Thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz in exchange for my honest review. I have not read anything else by this author as of yet, however her book The Passenger has been on my TBR list for a while.
This mystery novel is filled with murder and friendships. There is an unbreakable bond between the two main characters Owen and Luna. While never romantically involved, they remain extremely close since the time they met in college until they are both married to other people. Luna is a mysterious person who holds her secrets close to her chest (and she has many!).
This story occurs during two different timelines- college (2002) and seventeen years later (2019).
Murder appears to be a recurring theme surrounding both Luna and Owen. Each one holds onto secrets that could have changed the trajectory of both of their lives. While events sometimes unfolded slowly, the author draws you in with enough to keep you reading.
This was a quick page turner for me. The author surprised me with the turn of events at the end of the book. If you are looking for a easy to read mystery, this might just be the book for you. This book will be published January 25, 2022.

I've been a big fan of Lisa Lutz since I started reading her early series and this book only serves to solidify my place in her fandom. She is proving to be an incredibly versatile writer, each book has its own feel and atmosphere. In The Accomplice, we meet two characters who might normally have nothing to do with each other form a life long bond, in spite of, or because of deeply held secrets between them.
The narrative moves back and forth between the present (2019, I think we'll see a lot of book written in Pre_Covid settings until authors figure out whether and how to factor the pandemic into the narrative) and when they met in college. There are parallel mysteries and there's a slow reveal of each, but not so slow that the reader is frustrated and then overwhelmed at the end. Each chapter gives us a little and keeps the pages turning.
Luna and Owen may not be the most likeable characters you'll ever meet, but they are interesting and well developed.
I hope every book I read in 2022 is as enjoyable as this!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
"The Accomplice" by Lisa Lutz was a well written & original mystery/thriller that kept me guessing until the end.
I loved how the author told the story using dual timelines-the past when the 2 main characters met in college & the present.
This was definitely a keep you up past bedtime page turner.
This was the 1st book that I read by Ms. Lutz & I would definitely read another book by her.

Lisa Lutz is a longtime favorite of mine. There is just something about the way her brain works and then spits out words on a page that I love. While this one won't become an all time favorite it was an immensely enjoyable read. I loved the friendship dynamic between Owen and Luna without the obligatory romance subplot. The mystery kept me guessing until the end and I loved the dual timelines perspective. All in all not a bad way to pass a weekend curled up with a satisfying thriller from a great author!

This is a book that has left me unsure exactly how I feel about it.

And that may be the point? That it makes me like the characters, who all seem to be left unsure how they feel about each other and their lives by the end. Lisa Lutz is a great author, so I could absolutely see her playing with her readers' emotions that way.

In The Accomplice, Owen and Luna have been extremely close since college. They've never dated, no one else is really sure why, but they've always been each other's person. They've been there for each other through two murders now (one? three? the book keeps this secret for the perfect amount of time), but both think they still have secrets from each other-and from the reader.

I was really into this book up until around the last quarter. I loved the reveals of the (many) secrets, and found myself completely shocked every time. I just felt like the last quarter didn't entirely work for me, but that feeling seems a lot like personal preference and not a commentary on the actual book. I wanted the characters to make different choices, but in the world of the book, I honestly don't think they could have.

Owen and Lina became best friends in college and everyone was jealous of their friendship, including Owen’s girlfriend. Something happens to her and their school friends turn their backs on Owen and Luna. This book is told over a span of 20 years with alternating perspectives, so you can’t put it down too long 🙂

Thanks NetGallery for the advanced copy. The “The Accomplish” by Lisa Lutz is a suspense novel told in two timelines. The timelines are the past when the two meet in college and the present. The questions are why Owen and Luna are bonded together and why do people keep turning up dead around these two. The novel ties it all up in a twisting ride throughout the entire book.

This is a very good story, or rather set of intertwining stories, told in alternating chapters set 15 years apart. Lisa Lutz keep the stories moving along while developing some complex and interesting characters, making for an excellent read. Although I grew tired of the excessive and sometimes all-consuming drinking, and a little too much vomiting for my sensibilities but I suppose that's to be expected, given the amount of alcohol imbibed during the course of this novel. The unexpected solutions to the mysteries is definitely a plus. Lutz fans as well as readers of mystery and suspense novels will devour The Accomplice.

GREAT book. Really interesting concept, following a friendship between two people around whom murders or deaths seem to continually occur. The story follows two friends from college through adulthood and takes us through the ups and downs of their lives and friendship. I found this book really compelling because the woman is continually plagued by the issue of being investigated and accused of being a murderer, along with her best friend Owen. I think this book is unconventionally interesting and definitely should be read by anyone who enjoys a good thrill and trying to figure out the realities of what has occurred in different situations.
Well written, this book flies by and I would highly recommend it.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

Shared history comes into play in this story about best friends. Owen and Luna have been best friends since the moment they met in college. But they were never a couple. While people might question that, the better question is why have they been involved in unexplained deaths, first one in their friend group in college, and now Owen's own wife, whom Luna finds dead. As Luna begins to question things that happened in both her and Owen's shared past, she also begins to wonder who they both have become.

