Katrina Burton was driving through the Cascade Mountains of Washington almost four thousand feet above sea level on unfamiliar road when a powerful storm surrounded her with lightening and rain. With a dead cell phone and twisting mountainous roads, Katrina was hesitant to pick up a stranger who suddenly appeared on the side of the road. Believing she was doing the right thing, she stopped and picked him up.

As she drove, her rider began to ask disturbing questions. Not wanting him to know who she was or where she was going, she responded with a series of lies thinking she was protecting herself. The farther she drove the more afraid she became until she reached a place where she could get him out of the car.

Katrina continued on to her destination where she was to take a teaching position. On the first day of school she discovered her mysterious and inebriated hitchhiker was a fellow teacher. Unwilling to allow other school employees to get too close, she continued to feed them with more lies in order to protect her privacy including that she had never met Zach.

When her lies caught her in a trap to host a party at her fictitious cabin in the woods, Katrina turned to Jack whom she met at the local hardware store. Their growing attraction to one another brought Katrina to the point where she confessed her lies about the cabin to him. Jack gave her a way out of her problem, and helped her get the party set up. Unfortunately, the lies continued.

When a gruesome murder threatened to bring down Katrina’s house of cards, she must decide whether to finally tell the truth or continue the cover up. She must also decide who she can really trust – Zach or Jack?

White Lies was written by Jeremy Bates, a world traveler and teacher in international schools. His degree in English literature and philosophy well equipped him to write this superb but intense psychological thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

From start to finish, the storyline continually leads the reader deeper into the mind and thoughts of the heroine who started the whole harrowing situation out of fear. White Lies is a provocative look at how one so-called white lie can lead to a tangled web of lies difficult to get out of no matter what fate awaits.

The author makes full use of the Cascade Mountain setting to build an atmosphere of fear and desperation. Tension is built not only by the characters and their actions and behavior, but also by the descriptive scenes that take readers deep into the quagmire of Katrina’s mind and the thoughts and decisions of others.

While the graphic violence may turn some readers off, it plays an important part in building tension and moving the story forward to an unexpected and shocking conclusion.

A special thank you goes to Oceanview Publishing for providing a complimentary copy of White Lies for our review. If you are interested in picking up your own copy, you can grab one at Amazon.com.