One Little Lie

The Pelican Harbor, Book 1

By: Colleen Coble

Narrated by: Devon O'day

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's summary

It started with one little lie. But Jane Hardy will do everything in her power to uncover the truth in this gripping new romantic suspense.

Jane Hardy is appointed interim sheriff in Pelican Harbor, Alabama, after her father retires, but there's no time for an adjustment period. When her father is arrested for theft and then implicated in a recent murder, Jane quickly realizes she's facing someone out to destroy the only family she has.

After escaping with her father from a cult 15 years ago, Jane has searched relentlessly for her mother - who refused to leave - ever since. Could someone from that horrible past have found them?

Reid Bechtol is well-known for his documentaries, and his latest project involves covering Jane's career. Jane has little interest in the attention, but the committee who appointed her loves the idea of the publicity.

Jane finds herself depending on Reid's calm manner as he follows her around filming, and they begin working together to clear her father. But Reid has his own secrets from the past, and the gulf between them may be impossible to cross - especially once her father’s lie catches up with him.

“Colleen Coble always raises the notch on romantic suspense, and One Little Lie is my favorite yet! The story took me on a wild and wonderful ride.” (Diann Mills, best-selling author)

Full length romantic suspense.

Part of the Pelican Harbor series

• Book One: One Little Lie
• Book Two: Two Reasons to Run (available September 2020)
• Book Three: Three Missing Days (available April 2021)

©2020 Colleen Coble (P)2020 Thomas Nelson

Critic reviews

"Colleen Coble once again proves she is at the pinnacle of Christian romantic suspense. Filled with characters you'll come to love, faith lost and found, and scenes that will have you holding your breath, Jane Hardy's story deftly follows the complex and tangled web that can be woven by one little lie.'" (Lisa Wingate, number one New York Times best-selling author of Before We Were Yours)

Enjoyable

Reallly liked the accents of the characters, plot slightly contrived in places limited flow somewhat.

Great story!

The narration was a little slow, and the the story is actually THREE books long, so don’t expect an actual ending, but otherwise the suspense and storyline are excellent.

Great Story

Very entertaining story. Characters were fleshed out nicely. Interesting twists! Kept wanting to find out what was going to happen next?

Suspense after suspense

I GASPED out loud when the culprit was finally revealed. So unexpected. I can’t wait to listen to the next one!

Excellent

Kept me interested the whole way through. Now onto book number 2...great listen yeah

Riveting

A story so good I didn't want to stop listening. Colleen Coble's best book yet,

Not a complete novel, doesn’t meet expectations of genre

I really enjoyed the main character and could see myself reading or listening to future episodes in the MC’s crime series except for two egregious things:

1. This is not a complete novel with a full arc of character and plot, this is half a novel in which the reader must pick up the next novel in order to discover how the first one ends. This is unforgivable for the crime/thriller genre where readers expect a satisfying ending to the initial questions. It is acceptable for this genre to open a new crime or suspicion to be followed up on in a subsequent novel but not to leave the reader hanging as this one does. This appears to have ended in the middle of a chapter.

2. I almost put it down three times when I realized this was entering the undisclosed genre of Christian fiction and not crime fiction. As I do not know how the first novel ends it is hard to say whether the subsequent novels in the series should be placed in this genre but I feel cheated because my expectation for the crime genre was not met and it’s dubious how this book was classified.

Too bad for me because I love this genre and particularly love female protagonists. This appeared to be a good match for me at the outset, but I’m good with just having the read the 7/8ths of a novel that this turned out to be. The main character was well executed, and the love interest and his son were well executed but the antagonist was somewhat unbelievable (casting doubt on the main character’s integrity and ability as a police officer and chief of police) and the “ending” is unresolved.

Narrator was okay for me.

Good, Not Great

While this was a good strong story, it wasn’t 5 star great for me. The beginning and ending were great for this light Christian based novel. It was the middle that seemed to bog down for me and move slowly. I am curious enough about Jane and Reid’s relationship to listen to the next installment.

To be continued... Great Book

If you're looking for a quick, sit down and read, you might want to pick up another one of Coble's amazing reads because this one will purposefully (think Lord of the Rings) leave you hanging. This is the first book in a series where the second book picks up right where the first left off. So as soon as you're done with this page -turner, you'll want to open the second book and continue reading right away.

Colleen Coble is my favorite author and I finished this book in two sittings because I couldn't put it down.

(At the time of my first review, I had to wait for the second book to be published which was frustrating - in a can't wait, I feel like a 2 year old who wants to throw a temper tantrum because I want it now.)

Great mystery. Fun Read.

This is an awesome mystery, I truly could not figure out what was going to happen, or who was doing it. Loved the location and the characters are wonderful! Can’t wait for the next in series. As always Colleen Coble has a fantastic series going !!