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The Accomplice
Cover of The Accomplice
The Accomplice
A Novel
by Lisa Lutz
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Everyone has the same questions about best friends Owen and Luna: What binds them together so tightly? Why weren’t they ever a couple? And why do people around them keep turning up dead? In this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Passenger, every answer raises a new, more chilling question.
 
“Masterfully plotted, The Accomplice is both a keep-you-guessing mystery and a keenly and tenderly observed character study.”—Attica Locke, author of Bluebird, Bluebird and Heaven, My Home


ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar

Owen Mann is charming, privileged, and chronically dissatisfied. Luna Grey is secretive, cautious, and pragmatic. Despite their differences, they form a bond the moment they meet in college. Their names soon become indivisible—Owen and Luna, Luna and Owen—and stay that way even after an unexplained death rocks their social circle.
They’re still best friends years later, when Luna finds Owen’s wife brutally murdered. The police investigation sheds light on some 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.
The Accomplice brilliantly examines the bonds of shared history, what it costs to break them, and what happens when you start wondering how well you know the one person who truly knows you.
Everyone has the same questions about best friends Owen and Luna: What binds them together so tightly? Why weren’t they ever a couple? And why do people around them keep turning up dead? In this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Passenger, every answer raises a new, more chilling question.
 
“Masterfully plotted, The Accomplice is both a keep-you-guessing mystery and a keenly and tenderly observed character study.”—Attica Locke, author of Bluebird, Bluebird and Heaven, My Home


ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar

Owen Mann is charming, privileged, and chronically dissatisfied. Luna Grey is secretive, cautious, and pragmatic. Despite their differences, they form a bond the moment they meet in college. Their names soon become indivisible—Owen and Luna, Luna and Owen—and stay that way even after an unexplained death rocks their social circle.
They’re still best friends years later, when Luna finds Owen’s wife brutally murdered. The police investigation sheds light on some 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.
The Accomplice brilliantly examines the bonds of shared history, what it costs to break them, and what happens when you start wondering how well you know the one person who truly knows you.
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Excerpts-
  • From the cover September 2002

    Owen Mann first noticed Luna Grey in an Intro to Ethics seminar. He would watch her, fascinated by the way she hunched over her notebook, scribbling, glancing up occasionally to see if anyone was watching her. Owen thought she was pretty, pretty in a way that might last or grow on you. She definitely wasn’t one of those beauties who made you do crazy things. By all objective standards, Luna appeared normal, reliable, and even a bit square. Owen, however, saw past Luna’s ordinary armor. He recognized a feral quality in her. He saw a girl roiling with secrets. And he would have paid good money to know a few of them.

    Luna always knew when someone was watching her. Sometimes she’d wait it out. Other times she’d stare back and force the prying eyes to withdraw. When Luna glanced back at Owen, he smiled brightly, even though they’d never met. What the hell was he smiling about, she thought. Luna had seen Owen before. It occurred to her that he might know who she was. But the smile was wrong for someone who had her number. The girl sitting next to Owen was trying to get his attention. When the girl saw where Owen’s eyes had landed, she fixed her gaze on Luna, shifting it from curious to withering within seconds. Luna quickly turned away. She’d seen that expression too many times to count.

    In her head, Luna repeated, They don’t know, they don’t know.

    ...

    A few days later, Owen ditched the glaring girl and sat in Luna’s row, a few seats away. Luna felt her whole body tense up, until Owen fell fast asleep and didn’t stir, even after the lecture was over. Luna tapped him on the shoulder to wake him as she climbed over his legs, clearing out of class. Owen rubbed his eyes, shook himself awake, and chased after her.

    “Hello . . .” Owen said, as he caught up with Luna and began to walk in stride. “I don’t know your name.”

    “I don’t know your name,” Luna said.

    Owen had a stupid grin on his face. If she didn’t have a secret, he thought, it would be deeply disappointing. Luna couldn’t decide if the smile was taunting or goofy. Owen stepped in front of Luna and extended his hand.

    “Owen Mann. A pleasure to meet you,” he said.

    Luna kept her hand by her side, debating whether to respond in kind.

    “What can I do for you, Owen Mann?” Luna said.

    “Has anyone ever told you that you have the social graces of a mobster?”

    Luna fought hard not to laugh. “That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” she said.

    Luna offered her name; Owen explained why he’d followed her. He’d slept through the Kant lecture and wanted to borrow her notes.

    “Why my notes?” Luna asked.

    Owen shrugged. “Don’t know. But they have to be your notes.”

    Luna weighed the request. Then she leafed through the notebook to confirm there was no personal information in there and handed it to this Owen guy. They agreed to meet an hour later at the library.

    Markham University was a small liberal-­arts college in the Hudson Valley. It sat on twenty acres of dense woods and prided itself on self-­directed independent study. It was also a safe haven for lazy stoners who wanted a break from life. Think summer camp with cushier accommodations. Markham U was Luna’s first choice and Owen’s third-­backup school.

    Owen chose a seat on the third floor of Bancroft Library, at a desk nestled by a wall of windows. He opened Luna’s notebook...
Reviews-
  • Publisher's Weekly

    October 11, 2021
    In 2002, gregarious Owen Mann and fiercely guarded (for good reason) Luna Grey, the protagonists of this darkly comic, fast-paced thriller from bestseller Lutz (The Swallows), immediately click as freshmen at Markham University, forming a profound, though strictly platonic bond. They also share a curious propensity for becoming persons of interest in homicide probes, as detectives in Deerkill, N.Y., the Hudson Valley town near where both are living with their spouses in 2019, discover when the police start to investigate the murder of Owen’s wife, whose body Luna reports finding while jogging through the local cemetery. The author employs this suspenseful whodunit as a springboard for graceful dives into the friends’ complicated shared history and secrets as well as a present—and a future—far murkier than readers expect. Quirky characters, humor in unexpected places, and a twisty but plausible plot keep the pages turning. Readers will be torn between eagerness to get to the bottom of the novel’s mysteries—and reluctance for the adventure to end. Agent: Stephanie Kip Rostan, Levine Greenberg Literary.

  • AudioFile Magazine Lisa Flanagan is a talented narrator, and it shows in this complicated story of a college friendship that ends up having lifelong ramifications. She transitions smoothly between Luna and Owen, an unlikely pair who remain besties well into midlife. Flanagan shines as she capably portrays Owen's confidence and Luna's standoffishness, many times in the same sentence. Listeners who are looking for something new in the crime genre will lean into this title. Not completely classifiable--perhaps we could call it a cross between women's fiction and a thriller--this is a unique story told by a confident narrator who deftly guides us through the twists and turns of Luna and Owen's friendship--and the several murders that follow them. M.R. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
  • Library Journal

    Starred review from April 1, 2022

    Lutz (The Spellman Files) reminds readers of how little any of us can truly know about the people we love. Luna and Owen, the two primary characters, have known one another since college (when they became inseparable because of an unexpected death) Only the two of them really understand their deep connection. Luna is quiet, wary, and practical while Owen, a son of privilege, always projects charm. Each has a secret life. Those secret lives start to unravel when the police investigate the brutal murder of Owen's wife. Lutz, who between 2007 and 2013 wrote six rollickingly funny mysteries featuring the Spellman family of detectives, has since expanded into darker mysteries. Her plots and characters are lively, intriguing, and full of surprises. Lisa Flanagan (who shared narration duties on the 2019 audiobook for Lutz's The Swallows) is pitch-perfect. VERDICT With Lutz's plot twists and turns and Flanagan's masterful reading, this audiobook puzzler is highly recommended for mystery fans.--Pam Kingsbury

    Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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