The Promise of a Lie [Hardcover]

Howard Roughan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Roughan (The Up and Comer) delivers a classic frame-up story, cleverly embellished and stocked with well-drawn albeit familiar genre characters (the sharply observant narrator, the black widow seductress, the bad cop and the less-bad cop) in his second slick page-turner. Narrator David Remler is a successful New York psychologist and the author of a book that explains how upstanding citizens can sometimes commit unspeakable crimes. He inadvertently launched his book onto the bestseller lists when he gave expert testimony in the trial of a rabbi accused of murdering his mistress; jurors cited his testimony as crucial to their decision to convict. Otherwise, we're told, they never would have imagined that a man of the cloth could do anything so horrible (perhaps this was written before the news broke about the recent scandal in the Roman Catholic Church). Still, the setup is clear and the plot full of satisfying poetic justice. Remler, a fine, sympathetic, kind and educated man who has profited from showing the world that anyone is capable of performing terrible deeds at any time, soon finds himself on the point of his own sword. He's accused of murder. His alibi stinks. A sticky web of circumstantial evidence ensnares him, and we watch as Remler's lawyers try to cut him loose. The novel is smoothly written, briskly paced and nicely constructed, with surprises that are genuinely startling.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

David Remler, a successful and talented psychologist, takes on a new patient. Samantha Kent is the beautiful, troubled wife of a Wall Street businessman; she is afraid of him and sometimes even feels like she wants to kill him. Then, early one morning, Remler gets a distressed phone call that leads him to three rather unsettling discoveries. One, Sam Kent's husband is dead: murdered. Two, the woman he knew as Sam Kent is not the murdered man's wife. And three, Remler is being framed for murder. Roughan's second novel (after The Up and Comer, 2001) is compulsively readable: sharply drawn characters, dialogue that seems effortlessly realistic, and a solid, suspenseful story. The author doesn't write with any special flair, but that's OK: this story doesn't need any. A smart, thoroughly engaging thriller. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books (March 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446529435
• ISBN-13: 978-0446529433
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,791,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4 1/2 Stars -- Don't Miss This Book!, June 12, 2004

By 

bobbewig (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Promise of a Lie (Hardcover)

In just his second novel, Howard Roughan is fast estabishing himself as one of the better writers in the mystery/thriller genre. Roughan's writing style is easy and fun to read, his characters are well-developed, credible and (mostly)likable, and his plot is exciting, suspenseful and filled with surprises. The Promise Of A Lie will keep you glued to the pages to see what happens next. I'd highly recommend this book to you!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Believe the Lies, This Book is Sensational! I Promise!, January 2, 2006

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Promise of a Lie (Mass Market Paperback)

Howard Roughan's The Promise of Lie is a sensational thriller that once it gets going you cannot put down until the end. It is a lot more unpredictable than his former novel The Up and Comer although this book does spend a bit long at the beginning of the novel setting up the scene for the plot and the main character David Remler. If it were any slower I probably would have stopped reading, but when Conrad is murdered the pace quickens to an exceptional pace for the remainder of the novel.

In the Promise of a Lie famous author and psychologist David Remler has a patient who no longer requires his services so a gap opens in his hectic schedule. A Sam Grant is on the waiting list so Dr Remler books him in only to discover he is a she. She is the husband of the wealthy Conrad Kent who has told her she will not get to see their child if she divorces him. He is quickly seduced by her beauty and after spending the night in his apartment the next morning rings him and tells him she has murdered Conrad and is about to kill herself. Remler races to her house where he finds Conrad dead in bed but no sign of Samantha. Two police officers however do find him there and it is not long before he discovers Samantha Kent had no son, claims she has never heard of him and doesn't look a thing like the Samantha Kent he was falling in love with, and of course did not murder her husband. With no evidence to support his story Remler is soon on trial for murder.

This is a great book. David Remler does do some stupid things that you would have imagined someone intelligent enough to become a psychologist would know not to, such as roll over a dead body. Also what would have happened if the slot never opened up for Samantha in his schedule or someone else had got it. Apart from this though, The Promise of Lie is a sensation thriller which I would highly recommend to anyone.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just when you think the storyline has ended...think again, May 3, 2005

By 

Part-time Book Worm "Korry" (Palmer, AK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Promise of a Lie (Hardcover)

I really liked the characters, the storyline, the way the writer spins the characters, and the way he makes you think the story has ended and then, boom, a new twist that makes you intrigued. I hated putting the book down to take care of other responsibilities. This is a fast read. Quite a quandry that the poor main character got himself into.