Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Fiction Subjects

The Heat of Lies

Name: The Heat of Lies
Author: Jonathan Stone
ISBN: 9781429981255

by Jonathan Stone

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Overview

Young, beautiful, police detective Julian Palmer is growing up. Just a few years out of the New York Police Academy, she's earning her stripes fast. Julian has solved high profile murder cases, and been promoted to Lieutenant upstate Troy, New York. But her latest case has her baffled. She's tracking the killer of a respected husband and father. With no suspects, a family hungry for answers, and the press breathing down her neck, Julian is desperate and in over her head.

That's when Julian gets an unlikely visitor: her one time mentor and the first man she arrested for murder, former police Chief Winston "The Bear" Edwards. Once famed for his physical immensity and unmatched detective skills, Edwards is now a shadow of his former self. He's managed to escape a life in prison, but emerged a beaten man with no family and nowhere to turn. The only thing he has left is his brilliant police mind.

Now the one time mentor has returned to his former student, looking for a shot at redemption, and a reason for living. Despite Julian's mistrust and fear of Edwards, the young Lieutenant knows he's still a gifted detective and cautiously brings him in on this seemingly unsolvable case. Working side by side with a man who once tried to kill her, Julian gets drawn deep into the murder investigation-and into the mind of the murder victim's young daughter. The girl forces Julian to confront once again the bizarre events surrounding the decade old murder of her own father.

Taut, edgy and utterly unpredictable, The Heat of Lies will shock and scare you and keep you turning the pages long into the night. Jonathan Stone is widely praised as one of today's top thriller writers. Stone knows the importance of character, the significance of nuance, and folly of cliché. This is his second, and most riveting novel.

About the Author, Jonathan Stone

Jonathan Stone, author of the Julian Palmer novels, is a graduate of Yale University, where he was a Scholar of the House in Fiction Writing and twice won the English Department's John Hubbard Curtis Prize for Best Imaginative Writing. He works in advertising and lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Police lieutenant Julian Palmer becomes trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse when she puts her life and career on the line to catch the killer of a well-respected family man.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A stunning sequel follows a brilliant debut, The Cold Truth (1999), in which the pairing of the gruff, massive Sheriff Winston "Bear" Edwards and beautiful, bright young cop Julian Palmer left both officers forever changed. In that first encounter, Edwards was Palmer's unwilling mentor. Five years later, the situation is radically changed as Edwards, who has recently beaten a murder rap, shows up in Troy, N.Y., where Palmer is immersed in a tricky case that echoes the long-ago murder of her own father. It is possible that Edwards will destroy Palmer. It is possible that Palmer will destroy Edwards. It is possible that Edwards will save Palmer. It is unlikely anyone can save Edwards. Meanwhile, the murder of Francis Xerxes Ryan, father of two girls, husband, breadwinnerDshot twice in the back of the head in his own homeDthreatens to go unsolved. At great personal and professional risk, Palmer seeks to use Edwards's unique skills. Stone's layered word portraits are vibrant and compelling; coupled with his kaleidoscopic vision, they make each new perspective seem as fresh and as real as the last. The result is dizzying, dazzling, delightful. Stone belongs with the elite of current mystery writers; he should not be missed. (Jan. 17) Forecast: As satisfying as this novel is, its full measure cannot be taken without first reading The Cold Truth, which is now available in paperback and contains an excerpt from this sequel that ought to boost sales. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Confronting her department's latest homicide, Lt. Julian Palmer, a cop on the rise, sees in it all the aspects of a potential career-breaker. The Ryans are prototypically middle-class, clean as a whistle, solid-as-they-come citizens of Troy, New York, so that when Francis Ryan, the young head of the family, is murdered, Julian knows the media will swarm. And that her gimlet-eyed boss, who dislikes her—along with her entire gender—will be all over it, too. He'll be mining every Julian Palmer screwup for material to spike the Julian Palmer fast track. Lacking anything that even resembles a lead, she badly needs help. It just so happens that it's suddenly available in the person of Winston ("Bear") Edwards, the legendary ex-detective who was once her mentor. The trouble is, the ex-cop is also a fearsome ex-con just out of the slammer—despite the testimony of Julian, who five years ago had tried her hardest to put him away for good. Soon enough, the odd couple of Palmer and Edwards discovers skeletons in the spotless Ryan family closet. But Julian has secrets, too, eerily paralleling those the Ryans are hiding. And, clearly, Winston Edwards is exactly the instrument appointed to disinter them. Given his history with her, though, what will he do with what he digs up? The plotting is overly complex, the prose occasionally over the top, but Stone (The Cold Truth, 1999) creates the kind of people who can make a reader turn pages.