If You Tell a Lie

If You Tell a Lie is Lucinda Berry's 2024 psychological thriller, published by Thomas & Mercer. Blakely, Grace, Meg, and Thera met as children at Camp Pendleton, a summer haven for gifted kids, and were inseparable for years. Their last summer there ended with a reckless lie and the murder of Mr. Crosby, the camp's tennis coach. The four swore themselves to secrecy and went their separate ways.

Two decades on, a sinister note claiming to know what they did pulls them back together as adults who no longer entirely trust one another — or their own memories of what happened.

Berry, a former psychologist and researcher in childhood trauma, writes the book in a dual timeline and keeps the focus on the psychology rather than the body count: peer pressure, group loyalty, and how repressed memory shapes what four people are each willing to call the truth.