"Excellent legal thriller"

He has an afternoon opening that Samantha Kent grabs up because she urgently needs to talk to psychologist Dr. David Remier. She confesses to him that she wants to kill her husband because that is the only way she can escape her marriage and keep her son. David tries to talk her out of it, but soon after their second session she calls him to tell him she killed her spouse.

He rushes over to Samantha's apartment but only finds the murdered body of her spouse. Neither Sam nor her son is anywhere to be found and the police have a difficult time believing his story. When the police search David's apartment, they find one of his kitchen knives missing and that the remaining knives match the murder weapon found near the crime scene. Perhaps the most shocking aspect is that the woman who called herself Samantha Kent was an imposter. David is arrested and his lawyers must find a way to make sense of this incredible scenario since nobody besides David has seen the mystery woman masquerading as Samantha.

THE PROMISE OF A LIE is an excellent legal thriller. The courtroom scenes are full of drama and excitement and there is a surprise twist that halts the trial temporarily. The protagonist, who tended to see the best in people, learns to never again take anything at face value again; trust remains to be seen (not so subtle hint to the author). Howard Roughan has provided so many twists, turns and shocking developments in his latest crime thriller that readers will be unable to stop reading until the last page is turned.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted February 22, 2004

Summary

Howard Roughan's debut, The Up and Comer, was hailed as one of the most hip and entertaining thrillers of the year. Now Roughan returns at full stride with a scintillating novel of deception that begins when a gifted young psychologist becomes entangled in the life of a beautiful and calculating patient. THE PROMISE OF A LIE Nothing can prepare Dr. David Remler for the shocking phone call he receives from a patient named Samantha Kent. Stunned and anxious to help, he rushes out into the Manhattan night to keep a bloody act of violence from spinning further out of control. He knows he is too involved, that he's crossed a line, and that his professional reputation is at stake. But he has no idea what awaits him at his destination...that he's become a pawn in a very deadly game of revenge. Suddenly the focus of a criminal case that flares into an out-of-control media circus, David has only one shot to clear his name. But first he has to clear up the mystery of his patient, "Samantha Kent." Just who is she? And why did she choose to involve David? Little by little, the outlines of a brilliant plot emerge—and, with it, the horrifying power of a single lie... In this richly textured tale of a man's battle against the mother of all manipulations, the perfect setup is even more diabolical than it looks.