Little Town Lies

by Anne Strieber

Under the surface of small town Texas are dark undercurrents of suffering and alcoholism, domestic violence, child abuse, arson, animal mutilations -- and brutal, obscene murder.

Social worker Sally Hopkins knows that it's only a matter of time before the perpetrator becomes a sexual predator, a serial killer with a twisted mind. Sally's burnt out on Houston's big city crime, just shy of forty, and she doesn't want to be involved -- but no one else in her East Texas hometown of Maryvale has the training to follow the tell-tale clues left at each scene.

And the handsome young state trooper who's also been called in to help is helping Sally . He revitalizes her, rekindles her long-buried passion for life -- and together they break through the walls of secrets and lies, to stop the killer before he strikes again.

Genres: Fiction

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 20, 2005

About the author

Before becoming a writer she was a schoolteacher. She married fellow novelist, Whitley Strieber; they have one son, Andrew.

She was the managing editor of her husband's Web site, unknowncountry.com, and was also a host of the Dreamland radio show podcast hosted there.

She was portrayed by Lindsay Crouse in the film adaptation of her husband's nonfiction work Communion.

She wrote one other book under the pseudonym Anne McLean Matthews.

Anne Strieber died on August 11, 2015.

Reviews

[Peggy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is very disappointing. It starts out promising, but simply cannot deliver. Sally is a burned out social worker living in Houston. She had a very unhappy childhood and decides to escape Houston and go to the tiny town of Maryvale where she spent several happy summers with her Uncle Ed, who is the long time local sheriff. Ed hires Sally to investigate some small animal mutilations. Her experience as a social worker helps her, but then a brutal murder happens, and another, and another. Suddenly she is acting one moment out of her depth, the next moment like an FBI profiler. I found her to be an inconsistent character. Crazed animal torturer, stranger serial killer. Are they the same person? Then inexplicably Sally becomes sheriff herself (seems ill conceived to me). The crimes are designed to shock. The whole town seems to filled with people with secrets and lies. Sally begins to have recollections of her own sexual abuse. The whole thing seemed to just get creepier with some of it transparent and too easy to figure out. I knew who Sally’s abuser was from her first memory. As she investigates she jumps to conclusions. Eventually it leads to the surprise killer, but by then I was weary of the tedious story.

[Kara Bewley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hot mess.

[Haley Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, I honestly didn’t hate the book. The issue was that the author made sally into a total hot mess. The end seemed very last min. It was also pretty predictable.

[SingingSparrow · Rating 1 out of 5]

Little Town Lies, more terrifying than warmly funny, follows Sally back to her hometown of Maryvale. As a social worker, working in Houston, you would think that she has seen her fair share of shock but it is not until she returns home to help her uncle Ed, where she is confronted by some of the worst crimes of her career. Following the investigation of the serial killer, Sally must also integrate herself within this little town, and ultimately uncover some of those secrets that she left behind long ago.

This was one of those books that I had started a couple times but ultimately left it sitting on my shelf in exchange for a better read. Finally I read the novel in its entirety but now I see why it has been sitting for so long. Uncovering the secrets hidden away in Maryvale was a bit more frightening than compelling. I don't really think a lot of what occured was very realistic or exciting as a plot. If you can borrow this book from someone then you should read it for yourself to see it from a different view but if you ever thought to buy this book then I would pass on it (regardless of the price).

[Estelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that tries too hard. To me it seems amateur. The timing and elaboration of the details in this book are inefficiently paced and plotted.

Sally Hopkins is written as a woman who escape from the small town to the big city for a better opportunity, then when things doesnt work out for her,she decides to go back to her small town, where she still felt stronger as a safe haven. This character doesnt strike very stronger as a detective/police officer. Her job as a social worker works well with her character, until abruptly she became the sheriff, then abruptly have flashbacks about the summers she was in Uncle Ed's, where she got sexually abused. The story had a very nice twist but the timing for building the suspense and tension, seems too sudden, insufficent. Like a blink of the eye, it there and gone, the next thing/problem comes in line.

The ending was better, when they found out the killer, child-psycho. By the time, i read to this part, i lost most of my interest. But got to give Strieber credit, to have a story ending like this.

[Magda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unexpected turned in the book, difficult to read emotionally at times. It was heavy but good.

[Carl Hanger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very dark view of small town life in East Texas. Also makes the FBI appear to be idiots, which they are certainly not. Gives on the feeling that everyone is a victim of something.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this book, it was an interesting set up with a social worker returning to her adopted hometown, where she gets tangled up with a local murder mystery.