Ridley Jones is content with her life. "I have loved and been loved
by my parents…I love my work, my friends, the place I live,"
she muses at the opening of BEAUTIFUL LIES. Happy with her East
Village apartment, surrounded by a loving family, Ridley's only
real trouble is her wayward older brother Ace, a drug addict who
has been cut off from the rest of the family and who regularly
disappears into the underbelly of Manhattan, reappearing only when
he needs Ridley to give him money.

All of Ridley's assumptions about her comfortable life evaporate in
a second, though, when she achieves her 15 minutes of fame after
saving the life of a small child. Instantly, her name and photo are
plastered all over the city, even throughout the country. Ridley
enjoys her brief fame, until she receives an alarming letter from
someone claiming she's his daughter. When Ridley later receives a
1970s newspaper clipping featuring a photo of a murdered woman who
looks just like Ridley herself, she isn't sure whom to
believe.

Ridley's questions to her parents are met with secrecy and
defensiveness. Is it possible that Ridley's entire existence has
been nothing but a series of beautiful lies? Soon enough, she is
thrust into a full-blown mystery that may involve her whole family,
her ex-fiance, and even the sexy new upstairs neighbor. On the run,
unsure of whom she can trust, Ridley must use all her resources to
delve into a past she never knew or even imagined.

Readers will devour Lisa Unger's terrific debut work of fiction. An
emotionally charged suspense novel with a likable heroine, this
sexy thriller rockets like a racecar through the streets of
Manhattan. New York City is actually a vibrant character in its own
right, which uses real neighborhood locales to enhance its air of
authenticity. The narrative's tone, with its second-person
addresses to the reader and some philosophical musings that
occasionally interrupt the action, may seem intrusive to some
readers. The combination of truly enthralling plotting and
emotional self-discovery, though, will draw in even the most
reluctant readers, who certainly will label Unger as a new suspense
author to watch.