Where the Truth Lies

A Novel

By: Rupert Holmes

Narrated by: Ana Gasteyer, Michael McKean

Where the Truth Lies is a tour de force of sinister mystery, sly comedy, grand cuisine, and incredible sex—a sensual, sardonic, neo-Dickensian thriller in which a latter-day Alice careens through the seductive Wonderland of New York and Los Angeles in the dark heart of the 1970s.

This novel of intrigue speeds from one vivid setting to another, all of them factually real even as they are fantastically surreal: a clandestine club in Disneyland with a dazzlingly well stocked bar; a dizzying Shangri-La of a castle hidden away in Burbank; a drive-in movie theater nestled below the most chic streets of midtown Manhattan; an elegant table for four perched thirty thousand feet above the earth.

Written by Edgar, Tony, and Grammy Award winner Rupert Holmes (who first came to public attention in the mid-seventies as a singer and writer of story songs), Where the Truth Lies will wine and dine you in wickedly whimsical company, all the while luring you into a labyrinth of ever-sharpening bends and darkening corners.

The tale is told by O’Connor, a vivacious, free-spirited young journalist known for her penetrating celebrity interviews and bent on unearthing secrets long ago buried by the handsome showbiz team of singer Vince Collins and comic Lanny Morris. These two highly desirable men, once inseparable (and insatiable where women were concerned), were driven apart by a bizarre and unexplained death that may have cast one of them as a murderer.

As the tart-tongued, eye-catching O’Connor ventures deeper into this unsolved mystery, she finds herself compromisingly coiled around both men, knowing more about them than they realize and less than she might like, but increasingly fearful that she now knows far too much.

At once funny, frightening, delightful, and disturbing as it restores the opulent Hollywood and Manhattan of the seventies to their garish glory, Where the Truth Lies drops its veils like a giddy and voluptuous Salome who knows not what reward or punishment awaits her when she is at last naked. It is the work of a master storyteller and wit at the very top of his form.

Critic reviews

"Where the Truth Lies is a beguiling suspense novel. It's sexy and surprising, witty and intriguing. I was hooked from the very first page." –Candace Bushnell, author of Sex in the City and Four Blondes

“Days after you finish this book, you’ll still feel the narrator’s voice elbowing through your brain. Fully realized characters, ruthless commentary, and a beautifully dark sense of humor—all masquerading as a hyper-clever mystery. You won’t look at the truth the same way again.” —Brad Meltzer, author of The Millionaires

“Rupert Holmes seats you gently next to an irresistible narrator only to entangle you completely in her twisted, dark, exhilarating troubles. The ensuing thriller crosses a Dickensian world of deceit and destiny with the slipping glory of 1970s New York and Los Angeles. Every character is so alive with delicious secrets that you’ll never suspect Where the Truth Lies.” —Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club

“Five pages into Rupert Holmes’s Where the Truth Lies, I was intrigued. Twenty pages in, I was laughing. A hundred pages in, my wife told me to turn off the damned light already and come to bed. This is a book astonishing not only for its intricate plot and rich characters but for the ways in which it finds humor in the darkest of places.” —Eric Garcia, author of Anonymous Rex and Matchstick Men

“Rupert Holmes is a genius.” —Jason Alexander

Just ok

I thought this was just an ok book. Nothing really stood out in this one.

No wrap up

It just ended. No explanation as to what happened or why. It had a great plot but just ended without any wrap up.

This Audiobook Is Incomplete and I Am Unhappy With This Audible Purchase.

I got the physical book from the library, to read when I could not listen to this book audibly. The first thing I noticed was the audible book has 51 Chapters, the physical book has 63. And yes it is the same book. I noticed this when I tried to pick up where I left off audibly in the physical book, it was like following along with a book on cd. I can deal with that, but then the book just abruptly stopped with no explanation on chapter 51. In the physical book this abrupt stop happens
3 paragraphs before the end of chapter 28. So, fortunately I have 5 chapters to read physically to get the ending. Unfortunately, I wasted my money buying this audible.

Don't waste your money

This is a poorly abridged version that abruptly ends. No idea why the final chapters are excluded.

Unabridged Book Better than this Chop Job

Wonderful writer and very amusing dialogue. So much so that I bought the book. The abridged version here does a serious injustice to the writer and the book. I can’t recommend the abridged version. Book is much better and makes more sense. The reader is sensational!