What do you think?
Rate this book
The Second Suspect
Gabriel and Ingrid Santerre are a wealthy, highly connected couple with a savage secret: they like to subject teenage prostitutes to extremely rough sex. This time though, they've gone too far. The girl is dead. Held in custody, Gabriel calmly secures immunity for himself by accusing his bewildered wife.
But Detective Caroline Reese refuses to accept Santerre's story. Haunted by Ingrid's bruised body and baffling words, Reese pushes until Ingrid reveals a name: Lynn Carver. With Gabriel's influential friends blocking her at every turn, Reese must win the trust of the person who knows the truth about the Santerres.
Only Reese has walked the line between truth and cover-up once before. She knows the rules...
But Detective Caroline Reese refuses to accept Santerre's story. Haunted by Ingrid's bruised body and baffling words, Reese pushes until Ingrid reveals a name: Lynn Carver. With Gabriel's influential friends blocking her at every turn, Reese must win the trust of the person who knows the truth about the Santerres.
Only Reese has walked the line between truth and cover-up once before. She knows the rules...
261 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
2 people are currently reading
555 people want to read
About the author
Heather Lewis
3 books84 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Heather Lewis was born in Bedford, New York and attended Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of three published novels. The first, House Rules (1994), details the experiences of a fifteen year old girl working as a show rider of horses-an experience the author herself had in her teenage years. Lewis's second novel, The Second Suspect (1998), follows the struggles of a female police investigator trying to prove the guilt of a powerful and influential businessman responsible for the rape and murder of several young women. The third, posthumously published novel, Notice (2004), describes the experiences of a young prostitute, Nina and her involvement with a sadist and his wife. Her works explore aspects of American culture, such as the connections between power, drugs, sex, violence, love and justice. Through these themes, Heather Lewis draws the reader into questioning the nature of love and relationships, the character of human nature or motivation and, most challengingly, the boundary between pleasure and pain. Significantly, the novels present strong, yet vulnerable female characters offering an alternative to more typical American narrative constructions driven by male protagonists within male-dominated scenes.
Heather Lewis taught at the Writer's Voice and contributed to various anthologies of literature including Best Lesbian Erotica (1996, 1997), Once Upon a Time: Erotic Fairy Tales for Women (1996), and A Woman Like That: Lesbian and Bisexual Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories (1999). The collection also includes work by Allan Gurganus, Dale Peck, Mike Corrigan, Margaret Au, as well as shorter pieces by Sarah Schulman, Meg Daly, and others. Heather Lewis returned to New York in the fall of 2001, after a year in Arizona. She ended her life in May of 2002, in New York.
Sources:
Memorial service program: St. Mark's Church, New York, NY, June 12, 2002.
"Pain and Perfection" (Anonymous). The Advocate; Los Angeles, June 11, 2002.
From: The Fales Library and Special Collections
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Heather Lewis was born in Bedford, New York and attended Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of three published novels. The first, House Rules (1994), details the experiences of a fifteen year old girl working as a show rider of horses-an experience the author herself had in her teenage years. Lewis's second novel, The Second Suspect (1998), follows the struggles of a female police investigator trying to prove the guilt of a powerful and influential businessman responsible for the rape and murder of several young women. The third, posthumously published novel, Notice (2004), describes the experiences of a young prostitute, Nina and her involvement with a sadist and his wife. Her works explore aspects of American culture, such as the connections between power, drugs, sex, violence, love and justice. Through these themes, Heather Lewis draws the reader into questioning the nature of love and relationships, the character of human nature or motivation and, most challengingly, the boundary between pleasure and pain. Significantly, the novels present strong, yet vulnerable female characters offering an alternative to more typical American narrative constructions driven by male protagonists within male-dominated scenes.
Heather Lewis taught at the Writer's Voice and contributed to various anthologies of literature including Best Lesbian Erotica (1996, 1997), Once Upon a Time: Erotic Fairy Tales for Women (1996), and A Woman Like That: Lesbian and Bisexual Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories (1999). The collection also includes work by Allan Gurganus, Dale Peck, Mike Corrigan, Margaret Au, as well as shorter pieces by Sarah Schulman, Meg Daly, and others. Heather Lewis returned to New York in the fall of 2001, after a year in Arizona. She ended her life in May of 2002, in New York.
Sources:
Memorial service program: St. Mark's Church, New York, NY, June 12, 2002.
"Pain and Perfection" (Anonymous). The Advocate; Los Angeles, June 11, 2002.
From: The Fales Library and Special Collections
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 5, 2023
Fascinating as a retellling of 'Notice', and deeply moving given what happened to Lewis.
The mystery isn't as well done as it might have been, but this still works as a standalone book.
The mystery isn't as well done as it might have been, but this still works as a standalone book.
August 18, 2016
Full review to be combined with Heather Lewis's The Notice, as these stories are clearly related. As a detective story, this book is fairly routine, but as a depiction of stone-cold courage that gazes into the abyss without even blinking, it is clearly the work of the author of House Rules.
October 31, 2020
Just make me miss my friend even more...
