2005:

Owen and Luna. Luna and Owen.

And a dead body make three.

2019:

Luna and Owen. Owen and Luna.

And another dead body can't be a coincidence.

Luna and Owen meet at Markham University and instantly hit it off. He's a golden boy that everyone loves but the only problem is he doesn't really like other people. Luna is aloof and indifferent with very few friends which Owen finds incredibly appealing. The two form a fast and lifelong friendship.

Of course every one assumes there is more to their situation. It can't be completely platonic can it?

Honestly, they couldn't care less what anyone thinks. Until, you know, people start dropping dead around them. That's a sure fire way to get the rumor mill turning.

I really enjoyed this one. I liked both Owen and Luna. I thoroughly enjoyed watching their friendship grow. And I loved, loved, loved that the author didn't turn this into some sort of romance between the two. I don't often read about male / female friendships in the books that I read. To clarify, I mean best of friends where loyalty to one another knows no bounds. It was really refreshing and came across incredibly genuine. Lutz seamlessly interwove the past and present timelines. A lot of times I will find one of the timelines more compelling than the other but that wasn't the case here. I very much enjoyed going back and forth in time with this dynamic duo. I'll admit that the end was a tiny bit lackluster (I was expecting a shocking twist of some sorts) but it was also completely plausible.

I had fun, I couldn't put it down, and I loved the main characters: Lutz for the WIN!!! 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for my complimentary copy.

You know those friends who would help you bury a body? Lisa Lutz brings that friendship dynamic to the page with Luna and Owen.
Luna and Owen have been best friends since college. Fifteen years later, they live in the same neighborhood and Owen’s wife is dead. Instead of calling the police when she finds the body, Luna runs to Owen’s house. Is that peculiar? Does the husband always do it?
Not only is everyone trying to find out who killed Irene, the reader is trying to figure out what happened to Luna and Owen in college? And who really is Luna Grey?
There are plenty of mysteries to unpack, and all of them are delightful.
Lisa Lutz delivers a cast of lovable, witty, flawed characters. The type of characters you want to be friends with. My only complaint is that the book isn’t longer. I want to live in the world Lutz creates.

This one didn't grab me right away and I actually put it down in favor of something else and then returned to it. That's never a good sign. That being said, I'm not a fan of the alternating time line in general and tend to groan when I see one. Ultimately the story did work and ended up being a decent read, it just wasn't great for me.

The Accomplice
By Lisa Lutz

Pub Date: January 5, 2022

Luna Grey and Owen Mann have been best friends since college. Everyone has the same questions about Owen and Luna: What binds them together so tightly? Why didn’t they ever date? And why do people around them keep turning up dead?

Owen Mann is charming, privileged, and chronically dissatisfied. Luna Grey is secretive, cautious, and pragmatic. Despite their differences, they begin forming a bond the moment they meet in college. Years later, they're still best friends and neighbors when Luna finds Owen's wife brutally murdered. The police investigation sheds some light on long-hidden secrets, but it can't penetrate the wall of mystery that surrounds Owen. To get to the heart of what happened and why, Luna has to dig up the one secret she's spent her whole life burying.

I have been a fan of Lisa Lutz ever since her “Spellman Files” series (if you haven’t read it, you MUST!) so when I saw this title pop up on NetGalley, I had to request it! This is a stand-alone book, so if you have “series fearies,” so worries. I loved the twisty storyline that alternates between 2003 (the college years) and 2019 (the present, when Owen and Luna are both married to other people). This book was absolutely riveting and un-put-downable. Every chapter seemed to end on a cliff-hanger. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers, I highly recommend the one!

This is my first 2022 book recommendation, and I have another one coming soon! Mark your #TBR!

Thank you #NetGalley and @randomhouse #randomhouseballantine for the #arc of #LisaLutz #TheAccomplice!

#2022recommendedreading #2022TbR

This book definitely left me with one of those lovely hangovers! It was so amazingly, realistic, and uniquely written, with just flawless character development Drawing me even further into the story! It was very fast paced, captivating, and intense; which I absolutely loved! Definitely unputdownable, as I had to get through with it, even though I knew I was in trouble with a hangover when it ended! Definitely cannot recommend enough, think it’s a great one for fans or author or those new to her, as it definitely shows off her skills!

