TELL NO LIES

Being published in 2008 by St. Martin's Press (US) and Pan Macmillan (UK). For inquiries about rights outside the UK, please contact Macmillan.
"Good will, like a good name, is got by many actions, and lost by one."
     — Lord Jeffrey

For assistant district attorney Jack Hilliard, the protagonist of TELL NO LIES, truer words have never been spoken. When Jack finds himself simultaneously seduced by a dream job and a tempting woman, his moral compass starts to falter and he soon learns that bad decisions have even worse consequences. . .

Jack appears to have it all: intelligence, good looks, a great job, and a solid marriage with his wife, Claire. But he finds himself at a crossroads in his life when, on the same night his boss announces his resignation as DA, his subterranean flirtation with his enigmatic lawyer friend Jenny bubbles to the surface.

Jack soon learns how easy it is to compromise his values and comfortable life for ambition and desire. Despite Claire's counsel to stand by his beliefs, Jack misrepresents his position on the death penalty to secure the top spot at the DA's office. As the pressures of the campaign mount, he struggles to deny his growing obsession with Jenny, who supports his ambitions at whatever cost. When Jenny is charged with a heinous crime, and Jack is the only one who can prove her innocence, he must make a Hobson's choice: save Jenny by speaking out, or save his marriage and career by remaining silent.

In the end, both Jack and the reader are left to wonder whether—despite the length or depth of a relationship—anyone can ever really know another, or even sometimes, oneself. TELL NO LIES is about the relationships we forge and those we destroy, despite our good intentions.

Recipient of a 2004 Royal Palm Award from the Florida Writers Association.

"Compton's portrait of an idealistic and ambitious prosecutor creates suspense the old-fashioned way: through the relentless unfolding of character and its consequences. As we are swept up in the story, much as Jack himself is, the novel deconstructs any easy moral superiority, challenging readers to place themselves in Jack's shoes and then to say truthfully how-and when-they might act differently."

— Alison Hicks, author of Love: A Story of Images

For UK customers, TELL NO LIES is now available in bookstores, or you can order online through Amazon.

US customers can pre-order TELL NO LIES at their local independent bookseller (find one at Booksense) or at Amazon.