Where the Truth Lies

by Rupert Holmes

Book Overview

Where the Truth Liesis a tour de force of sinister mystery, sly comedy, grand cuisine, and incredible sex-a sensual, sardonic, neo-Dickensian thriller in which a latter-day Alice careens through the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679452206
• ISBN13: 9780679452201
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Funny, suspenseful, finely-crafted mystery

Okay, the guy who wrote this excellent debut novel also happens to be the same guy who did the deliciously cheesy "Pina Colada Song." Get over it. Rupert Holmes is an impressive writer and apparently one of those supremely talented Renaissance types who can do everything well -- write, compose, sing, etc. The book is clever, suspenseful, laugh out loud funny, and the kind of book that sucks you in from the beginning and makes you want to neglect everything else in your life until you finish every page. What more could you want in a mystery novel?

Great Characters, Great Plot, Great Book

I was so curious to read Rupert Holmes first novel being a child of the seventies and hearing "The Pina Collada Song" repeatedly, as well as being a big fan of the musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." It's a fantastic novel. Set in the entertainment business in the seventies, it's the story of a young journalist writing a tell-all novel about one half of a comedy team ala Martin & Lewis. K.O'Connor is sexy, very funny, and whip smart. She unfolds her story in a first person prose that through much of the book will have you laughing out loud. But at the heart of the novel is a murder mystery the boys might have been involved in which is what O'Connor really is digging for. What unwinds is unpredictable, fun, and completely surprising. I look forward to whatever this man writes next.

Another Terrific Story from Holmes

Rupert Holmes is a storyteller at heart. He's told stories through popular songs (love it or hate it, but "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" is a 3-minute story), television (the lovely "Remember WENN"), stage (the funny and suspenseful "Accomplice," as well as "The Mystery of Edwin Drood") and now tackles the novel."Where the Truth Lies" is a satisfying page-turner with terrific period detail and well-drawn characters. The main character, a young woman named O'Connor (she never shares her first name), is smart and competent, and if she's a little devious sometimes, it's well justified by the behavior of everyone around her.It's hard to say much about the plot without giving away too much. Rupert Holmes is a master of sneaky plot twists, and it would be criminal to leak them to someone who hasn't read the book. ("Accomplice," his Edgar award-winning play, was similarly twisty.)But in a nutshell, O'Connor is investigating Lanny Morris and Vince Collins, a former comedy duo (think Martin and Lewis) with a shared skeleton in the closet: twenty years earlier, a young woman was found dead in their hotel suite. The crime was never solved, and now O'Connor is writing a book about Collins with the promise that the truth will finally be exposed.All of this takes place against the backdrop of the entertainment world in the 1970s, a rich environment that Holmes, as a young singer-songwriter, probably experienced for himself in much the same way as his heroine. O'Connor is the outsider, the guest, taken to wondrous places she could never go on her own. Holmes' writing is funny and well-paced, and completely entertaining. He describes his settings so well, it feels as if we're there (especially the scenes that take place in Disneyland ... and could I be more jealous of O'Connor in those scenes?)Songs, plays, TV shows, novels ... regardless of the form, I hope we'll see many more stories from Rupert Holmes.

All will be pleased to find "Where The Truth Lies"

Having long been a fan of Rupert Holmes' music (yes, I liked "Escape," but much preferred the musicality of "Second Saxophone" and "Times Square & The Old School") as well as his much-celebrated television show, "Remember Wenn" and his award-winning musicals, I waited, with great anticipation, for the late June 2003 release of his first novel, WHERE THE TRUTH LIES. I sincerely hoped that someone who was so incredibly diversified could enter and triumph in yet another literary genre. To say that I was not disappointed would be putting it mildly. Holmes' novel has such rich, round characters - characters who quickly become real people in the lives of interested readers. I have to admit that, as an English teacher for thirty-four years, I often have to limit what I read for pleasure. As a result, I developed a system of passing up a book if I wasn't intrigued by the first sentence. In WHERE THE TRUTH LIES, my imagination was instantly captured by the introductory, "In the seventies, I had three unrelated lunches with three different men, each of whom might have done A Terrible Thing." Who could read that and not want to go further to learn about O'Connor, the young, female journalist who quickly becomes experienced, the comedy team of Vince and Lanny, whose humor soon becomes dark and ominous, and their connections with a lightly-veiled Mafia? And just what was this "terrible thing?" I had to know!The fascinating things about this novel, however, are the complicated twists the plot takes. One can read the first half and be convinced that one knows the outcome, only to go a little further and realize that nothing could be further from the truth. Only in the last thirty pages does the reader learn, "Where The Truth Lies."Holmes is, indeed, a master story-teller. His mystery is ripe with rich humor that often had me laughing out loud. However, this writer does not depend on mystery and humor alone; he delves into the lives of even the minor characters so deeply that the reader can truly empathize with them. This work also contains one of the most beautiful, touching similies I have ever seen on paper.What is, perhaps, the most amazing to me is how a male baby-boomer can write so effectively in the persona of a young female journalist and make this character so incredibly believable, touching, and enjoyable. Hopefully, this is only the first of several Rupert Holmes' novels because having only one from such a gifted and talented author would be a tremendous loss to the world of readers.

A masterful debut novel

I was NOT surprised that I enjoyed this book. After all, the author was the creator and head writer for the superb--and lately lamented--REMEMBER WENN television show on AMC. Mr. Holmes succeeds in mastering yet another field with this novel. (He's won a Grammy, several Tonys and an Edgar for his stageplay, ACCOMPLICE.) With dead-on observations and insights concerning the 70s, he has penned a thoroughly entrancing yet intriguing mystery, populated with an extraordinary cast of characters who jump off the pages and into your imagination and heart. No one quite knows why a famous comedy team broke up at the height of their success and went their separate ways. A young journalist who is determined to write the definitive book about the team, discovers that both men are attractive as well as attentive. But which one--the singer with the killer voice or the comedian with the killer smile--is a real killer? It's not often that a book (especially a first book) excels on all levels: wry observational narrative, delicious period and location details, clever, sparkling dialogue, unique insight into the dynamics and dissolution of a strong partnership, and of course, a truly inspired plot. I found it to be the best--the most entertaining and most memorable book I've read in a very long time.