In this thriller by New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt, the search for a missing influencer leads a fan and a journalist into the dark heart of online obsession.
Millions online watch Isabel Hollister create the perfect life from her farmhouse kitchen. The beloved influencer serves up vintage recipes, soft-spoken wisdom, and a radical promise: women can define fulfillment on their own terms. Then, during a live stream, Isabel begins to reveal a secret. The camera jolts. A scream rings out. The feed goes dark.
Isabel has vanished.
Lonely follower Ashley Goodwin, certain she witnessed a crime, rallies an online community of fans determined to uncover the truth. In New York City, cash-strapped journalist Megan Sinclair sees the disappearance as a chance to revive her career, even if it means returning to Crystal River, where she barely survived a notorious murder spree.
As Ash and Megan dig deeper, they uncover rival influencers, hidden relationships, suspicious deaths, and a woman whose carefully crafted online persona may have concealed a far more dangerous reality.
Everyone thought they knew Isabel. Everyone was wrong.
The series
Tucked away in the rugged beauty of the Adirondack Mountains, the town of Crystal River seems peaceful at first glance, but beneath its quiet streets lie secrets that refuse to stay buried. In this atmospheric series by Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt, readers are drawn into a world where the line between truth and deception blurs, and every character carries a hidden past that can upend lives in an instant.
Read full series description
The first installment, Please Don’t Lie, follows Hayley Stone as she seeks refuge in this remote town after personal loss, only to discover that Crystal River holds its own mysteries. Each encounter, every whispered story, builds a tension that is as emotionally charged as it is suspenseful, immersing readers in the town’s haunting beauty and its undercurrents of danger. The upcoming sequel, Watch Her Lie, promises to deepen the intrigue, introducing new faces and intertwining secrets that threaten to unravel the fragile trust between residents.
What sets this series apart is its blend of psychological suspense and richly drawn character arcs. The authors’ careful attention to the town’s atmospheric setting, from fog-laden mornings to shadowed riversides, mirrors the internal landscapes of the characters, creating a reading experience that is as layered as it is gripping. Themes of trust, betrayal, and the hidden complexities of human nature pulse through every chapter, making each book a puzzle of emotion and suspense that lingers long after the final page.
Perfect for fans of dark, character-driven thrillers, this series captures the subtle tension of small-town life, where everyone has a story and nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
Keywords naturally woven: psychological suspense, small-town secrets, atmospheric thriller, character-driven mystery, trust and betrayal.
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