The Embers Lie: A Novel

Lexington, Kentucky, 1987. Bo Tazwell, a former combat engineer, encounters a new client waiting outside his office one Friday morning. He’s only been a private investigator for about a year. Nearly all of his cases have involved spouses suspected of cheating. The middle-aged woman with a perm who greets him has something different she wants him to do — find a missing newspaper reporter without letting her husband know that she contacted him.

The woman’s son, Chet Eaton, vanished after covering a public meeting in a small town. When Bo sets out to find the 23-year-old, he quickly learns that Chet flew under the radar despite having a profession where he served as the public’s eye. One day after meeting Chet’s mother, Bo discovers that Chet’s father also asked a PI to find the journalist. The mother doesn’t know that her husband hired someone. Lying by omission seems to run in the family.