With The Whole Truth, Nancy Pickard taps neatly into our national fascination with true crime in a daring novel that seems structurally and philosophically at odds with the conventional mystery story. We know, apparently, "who did it"--as do most true crime readers. People who pick up Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me, for example, are usually aware that Ted Bundy was the man responsible for the murders she chronicles. We come to those texts after the fact, as it were; we search not for perpetrator, but for motivation, for explanation. How could these things have happened? What sort of monsters must such criminals be? Pickard's is just such an exploration: it opens with the conviction of one Raymond Raintree for the murder of six-year-old Natalie McCullen, a crime that has shocked South Florida. Marie Lightfoot is in attendance, waiting for the words that will bring to an end The Little Mermaid, the book she is writing about the McCullen case.

However, though it appears her conclusion is written, Marie is deeply worried about the rest of her book: "[Raintree] has no past that anybody, including me, has been able to find. This is not good news for a true crime writer with a book due on her editor's desk in two weeks." But when Ray escapes just after the verdict is read, Marie must accelerate her quest for Ray's actual and emotional origins. Her search has repercussions that lie far beyond the successful completion of her book; she alone can prevent Ray from killing again. Her questions, and their answers, will take her from Florida to the American heartland, from sunshine and palm trees to an unspeakable history of abduction and abuse.

In an intriguing and effective narrative device, Pickard alternates chapters of her "own" text with chapters from The Little Mermaid. This structural twinning hints at the plurality of experience, of the conflicting stories that we create to situate ourselves and others; in realizing that writers must sift through the truth, or truths, to create a coherent narrative, the reader must also sift through the sometimes dovetailing, sometimes elliptical relationship between Pickard's and Lightfoot's stories. The strategy is not wholly successful; at times Pickard introduces elements that lead nowhere, such as Marie's uneasy acceptance of her own parents' disappearance years before; at other times, an apparent impulse to accelerate the action serves only to accentuate gaping holes in the plot. But these are minor complaints; Pickard's novel is, in its quiet fashion, an appealing novelty at the intersection of truth and fiction. --Kelly Flynn


From Publishers Weekly
In a sensational change of pace, Anthony Award-winner Pickard sets aside her Jenny Cain series (Twilight, Confession, etc.) for a fast-moving thriller that literally starts with a bang. True-crime writer Marie Lightfoot is covering the murder trial of Raymond Raintree, accused of kidnapping and killing, and extracting the pineal gland of, a six-year-old girl in Maria's hometown of Bahia Beach, Fla. When convicted, Raintree charges the judge, who whips out a pistol and shoots him. Feigning unconsciousness, Raintree manages to escape. The story then seamlessly alternates between Marie's narration of the manhunt for Raintree and chapters of Marie's book, The Little Mermaid, about the background to the trial. Raintree is a cipher, a seemingly illiterate but clever outcast with no past. Pickard delves deeply into the personality and psyche of this repellent yet sympathetic monster who was kidnapped and abused as a child. After finding and arresting the fugitive, the police never question the anomalies in the case (how could an uneducated man perform a delicate surgical procedure?) nor do they respond to calls from a retired Kansas sheriff who believes Raintree is John Kepler, who was kidnapped 22 years ago. Because of her fame, Marie is contacted by Kepler's parents, and the course of the novel shifts dramatically as Marie becomes personally involved. Mrs. Kepler's wish to see her son again spurs the frightening climax to this stunning synthesis of psychological suspense and commentary on our culture of celebrity. Featured alternate of the Mystery Guild; 9-city author tour. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A true-crime writer senses something is amiss with her new case. From an award-winning mystery writer.Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


USA Today, April 26, 2000
...works frighteningly well...an interesting story made more so by the way Pickard tells it....an ambitious idea that works well.


