Anne Burt and Christina Baker Kline's
Please Don’t Lie
Coming September 2025
“Deliciously dark.”
-Ruth Ware
“This twisty-turny tale kept me breathless. I loved it!”
-Lisa Scottoline
“Psychologically rich and bone chilling.”
-Megan Abbott
The Deeper You Dig, The Darker the Truth
Two years ago, Hayley Stone lost everything. First, her parents died in a devastating fire. Then, her sister overdosed, leaving Hayley alone and hounded by a media circus that turned her family’s tragedy into tabloid fodder. When her new husband suggests a fresh start in the Adirondacks, the promise of anonymity in an isolated mountain town feels like salvation.
But the mountains hold darker secrets than she ever imagined. Her once-loving husband grows distant and volatile. The widow down the road keeps spewing vague accusations. Not even their new friends—a freespirited couple living on the property—can help Hayley shake the creeping sense that something is off.
As winter edges closer, Hayley discovers that her sanctuary is anything but safe. Trapped and isolated, she faces a terrifying truth: in trying to escape her past, she may have run straight into something far more dangerous.
Early Praise
"Getting away from it all has never looked more sinister or ill-advised than in this deliciously dark version of the small-town idyll." - Ruth Ware
“Psychologically rich and bone-chilling, Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt's serpentine and timely thriller Please Don’t Lie will make you question everything you think you know about those closest to you, and make you wonder how vulnerable we all are—in our weakest moments—to deceit, manipulation, and a surrender of control.” - Megan Abbott
"Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt take suspense to the next level with a creepy, small town setting, shady characters and an unpredictable, twisted web of deceit. Readers, lock the doors, grab a blanket and settle in; you won’t be able to put this one down anytime soon. PLEASE DON'T LIE is unsettling, atmospheric and propulsive.” - Mary Kubica
“I loved PLEASE DON’T LIE by Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt! This twisty-turny tale spins the riveting story of Hayley Stone, a newlywed who leaves New York to move to the idyllic Adirondacks with her husband Brandon. But what happens there plunges her into a mystery underlying her new marriage as well as her own tragic past, and I couldn’t put this book down until its surprising ending!" - Lisa Scottoline
"PLEASE DON'T LIE ratchets up the tension, twist by twist, until the suspense is almost unbearable. It will make every woman ask herself: "Do I know who I really married?” - Tess Gerritsen
"A nail-biting, fast-paced thriller that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish! Just when I thought I had it all figured out, another shocking twist caught me by surprise. I highly recommend.” - T.R. Ragan
About the Authors
Anne Burt's debut novel, The Dig, was an American Booksellers Association Indie Next pick, the Strand Book Store's top mystery selection for spring 2023, and Indie Next's lead "Thrills & Chills" reading group title for summer 2024. Anne is the editor of the essay collection My Father Married Your Mother and coeditor of About Face, with Christina Baker Kline. A past winner of Meridian literary magazine's Editors' Prize in Fiction, Anne lives in New York City, Connecticut, and the dark corners of her own imagination.
Christina Baker Kline is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including The Exiles, Orphan Train, and A Piece of the World. Her novels have received the New England Prize for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Award, among other prizes. She has authored and edited five nonfiction books, including About Face, with Anne Burt. Published in more than forty countries, Christina divides her time between New York City and Maine. Though this is her first thriller, she has a penchant for writing characters who meet untimely ends.