Please Don't Lie

A Thriller (Crystal River, Book 1)

By: Christina Baker Kline, Anne Burt

Narrated by: Ardenn Stolz

In this stylish, twisty thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline and award-winning author Anne Burt, a young woman heads to the Adirondacks with her new husband for a fresh start—but the past won’t let her go.

Two years ago, Hayley Stone lost everything. First, her parents died in a devastating fire. Then, her sister overdosed, leaving Hayley alone and hounded by a media circus that turned her family’s tragedy into tabloid fodder. When her new husband suggests a fresh start in the Adirondacks, the promise of anonymity in an isolated mountain town feels like salvation.

But the mountains hold darker secrets than she ever imagined.

Her once-loving husband grows distant and volatile. The widow down the road keeps spewing vague accusations. Not even their new friends—a free-spirited couple living on the property—can help Hayley shake the creeping sense that something is off.

As winter edges closer, Hayley discovers that her sanctuary is anything but safe. Trapped and isolated, she faces a terrifying truth: in trying to escape her past, she may have run straight into something far more dangerous.

©2025 by Christina Baker Kline & Anne Burt. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A palpable sense of fear, terrible secrets, and a horrific confrontation shatter Hayley’s already fragile world in this taut psychological thriller about grief, trauma, and survival.” —Booklist

“An original and masterfully crafted psychological thriller of a read from start to finish…” —Midwest Book Review

“Getting away from it all has never looked more sinister or ill-advised than in this deliciously dark version of the small-town idyll.” —Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Suite 11

Narration

Oh wow. The narrator has this interesting cadence that I found distracting and was unable to finish the story.

Fairly predictable

There weren't any real big surprises because the story was fairly predictable. The narrator? She fell short in many ways. Her soft spoken voice made passages soporific to the point I had to rewind and relisten to catch what the storyline was. The way she pronounced the main character's name as Hilly or Helly, it took me almost three chapters to figure out she was saying Haley. And who hires a narrator who cannot pronounce the 't' sound in the middle of a word? What a distraction throughout the entire story. Made my teeth itch.

Narration was on POINT

For those complaining about the narration — maybe stick to coloring books. This voice could make reading a grocery list sound suspenseful. The story was decent, but the narration? Easily carried it to a 10/10.

Excellent Thriller

I don’t want to give anything away. I had so much fun guessing the entire way. Excellent book. I highly recommend it.

The Narrators voice is creepy but she's not for everyone

10 chapters in and I had to review and I usually don't review books, it makes me feel like I'm back in school writing book reports. I had to start this book several times because in the narrator made it hard for me to stay focused on the story. Eventually, I just skipped the beginning and went straight to chapter 1. While her cadence was still distracting, not as much as it was in the prologue. I will admit her cadence does make the story more creepy, it is still very distracting. Maybe it's just me and my ADHD but there were several times I had to pause the book think about what I just heard, rewind and listen again because I knew I was off in La La land. When it becomes noticable that her cadence is creeping me out and I take a vacation from my present self, I have to stop the book and do something else. I just checked and I have 30 chapters to go but hoping I can finish it by the end of the week before I decide to archive it.