on the news. From then onwards, her life is never the same anymore.

First, she receives an envelope in the mail with no return address which contains some old photographs of a man, a woman and a little girl. Accompanied these photos is a note that asks this question: 'Are you my daughter?' When she confronted her parents, they assured her they are her parents although she got a feeling they have something to hide from her.

Things get more complicated when at this time, she is also attracted and intrigued by her new neighbour, Jake, who seems to have a few secrets of his own. Jake seems both eager and interested in helping her to solve her past, but Ridley has her own doubts. On top of this drama, she also has problems with a drug addicted brother, Ace, who is estranged from the family and her overly protective ex-boyfriend, Zachary.

Through her persistent digging and with the assistance from Jake, who turns out to be a PI with an agenda, they unveil a case of the disappearance of a girl, Jessie Stone back in the seventies after the murder of her mother. It also leads her to get to know more of her beloved late Uncle Max, whom she later learns he had set up a Project Rescue for bringing up the abandoned children, and that her father used to be the pediatrician to Jessie as well as to other abandoned children.

Lisa Unger has weaved a taut and intriguing suspense in Beautiful Lies told from the protagonist, Ridley Jones' perspective as the readers follow her twisting journey in finding her secret past and her true identity. The author has also successfully built up the climax by building the suspense of the people surrounding Ridley. I liked the ending; it has led me to think about the choices sometimes we have to make in life.