Every Last Lie

Clara Solberg is a young mother of two living in a suburb south of Chicago. Her husband Nick, a dentist who runs his own practice, has just been killed in a car crash on a rural road called Harvey Road. Their four-year-old daughter, Maisie, was in the back seat and survived with only a small cut. Their newborn son, Felix, was at home with Clara. The novel alternates between Clara's present-day investigation into Nick's death and Nick's perspective in the months leading up to the crash, revealing secrets neither spouse knew about the other.

Clara is devastated and cannot bring herself to tell Maisie that Nick is dead, lying instead that he is at work or will be home soon. Then one night, Maisie bolts upright screaming about a "bad man" chasing her and Nick in a car. When Clara asks if the car was black, Maisie lets out a howl and runs from the room. The police have ruled the crash an accident: Nick took the turn at 50 miles per hour in a 20-mile-per-hour zone, and the vehicle's event data recorder confirmed he never braked. But Maisie's terror convinces Clara that something more sinister happened, and she begins her own investigation, visiting the crash site to look for evidence of a second vehicle.

Nick's chapters reveal a man drowning in secrets. His dental practice is losing patients to a new competitor, and a former patient named Melinda Grey is pursuing a malpractice suit after developing a severe infection following a tooth extraction. Nick hides the financial crisis from Clara. He fires his best friend and business partner, Connor, because he can no longer afford two dentists. Connor reacts with fury, warning ominously that Nick will regret the decision. Desperate for money, Nick begins gambling through an offtrack betting site, secretly surrenders his life insurance policy for its cash value, and withdraws from Maisie's college savings fund. He also starts taking Halcion, a sedative from his office supply, to combat insomnia, and in his darkest moments considers suicide.

A woman from Nick's past adds another layer of secrecy. Kat Ables, his high school girlfriend from Bainbridge Island, Washington, reappears as a new patient and reveals that her 12-year-old son, Gus, is Nick's child, conceived the night before he left for college. Nick agrees to a paternity test but tells no one. Connor witnesses a seemingly intimate moment between Nick and Kat and threatens to tell Clara, deepening the rift between the two men.

Clara uncovers Nick's secrets one by one from the other side of his death. She finds a receipt for a 400-dollar pendant necklace hidden in his dresser, a necklace he never gave her. Connor visits and reveals Nick had been laying off employees. Clara learns Nick canceled his life insurance weeks before dying. Among his personal effects from the morgue, she finds Halcion pills and a small green toy army man. She traces his last phone call to Seattle and reaches Kat, who agrees to meet.

At a grocery store, Maisie spots a black car and has a severe panic attack, screaming and bolting through the parking lot. Clara photographs the car's license plate and takes the images to Detective Kaufman, who remains skeptical. He explains that no acceleration marks from a fleeing vehicle were found at the scene. He also reveals that Melinda Grey filed an Emergency Order of Protection, a type of restraining order, against Nick, and that Nick was on his cell phone at the time of the crash.

Clara's suspicions scatter in multiple directions. She meets Kat at a park and, upon seeing Gus playing with toy army men identical to the one in Nick's effects, becomes convinced Kat was Nick's lover. She flees before Kat can explain. Canvassing the neighborhood near the crash site, Clara finds a witness named Betty Maurer, who passed a dark car driving erratically just after the crash. Betty recalls a golden cross emblem on the front: the Chevrolet bow tie. Clara now has a witness placing a black Chevrolet near the scene.

Nick's chapters reveal a violent conflict with the Solbergs' neighbor, Theo Hart, a volatile man whom Nick has seen shoving his own wife, Emily. Nick nearly hits Theo's son Teddy while speeding through the neighborhood, and Theo attacks him, issuing a death threat. Days later, Theo swerves his car toward Maisie on the driveway. Nick tells Maisie that Theo is "a bad man," the exact phrase that later echoes through her nightmares.

Clara's investigation turns inward when she finds a search on Nick's phone for suicide statistics among dental professionals. Combined with the Halcion, the canceled insurance, and the financial ruin, she becomes convinced Nick killed himself with Maisie in the car. Connor visits late at night, and Clara recognizes his boots and motorcycle helmet as matching the muddy footprints on the patio and Maisie's description of "a man in a hat and gloves" at their window. Connor confesses he is in love with Clara and tries to kiss her, but she rejects him.

Clara accesses her father Tom's bank account and discovers suspicious withdrawals and a jewelry store charge matching the necklace receipt. Then Tom emails photos of her mother Louisa's car, which he plans to sell. When the images load, Maisie screams in terror: The car is a 2006 black Chevrolet Malibu with a golden bow tie, matching Betty Maurer's description. Louisa has dementia and has been known to drive despite her condition, leading Clara to suspect her mother was behind the wheel on the day of the crash.

Clara searches the Chevrolet in her parents' garage and finds gravel in the tires, an oak leaf beneath a windshield wiper, and a silver charm engraved "Izzy" beneath the driver's seat. Izzy, Louisa's in-home caregiver, confesses not to murder but to systematically stealing from Clara's parents: forging checks, making withdrawals, and stealing jewelry. Izzy was in the car to gather information for a fraudulent insurance claim, a scheme Nick's death delayed. Enraged, Clara strikes Izzy with a baseball bat until Maisie appears in the doorway, terrified. The sight of her daughter stops Clara.

Nick's final chapters reveal the day of the crash. During the drive home from Maisie's ballet class, Kat calls with the paternity results: Gus is not Nick's son. Nick is flooded with relief. A black car passes aggressively on Harvey Road, frightening Maisie, but it is just an impatient driver. Distracted by the call, the sun in his eyes, and his eagerness to get home and confess everything to Clara, Nick approaches the hairpin turn at high speed.

Clara brings her accusations about Izzy to Detective Kaufman, who shows her surveillance footage from a homeowner's camera near the crash site. The video shows Nick's car tearing down Harvey Road alone. No car follows him; no car forces him off the road. The vehicle hits the turn, slides sideways, goes airborne, and strikes the tree. The detective tells Clara what he has said all along: Nick was driving too fast. He recommends a grief counselor.

In the epilogue, Kat visits Clara and explains that she loved Nick, but he did not love her back; their meetings were about the paternity question, nothing more. A jeweler then calls to say a pendant necklace Nick ordered is ready. Clara picks it up to find a silver chain with two heart-shaped charms engraved "Maisie" and "Felix," the very necklace Clara had admired months earlier. Nick bought it for her all along. Clara takes Maisie to Nick's grave and finally tells her the truth. Maisie does not cry. She watches a red-winged blackbird soar across the sky and says, "I think Daddy's flying."