Sex, Lies, and Online Dating

Lucy Rothschild writes mysteries, and she has taken to online dating to research her next book. After a string of dates with men who use handles like luvstick and bigdaddy182, she has little hope left. Then she meets hardluvnman, who seems sensitive, honest and attractive.

Both of them are lying. He tells her he is a plumber, and she tells him she is a nurse. Quinn is in fact an undercover cop on the trail of a serial killer, and Lucy is the person he suspects most.

Quinn is drawn to her anyway. He takes her to dinner and keeps up the act, hoping to learn whether the woman across the table is a murderer or only a writer with a cover story of her own.

This is a contemporary romantic comedy with a mystery running through it. The tone is light and teasing, with jokes about the online dating scene and the small lies people tell on a first meeting.

The suspense comes from the mistaken identities: each of them hides a true job, and he reads her secrecy as guilt. The book comes from Rachel Gibson, and it is written for readers who want attraction and a murder case in the same story.