August 18, 2020
Very dark crime drama. I am surprised how much I was into this even though almost all of the action is told in flashbacks. Usually, I hate that sort of book. However, I also had already read Lewis's Notice, which in a lot of ways plays as a first hand version of this same story from the teen prostitutes point of view, and without the police angle, so I may have felt a bit more on the inside.
Some of the writing is a little clunky (which is certainly not true of Notice), but it didn't detract from sustaining my interest.
Some of the writing is a little clunky (which is certainly not true of Notice), but it didn't detract from sustaining my interest.
December 21, 2021
Generally, I don't finish a book I don't like so it never appears here. This one is an exception. I didn't really like it but I'm not sure it's not worth reading. It's one of the darkest mysteries I've ever read. Gabriel and Ingrid Santerre are a couple with money and power and they kill young prostitutes. Caroline Reece, NYPD detective, wants to prove this and she wants it badly. While you read the book, you can literally see a black and white movie of it in your head complete with ominous sound track. Interesting.
January 17, 2025
The Second Suspect (of De tweede verdachte in de Nederlandse vertaling) kent een interessante voorgeschiedenis. Oorspronkelijk was het plan van Lewis om met
Notice
, die ik recentelijk las en waanzinnig vond, te debuteren, maar deze werd door achttien uitgeverijen geweigerd, vanwege de inhoud. Zodoende stelde haar literaire agent voor om het boek te herschrijven naar een thriller voor een 'groter publiek', en dat werd De tweede verdachte.
Met deze kennis is het waardevol om beide boeken naast elkaar te lezen, aangezien dit boek zich een jaar of tien ná Notice afspeelt. De horror blijkt nog niet voorbij te zijn. Bij vlagen merk je dat het thrillergenre Lewis niet helemaal ligt, maar alsnog weet ze een scherpe en wederom, bij vlagen ook, angstaanjagende roman te schrijven.
Met deze kennis is het waardevol om beide boeken naast elkaar te lezen, aangezien dit boek zich een jaar of tien ná Notice afspeelt. De horror blijkt nog niet voorbij te zijn. Bij vlagen merk je dat het thrillergenre Lewis niet helemaal ligt, maar alsnog weet ze een scherpe en wederom, bij vlagen ook, angstaanjagende roman te schrijven.
December 6, 2025
I wouldn't just recommend this to anyone, but for those who can handle it, it is one you will not forget. Read "Notice" first!!!!!
I once read someone say that Heather Lewis has a knack at capturing the dark side of humanity. This is seen in all three of her works, "House Rules", "Notice", and "Second Suspect".
There were a few things I felt happened differently than previously written in "Notice" that is revisited in "Second Suspect." Honestly, sometimes Heather Lewis's writing can be confusing in the prose and voice she writes in. I would have to reread and cross-reference.
Very good writer. Very cringy matter. This is her least darkest book of the three, I feel.
"House Rules" is not associated with the same characters or timeline.
I once read someone say that Heather Lewis has a knack at capturing the dark side of humanity. This is seen in all three of her works, "House Rules", "Notice", and "Second Suspect".
There were a few things I felt happened differently than previously written in "Notice" that is revisited in "Second Suspect." Honestly, sometimes Heather Lewis's writing can be confusing in the prose and voice she writes in. I would have to reread and cross-reference.
Very good writer. Very cringy matter. This is her least darkest book of the three, I feel.
"House Rules" is not associated with the same characters or timeline.
November 20, 2021
It's interesting reading a book written in a mindset of 2 decades ago. The wife clearly has some PTSD and mental health issues, but these are just played off as being crazy or not worth mentioning, which is a reflection of the misunderstanding of the time. The book itself is dark in concept but just does not engage the reader fully, being your typical detective drama. I was also left confused by the ending.
January 13, 2026
The second book of the trilogy. I plan on finishing them all and then reading them once again. Unfortunately, I met Heather Lewis very recently and learned that she has only three books published. I guess the universe, or the divine creator or whatever you like to believe, don't know what to do with precious things. The way she writes is beyond my description skills. its beautiful, its sad. Its real
July 7, 2020
I give this 3.5 stars.
I read another book by this author which was very disturbing and yet very compelling, which is why I wanted to read this. It has some of the same elements but didn't have the same pull.
I read another book by this author which was very disturbing and yet very compelling, which is why I wanted to read this. It has some of the same elements but didn't have the same pull.
May 5, 2021
Superb writing - grim and grubby and squalid - tension written delightfully
May 25, 2022
I couldn't not recommend this enough
July 9, 2015
I had to chose a book for a challenge that I'm working on that had received bad reviews, so I searched a few places to find some ideas and this book mentioned in an review from and Ivy League school. I enjoyed the book though. I very often figure out who the culprit is in crime stories, but this one kept me on my toes.
May 13, 2009
Compared to 'House rules' and 'Notice' this book was very disappointing. I actually got bored reading it. Would never had thought that, as I loved Heather's other books (though they were difficult to read because of the subject matter). Too bad there won't be any more...
December 5, 2013
This was a fast read, however, the story did not flow as well as I would have liked. Overall a good book. I was just frustrated at times trying to follow the present/past conversations.
April 9, 2016
Who is really responsible for the murder of a young prostitute? Husband and wife are both suspects, and while it seems as if he is framing her, the wife’s innocence is questionable too.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews