White Lies

One little white lie sends schoolteacher Katrina Burton’s life spiraling out of control in Jeremy Bates’s thriller White Lies (2102). Lying to get a drunken hitchhiker out of her car, Katrina must continue her lie to preserve her new job. Her lies take a much more serious direction when her handsome new boyfriend, Jack Reeves, needs Katrina to help cover up a murder. White Lies was a Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Nominee for Thriller and Suspense.

Katrina is full of confidence as she drives to her new job as a high school English teacher in the small village of Leavenworth, Washington. She is starting a new life after the death of her fiancé, Shawn, two years earlier. Katrina’s parents are also dead, and she is alone in the world except for her boxer, Bandit, and her younger sister, Crystal, who is just starting college. The night is dark and stormy, when, acting against her better instincts, Katrina stops to pick up a hitchhiker. Drunk, the man makes rude remarks to Katrina. To get him out of her car, she lies, saying she is leaving the road at the next exit, where she has a cabin. The man is furious at being turned out in the rain. Relieved to be rid of him, Katrina finds out later that his name is Zach, and he is the philosophy teacher at the same school where she is teaching.

Agoraphobic, Zach uses alcohol to excess to cope with his panic attacks. Other teachers think Zach is an alcoholic. Having drinks with the faculty after school, Katrina wants Zach to apologize for his behavior. He is drunk again, and “pissed,” asks what he did wrong. Katrina does not want to cause a scene. To explain kicking him out of the car, she lies again, saying she has a bungalow in town, as well as the cabin at the lake. Zach does not believe her and immediately proposes she throw a staff party at her cabin.



Thinking Katrina is a “lying bitch,” Zach decides to “start a vendetta against her.” He wants to expose her lies. He begins stalking her and becomes a Peeping Tom. One night he sees her emerge from the bath and she observes him. He worries he will lose his job if she identifies him.

Meanwhile, Katrina meets Jack Reeves at the local hardware store. Jack is tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, and his long black hair proclaims his Native American heritage. Jack is charismatic and Katrina feels an instant attraction for him. They date a couple of times and become intimate. Katrina learns that Jack used to own a gym and had a rough childhood. He became a boxer and did some illegal pit fighting. He accidentally killed someone during a fight. None of these revelations troubles Katrina, who knows that Jack would do anything for her.

Jack urges her to continue lying to Zach. They rent a cabin for the teacher party, pretending it is Katrina’s. The teachers and Crystal, who is visiting from college, throw a rowdy party. The elderly landlord who rented Jack the cabin receives complaints from the neighbors and returns to break up the party. Jack takes him outside, flies into a rage when the old man strikes him with a cane, and brutally murders him. Zach witnesses the murder.



Jack tells Katrina it was self-defense, explaining he cannot go to prison, and if Charlie’s death came out, it would ruin her career. She agrees to help him stage a fake car accident for Charlie. She rationalizes their decision not wanting to be responsible for sending Jack to jail, thinking that with his zest for life, “he was not meant to be caged,” but her passionate feelings for him begin to change. A Good Samaritan finds Charlie before Jack and Katrina finish their cover-up, and Jack savagely kills him as well, unbeknownst to Katrina. Zach does not report Charlie’s murder because he has fallen for Crystal and thinks it would hurt his chances with her if he called the cops on her sister.

After the party, Jack learns that Zach knows about the murder. He intimidates Zach into silence, threatening to send a friend to rape and murder Zach’s mother. Katrina is conflicted as to whether Jack is a murderer and a liar or just a decent man doing what “anyone would have done.” The police interview both Katrina and Zach, finding holes in their stories. Katrina, now fearing Jack, suggests they separate. Zach, Katrina, and police officer Mike Murray listen while Jack spins a new cover story. Zach and Katrina, however, finally tell the truth, revealing that Jack killed Charlie.

Jack shoots and kills the policeman. Zach jumps out of the window with Jack in pursuit. Katrina follows and tells Jack it is all over. Zach and Katrina escape and race to call the police. Jack attacks again, but the police and CIA operatives arrive to arrest him. Katrina is upset to learn that Jack has lied to her all along: He is really a fugitive, ex-CIA agent who has killed other policemen. After another struggle, during which Jack dispatches three CIA agents, Katrina turns the gun on him and kills him.



Four months later, Katrina is on probation after being charged as an accessory to murder. She continues to teach at the school and is thankful for the supportive community. She is now friends with Zach, who is dating Crystal.

Bates is the USA Today bestselling author of the World’s Scariest Places series.