Little Bitty Lies [Hardcover]

Mary Kay Andrews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2003

In a suburban Atlanta neighborhood where divorce is as rampant as kudzu, Mary Bliss McGowan doesn't notice that her own marriage is in trouble until the summer night she finds a note from her husband, telling her he's gone -- and taken the family fortune with him.

Stunned and humiliated, a desperate Mary Bliss, left behind with her seventeen-year-old daughter, Erin, and a mountain of debt, decides to salvage what's left of her life by telling one little bitty lie.

At first, Mary Bliss simply tells friends and family that Parker is out of town on a consulting job. Then the lies start to snowball, until Parker turns up dead. Or does he?

Mary Bliss's formerly staid existence careens into overdrive as she copes with an oversexed teenager, a mother-in-law with Ethel Merman delusions, and the sudden but delicious shock of finding herself pursued by two men: the next-door neighbor who's looking for a suitable second wife, and a dangerously attractive ex-cop who's looking for the truth about Parker McGowan.

Little Bitty Lies is a comic Southern novel about all the important things in life: marriage and divorce, mothers and daughters, friendship and betrayal, small-town secrets, and one woman's lifelong quest for home -- and the perfect recipe for chicken salad.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Andrews is the pseudonym of Kathy Trocheck, primarily known for her Callahan Garrity mystery series. If the name switch signals the author's desire to change writing styles, then she's certainly achieved her goal. The Trocheck books are mostly formulaic comic whodunits, but this supremely entertaining story sets Andrews up to be a southern Susan Isaacs. Mary Bliss is so busy propping up her best friend, Katharine, who's coping with her broken marriage by drinking gin and buying expensive toys, that she fails to notice her own marriage is in trouble. Her once dependable husband, Palmer, has cleaned out their accounts and left her with a pile of debt. In desperation, she takes a job as a product-demonstration hostess, but her salary will barely cover the electric bill. She allows Katharine to talk her into a cockeyed scheme to have Palmer declared dead so she can collect the insurance. That's when she meets sexy fraud investigator Matt Hayslip, and things really start to heat up. A breezy story fairly brimming with good spirits and feisty humor. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Delicious.” (BookPage )

“Andrews’ wry comedic sense runs merrily through Little Bitty Lies, a delightful summer treat.” (St. Petersburg Times )

“A breezy story fairly brimming with good spirits and feisty humor.” (Booklist )

“A comic Southern novel about all the important things in life.” (Pensacola News Journal )

“Witty and sharp...light and frothy as a strawberry daiquiri.” (Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (July 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060199598
• ISBN-13: 978-0060199593
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #597,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mary Kay Andrews is the author of the New York Times bestselling Savannah Breeze and Blue Christmas (HarperCollins), as well as Hissy Fit, Little Bitty Lies and Savannah Blues, all HarperPerennial.

A former reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she wrote ten critically acclaimed mysteries, including the Callahan Garrity mystery series, under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida (and a diplomate of the Maas Bros. Department Store School of Charm), she started her professional journalism career in Savannah, Georgia, where she covered the real-life murder trials which were the basis of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

As a lifelong ""junker"" the author claims to know the location of every promising thrift store, flea market and junkpile in the southeastern United States, plus many parts of Ohio.

She has a B.A. in newspaper journalism from The University of Georgia (go Dawgs!), and is a frequent lecturer and writing teacher at workshops including Emory University, The University of Georgia's Harriet Austin Writer's Workshop, the Tennessee Mountain Writer's Workshop and the Antioch Writer's Workshop. Her mysteries have been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Awards.

Married for more than 31 years to her high school sweetheart, Tom, she is the mother of 24-year-old Katie Abel and 20-year-old Andrew. After a three-year hiatus in Raleigh, NC, she and her husband recently moved back to their old neighborhood in Atlanta, where they live in a restored 1926 Craftsman bungalow.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Kay has whipped up one heck of a fun story!, July 18, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Bitty Lies (Hardcover)

Your husband of 20 years leaves you --- but not before mortgaging your house to the hilt, emptying all your bank accounts, cashing in your insurance policies, and (the nerve!) pocketing your diamond engagement ring.

Up until now you have led a storybook life, while marriages all around you are splitting up in vast numbers. You are too proud to become just another statistic --- or even worse, another tale in the gossip mill. So what do you do? Well, if you're Mary Bliss McGowan, in LITTLE BITTY LIES by Mary Kay Andrews, you lie, of course! To start, you tell everyone that your husband is away on an extended consulting trip. Then you stage his death (a tragic boating accident in Cozumel). And then the lying escalates; one lie leads to another, and to another, and to another. It's a recipe for disaster.

Come to think of it, LITTLE BITTY LIES is an awful lot like Mary Bliss's specialty: chicken salad.

The main ingredient is chicken, or Parker, her yellow-bellied husband who poached the family nest egg and then cowardly abandoned his wife and daughter, not to be seen again until the end of the novel.

Toss in nuts, plenty of nuts. There are her dearest friends, Katherine and Charlie Weideman, the on-again, off-again middle-aged couple; Eula, the crazy mother-in-law who indulges in Paxil and gin cocktails; Randy, the nearly divorced neighbor who would probably like to live up to his name but doesn't know how; and Nancye, the town hot tamale.

Add water chestnuts, a bit of unexpected "crunch" to the story: Matt Hayslip, the undercover private eye whose keeping Mary Bliss on her toes (even though he'd prefer to keep her on her back).

Throw in mandarin oranges, with the juice, and you've got Dinky Davis, the coppertoned Cozumel stand-in who mixes too much liquid refreshment with his work.

A pinch of salt and pepper, maybe a dash of ginger --- a confused 17-year-old daughter Erin -- to add a bit of spice.

And, finally, the mayonnaise, the glue that holds it all together: Mary Bliss herself. Consummate housekeeper, extraordinary chef, Southern belle and devoted mother, Mary will stop at almost nothing to keep her family, or at least the image of her family, in tact.

Toss, mix, blend, and toss again, and not only do you have a summertime favorite salad, but also one heck of a fun story. LITTLE BITTY LIES is at times riotous, heart-wrenching, romantic, ridiculous, impossible, and touching --- but never boring.

Pour yourself a glass of iced tea (Mary Bliss would recommend sun-brewed) and enjoy.

--- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars endearing, humorous and fun!!!!!, November 17, 2004

By 

jeanne-scott (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Bitty Lies (Hardcover)

With a main character named Mary Bliss you are handed a quirky clue of where this story, by a skillful and adept author is headed!
While Mary Bliss is busy worrying about her friends, whose marriages are falling apart, she is stunned to find out that her own marriage has taken an unbelievable turn when she discovers a note from her husband. Mary Bliss attempts to avoid the embarassment and humiliation by telling just one "little" lie, which snowballs into a series of events that must all be hidden by more lies. On top of having no money to pay her bills and taking a part time job just to buy food, she must deal with a cantankerous, nasty mother-in-law and the sudden secretive behavior of her teen-aged daughter.
As always Mary Kay Andrews crafts an endearing tale dealing with serious issues and yet woven with her delightful sense of humor, it is a delight to read!!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Little Bitty Lies Equal Great Big Satisfactions, July 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Little Bitty Lies (Hardcover)

This is the untimate housewife's revenge. After years of creating the perfect home for her husband, Mary Bliss comes home to find that the rat has drained their accounts, put the house in hock up to its shingles, and taken off for parts unknown. How she survives is a wonderful romp through matrimony and suburbia (with a sidetrip to Mexico thrown in for the hell of it!) But then, this talented author could even make the Atlanta phone book sound funny. Highly recommended.