Virgin Lies

Paul Lucas #2

by Roderick Anscombe

On a blistering Boston summer day, a nine-year-old girl disappears while crossing a public park. The only witness is a homeless schizophrenic woman who believes she is under surveillance and whose memory may not be reliable. Dr. Paul Lucas, an expert at interrogating violent criminals and the insane, is called in to help evaluate the woman's testimony.
Lucas elicits small details that lead police to three people with no apparent a retired engineer, his disabled wife, and a young man who works at a doughnut shop. But interviews with each suspect go nowhere, frustrating detectives and calling into doubt Lucas's role in the case. Believing the girl is alive but without water and soon to die, he is pushed to the brink of a professional abyss--under intense focus from local media, distrusted by police, and pressured by his wife, Abby, whose stake in the search is deeply personal.
With time running out, Lucas has to make a to honor and uphold the sworn central oath of his profession, or to cross the line and do whatever it takes to find the girl, even if he must crack the mind of a vulnerable patient.
Suspenseful, intriguing, and informed by years of real-life experience with violent criminals, Virgin Lies is a first-class thriller.

Paul soon is trapped in an ever-tightening web of circumstance and scrutiny that implicates him in the eyes of his wife, his colleagues, and eventually the police. As the battle of wits turns deadly, with his career on the line and his life over the edge, Paul must learn to play the game by Craig's rules-for he who tells the best lie wins.

Smart and wickedly suspenseful, Virgin Lies winds through twists and turns to a place where nothing is as it seems.

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Suspense, Mystery Thriller

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Isabella Gormanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was different than my typical reads. I like how it was written by a forensic psychiatrist which gave it a different feel.
TW: references to child sexual abuse material, descriptions of prisoner abuse

[Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise, and the tension between man and wife and the question of Principle and Pragmatism which arises between them well presented.

Unfortunately, the author chose an hour by hour unfolding of the story which becomes tedious long before the conclusion

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das Buch war ... okay. Es ist jetzt 2 Tage her, dass ich „Verschwunden“ beendet hatte und ich musste erst mal darüber nachdenken, was überhaupt geschehen ist. Genau wie im ersten Buch hat mich die Beziehung zwischen Dr. Lucas und seiner Frau eher genervt und ich wurde nicht so richtig mit den Charakteren warm (was sich auch jetzt nicht geändert hat). Die Storyline war okay, erst gings mir allerdings alles zu langsam und die ganzen „wichtigen“ Dinge wurden so ins Ende gepresst, dass mir das Ganze schon wieder zu lang vorkam.

[Janett Borroto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich finde eine 3,33 nicht unbedingt gerechtfertigt. Das Buch ist ein absolut kurzweiliger Thriller, der einen gern auch mal festhält. Ich mag vorallem die Aspekte der Kommunikation und Informationsgewinnung auf verschiedene Weisen. Ich war zeitweise tatsächlich sehr fasziniert vom tieferen Einblick in das Thema Verhör. 4 Sterne von mir mit Leseempfehlung 👍

[Traci · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t even bother to finish it.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay. Good writing, but too much forensic psychology and not enough action/suspense. Not a memorable book.

[Anke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goed opgebouwd verhaal!

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was rather engrossing, and Anscombe has a nice prose style. But the morally questionable actions of his protagonist, which the author mostly chose not to explore, put me off.

[Amna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok book. It was boring compared to the first one, very disappointing. i wouldn't recommend it to people who read the first one.


This book was about Dr. Lucas, a forensics Physchatrist, who got called in by his wife, Abby, to come interview suspects of danielle's kidnapping. Danielle is a 8 year old girl who was told to go pick up coffee then went into a van and wasn't seen afterwards. The suspects are Arthur and Dave. Dave works at the coffee/ donut shop where she picked the coffee up and he lives with his mother. Arthur cleaned his van from prints and swept it clean and he lives with his wife who is in a wheelchair. Both of them were found guilty of working together to kidnap her. At the end, Dr. lucas was faced with the choice of torturing them to find out where the girl was or to keep his morals. In the end, they answered him without getting tortured and he kept his morals

i wouldn't recommend this book ,but i like this author so i would recommend his first book "The interview room"

[Daphne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of interesting but only because I wanted to know what happened to the girl, the main character didn't interest me at all and I couldn't care less about his struggles with his wife. I didn't realize it was the second book in a series until I had already started, a few of the references to the first story felt distracting and out of place because they had little to do with the plot of this book. I also wish the ending had been somewhat less abrupt and more satisfying. I'm not eager to read more of this series.

[JNY · Rating 1 out of 5]

Na het "Het Leugenspel" gelezen te hebben was ik wel benieuwd naar het vervolg. Maar dat is me eigenlijk behoorlijk tegengevallen.. Niks psychologisch aan dit boek. Het is al gauw duidelijk wie erachter zit. Ook de arrogantie van Paul begint me te storen in dit boek. Ja we weten het.. Hij is geweldig. Zo geweldig dat hij bereid is om zijn verdachten te willen martelen. Wat ik ook vreemd vond is dat zijn vrouw (die eigenlijk vrij weinig van hem wil weten) maar al te graag wil dat hij mensen gaat martelen.

Conclusie: Ik vond het een raar boek.
Niet aan te raden.

[Sadie · Rating 1 out of 5]

You know how you're at the library and you grab a book you wouldn't normally read but you think, hey, I have a dr.'s appt soon, and this will be just the thing to read; I can breeze through it, be entertained and no harm done? Well, that's why I checked out this book. Yeah, it's a quick read but even though its written by an expert, I found it to be insulting to my intelligence and to people everywhere with half a brain.

[Christen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book for the train if you read through books quickly. Fast-paced, easy and quick read. Somewhat abrubt ending, but interesting story throughout. The book is about a kidnapping and is told by a criminal profiler, so don't let the title deceive you.

[Lisa Greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

My gosh, Anscombe is a gripping, talented writer. If you are interested in abornal psych, his is THE king of it from all that I've read in recent years. He also has the cred. to back it up. I learn so much when I read his books, and they are like a wild ride... with lots of humanity and heart.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book, and thought it was thrilling. It made you think a bit about how police use thief own ways of getting information. I read this book before the first one and actually liked this one better, even if I didn't get the references back to the first book as I read this one.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book - it's among my favorites that I've read lately and I'm really looking forward to reading more of Anscombe's works. I'm fascinated by deception detection and found this story truly engaging; it was well-paced, with such an interesting exploration of professional ethics.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was alright. It focuses more on the mindset of the main character more than the missing child. She basically becomes an afterthought. I found the book anticlimactic. It went from good to better to really rather dull. It's like the last chapter was written in a hurry.

[Jacqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it. Cannot wait to read his 1st novel.

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler alert!!!

This makes you question what you believe about using torture as a means to obtain information.

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually a very good psycho-thriller ... It dragged
in some spots, which is why I only gave it a 3 ..

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

What would you do in the name of justice? not the law, mind you, but justice. Would you cross the line of your principles to save a life? Does the end justify the means?

[Kirakori]

windwinded. shut up & get to the job dude!

[MJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay. Ended far too abruptly.