Two Truths and a Lie
A compulsive tale-spinner gets caught in a web of lies her own  and others' in a chilling, sensitive thriller from the author of  last year's buzzed-about Traveling Light. Life is good for Dair  Canard, a Cincinnati zookeeper and amateur actress happily  married to dancer Peyton, but for two shadows: a drinking  problem she can't seem to conquer and her inability to wriggle  out of a lie she idly told Peyton the day they met. Dair,  amusing herself in a casual conversation, claimed to have a twin  sister who died in childhood, a lie she would have taken back  had Peyton, a believer in reincarnation, not claimed that Dair's  childhood tragedy was the reason the two met. Her inability to  shed this falsehood traps her in eight years of elaborations,  telling stories about the fictional twin and policing Peyton's  conversations with her parents. Dair's tenuously balanced life  spirals out of control when her friend and occasional onstage  leading man Craig leaps to his death wearing a purple dress and  with veins full of heroin two things entirely out of character  for him. When another member of Cincinnati's tight-knit theater  community disappears and Craig's fianc?e finds evidence of an  intruder in her house, Dair realizes that deceptions can be  dangerous and that the truth must be told, no matter the  consequences. Her struggle to fix her relationships while  investigating the mystery of Craig's death makes for compelling  reading. Skeptics and hardcore mystery buffs might balk at  Dair's mother's use of animal telepathy as a sleuthing tool;  non-pet lovers may be annoyed by lengthy descriptions of Dair  and Peyton's beloved dogs. Still, Kittle's characters appeal,  and readers will hold their breath as her tale comes to a  suspenseful conclusion. Agent, Liz Trupin-Pulli. (June)Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.