From Booklist
Award-winning mystery author Pickard begins a new series featuring true-crime writer Marie Lightfoot. While covering a murder trial, Lightfoot feels that something is wrong with the apparently open-and-shut case. Her search for the truth leads her to the killer's strange world and a number of unresolved crimes affecting his family. Gathering this information also makes her face ethical issues about her work and its impact on all who are involved with the case. By alternating chapters from Lightfoot's book about the case with coverage of the trial and the sleuth's search for information, Pickard effectively uses her character's work in progress as a narrative device. The story is a mixture of mystery and thriller that will appeal to readers of both genres. Barbara Bibel


From Kirkus Reviews
Pickard (The Blue Corn Murders, 1998, etc.) launches a new series introducing crime writer Marie Lightfoot, who covers spectacular murder trials and turns them into bestsellers. Here, her manuscript on accused child-slayer Ray Raintree awaits finishing touches when chaos erupts in the courtroom: Found guilty, Ray goes berserk and attacks the judge, who pulls out a .22 and shoots him. Exiting the courthouse on a stretcher, Ray overpowers his minders and escapes, setting off a manhunt along the Intercoastal waterway surrounding Florida's Bahia Beach community. National media attention brings Marie e-mail from a retired Kansas deputy who says little Johnny Kepler, abducted 22 years ago and never found, had an imaginary playmate named Ray Raintree. Is Ray really Johnny, an abducted child grown up to be an abductor himself? Marie's lover, black state's attorney Franklin DeWeese, insists a killer's a killer, no matter why, but Marie's sympathies are engaged by both victims' families, and waver in her assessment of the repulsive Ray/Johnny. Two more will die before the case draws to a close, with Marie's romance on hold, and her book past deadlinethough Marie's moral dilemmas consistently present Pickard with deeper challenges than her Jenny Cain series and her continuing entries in Virginia Rich's saga. Chapters shuttling between present and past provide some confusion, and the glimmers of Marie's own mysterious past are sometimes trying. But the black/white love affair is handled with wit, a pair of detectives fill out the cast nicely, and Marie seems like a keeper. (Mystery Guild featured alternate selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

As Raymond Raintree stands flanked by Florida lawyers, waiting to be convicted for the murder of Natalie Mae McCullen, writer Marie Lightfoot takes it all in. No one knows where Raintree took Natalie after he abducted her -- and Marie intends to find out. But when Raymond escapes, Marie becomes a sitting duck for a killer evil enough to take her to hell before killing her.

FROM THE CRITICS

Toby Bromberg - Romantic Times

With the sure hand of an acknowledged master, Nancy Pickard spins a tale so compelling, suspenseful, and emotionally involving that you will not be able to put it down. The Whole Truth is an unforgetable read.

Publishers Weekly

In a sensational change of pace, Anthony Award-winner Pickard sets aside her Jenny Cain series (Twilight, Confession, etc.) for a fast-moving thriller that literally starts with a bang. True-crime writer Marie Lightfoot is covering the murder trial of Raymond Raintree, accused of kidnapping and killing, and extracting the pineal gland of, a six-year-old girl in Maria's hometown of Bahia Beach, Fla. When convicted, Raintree charges the judge, who whips out a pistol and shoots him. Feigning unconsciousness, Raintree manages to escape. The story then seamlessly alternates between Marie's narration of the manhunt for Raintree and chapters of Marie's book, The Little Mermaid, about the background to the trial. Raintree is a cipher, a seemingly illiterate but clever outcast with no past. Pickard delves deeply into the personality and psyche of this repellent yet sympathetic monster who was kidnapped and abused as a child. After finding and arresting the fugitive, the police never question the anomalies in the case (how could an uneducated man perform a delicate surgical procedure?) nor do they respond to calls from a retired Kansas sheriff who believes Raintree is John Kepler, who was kidnapped 22 years ago. Because of her fame, Marie is contacted by Kepler's parents, and the course of the novel shifts dramatically as Marie becomes personally involved. Mrs. Kepler's wish to see her son again spurs the frightening climax to this stunning synthesis of psychological suspense and commentary on our culture of celebrity. Featured alternate of the Mystery Guild; 9-city author tour. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

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