Will make sure to buzz around platforms and use Top Amazon reviewer number on release!

I love the Spellman Files, so I was interested in reading this book. Although at times the abrupt changes in POV bothered me, overall I enjoyed the book. The characters seemed very real to me, and all the mysteries going on kept me engaged.

Lies, lies, lies. Everything seems to be twisted and steeped in deceit in Lisa Lutz’s latest: The Accomplice. For many years, Luna and Owen have had a bond that is preternaturally strong, but not physically intimate. Their dedication to each other is constantly tested by misunderstandings, omissions, and jealousies. Everyone else in their lives come second, even spouses and children. Unfortunately, both are also fiercely keeping things from each other that may eventually erode their deep connection. There also just happens to be an excessive number of accidental deaths that are left in their wake. In The Accomplice, Lutz is trying too hard to reiterate her messages of trust and fidelity. The dating pool must be tiny in their town, since everyone is having an affair with each other’s partners or siblings. The tight-knit characters betray each other and cover up repeatedly. There’s blackmail, revenge, and too many secrets to permit a clear protagonist. Just keeping track of all the infidelities is made that much harder by disjointed flashbacks and a perpetually shifting timeline. The secondary characters seem to exist purely as tools for artificially cranking up tension, and their back stories are barely tethered to the main story. I have enjoyed many of Lisa Lutz’s other books and series, but The Accomplice was a bit too confusing and reliant on coincidence for my tastes.

Thanks to the author, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for sending me an ARC of The Accomplice in exchange for an honest review. I am a huge fan of Ms. Lutz’s last novel, the criminally underrated The Swallows, so I could not wait to dig into her newest book.

Structurally, The Accomplice is laid out like so many other mystery/thriller novels. The story unfolds in two timelines. In the past, we see cautious, secretive Luna Grey immediately bond with the charming, gregarious Owen Mann. Eventually, there will be a dead body. Meanwhile, in the present (2019, for not entirely clear reasons), Luna and Owen are both married—to other people—but are as close as ever. But once again, there’s a dead body. We see both investigations unfold, as we slowly learn what happened both then and now.

Where The Accomplice exceeds the standard mystery/thriller novel is in the execution. The plot is well-paced, so that reveals come regularly without feeling forced. Owen and Luna are both well-developed characters, and their relationship is both interesting and unusual. The perspective shifts back and forth between characters quickly, so that you know who is thinking what as scenes play out.

Finally, there is the ending. I expect it will be somewhat divisive. I can’t say why without spoiling the ending, but for the record I liked it. I thought it was rather original, realistic, and true to the characters. The Accomplice is another successful novel from Ms. Lutz. Recommended.

So, I really didn’t love this book. There were way too many characters that I couldn’t keep straight and who didn’t add anything to the story. I also thought that the chapters bounced back and forth in time too much. When I was just getting into part of the story, the timeframe would jump from the present to when the characters were in college and when I got back to the original storyline, I honestly couldn’t remember what had been going on. I also felt like I was waiting for something big to happen and it never really did. I really didn’t understand the connection between Luna and Owen and thought that the author pushed their “odd” connection, when in fact, nothing really exciting happened with them. Definitely not my favorite book.

Luna Gray has a secret, and it burdens her with guilt. She's moved on from the trial where, as a child, she helped exonerate her brother, who went on to commit another crime, but it has shaped her life and her relationship with her best friend Owen. Things grow harder to keep under wraps when Luna's friend - and Owen's wife - is murdered. Owen is a suspect, but so is the victim's creepy uncle.

While this story unrolls in 2019, we also travel back to the years when Owen and Luna were in college, and the death of a student who was obsessed with Owen begins to make Luna wonder if that death really was an accident.