Told in two alternating timelines of college life and 2019, there are plenty of twists and turns to this mystery of emeshed friends.

Luna and Owen meet in college and instantly feel a bond and soon they are inseparable. While their relationship is one of friendship, it is such a deep friendship, that even their spouses seem to take second place. But as the years go on, circumstances and questions arise causing them to wonder how well they really do know each other.

I love everything Lutz has written. This one didn't have her usual humor but was absolutely an engrossing, twisty read that kept me turning the pages.

I first became familiar with Lisa Lutz after reading her series about The Spellmans and I was amazed at how skillfully she was able to make the characters in her books come to life, this book was no different. I absolutely LOVED this book but not because of the storyline or plot although I did not anticipate the ending and that was refreshing but because I fell in love with the characters and not just Owen and Luna but Griff, Sam, Casey, Mason, Irene…. I was even fascinated with they dynamic of Vera and Tom and John Brown and Belinda Brown. I wanted more of every single character even the unlikable ones. I found myself not caring who the murderer/murderers were or why because that wasn’t the intriguing part for me- all that mattered was Owen and Luna and the people in their orbit.

This was a promising premise with a good pace. The story of two best friends surrounded by murder years apart had a few holes and some characters who didn't quite live up to their potential. It still kept my interest throughout and was a fast read. The detectives' personalities never really developed so it was just an average read.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

You know those suspense novels with a dual storyline, one in the past when something bad happened, and one in the present where something else happens that dredges up the past? There should be a word for that kind of story construction. Anyway, this is one of those. Owen and Luna meet and become close friends at college in 2004, where the first something bad happens, and they are implicated—whether correctly or not is for us to find out. In 2019, they are still close, both married to other people, when Owen’s wife, Irene, is murdered and Owen and Luna are, once again, persons of interest to the police.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? But it’s really a much richer story than that. Luna and Owen’s lives are, well, let’s say complicated, especially when you throw in their families and their history. It’s a dark history, but the novel is full of black humor and intriguing plot twists.

This is a keep-you-up-past-bedtime page turner. I was eager to find out the full stories, but I was sad when I finished the book and had to say goodbye to Luna and Owen.

Solid 4+ star thriller. Unique, but believable characters and so many twists and turns. I honestly wasn’t sure who had committed any of the murders until the very end. Loved it! This will be a top thriller of 2022 in my opinion!!

The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz is an intense ride of a story! Owen and Luna are best friends. They never dated but remain close from when they met in college. Fast forward to 2019 and Owen’s wife is found murdered, her body found by Luna. What? Who could have murdered this woman and why?

The story moves between 2003 when Owen and Luna meet, to 2019 when Iris, Owen’s wife, is found dead in a cemetery. Everyone has secrets, even Luna and Own. What are they hiding from each other?

This isn’t a quick page-turner but a well-written story that contains an element of mystery that keeps you reading.

Synopsis:

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.

Lisa Lutz is one talented and versatile writer. First you’ve got her signature Spellman Files series, which is full of wink-and-a-nudge humor. Then you’ve got a thriller like her 2016 novel The Passenger, which is a total ride on a can’t-look-away crazytrainwreck.

But now she gives us something a little more pedestrian, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. The Accomplice is just a pretty straightforward suspense story that could have been written by any number of other authors cluttering up the genre. There are murders. There are lies. There are reveals.

The Accomplice focuses on the platonic friendship of Luna and Owen, which is honestly pretty refreshing. This ain’t no friends-to-lovers romance, no sir! Chapters flash back and forth between their days in college, when one of Owen’s paramours ends up dead, and now, when Owen’s current wife meets the same fate. Coincidence? Curse? Collusion?

Readers are essentially treated to two mysteries in one then. It’s a Murder BOGO!

While I felt the story started to lose a little steam and burn a bit too slowly, The Accomplice is still thriller I can easily recommend. I didn’t guess the outcome of either of the two mysteries, which is a huge plus. Then there’s the whole uniqueness of the male/female friendship aspect. And despite my belief that the writing is pretty standard, it does feature a novel characteristic - that of a truly omniscient narrator. Written in the third person, the perspective shifts almost constantly. In the course of one paragraph, you’ll know what all the characters are thinking. Kinda cool! If even just for these reasons, The Accomplice is an accomplished book that has me looking forward to whatever Lutz will do next.

Luna and Owen become friends in college, and they are incredibly, unusually close. Once they are married - not to each other - they settle into their adults lives. The couples get together from time to time, and Luna and Owen remain as close as ever. When one of the foursome is murdered in broad daylight, their carefully crafted existence comes crashing down around them. Everybody has secrets they hope never see the light of day. Intricately plotted and devilishly clever, this is perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Paula Hawkins.

Great trail of clues, leading all the way! Exceptional building of characters with backstory to draw you in. However, it drug on a bit more than my anticipation. Reading solidly minute after minute, then it trailed off towards the end. I was really looking to keep the momentum going, but slowly it just dissipated to weeks of finishing. I’d love to see a few details shortened up, to really bring it to the gusto it deserves!