I really enjoyed this offbeat, character-driven story with odd but compelling characters, all of whom had spectacularly awful families. (It will take some time for me to unsee the ferrets clinging to the sweater, thanks.) The mystery twines around different time periods and depends on an elaborate clockwork of information withheld out of guilt or misunderstandings. If you enjoy unusual characters and aren't put off by stories told in two time-frames (quite handily managed in this case) I recommend it. Ferrets and all.

This is a really good mystery novel.

Owen and Luna became friends in college and people keep dying around them. There was that girl in college and now Owen's wife was found murdered, plus that thing that happened to Luna when she was a child. The cops are trying to unravel the mystery but as they look more closely at the past, it all seems more complicated.

While this isn't as dark as one of her earlier novels, it isn't as light as the Spellman series. I think this book is a great mix, sort of a middle path. I really enjoyed it.

I received a complimentary copy of The Accomplice from NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

What an interesting plot! I was absorbed in it clear up until the last page. A who-dun-it with an unusual and flawed friendship at the center of suspicious tragedies, this was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to review.

Here's what makes Lisa Lutz's books so great:

The mysteries are realistic; the crimes/murders that are unearthed feel plausible.
Many of the characters are slackers, alcoholics, and fuck-ups, in very realistic-seeming ways.
The dialogue sounds like how real people talk.
They're imbued with her sarcastic sense of humor.

I really liked The Accomplice. Lutz's best in a long time.

Luna and Owen have been best friends since college. Told in dual timelines we learn what brought them so close during their college days. In the present day timeline, both Luna and Owen are married to other people and they are still close friends living only a few blocks from each other. When Owen's wife is found dead in a cemetery by Luna, an investigation begins with Owen as the prime suspect. This also brings up the death of a classmate, Scarlet, that Owen was dating in college. Did Owen have something to do with both of these deaths? Or is it someone else?

I loved the the dual timelines in the story. Although it was a slow burn, the author ended each and every chapter leaving me wanting to read more. This was a well written story and I did find some parts of it captivating. I look forward to reading more books by Lisa Lutz.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

Lutz is a genius with the mystery genre-who dun it genre. Loved this just as much IF NOT MORE than the swallows. All the characters while unlikable or at least annoying where somehow likable and not annoying. Luna was the best. Loved her.

This was an average read, but there really wasn't anything that will stick with me after turning the final page. The beginning was a bit too slow and almost had me abandoning things. I did find Luna to be an interesting character. Sadly, I didn't find as much suspense as I'd expected, which was a disappointment. The larger focus is on Luna and Owen themselves.

Thank You Random House/Ballantine Books for.accepting this advance ebook for a honest review!😘
Thank You NetGalley for the opportunity to read this amazing novel!
And Lisa Lutz Thank You for writing such an amazing story!


Lisa Lutz sadly this is my first book I've read by her! But I'm happy to announce that this will not be my last!
The Accomplice was everything I was anticipating and then some! Holy Batman!
I loved this atmospheric thriller and was hooked early on by the characters, the mystery, the location and the promise of so many secrets to be slowly revealed.
I was so happy when this book hooked me right from.the beginning!
You know you've found a damn good story when you wake up at 3am thinking about this book and slowly creep outta bed, make your way down the hall to the kitchen, make a pot of coffee, grab your Kindle and get comfortable on your couch and try to get as many chapters as you can in before adult hood starts calling and the kids start waking up!

Y'all this is one book you won't wan to miss come Jan 2022!
5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thanks again NetGalley, Publisher and Author for the chance to read and review this amazing book!
I'll post to my Social media platforms closer to pub date!

I really enjoyed Lutz's book The Passenger, so I had high expectations for this one. I found it entertaining, but not all that thrilling, and was a bit predictable. I couldn't connect with the characters, which was a bummer. However, it certainly kept me interested enough and I read it very quickly. Would be a good beach or vacation read!

Non-challenging read from Lutz, which is what I expect. It was enjoyable but nothing I would write home about or rush off to recommend to family and friends.

I loved this author's The Passenger so I couldn't wait to get started on this one! The Accomplice is overall a good read for those who love friendship, obsession, betrayal thrillers.